This book explores approaches to the measurement of vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary development in second and foreign language learners. Vocabulary plays an important role in the lives of all language users, since it is one of the major predictors of school performance, and successful learning and use of new vocabulary is also key to membership of many social and professional roles. The measurement of vocabulary knowledge in second language learners is of interest not only to language teachers, who are often required to make assessments of development of their learners’ language proficiency, but also to researchers and test developers who seek to develop valid and reliable measures of second language knowledge and use. While there is a considerable literature of many aspects of language testing, the assessment of lexical knowledge has received relatively little attention until recently, despite the fact that vocabulary can be viewed as the core component of all the language skills. The papers in this book show how scholars in a number of different countries are addressing fundamental questions related to vocabulary modelling and measurement.

Modelling and Assessing Vocabulary provides an overview of issues involved in vocabulary measurement in second and foreign language learning. The central question which the contributors to the book explore is, how can one assess the extent and richness of a person's vocabulary knowledge and use? Lexical competence is difficult to assess with a single measure since vocabulary knowledge is multi-faceted.