Vocabulary Audit Template

Vocabulary is not a leaderboard that must grow forever. Record which items recur in your real situation, which are only familiar on a card, and which you can retrieve in a new sentence.

Copy this into a private note. Do not include customer records, medical privacy, identity documents, or unauthorised third-party material. Audit one topic or source at a time, and keep the unaided sample and delayed retest.

1. Define the Situation

# Vocabulary Audit — YYYY-MM-DD

Real situation:
Topic and source:
Task: listening / reading / speaking / writing / exam
Acceptance criteria:
Retest date:

2. Record Words or Chunks

Word/chunk	Source sentence	Listening	Reading	Speaking	Writing	Register/collocation	Next step
		0–2	0–2	0–2	0–2

Scoring guide:

• 0: no evidence, or entirely dependent on a cue;
• 1: recognisable in familiar material but unstable in a new context;
• 2: understood or produced without a cue, with common collocation and register.

3. Name the Error

Do not label every problem “forgotten”. Choose the closest category:

• unrecognised in text: spelling or form is not identified;
• unheard: meaning is known, but connected or natural speech is not segmented;
• sense confusion: one meaning is applied to the wrong context;
• unnatural collocation: the word is correct but the combination is uncommon;
• wrong register: formality, technicality, or politeness does not fit;
• slow retrieval: understood but unavailable in timed speech or writing;
• transfer failure: the original sentence works, but a changed task does not.

4. Design One Transfer

Choose 3–5 high-value chunks and complete at least two:

1. change the people, time, domain, or situation in the source sentence;
2. write one natural use and one typical misuse;
3. retell for 60–90 seconds without the list;
4. find two different collocations in an independent reliable source;
5. use the chunks in a short email, explanation, or log.

Record the result:

Chunk:
My new situation:
Sentence or recording:
What remains uncertain:
Condition to change next time:

5. Delayed Retest

Correct answers on the same day do not prove mastery. Schedule two closed-book retests:

Date	Conditions	Result	Error type	Transfer worked?
First	Original topic, no cue
Days 3–7	Related topic, limited cue
Day 30	New topic, real task

If a card is correct but the item cannot be used in a new task, stop adding volume. Switch to chunks, retelling, and writing. The goal is not a longer table; it is retrieval when the word is needed.

6. Weekly Summary

• Five highest-value chunks:
• Sounds I still cannot recognise:
• Senses or collocations I still confuse:
• Chunks I can now retrieve naturally:
• Low-value cards to remove:
• One real output for next week:

Related chapter: Vocabulary: From Recognition to Contextual Use