Corpus-based Vocabulary Analysis of American TV Drama Series

With a view to identifying how many words a learner of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) needs to know to watch and adequately understand the American TV dramas, this research investigates the lexical coverage of the American TV drama series popular among Korean learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The vocabulary demands of the top five American TV dramas were measured by RANGE. The study followed two vocabulary thresholds: 95% as a minimal and 98% as a maximum one required to reasonably and successfully comprehend the foreign dramas. Results showed that around 2,000 to 3,000 would be needed to reach 95% lexical coverage and 5,000 to 6,000 to reach 98% lexical coverage. This study thus concludes that American TV drama series would require learners of acquiring vocabulary knowledge ranging from 2,000-3,000 word families to 5,000-6,000 word families.