Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T01:18:53.307Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 6 - Productive vocabulary tests and the search for concurrent validity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2010

Helmut Daller
Affiliation:
University of the West of England, Bristol
James Milton
Affiliation:
University of Wales, Swansea
Jeanine Treffers-Daller
Affiliation:
University of the West of England, Bristol
Get access

Summary

Introduction

The question this chapter raises is whether it is always possible to collect useful validity information for new vocabulary tests which claim to target specific aspects of knowledge. The difficulties entailed in collecting such information may help explain why some tests emerge into general use before such data is available. The quest for objective measuring tools which can quantify lexical knowledge has spawned a plethora of L2 vocabulary tests. Several of these are mentioned elsewhere in this volume, for example the Vocabulary Levels Test (Nation, 1983), the Lexical Frequency Profile (Laufer and Nation, 1995), P-Lex (Meara and Bell, 2001), X-Lex (Meara and Milton, 2003b), and various applications of Type-Token Ratios (TTR) (for example Arnaud, 1984; Laufer, 1991). The practical nature of tests such as these – they tend to be relatively quick to administer and mark, and produce a numerical score – makes them extremely attractive to EFL teachers who are often required to assess the proficiency or progress of large numbers of students. As a consequence of this, we often see tests being used to make judgements about the language level of non-native speakers and/or about the lexical richness of a text (see the concerns of van Hout and Vermeer (Chapter 5), this volume) before we have conclusive proof that the tests themselves produce reliable and valid results.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×