Ameriphone Dictionaries and Vocabulary Size — A Metrological Breakthrough

With over two million hits on “vocabulary size” (Mar. 4. 2010), is there Rosetta Stone any American who hasn’t wept bitter tears over the inadequacy, presumed or actual, of his or her vocabulary? Understandably so, given a national climate of uncertaintyAmeriphone Dictionaries and Vocabulary Size A Metrological Breakthroughby Robert Oliphant With over two million hits on vocabulary size (Mar. 4. 2010), is there any American who hasn't wept bitter tears over the inadequacy, presumed or actual, of his or her vocabulary? Understandably so, given a national climate of uncertainty and obfuscation that kicked in with the Thorndike and Lorge vocabulary counts in the thirties, accelerated with Dr. Seuss in the 60s, and has now reached maximum giddiness with the British National Corpus, which counts IT'S as a separate word, not as a contraction of It is. Fortunately, thanks to three new international developments, we can now each access a wide range of cheap and scientifically respectable systems for measuring the size of our own vocabularies and our children's. Scientifically considered, our best known international development can be labeled with the name of the late W. Edwards Deming. Deming, who is today greatly revered as the father of total quality management (TQM), started his career with the National Bureau of Standards, 1930-46, in the field of metrology (the scientific study of measurement). Today his impact can be seen in name changes like the California Division of Measurement Standards Rosetta Stone Cheap (replacing weights and measures), along with greater precision in our use of terms like GRADE, e.g., prime, choice, select, and standard as the top four grades of beef. Our second, more recent, international development has been the growth of Ameriphonics more cumbersomely called Standard worldwide American pronunciation Rosetta Stone English or SWAPE. Ameriphonics has already achieved worldwide official and quasi-official status, especially in multi-lingual nations like India and China (both over a billion citizens). Just as important, it has also captured worldwide attention as a personal best career goal, including mastery of one or more of its high tech vocabularies. Our third and most recent international development has been a measurably dramatic increase in the cost effectiveness of dictionary-based electronic learning and testing. Practically considered, this means any parent or graduate school dean can now construct cheap, metrologically respectable vocabulary tests in many, many technical fields, Rosetta Stone French V3 along with more general tests of vocabulary size and fluency. It also means that Ameriphone dictionaries today should be used as splendidly cost-effective learning tools, not just reference resources. LOOKING FORWARD. . . .