This list contains the 3,000 highest frequency words in the Khmer language, suitable for Grades 1-5, ordered by frequency, with the most common words first. Compiled by a group of Primary Education Department lexical computing experts, the Khmer language corpus held on the online platform Sketch Engine was augmented, and then the highest frequency words suitable for young learners were extrapolated.

The list provides curriculum developers, materials writers, teachers and teacher educators with the most practical words to include and recycle in early grade listening, speaking, reading and writing to strengthen foundational literacy. These high-frequency words can be included at word, sentence or text level for literacy practice through phonics, decoding and whole-word reading activities, and to collect lexical sets to build texts and lessons around common topics.

Mastery of these words will support children to read and understand 90% of all simple texts they encounter.

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