For second language learners vocabulary growth is of major importance, and for many learners commercially published coursebooks will be the source of this vocabulary learning. In this preliminary study, input from three levels of the coursebook series New English File (Oxenden and Latham-Koenig, 2006; Oxenden, Latham-Koenig, and Seligson, 2004, 2005) was analyzed using the computer program VocabProfile (Cobb, 2009). The results suggest that learners who complete three coursebook levels will receive exposure to fewer than the first 1,500 most frequent words in English. This has important pedagogical implications for learners, teachers and materials writers. Supplementary sources of suitable reading input are recommended, as is instruction in effective vocabulary learning strategies, if learners are to have regular opportunities to meet the most frequent 2,000 words of English.
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