Is Frequency Enough?: The Frequency Model in Vocabulary Size Testing

IF 1.4 2区 文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS Language Assessment Quarterly Pub Date : 2021-03-15 DOI:10.1080/15434303.2020.1860058
Brett Hashimoto
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引用次数: 10

Abstract

ABSTRACT Modern vocabulary size tests are generally based on the notion that the more frequent a word is in a language, the more likely a learner will know that word. However, this assumption has been seldom questioned in the literature concerning vocabulary size tests. Using the Vocabulary of American-English Size Test (VAST) based on the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), 403 English language learners were tested on a 10% systematic random sample of the first 5,000 most frequent words from that corpus. Pearson correlation between Rasch item difficulty (the probability that test-takers will know a word) and frequency was only r = 0.50 (r2 = 0.25). This moderate correlation indicates that the frequency of a word can only predict which words are known with only a limited degree of and that other factors are also affecting the order of acquisition of vocabulary. Additionally, using vocabulary levels/bands of 1,000 words as part of the structure of vocabulary size tests is shown to be questionable as well. These findings call into question the construct validity of modern vocabulary size tests. However, future confirmatory research is necessary to comprehensively determine the degree to which frequency of words and vocabulary size of learners are related.
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频率足够吗?词汇量测试中的频率模型
现代词汇量测试通常基于这样一个概念:一个单词在一门语言中出现得越频繁,学习者就越有可能认识这个单词。然而,这一假设在有关词汇量测试的文献中很少受到质疑。使用基于当代美国英语语料库(COCA)的美式英语词汇量测试(VAST), 403名英语学习者接受了10%的系统随机抽样,从语料库中抽取前5000个最常见的单词。Rasch题难易度(考生认识一个单词的概率)与频率之间的Pearson相关性只有r = 0.50 (r2 = 0.25)。这种适度的相关性表明,一个单词的出现频率只能预测哪些单词在有限程度上是已知的,其他因素也影响着词汇习得的顺序。此外,使用1,000个单词的词汇水平/频带作为词汇量测试结构的一部分也被证明是有问题的。这些发现对现代词汇量测试的结构效度提出了质疑。然而,需要进一步的验证性研究来综合确定词汇频率与学习者词汇量的关系程度。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
6.40
自引率
3.40%
发文量
22
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