Assessing Vocabulary

1 Assessment of Vocabulary Helen Huntley Senior English Language Fellow 2007-08 MOET, Vietnam helenshuntley@yahoo.com http://helenshuntley.com/ 2 Workshop Explorations  What is a word?  Does vocabulary consist of single words or as larger lexical items?  What does it mean to know a lexical item?  What should be measured in a vocabulary test?  How should vocabulary be measured?  What is better – discrete-item testing or contextualized-item testing?  And more… 3 Questions to Ponder  How is vocabulary tested in the school graduation and university entrance tests?  How are the words chosen for inclusion in the test?  What features of a word are being tested? 4 What is a word?  Single words: chair  Phrasal verbs: put on  Short phrases: as a matter of fact  Longer phrases: it has come to my attention that…  idioms: out to lunch 5 Larger lexical items  Phrasal verbs move out, put up with, put off  Compound nouns personal computer, Applied Linguistics  Idioms let the cat out of the bag, raining cats and dogs  Collocations a piercing scream, analyze data  Lexical phrases 6 Lexical phrases  Polywords: short fixed phrases at any rate, so to speak, as a matter of fact  Institutionalized expressions: proverbs, formulaic utterances once upon a time, long time no see  Semi-fixed expressions: basic frame + options a day/month/year ago, yours sincerely/truly, as far as I know/can tell/ am aware  Sentence builders: framework for complete sentence with slots for whole ideas I think that…, not only… but also…, I regret to inform you that… 7 More lexical phrases  I thought you’d never ask.  Call me as soon as you get home.  It’s on the tip of my tongue.  Have you heard the news?  Never say never.  I’ll believe it when I see it.  She never has a bad word to say about anyone 8 Characteristics of lexical sequences  Relatively fixed in form  The meanings of the individual words do not provide the meaning for the phrase  Familiar expressions for everyday communication  Pragmatic function 9 Components of word knowledge I: Form: (Nation, 1990: 31) Spoken Form  (R) What does the word sound like?  (P) How is the word pronounced? Written Form  (R) What does the word look like?  (P) How is the word written and spelled? 10 Components of word knowledge II: Position (Nation, 1990: 31) Grammatical Patterns  (R) In what patterns does the word occur?  (P) In what patterns must we use the word? Collocations  (R) What words or types of words can be expected before or after the word?  (P) What words or types of words must we use with this word? [...]... closely related to it.) Dale (1965: 898) 13 What is vocabulary ability?  The context of vocabulary use generational usage language variations everyday usage/specialized terminology  Vocabulary knowledge and fundamental processes vocabulary size knowledge of word characteristics lexical storage fundamental vocabulary processes  Metacognitive stategies for vocabulary use strategic competence (paraphrazing,... 1970s: separate vocabulary test; discretepoint approach (synonym matching and sentence completion) 1976: words in context vocabulary items included in Reading section 1995: separate set of vocabulary items eliminated; integrated and contextualized in the reading section 1998: computer test; clicking on synonyms within reading 2005: iBT TOEFL; clicking on synonyms within reading; assessing vocabulary in... overall language proficiency, reading, and vocabulary  Fixed ratio (every 7th word)  Selective-deletion (rational)  Multiple-choice  C-test How to separate out vocabulary from other skills? 25 The word-associates test Circle the word(s) which are associated with the underlined word Edit arithmetic revise film risk pole surface publishing text 26 Assessing vocabulary size Native-speaker Anderson (1996):... 14 new words a day Nation (1990): a vocabulary of at least 3,000 word families is necessary to read an academic text with 95% comprehension Nagy & Herman (1987): children acquire 3,000 words per year between grades 3-12 Nurweni & Read (1999): first-year university students in Indonesia (w/ 6 years of English) had a vocabulary of about 1,200 words 27 How to measure vocabulary size? Wide variation: students... Vocabulary Knowledge Scale Test design  Can be used with any set of words  Learners are asked to rank words according to 5 scales  Used as a measure of incidental vocabulary acquisition  Designed to measure depth of vocabulary knowledge 34 The Vocabulary Knowledge Elicitation Scale Self-report categories I II III IV V I don’t remember having seen this word before I have seen this word before, but I don’t... avoiding, language switching, appealing to authority, using general terms) 14 Objective testing of vocabulary “Tests in which the learning material is divided into small units, each of which can be assessed by means of a test item with a single correct answer that can be specified in advance.” Reed, J (2000) Assessing vocabulary Cambridge University Press     Words treated as independent linguistic units... low levels of English and French speakers 32 The Eurocenters Vocabulary Size Test II 1 dring 2 modest 7 swithin 10 receipt 13 impatient 16 dyment 19 mudge 22 expostulant 2 take in 5 vowel 8 obsolation 11 annobile 14 phase 17 grand 20 weate 23 wine 3 majority 6 easy 9 foundation 12 resident 15 transparent 18 album 21 cockram 24 christian 33 The Vocabulary Knowledge Scale Test design  Can be used with... front door of their house, went inside, and (2)broke into their safe Now they’re (3)broke _ a poor _ b made into two or more pieces _ c entered to steal something _ d entered by force 21 Assessing quality of vocabulary knowledge Little research available on in-depth study of word-knowledge, except in young children BUT: proposals to recognize  Partial vs precise knowledge  Depth of knowledge ... his coffee The telegram was deli two hours after it had been sent Suddenly he was thru into the dark room The victim’s shirt was satu with blood 31 The Eurocenters Vocabulary Size Test I Test design  Makes an estimate of vocabulary size using a graded sample of words covering numerous frequency levels  Checklist test – learner indicates whether they know the word or not  Includes non-words... of guessing correctly Items may test knowledge of distractors instead of exact meaning of target word Wrong answer may result from lack of understanding of syntax Permits only limited sampling of total vocabulary knowledge Weshe & Paribakht (1996: 17) BUT: convenient to administer; well-established procedures to analyze them 16 Matching items Next to each word, write the letter of its meaning 1 2 3 4 . 14 What is vocabulary ability?  The context of vocabulary use generational usage language variations everyday usage/specialized terminology  Vocabulary. fundamental processes vocabulary size knowledge of word characteristics lexical storage fundamental vocabulary processes  Metacognitive stategies for vocabulary