Assessing Vocabulary

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Assessment of
Vocabulary
Helen Huntley
Senior English Language Fellow 2007-08
MOET, Vietnam

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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?

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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

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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

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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…

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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

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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

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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?

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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?

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Components of word knowledge III:
Function (Nation, 1990: 31)
Frequency

(R) How common is the word?

(P) how often should the word be used?
Appropriateness

(R) where would we expect to meet this
word?

(P) Where can this word be used?

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Components of word knowledge IV:
Meaning (Nation, 1990: 31)
Concept

(R) What does the word mean?

(P) What word should be used to express this
meaning?
Associations

(R) What other words does this word make us
think of?


(P) What other words does this word make us
use instead of this one?

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Four stages of knowing a word
Stage 1: I never saw it before.
Stage 2: I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know what it
means.
Stage 3: I recognize it in context – it has
something to do with…
Stage 4: I know it.
(Stage 5: I can distinguish this word from others that are closely
related to it.)
Dale (1965: 898)

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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, avoiding, language
switching, appealing to authority, using general terms)

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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 >
multiple-choice, matching test, discrete item testing
etc.

Tests often based on word lists of frequency

Multiple-choice tests discriminate well among levels of
ability and are highly reliable

Valid indicators of overall language ability

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Multiple-choice vocabulary items
Little ongoing research available, except for TOEFL

Difficult to construct; require field-testing, analysis, refinement

Learner may know an alternate meaning of the word, but not the

one sought

25% chance 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

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Matching items
Next to each word, write the letter of its meaning.
1. a region
2. physical
3. cells
4. oxygen
5. to evaporate
related to the body
gas that we breathe
a part of a country
smallest parts of living
things
useful liquid
to change into steam
exciting event

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Matching items
Next to each word, write the number of its meaning.
1. Region ____
2. Status ____
3. Cell ____
4. Oxygen ____
5. Skeleton ____
a. Position in relation to
others
b. Gas that we breathe
c. Part of a country
d. Smallest part of living
things
e. Useful liquid
f. Set of bones in the
body
g. Exciting event

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Matching format
Find the word which fits in each sentence
and write it in the blank at the end.
1. Someone who is not worried about
life is _____.
2. A metal that is not processed is
_____
3. An illness that never gets better is
_____

4. Clothes that fit close to your body are
_____
5. Someone who hits other people hard
is _____
a. violent
b. secure
c. crude
d. hostile
e. tight
f. chronic
g. parallel

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Blank-filling/completion
Write one suitable word in each blank.
a. Modern planes fly at an a__________ of
35,000 feet.
b. Many diamond mines are l_________ in
South Africa.
c. Near the Equator, there is not much
seasonal v_________ in temperature.

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Multiple-choice matching
Last week while Jack and Linda were having
lunch in a café, thieves (1)broke down the 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

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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

Receptive vs. productive knowledge

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Sentence-writing
Write a sentence to show you know what
the word means and how it is used.
a. vegetation
b. involve
c. twist
d. starve
e. principal

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Testing depth of processing
TO INTERPRET

1. Write two sentences: A and B. In each sentence, use the two
words given.
A. interpret experiment
B. interpret language
2. Write three words than can fit in the blank.
to interpret a(n) i __________
ii __________
iii __________
3. Write the correct ending for each word:
a. Someone who interprets is an interpret____.
b. Something that can be interpreted is interpret_____.
c. Someone who interprets gives an interpret_____.

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Cloze tests
Used for assessment of overall language
proficiency, reading, and vocabulary

Fixed ratio (every 7
th
word)

Selective-deletion (rational)

Multiple-choice

C-test
How to separate out vocabulary from other
skills?