A new general service list: The better mousetrap we've been looking for?

Abstract

This brief paper introduces the New General Service List (NGSL), a major update of Michael West’s 1953 General Service List (GSL) of corevocabulary for second language learners. After describing the rationalebehind the NGSL, the specific steps taken to create it and a discussion ofthe latest 1.01 version of the list, the paper moves on to comparing thetext coverage offered by the NGSL against both the GSL as well asanother recent GSL published by Brezina and Gablasova (referred to asOther New General Service List [ONGSL] in this paper). Results indicatethat while the original GSL offers slightly better coverage for texts ofclassic literature (about 0.8% better than the NGSL and 4.5% more thanthe ONGSL), the NGSL offers 5-6% more coverage than either list formore modern corpora such asScientific AmericanorThe Economist.