The Bilingual Vocabulary Size Test for Vietnamese Learners: Reliability and Use in Placement Testing

PDF(207 KB)

Asian Journal of English Language Teaching ›› 2015, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (1) : 63-80.

Articles

The Bilingual Vocabulary Size Test for Vietnamese Learners: Reliability and Use in Placement Testing

Roger W. GEE¹, Le T. C. NGUYEN²

Author information +

History +

Abstract

To be useful, placement tests need to be both reliable and practical. Placement tests must be reliable in order to have confidence in the results. They must be practical in terms of expense, in the time required to administer and mark the test, and in the ease with which the results are interpreted (Nation & Macalister, 2010, p. 120). This article reports on the use of a freely available test, the Bilin- gual Vocabulary Size Test for Vietnamese Learners (BVSTV), and its use and modification as a reliable and practical placement test. The study involved 147 Vietnamese university graduates of various academic backgrounds. The partici- pants sat the BVSTV as part of placement testing prior to participating in an intensive four-week, 100-hour English program. The results of the study indicate that a shortened version of the BVSTV containing the words from the first eight frequency levels could be used for vocabulary assessment in placement testing. It is reliable and the first eight levels are sufficient for use of partial knowledge at high-frequency word levels while avoiding random guessing at low-frequency word levels.

Cite this article

EndNote

Ris (Procite)

Bibtex

Download Citations

Roger W. GEE, Le T. C. NGUYEN. The Bilingual Vocabulary Size Test for Vietnamese Learners: Reliability and Use in Placement Testing[J]. Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2015, 25(1): 63-80

References

Applegate, M. D., Quinn, K. B., & Applegate, A. J. (2008). The critical reading inventory: Assessing students’ reading and thinking (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall. Beglar, D.(1), 101-118.
Brown, H. D., & Abeywickrama, P. (2010). Language assessment: Principles and classroom practices (2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.
Brown, J. D. (2005). Testing in language programs: A comprehensive guide to English language assessment. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Crossley, S. A., Salsbury, T., McNamara D. S., & Jarvis S. (2011). Predicting lexical proficiency in language learner texts using computational indices. Language Testing, 28(4), 561-580.
Gardner, D. (2007). Validating the construct of word in applied corpus-based vocabulary research: A critical survey. Applied Linguistics, 28(2), 241-265.
Gersten R., Baker S. K., Shanahan T., Linan-Thompson S., Collins P., & Scarcella R. (2007. Effective literacy and English language instruction for English learners in the elementary grades: A practice guide (NCEE 2007-4011). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved October 6, 2011, from 2007). Effective literacy and English language instruction for English learners in the elementary grades: A practice guide (NCEE 2007-4011). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved October 6, 2011, from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee.
Hunt, A., & Beglar, D. (2005. A framework for developing EFL reading vocabulary. Reading in a Foreign Language, 17(1), 23-59. Retrieved July 15, 2014, from 2005). A framework for developing EFL reading vocabulary. Reading in a Foreign Language, 17(1), 23-59. Retrieved July 15, 2014, from http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/April2005/hunt/hunt.html.
Klein-Braley, C. (1985). A cloze-up on the C-test: a study in the construct validation of authentic tests.Language Testing 2(1), 76-104.
Laufer, B. (2013). Lexical thresholds for reading comprehension: What they are and how they can be used for teaching purposes. TESOL Quarterly, 47(4), 867-872.
Laufer, B., & Nation, P. (1995). Vocabulary size and use: Lexical richness in L2 written production. Applied Linguistics, 16(3), 307-322.
Laufer, B., & Nation, P. (1999). A vocabulary-size test of controlled productive ability. Language Testing, 16(1), 36-55.
Nation, P. (2006). How large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening? Canadian Modern Language Review, 63(1), 59-82.
Nation, P. (2012. The vocabulary size test. Retrieved February 4, 2014, from 2012). The vocabulary size test. Retrieved February 4, 2014, from http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/publications/paul-nation/Vocabulary-Size-Test-information-and-specifications.pdf.
Nation, P. (2013). Learning vocabulary in another language (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nation, P., & Beglar, D. (2007). A vocabulary size test. The Language Teacher, 31(7), 9-12.
Nation, P., & Macalister, J. (2010). Language curriculum design. New York: Routledge.
Nation, P., & Webb, S. (2011). Researching and analyzing vocabulary. Boston, MA: Heinle.
Nguyen, L.T.C., & Nation, P. (2011). A bilingual vocabulary size test of English for Vietnamese learners. RELC Journal, 42(1), 86-99.
Nam, J. (2010). Linking research and practice: Effective strategies for teaching vocabulary in the ESL classroom. TESL Canada Journal/Revue TESL du Canada, 28(1), 127-135.
Milton, J., & Fitzpatrick, T. (2014). Introduction: Deconstructing vocabulary knowledge. In J. Milton & T. Fitzpatrick (Eds.), Dimensions of vocabulary knowledge (pp. 1-12). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Pulido, D. (2007). The relationship between text comprehension and second language incidental vocabulary acquisition: A matter of topic familiarity? Language Learning, 57, 155-199.
Schmitt, N. (2000). Vocabulary in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stewart J., Batty A. O., & Bovee N. (2012). Comparing multidimensional and continuum models of vocabulary acquisition: An empirical examination of the vocabulary knowledge scale. TESOL Quarterly, 46(4), 695-721.
Webb, S. A., & Sasao, Y. (2013). New directions in vocabulary testing. RELC Journal, 44(3), 263-277.
Zhang, X. (2013). The I Don’t Know option in the Vocabulary Size Test. TESOL Quarterly, 47(4), 790-811.