Effects of Test Format in Assessing L2 Vocabulary Knowledge and Skills (original) (raw)
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Grammar and vocabulary testing scores in L2 reading
International Journal of Language Testing and Assessment, 2018
In language testing bibliography, it has been suggested that L2 grammar and vocabulary scores strongly and positively correlate with L2 reading comprehension. Jeon and Yamashita (2014), conducting a large-scale meta-analysis study, found strong correlations among these two variables: r=.85 for grammar and r=.79 for vocabulary in different tasks. Following this paradigm, the current study examines this relationship (performance on reading skills and language use – grammar and vocabulary) integrated into a single testlet/paper. The hypothesis is tested by examining scores in reading skills and language use (in which grammar an..d vocabulary items are included) extracted from a large authentic sample in Greece with Italian as the target language. Further, any correlation between the acquisition or learning of these sub-skills is assessed. It was found that the two variables do indeed correlate statistically, although the strength of the correlation is not very high. In that respect, th...
Language Testing, 2020
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.
English for Specific Purposes, 2015
Lexical profiling research has indicated the vocabulary sizes that may be necessary to comprehend different spoken and written text types. These figures are based on studies of lexical coverage that have indicated that comprehension is likely to rise as the number of known words in a text increases (e.g., . This study examined the lexical profiles of passages included in an English L2 proficiency test used for university admission purposes. A total of 87 reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and cloze passages from CanTEST were analyzed to determine the vocabulary size needed to reach 95% and 98% lexical coverage. The results indicated that there was large variation between the lexical profiles of the texts. At the 1000 word frequency level, there were differences ranging from 15.22% to 20.05% coverage between the most and least lexical demanding passages in the three parts of the test. The correlations between the lexical profiles of the texts at the different word frequency levels and performance on the corresponding test items were calculated to determine the relationship between these two variables. The results indicated that there was either no correlation or a small correlation in all comparisons.
2011
This paper presents findings of a study of recognition vocabulary knowledge as a predictor of written Academic English Proficiency (AEP) and overall Academic Achievement in an English medium higher education program in an English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) context. Vocabulary knowledge was measured using a Timed YES/NO (TYN) test. AEP was assessed using an academic writing test based on IELTS. Performance on these measures was correlated with Grade Point Average (GPA) as a measure of academic achievement for Arabic L1 users (N=70) at an English-medium College of Applied Sciences in the Sultanate of Oman. Vocabulary size and speed correlated with both academic writing and GPA measures. The combined vocabulary and writing measures were also examined as predictors of academic achievement. The TYN test is discussed as reliable, cost and time effective general measure of AEP and for showing if students have the necessary vocabulary knowledge to undertake study in a tertiary level English medium program.
Predicting L2 reading proficiency with modalities of vocabulary knowledge: A bootstrapping approach
Language Testing, 2020
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.
Language Testing in Asia, 2016
Background: This study examined the factor structure of the Test of English for Academic Purposes (TEAP®) test-a recently developed academic English test measuring four skills among Japanese university applicants-and compared the structure to that of the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-based test (TOEFL iBT®), to investigate the extent towhich the TEAP test is related to the TOEFL iBT test. Methods: Using confirmatory item-level factor analysis and scores on both tests, obtained from 100 students, we tested four models (unitary, correlated, receptive-productive, andhigher-order) for the TEAP test. Results: We found that the higher-order model fit the data best. This suggests that the TEAP measures the four skills of reading, listening, writing, and speaking well and that they could be conceptualized as reflecting a single academic proficiency. This supports the appropriateness of the constructs, as defined and operationalized in the specifications of the TEAP test. Further, we found a close relationship between the TEAP and the TOEFL iBT tests (1.005). This suggests that both tests measure a very similar construct. This provides positive evidence of the concurrent validity of the TEAP test, as an indicator of academic English skills. These results were also supported by a follow-up analysis using itemparceled data. Conclusions: The close relationship between the TEAP and TOEFL iBT tests suggests that the TEAP test measures the intended construct of the four skills in academic settings very well.
2013
This paper presents findings of a study of recognition vocabulary knowledge as a predictor of written Academic English Proficiency (AEP) and overall Academic Achievement in an English medium higher education program in an English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) context. Vocabulary knowledge was measured using a Timed YES/NO (TYN) test. AEP was assessed using an academic writing test based on IELTS. Performance on these measures was correlated with Grade Point Average (GPA) as a measure of academic achievement for Arabic L1 users (N=70) at an English-medium College of Applied Sciences in the Sultanate of Oman. Vocabulary size and speed correlated with both academic writing and GPA measures. The combined vocabulary and writing measures were also examined as predictors of academic achievement. The TYN test is discussed as reliable, cost and time effective general measure of AEP and for showing if students have the necessary vocabulary knowledge to undertake study in a tertiary level English medium program. Keywords: Placement test, Language proficiency, Academic achievement, Recognition vocabulary, English medium education
The role of vocabulary size in predicting performance on TOEFL reading item types
This study aims to examine a) whether vocabulary knowledge, captured in the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), is related to the performance on the five types of reading comprehension items tested in TOEFL, i.e., Guessing Vocabulary, Main Idea, Inference, Reference, and Stated Detail; and b) whether EFL learners with different levels of vocabulary knowledge (low, middle, and high) differ in their performance on these items. 213 participants were tested in this study and their scores were analyzed using stepwise multiple regression tests. Results show that performance in three of the TOEFL test items (Guessing Vocabulary, Stated Detail, and Main Idea) correlate to the overall performance in VLT. For participants at the highest proficiency level, only one test item (Guessing Vocabulary) was found to correlate with their performance in VLT. No correlation was found for low level and middle level groups. This study showed that the performance in the type of test items used is influenced by vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary proficiency level. It suggests that an indiscriminate inclusion of different types of vocabulary tasks in any given lesson irrespective of their vocabulary knowledge level, might not work effectively for learners.
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2023
In this study, we ascertain the links between the four dimensions of L2 vocabulary knowledge and L2 reading proficiency and the moderating effects of vocabulary fluency. For this purpose, 312 EFL Chinese university student volunteers were recruited from six majors at one tertiary university in Southeast China, and they took a series of vocabulary tests and the IELTS reading test. SEM and PING'S SINGLE INDICATOR INTERACTION methods were adopted to analyze the collected test data. The results indicated that (a) receptive lexical knowledge has a much closer link with reading proficiency than productive vocabulary knowledge; (b) among the four dimensions of L2 vocabulary knowledge, receptive vocabulary depth has a closer connection with reading proficiency than receptive vocabulary breadth; (c) vocabulary fluency has a substantial moderating effect on the connection between L2 vocabulary and reading proficiency; and (d) multiple regression analysis verifies that whole-word knowledge explains 49% of the variance in L2 reading testing grades. We discuss theoretical and instructional implications, focusing on the role of the four dimensions of L2 vocabulary knowledge in the vocabulary assessment criteria for developing L2 reading proficiency.
Validation of a Test Measuring Young Learners' General L2 English Vocabulary Knowledge
Novitas – ROYAL, 2016
This study aims to present the validation of a test designed to assess young learners’ general L2 English vocabulary knowledge, the Young Learner Vocabulary Assessment Test (YLVAT). YLVAT consists of 37 items selected from the K1–2 frequency levels of the Productive and Vocabulary Levels Tests. In the study, Swedish learners (N = 52, age 12) took YLVAT and filled out an evaluation; scores from the national test of English (readingand listening comprehension) were also collected. Four validity measurements were used: the spread of YLVAT scores, correlation with the national test – reading, correlation with the national test – listening, and evaluation responses. YLVAT results point to a sufficient spread of scores (M = 18.9, SD = 6.5). There were significant correlations between YLVAT and (i) reading (r = .597**), (ii) listening (r = .541**), (iii) perceived test difficulty (rs = -.538**), and (iv) how fun it was to take the test (rs = .683**). An ANOVA showed that learners who found...