+Testing Lexical Knowledge: A Linguistic Analysis of Vocabulary Assessment

Mareshah E. Peterson, M.A. Candidate University of Texas at El Paso

Department of Languages and Linguistics

+Many vocabulary acquisition studies have measured only one aspect of knowledge meaning - with one test. (Webb 2005)

What is lexical knowledge?

What does it

mean to know a word?

+Word Meaning Relationships: Polysemy/Homonymy/Synonymy

n Run - to go with quick steps on alternate feet

-Oxford English Dictionary

n How do you test the depth of knowledge of items with up to 35 related senses within the limitations of a classroom exam?

n Word forms that are semantically unrelated.

n Primary vs Secondary sememes

n Absence of true synonyms

n Testing formats: Homonymy vs Homography (Ming-Tzu 2004)

n heir-air n bat-bat

+Productive Mastery

n -> recognition -> use

nA continuum? (Melka 1997)

nSeparate processes? (Meara 1990)

nDifferences in measurement

+The Corson Measure of Passive Vocabulary (1983)

n What is the relationship between active and passive mastery?

n The wide-ranging use of words by a speaker is not a guarantee of cognitive superiority, nor is their absence in oral performance an indication of cognitive weakness.

D. Corson 1983

+The Corson Measure of Passive Vocabulary (1983)

n What is being measured?

+Passive Vocabulary Measure: Results

n Variations in register

n West Indian 15-year-olds

n Non-verbal cognitive scores show no variance among 15-year-old peers.

+Other Measures: TOEFL

n In-depth vs discrete point items in the TOEFL (Qian, 2008)

VS.

+Other Measures: SATs

+Connecting the Research

nNo single comprehensive instrument.

nNo definitive framework for word knowledge..

+Where do we go from here?

n We as educators should re-evaluate the predictive power of current standardized vocabulary measures.

n We should continue to pursue a multi-disciplinary approach to the areas of content knowledge which can benefit from greater interaction with formal linguistics and Second Language acquisition research.

n We need to develop instruments of measurement that eliminate the underlying monolingual bias, in order to better evaluate the lexical knowledge of all our students in an increasingly global community.

+References n Corson, David J.(1983) The Corson Measure of Passive Vocabulary. Language & Speech, 26(1), 3.

n Horwich, P. (1995). Meaning, use and truth: On whether a use-theory of meaning is precluded by the requirement that whatever constitutes the meaning of a predicate be capable of determining the set of things of which the predicate is true and to which it ought to be applied. Mind, 104(414), 355-368.

n Meara, P. (1990). A note on passive vocabulary. Second Language Research 6, 2:150-154.

n Melka, F. (1997). Receptive vs productive aspects of vocabulary. In Sschmitt, N., and McCarthy, M. (eds), Vocabulary:Description, Acquisition, and Pedagogy. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press. p. 84-102.

n Ming-Tzu. (2004). Word meaning in academic english: Homography in the academic word list. Applied Linguistics, 25(3), 291-314. P. David Pearson. Vocabulary assessment: What we know and what we need to know

n Qian, D. (2008) From Single Words to Passages: Contextual Effects on Predictive Power of Vocabulary Measures for Assessing Reading Performance, Language Assessment Quarterly, 5:1, 1-19, DOI: 10.1080/15434300701776138

n Qian, & Schedl. (2004). Evaluation of an in-depth vocabulary knowledge measure for assessing reading performance. Language Testing, 21(1), 28-52. doi:10.1191/0265532204lt273oa

n Schmitt, N. (2010). Researching Vocabulary. Candlin, Christopher N., and Hall, David R. (eds), Research and Practice in Applied Linguistics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan

n Webb, S. (2005) Receptive and Productive Vocabulary Learning: The effects of reading and writing on vocabulary knowledge. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 27:33-52

+Thank You!

Mareshah E. Peterson

Department of Languages and Linguistics

msambrano2@miners.utep.edu utep.academia.edu/MareshahPeterson