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This study explores whether middle-school students can exploit explicitly addressed crosslinguistic lexical similarities between German and English to learn vocabulary more efficiently. Across six weeks, 260 Swiss German learners of English as a foreign language (17 classes) completed three vocabulary learning tests (T1, T2 and T3). Additionally, 7 of these 17 classes attended a 90-minute intervention between the first and second test: During a 45-minute introductory lesson students discovered four systematic orthographic correspondence rules (e.g. to as in ship and Schiff), followed by three 15-minute sessions to consolidate their knowledge. The intervention group's improvement in cognate learning was significantly larger in comparison to the control group. The difference was observed across both test modes and all rules introduced. While learners' initial English vocabulary size correlated with their overall performance, it did not affect intervention uptake. This suggests that these younger learners benefitted from form-focused instruction, independent of proficiency and type of correspondence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very few studies have investigated second language (L2) knowledge of word parts. The present study was set to measure L2 recognition of 35 English prefixes and the factors that might predict scores. The form and meaning sections of Sasao and Webb's Word Part Levels Test were administered to 152 Arabic learners of English as a foreign language (EFL), followed by a test of vocabulary breadth, and a short language background questionnaire. The factors we explored in the mixed-effects model analysis were the following: vocabulary breadth, duration of L2 exposure, and type/amount of contact with English in the four modalities. We additionally, explored whether Sasao and Webb's difficulty estimates reflect Arabic EFL learners' knowledge of prefixes. Results showed that vocabulary breadth significantly predicted both form and meaning knowledge of English prefixes. Moreover, weekly hours of reading and communication in English contributed significantly to prefix knowledge. Finally, Webb and Sasao's difficulty estimates predicted scores on both the form and meaning tests and interacted with vocabulary breadth, showing that the most difficult prefixes were challenging regardless of vocabulary breadth. These results are discussed in light of previous research on L2 morphological awareness, highlighting implications for teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study presents an instructional procedure developed in an attempt to enhance incidental learning through graded readers in class, the Multiple Incidental Exposures (MIE) procedure, and compares it to a more common procedure involving reading and doing the exercises, which is referred to as Traditional Explicit Practice (TEP). Participants were 44 Catalan/Spanish students (aged 10–11 years) taking the fifth course of primary education in a school in Catalonia. Participants belonged to two intact classes that were randomly assigned a condition: MIE group (n = 23, n = 15 males, n = 8 females) and the TEP group (n = 21, n = 12 males, n = 9 females). The MIE group was first told the story by their teacher, then read and listened to the graded readers twice (first collectively and later on individually), to be followed by a True/False activity and a jigsaw reading task. The TEP group read and listened to the story collectively once and then performed a series of traditional explicit exercises very similar in format to those included at the end of the graded reader. Participants were administered a vocabulary test, a grammar test and a perception of pronunciation test following a pre- post-test design. A questionnaire on the participants' attitudes was also administered on the post-test. The results show that while the TEP procedure is more effective for grammar learning, the MIE and TEP procedures are equally effective in terms of vocabulary and pronunciation. In terms of enjoyment and perception of learning, both groups showed comparable results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The academic section of the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT-Ac) and the Academic Vocabulary Test (AVT) both assess meaning-recognition knowledge of written receptive academic vocabulary, deemed central for engagement in academic activities. Depending on the purpose and context of the testing, either of the tests can be appropriate, but for research and pedagogical purposes, it is important to be able to compare scores achieved on the two tests between administrations and within similar contexts. Based on a sample of 385 upper secondary school students in university-preparatory programs (independent CEFR B2-level users of English), this study presents a comparison model by linking the VLT-Ac and the AVT using concurrent calibration procedures in Item Response Theory. The key outcome of the study is a score comparison table providing a means for approximate score comparisons. Additionally, the study showcases a viable and valid method of comparing vocabulary scores from an older test with those from a newer one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study employed a mixed methods quasi-experimental design to investigate the effectiveness of applying motivational strategies and mental imagery (i.e. visionary techniques) to facilitate second language (L2) vocabulary learning. Four treatment sessions were integrated into a six-week language course offered to 150 intermediate students in nine classes of English as a foreign language (EFL), which were divided into three groups: motivational group, visionary group and control group. The target language items involved 56 formulaic sequences, and the outcome was assessed by a multiple-choice vocabulary test. The quantitative results were accompanied by qualitative data, aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of the test results. The findings revealed that both motivational strategies and visionary techniques proved effective in increasing the students' ability to recognize the form of the target sequences, and that the visionary condition was superior to the use of motivational strategies. The benefits of the deeper engagement level associated with mental imagery were corroborated by a delayed posttest. The article concludes with a theoretical discussion of the benefits of visualisation in vocabulary acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employs eye-tracking to investigate how first (L1) and second language (L2) glosses affect lexical uptake and reading behaviors in L2 learners of English. The study also explores the relationship between lexical uptake and reading behaviors as a function of gloss type. To investigate this, 81 Korean university students were asked to read a baseline passage with no gloss or the same passage with glosses in the study's L1 (Korean) or L2 (English). Their eye movements were recorded with an eye tracker as they read, and they were subsequently asked to respond to two vocabulary tests. Analyses of eye-tracking data and vocabulary test scores revealed that the presence or absence of L1 and L2 glosses might produce differences in lexical uptake and dissimilar attentional mechanisms. For instance, the study found that L1 and L2 glosses failed to significantly enhance the acquisition of visual word forms, whereas both types of glosses were significantly effective in consolidating form–meaning associations. Additionally, correlation analyses indicated that the relationship between reading behaviors and lexical acquisition might differ depending on gloss type. Ultimately, our findings provide a more comprehensive picture of L1 and L2 gloss effects, and have significant implications for L2 pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilingualism in education is encouraged in South Africa, and children are expected to become bilingual and biliterate during the early primary grades. Much focus has been placed on measuring literacy in children's first language, often the medium of instruction (MOI), and English, the language typically used as MOI from fourth grade. However, vocabulary development in African contexts is underexplored, owing to the cost of existing English standardized tests, and the comparatively fewer linguistically and contextually appropriate vocabulary assessments in African languages. To address this gap, we document the development of corpus-informed contextually appropriate tests of productive vocabulary in isiZulu, Siswati, and English, which were used for a project evaluation. The initial validation phase included 412 children. Both tests were reliable and were concurrently validated with reading comprehension tests in each language, and oral language skills in English. This study contributes to our understanding of the factors that affect the variation in vocabulary knowledge in an African context, including age, grade repetition, and vocabulary in the other language. Only English vocabulary was affected by the remote rural location of the school. We recommend some modifications to the tests before they are validated further in other populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instrument measurement conducted with Rasch analysis is a common process in language assessment research. A recent systematic review of 215 studies involving Rasch analysis in language testing and applied linguistics research reported that 23 different software packages had been utilized. However, none of the analyses were conducted with one of the numerous R-based Rasch analysis software packages, which generally employ one of the three estimation methods: conditional maximum likelihood estimation (CMLE), joint maximum likelihood estimation (JMLE), or marginal maximum likelihood estimation (MMLE). For this study, eRm, a CMLE-based R package, was utilized to conduct a dichotomous Rasch analysis of a Yes/No vocabulary test based on the academic word list. The resulting parameters and diagnostic statistics were compared with the equivalent results from four other R-based Rasch measurement software packages and Winsteps. Finally, all of the packages were utilized in the analysis of 1000 simulated datasets to investigate the extent to which results generated from the contrasting estimation methods converged or diverged. Overall, the differences between the results produced with the three estimation methods were negligible, and the discrepancies observed between datasets were attributable to the software choice as opposed to the estimation method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last three decades have seen an increase of tests aimed at measuring an individual's vocabulary level or size. The target words used in these tests are typically sampled from word frequency lists, which are in turn based on language corpora. Conventionally, test developers sample items from frequency bands of 1000 words; different tests employ different sampling ratios. Some have as few as 5 or 10 items representing the underlying population of words, whereas other tests feature a larger number of items, such as 24, 30, or 40. However, very rarely are the sampling size choices supported by clear empirical evidence. Here, using a bootstrapping approach, we illustrate the effect that a sample-size increase has on confidence intervals of individual learner vocabulary knowledge estimates, and on the inferences that can safely be made from test scores. We draw on a unique dataset consisting of adult L1 Japanese test takers' performance on two English vocabulary test formats, each featuring 1000 words. Our analysis shows that there are few purposes and settings where as few as 5 to 10 sampled items from a 1000-word frequency band (1K) are sufficient. The use of 30 or more items per 1000-word frequency band and tests consisting of fewer bands is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the teaching and learning of vocabulary through listening among 137 senior high-school learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in China. It compared different types of Lexical Focus-on-Form delivered to four treatment groups: post-listening vocabulary explanations in the L2; codeswitched explanations; explanations providing additional crosslinguistic information (Contrastive Focus-on-Form; CFoF); and no explanations (NE). It also investigated the impact of the intervention on learners' listening comprehension. Learners completed aural vocabulary tests at pre-, post- and delayed post-test and listening assessments at pre- and post-test. For short- and long-term vocabulary acquisition, the three groups receiving explanations significantly outperformed the NE group. Gains for the CFoF group were significantly greater than for the L2 and Codeswitching groups, for both short-term and long-term learning. For listening comprehension, only the NE group made significant improvement from the pre-test to the post-test, as well as making significantly greater pre- to post-test improvement than the CFoF and the L2 groups did. The article concludes by discussing these findings in relation to theories of vocabulary acquisition and listening comprehension, as well as their pedagogical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vocabulary's relationship to reading proficiency is frequently cited as a justification for the assessment of L2 written receptive vocabulary knowledge. However, to date, there has been relatively little research regarding which modalities of vocabulary knowledge have the strongest correlations to reading proficiency, and observed differences have often been statistically non-significant. The present research employs a bootstrapping approach to reach a clearer understanding of relationships between various modalities of vocabulary knowledge to reading proficiency. Test-takers (N = 103) answered 1000 vocabulary test items spanning the third 1000 most frequent English words in the New General Service List corpus (Browne, Culligan, & Phillips, 2013). Items were answered under four modalities: Yes/No checklists, form recall, meaning recall, and meaning recognition. These pools of test items were then sampled with replacement to create 1000 simulated tests ranging in length from five to 200 items and the results were correlated to the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC®) Reading scores. For all examined test lengths, meaning-recall vocabulary tests had the highest average correlations to reading proficiency, followed by form-recall vocabulary tests. The results indicated that tests of vocabulary recall are stronger predictors of reading proficiency than tests of vocabulary recognition, despite the theoretically closer relationship of vocabulary recognition to reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigates the extent to which receptive vocabulary size test scores can predict second language (L2) speaking ability. Forty-six international students with an advanced level of L2 proficiency completed a receptive vocabulary task (Yes/No test; Meara & Miralpeix, 2017) and a spontaneous speaking task (oral picture narrative). Elicited speech samples were submitted to expert rating based on speakers' vocabulary features as well as lexical sophistication measures. Results indicate that vocabulary size was significantly associated with vocabulary rating. However, learners with large vocabulary sizes did not necessarily produce lexically sophisticated L2 words during speech. A closer examination of the data reveals complexities regarding the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and speaking. Based on these findings, we explore implications for L2 vocabulary assessment in classroom teaching contexts and provide important suggestions for future research on the vocabulary-and-speaking link. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past few decades, many studies have examined the effectiveness of various forms of instructional treatments for second language (L2) acquisition. The study used two measures of the instructional effects: a discourse completion test (DCT) and a pragmatics comprehension questionnaire (CQ) administered as pretest, posttest and delayed posttests, plus a working memory capacity measure. Two measures were used to examine the treatment effects and their interaction with learners' language proficiency: a listening comprehension test, which was a recall test, and a receptive vocabulary test. Learning was measured by means of two tests: a comprehension test, administered as a pretest, posttest and delayed posttest and a production test, administered as an immediate and a delayed posttest. [Extracted from the article]

The main purpose of this study is to investigate guessing in the Yes/No (YN) format vocabulary test. One-hundred-and-five university students took a YN test, a translation task and a multiple-choice vocabulary size test (MC VST). With matched lexical properties between the real words and the pseudowords, pseudowords could index guessing in the YN test as correlations between false alarms and real word guessing were high (>.80). This finding provides important validity evidence for correction formulas that employ false alarm information to adjust the YN test scores. Another important finding is that the neighborhood size of pseudowords was related to false alarm rates, which has useful implications for the designing of future YN tests. Finally, the corrected scores of the YN test correlated highly (>.70) with those of the translation task. In comparison, correlations between the YN corrected scores and the MC VST scores were lower, indicating a difference in guessing between the two tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the constructs that underpin three different measures of vocabulary knowledge and investigates the degree to which these three measures correlate with, and are able to predict, measures of second language (L2) listening and reading. Word frequency structured vocabulary tests tapping receptive/orthographic (RecOrth) vocabulary knowledge, productive/orthographic (ProOrth) vocabulary knowledge and productive/phonological (ProPhon) vocabulary knowledge and tests measuring L2 listening and L2 reading were administered to 250 tertiary-level Chinese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Results showed that ProPhon vocabulary knowledge correlated most strongly with L2 listening (r = .71) and ProOrth vocabulary knowledge correlated most strongly with L2 reading (r = .57). Factor analysis indicated that all subcomponents of the ProPhon vocabulary knowledge test loaded onto one factor and those of the RecOrth and ProOrth vocabulary knowledge tests loaded onto another. Regression modelling showed that ProPhon vocabulary knowledge explained 51% of the variance in L2 listening scores and that ProOrth vocabulary knowledge explained 33% of the variance in the L2 reading scores. Discussion addresses the varying importance of different dimensions of vocabulary knowledge in L2 listening and reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, conducted by two researchers who were also multiple-choice question (MCQ) test item writers at a private English-medium university in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context, was designed to shed light on the factors that influence test-takers’ perceptions of difficulty in English for academic purposes (EAP) vocabulary, with the aim of improving test writers’ judgments on difficulty. The research consisted of a survey of 588 test-takers, followed by a focus group interview, aimed at investigating the relative influences of test-taker factors and word factors on difficulty perceptions. Results reveal a complex interaction of factors influencing perceived difficulty dominated by the educational, and particularly, the social context. Factors traditionally associated with vocabulary difficulty, such as abstractness and word length, appeared to have little influence. The researchers concluded that rather than basing their intuitions regarding vocabulary difficulty on language-lesson input or surface features of words, EAP vocabulary test writers need a clear understanding of test-takers’ difficulty perceptions, and how these emerge from interactions between academic, social and linguistic factors. As a basis for EAP vocabulary item writer training, four main implications are drawn, related to test-takers’ social and educational background, field of study, the features of academic words, and the test itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If known words can be defined psycholinguistically as 'form--meaning mappings', the present article investigates whether prompting learners to evaluate whether the form of a new second language (L2) word fits its meaning generates 'mapping elaborations' that aid recall. Thirty Dutch- speaking upper-intermediate learners of English were invited to rate and motivate the degree of congruency they perceived between the form and meaning of 14 novel L2 words. Their ability to recall the form and the meaning of the target words was measured in an unannounced post- test. Recall was found to be positively related to the number of learner-generated mapping elaborations triggered by the task. Elaborations of a sound--symbolic nature appeared particularly useful for rendering the form of new words memorable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of English affixes plays a significant role in increasing knowledge of words. However, few attempts have been made to create a valid and reliable measure of affix knowledge. The Word Part Levels Test (WPLT) was developed to measure three aspects of affix knowledge: form (recognition of written affix forms), meaning (knowledge of affix meanings), and use (knowledge of the syntactic properties of affixes). A total of 118 derivative affixes were selected based on frequency data from the British National Corpus. First, data was collected from 417 Japanese university students to revise poorly working items using Rasch analysis. Second, the responses of 1,348 people representing more than 30 different native languages were analysed to determine the affix difficulty levels. A description of the test, justification for its design, and practical implications are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigated the effects of three forms of output activity on EFL learners' recognition and recall of second language (L2) vocabulary. To this end, three groups of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) were instructed to employ the following three output activities after reading two narrative texts: (1) summarizing the texts and incorporating target vocabulary in the summary; (2) generating several general comprehension questions out of reading texts and answering those questions while incorporating target vocabulary; and (3) making predictions about what is to occur in the texts and including target vocabulary in the prediction. The results of a cued response production test and a multiple choice recognition test indicated that the three treatment conditions resulted in significant development of vocabulary knowledge. Moreover, the results revealed that making predictions and questioning/answering were more effective than summarizing for promoting L2 words knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes the adaptation process of a vocabulary knowledge test for British Sign Language (BSL) into American Sign Language (ASL) and presents results from the first round of pilot testing with 20 deaf native ASL signers. The web-based test assesses the strength of deaf children’s vocabulary knowledge by means of different mappings of phonological form and meaning of signs. The adaptation from BSL to ASL involved nine stages, which included forming a panel of deaf/hearing experts, developing a set of new items and revising/replacing items considered ineffective, and piloting the new version. Results provide new evidence in support of the use of this methodology for assessing signed languages, making a useful contribution toward the availability of tests to assess deaf children’s signed language skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important gap in the field of second language vocabulary assessment concerns the lack of validated tests measuring aural vocabulary knowledge. The primary purpose of this study is to introduce and provide preliminary validity evidence for the Listening Vocabulary Levels Test (LVLT), which has been designed as a diagnostic tool to measure knowledge of the first five 1000-word frequency levels and the Academic Word List (AWL). Quantitative analyses based on the Rasch model utilized several aspects of Messick’s validation framework. The findings indicated that (1) the items showed sufficient spread of difficulty, (2) the majority of the items displayed good fit to the Rasch model, (3) items and persons generally performed as predicted by a priori hypotheses, (4) the LVLT correlated with Parts 1 and 2 of the TOEIC listening test at .54, (5) the items displayed a high degree of unidimensionality, (6) the items showed a strong degree of measurement invariance with disattenuated Pearson correlations of .97 and .98 for person measures estimated with different sets of items, and (7) carelessness and guessing exerted only minor influences on test scores. Follow-up interviews and qualitative analyses indicated that the LVLT measures the intended construct of aural vocabulary knowledge, the format is easily understood, and the test has high face validity. This test fills an important gap in the field of second language vocabulary assessment by providing teachers and researchers with a way to assess aural vocabulary knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compared three common vocabulary test formats, the Yes/No test, the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS), and the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), as measures of vocabulary difficulty. Vocabulary difficulty was defined as the item difficulty estimated through Item Response Theory (IRT) analysis. Three tests were given to 165 Japanese students, resulting in five measures of vocabulary knowledge and four measures of word difficulty. Analyses included item and score factor analysis, unidimensionality, local independence, and correlations. Results indicate that these are reliable tests. Tests of unidimensionality suggest these tests are essentially measuring one major latent trait, which can be interpreted as a factor for word knowledge. Strong correlations of the scores with each other provide evidence of concurrent validity, and for the interpretation of the scores as indicative of word knowledge. Correlations with other methods of estimating word difficulty, such as transformed frequency, length of word, or number of syllables, suggest that of these methods, the log of frequencies from very large corpora gives the best estimate of word difficulty. However, direct testing of vocabulary difficulty appears to, in the words of Kreuz (1987), “provide a better account of recognition latencies than do counts based on printed word frequency” (p. 159). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a number of research studies investigating the Yes–No vocabulary test format, one main question remains unanswered: What is the best scoring procedure to adjust for testee overestimation of vocabulary knowledge? Different scoring methodologies have been proposed based on the inclusion and selection of nonwords in the test. However, there is currently no consensus on the best adjustment procedure using these nonwords. Two studies were conducted to examine a new methodology for scoring Yes–No tests based on testees’ response times (RTs) to the words in the test, on the assumption that faster responses would be more certain and accurate whereas more hesitant and inaccurate ones would be reflected in slower RTs. Participants performed a timed Yes–No test and were then interviewed to ascertain their actual vocabulary knowledge. Study 1 explored the viability of this approach and Study 2 examined whether the RT approach presented any advantage over the more traditional nonword approaches. Results showed that there was no clear advantage for any of the approaches under comparison, but their effectiveness depended on factors like the false alarm rate and the size of participants’ overestimation of their lexical knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pseudowords, or non-real words, were introduced to the Yes/No (YN) vocabulary test format to provide a means of checking for overestimation of word knowledge by test takers. The purpose of this study is to assess the assumption that more pseudoword checks (false alarms) indicate more instances of overestimation of word knowledge in YN tests. Thirty English classes in five different Japanese universities with TOEIC® scores ranging from 230 to 730 participated (n = 490). YN test results were compared with a multiple-choice test of the same 96 real words to provide a way to check directly for instances of underestimation and overestimation of word knowledge on the YN tests. Results showed that students from the higher proficiency universities had a slightly higher pseudoword false alarm rate than students from the lower ability universities (4.28% and 3.96%, respectively). However, overestimation rates were considerably lower for these same students from the higher proficiency universities (3.24% and 5.67%, respectively). This discrepancy between false alarm rates and overestimation rates questions the value of pseudowords for measuring overestimation in YN vocabulary tests when student ability levels differ significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the acquisition of Spanish idioms in a classroom setting that was supplemented with explicit instruction over a 10-week period. The research design manipulated two variables: prior lexical knowledge and idiom organization. Sixty-five second language (L2) learners completed pre- and posttests that measured their ability to recognize and produce the target idioms, as well as a vocabulary test to control for lexical knowledge. Participants in the experimental groups received contextualized idiom presentation that encouraged noticing, retrieving, and generating (Nation, 2001). The results indicate significant treatment effects, although no significant advantage was found for the thematic grouping of idioms. The results also show a significant effect for prior lexical knowledge on one of the dependent variables. These findings are discussed in relation to prior studies of idiom learning from a cognitive linguistics perspective (Boers et al., 2007) as well as psycholinguistic studies that emphasize the salience of literal meanings (Cieślicka, 2006). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study reported in this article investigated the comparative effects of two types of treatment — one of which emphasized input and the other output — on the vocabulary acquisition of young EFL learners. In the input-based instruction, the students were not required to produce output whereas in the production-based instruction the students were required to produce output. Thirty-six Japanese children aged 6—8 were divided into three groups (input-based, production-based and control group), received six weeks instruction and took four types of vocabulary tests as a pre-, post- and delayed post-test. The findings provide further evidence that both input-based and production-based instruction lead to both receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge. In general, the results show similar levels of effects for input-based and production-based instruction on vocabulary acquisition. However, an examination of process features indicates that the input-based tasks provided opportunities for richer interaction for the learners than the production-based activities. This may explain the better performance of the input-based group on the task-based comprehension test and the same levels of achievement in the production tests despite relatively fewer opportunities for second language (L2) production. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article describes the development and validation of a Vietnamese bilingual version of the Vocabulary Size Test — a test which measures written receptive vocabulary size. The test can be used to measure the English vocabulary size of Vietnamese learners of English. A learner’s total vocabulary size is calculated by multiplying their test result by 100. The research adds to our knowledge of vocabulary size testing in the following ways. First, it shows that a bilingual version of a monolingual test performs in much the same way as the monolingual test, distinguishing learners of different proficiency levels and returning lower scores at later levels of the test. Second, it shows that every level of the test should be sat, otherwise there will be a considerable underestimation of learners’ vocabulary sizes. This suggests limitations to the previously accepted assumption that learners’ vocabulary growth can be largely related to word frequency. Third, it shows that bilingual tests are feasible alternatives to more challenging and time-consuming monolingual tests. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although the Word Associates Format (WAF) is becoming more frequently used as a depth-of-knowledge measure, relatively little validation has been carried out on it. This report of two validation studies tackles various important WAF issues yet to be satisfactorily resolved.Study 1 conducted introspective interviews regarding students’ WAF test-taking behavior along with interviews on featured target words to determine how accurately the most common scoring system for the WAF reflects the examinees’ actual knowledge of the words. Analysis is provided concerning WAF accuracy and item answering strategies and patterns.Study 2 repeated the interview procedures from Study 1 with several modifications, including the addition of a receptive dimension in the word knowledge interview. The various WAF-scoring methods were compared, and the format types (6 and 8 option), distractor types, and distribution of answers were examined in depth.Both studies indicate that the WAF reflects true lexical knowledge fairly well at the extremes of the scoring scale while scores in the middle do not lead to any reliable interpretation. Furthermore, there is the likelihood that the WAF may both underestimate and overestimate vocabulary knowledge. Suggestions regarding item construction and use of the WAF are given to improve its accuracy and reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary purpose of this study was to provide preliminary validity evidence for a 140-item form of the Vocabulary Size Test, which is designed to measure written receptive knowledge of the first 14,000 words of English. Nineteen native speakers of English and 178 native speakers of Japanese participated in the study. Analyses based on the Rasch model were focused on several aspects of Messick's validation framework. The findings indicated that (1) the items and examinees generally performed as predicted by a priori hypotheses, (2) the overwhelming majority of the items displayed good fit to the Rasch model, (3) the items displayed a high degree of unidimensionality with the Rasch model accounting for 85.6% of the variance, (4) the items showed a strong degree of measurement invariance with disattenuated Pearson correlations for person measures estimated with different sets of items of 0.91 and 0.96, and (5) various combinations of items provided precise measurement for this sample of examinees as indicated by Rasch reliability indices >0.96. The Vocabulary Size Test provides teachers and researchers with a new instrument that greatly extends the range of measurement provided by other measures of written receptive vocabulary size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effectiveness of explicit instruction of vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) over a 10-week semester with a group of 146 female EFL learners from two Japanese universities. A vocabulary test and questionnaires on VLSs and motivation were administered at the beginning of the course. The learners were divided into two groups based on the vocabulary test results: an experimental group and a control group. Only the experimental group received explicit instruction on VLSs in combination with their regular language lessons. The same instruments were re-administered at the end of the course to examine the changes in both the questionnaire responses and test scores. Qualitative analyses were also conducted to explore the findings in detail. The results show that the experimental group outperformed the control group in the vocabulary test. It was also found that (1) strategy training was effective for both changing the repertoire of strategies used and improving their frequency of use, (2) the training increased the use of certain strategies more than it did for other strategies, and (3) different types of learners exhibited different responses to the strategy instruction. This study's findings contribute to a better understanding of strategy instruction in general and VLSs in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following growing interest in vocabulary acquisition, a number of researchers have proposed how learners' vocabulary knowledge can be measured both in terms of how many words they know (vocabulary size) and how well they know those words (depth of knowledge). However, most of the depth measures have addressed only a single depth aspect (often for research purposes), and not many researchers have investigated how size and depth approaches can be combined in a test battery suitable for pedagogical purposes. Furthermore, there is little advice available on how the scores of size and depth measures can be appropriately interpreted. This article describes how one size-depth vocabulary test battery was developed for a specific student group (Japanese university students), and proposes a scoring scheme that combines size and depth scores in a principled way. It also suggests a method of making the resulting scores accessible to the students. It is hoped that the test battery and procedure described can act as a useful guide for teachers and test writers in other countries and contexts who wish to develop a more comprehensive vocabulary assessment approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has found that native English speakers can judge, with a relatively high degree of accuracy, the frequency of words in the English language. However, there has been little investigation of the ability to judge the frequency of high and middle frequency words. Similarly, the accuracy of EFL teachers' frequency judgements remains largely unstudied. This study required two groups of native English speakers (English teaching professionals and undergraduate university students) to judge the frequency of words by ranking two lists of 24 words in order of frequency. The first list covered a wide range of frequency levels and the second list covered words in the middle frequency range. The results from this study indicate that the English teaching professionals' accuracy judgments do not seem to be significantly better than university undergraduates. Furthermore, both groups of native English speakers had difficulty judging the frequency of words in the middle frequency range. These results indicate the need for teachers to consult frequency lists rather than rely solely on their intuitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance on the Yes/No test (Huibregtse et al., 2002) was assessed as a predictor of scores on the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), a standard test of receptive second language (L2) vocabulary knowledge (Nation, 1990). The use of identical items on both tests allowed a direct comparison of test performance, with alternative methods for scoring the Yes/No test also examined (Huibregtse et al., 2002). Overall, performance on both tests by English L2 university students (n = 36) was similar. Mean test accuracy on the various Yes/No methods ranged from 76–82%, comparable to VLT performance at 83%. However, paired t-tests showed the scoring methods used to correct raw hit performance increased the difference between the Yes/No test and criterion VLT scores to some degree. All Yes/No scores were strong predictors of VLT performance, regardless of method used, r > .8. Raw hit rate was the best predictor of VLT performance, due in part to the <5% false alarm rate. The low false alarm rate may be due to the participants, drawn primarily from non-Latin alphabet first languages (L1s), and the nature of the instructions. The results indicate the Yes/No test is a valid measure of the type of L2 vocabulary knowledge assessed by the VLT, with implications for classroom application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the development and validation of a test of vocabulary size and strength. The first part of the article sets out the theoretical rationale for the test, and describes how the size and strength constructs have been conceptualized and operationalized. The second part of the article focusses on the process of test validation, which involved the testing of the hypotheses implicit in the test design, using both unidimensional and multifaceted Rasch analyses. Possible applications for the test include determining the status of a learner's vocabulary development as well as screening and placement. A model for administering the test in computer adaptive mode is also proposed. The study has implications both for the design and delivery of this test as well as for theories of vocabulary acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central purpose of this study was to empirically evaluate an in-depth vocabulary knowledge measure in the context of developing the new TOEFL test. The study was carried out with a sample of 207 international students attending an intensive English as a second language (ESL) program in a major Canadian university, in order to determine whether this vocabulary knowledge measure could provide a basis for developing appropriate and useful item types for assessing test-takers' reading comprehension. The results indicate that, compared with existing TOEFL vocabulary measures, the new measure has a similar difficulty level and provides a similar amount of prediction of test-takers' reading performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article evaluates the characteristics of the Yes/No test as a measure for receptive vocabulary size in second language (L2). This evaluation was conducted both on theoretical grounds as well as on the basis of a large corpus of data collected with French learners of Dutch. The study focuses on the internal qualities of the format in comparison with other more classical test formats. The central issue of determining a meaningful test score is addressed by providing a theoretical framework distinguishing discrete from continuous models. Correction formulae based on the discrete approach are shown to differ when applied to the Yes/No test in comparison with Multiple Choice (MC) or True/False formats. Correction formulae based on the continuous approach take the response bias into account but certain underlying assumptions need to be validated. It is shown that both correction schemes display several shortcomings and that most of the data relative to the reliability of the Yes/No test presented in the literature are overestimated. Finally, several future research options are proposed in order to attain a straightforward but reliable and valid instrument for measuring receptive vocabulary size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vocabulary tests are used for a wide range of instructional and research purposes but we lack a comprehensive basis for evaluating the current instruments or developing new lexical measures for the future. This article presents a framework that takes as its starting point an analysis of test purpose and then shows how purpose can be systematically related to test design. The link between the two is based on three considerations which derive from Messick's (1989) validation theory: construct definition, performance summary and reporting, and test presentation. The components of the framework are illustrated throughout by reference to eight well-known vocabulary measures; for each one there is a description of its design and an analysis of its purpose. It is argued that the way forward for vocabulary assessment is to take account of test purposes in the design and validation of tests, as well as considering an interactionlist approach to construct definition. This means that a vocabulary test should require learners to perform tasks under contextual constraints that are relevant to the inferences to be made about their lexical ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Vocabulary Levels Test has been widely used in language assessment and vocabulary research despite never having been properly validated. This article reports on a study which uses a range of analysis techniques to present validity evidence, and to explore the equivalence of two revised and expanded versions of the Vocabulary Levels Test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to analyse gender-uniform differential item functioning (DIF) in a second language (L2) vocabulary test with the tools of item response theory (the separate calibration t-method) and to study potential gender impact on the test performance measured by different item composites. The results of the study show that despite the fact that there are test items with indications of DIF in favour of either females or males, the test as a whole is not gender-biased. In spite of this, it was demonstrated that some item composites are gender-biased. In view of item bank building and use, it means that some of the tests constructed on the basis of an item bank might be biased if the item bank contains items with indication for DIF. Although the results of some empirical research suggest that the requirements for items with DIF to be excluded from the final test version may on the whole be too restrictive, this study demonstrated that the traditional advice of excluding biased items gains new significance in the light of item bank building and use since doing so will prevent possible biased item composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few researchers have undertaken detailed investigations of the reliability and validity of tests designed to measure vocabulary size. Thus, the purpose of this study was to carefully analyse and validate the revised versions of the 2000 Word Level and the University Word Level of Nation’s Vocabulary Levels Test (Nation 1990), which can be administered for the purposes of course planning and placement in language programs. In this study, 496 Japanese high school and university students completed four forms of the 2000 Word Level Test and 464 participants completed four forms of the University Word Level Test. Two new forms of each test were created and then examined using classical and Rasch item analyses. The new forms were found to be acceptably reliable (a = .84–.95), and the Rasch analysis revealed only 3 misfitting items (k = 108). In addition, these forms had statistically significant correlations with the TOEFL, particularly for the reading and grammar subsections. A variety of evidence is then presented to support the notion that the tests are unidimensional. Finally, the authors suggest further improvements and new directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important in the design of the vocabulary component of a teaching program that teachers are able to discover the state of their learners’ vocabulary knowledge. It is also important that researchers can draw on a variety of vocabulary measures to investigate the nature of vocabulary growth. This study focuses on a controlled production measure of vocabulary consisting of items from five frequency levels, and using a completion item type like the following. The garden was full of fra flowers. The controlled-production vocabulary-levels test was found to be reliable, valid (in that the levels distinguished between different proficiency groups) and practical. There was a satisfactory degree of equivalence between two equivalent forms of the test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including new approaches to vocabulary testing, comparison of presentation of English in three English language textbooks in Hong Kong, China, and oral skills teaching.