Vocabulary Assessment

Anita, M. Hum

English Language Education Program UIN Fatmawati

Sukarno Bengkulu
2022
Outline
• Background
The Nature of • Definition of vocabulary
Vocabulary • Types of vocabulary

• Principles of vocabulary instructions

Teaching • Direct - Indirect
Vocabulary • Inside – Outside classroom

• General overview
• The dimensions of vocabulary assessment
Vocabulary • Types of vocabulary assessment
Assessment • Examples of vocabulary assessment
• Vocabulary test validity and reliability
• Scoring rubric
Background
• Words and grammar are often thought of as the
building blocks of language proficiency. A
learner with a large vocabulary is well equipped
to develop skills in reading, writing, listening
and speaking. (Richards, 2015).
• In the language production, it is frustrating
when one needs to find the right words to fit the
intended meaning when the store of words is
limited. (Thornbury, 2002).
Definition of vocabulary
• Vocabulary refers to words we use to
communicate in oral and print language
(Hanson & Padua, 2011).
• Vocabulary as the entire stock of words
belonging to a branch of knowledge or known by
an individual (Mukoroli, 2011).
According to Nation (2001), knowing a word involves form,
meaning, and use
Types of vocabulary
Core Academic Technical
Vocabulary Vocabulary Vocabulary
• Consisting of • set of words • the words that
several common to are most
categories: academic frequent in a
modal items, disciplines particular
delexical verbs, • e.g. analyse, subject area,
stance words, approach, such as
discourse assess computer
markers, science, law or
general deictic, medicine.
noun, • e.g. microbe,
adjectives, gene, organism,
adverbs, verbs cell

(Richards, 2015)
Principles of vocabulary
instructions

1. Planning
Vocabulary Teaching

2. Integrating
Vocabulary Teaching
into the Lesson

(Richards, 2015)
Direct - Indirect
Direct • Indirect

• Activities that seek to • • Learning that takes place

teach students without specific vocabulary
particular words, or instruction. It is learning
word groups, and to that is a by-product of
help them remember engaging in other activities,
words they have such as reading or listening,
already encountered. and depends upon the
frequency with which
learners encounter words.

(Richards, 2015)
 Inside – Outside classroom
Outside the
In Class
Classroom
• Focus on Vocabulary • Vocabulary notebooks
• Offer variety • Research tools
• Repeat & Recycle • Everyday usage
• Provide opportunities to
organize vocabulary
• Make vocabulary
learning personal
• Use vocabulary strategy
• Don’t overdo it

(McCarten. 2007)
General overview
• Vocabulary assessment will help the teachers to get information
on how much vocabulary learning has taken place in the class,
and whether the teaching has been effective or not.
• It is important to determine the reasons of assessing
vocabulary to make the assessment precise.
(Ibadurrahman, 2012)
 vocabulary
assessment
1. Informal vs 2. Discrete vs
formal embedded

4. Context-
3. Selective vs independent vs
(Ibadurrahman, 2012) comprehensive context-
dependent

5. Receptive vs
6. Size vs depth
productive
 Types of vacabulary assessment

Discrete Vocabulary Embedded Vocabulary

• Multiple-Choice • Assessing Vocabulary

Question Format in Reading
• Matching Comprehension
Formats • Assessing Vocabulary
• Sentence Completion in Writing
or Gap Fill Items • Assessing Vocabulary
• Translation in Speaking

(Coombe, 2013)
Example of Multiple-Choice Question Format

(Coombe, 2013)
 Example of
Matching Formats

(Coombe, 2013)
 Example
of Gap
Fill Items

(Coombe, 2013)
Example of
Translation

(Coombe, 2013)
Assessing Vocabulary
in Reading
Comprehension

(Coombe, 2013)
 Vocabulary test validity
and reliability
• Criterion validity
Validity
• Content validity

• Whether the test measures only a specific set of

lexical items, or a wider population of vocabulary.
Some
• What is the basis for this generalization, and is it
specifications supportable .
of content • What word knowledge aspects are being
validity:
addressed.
• Whether the tests measures recall/
recognition/receptive/productive levels of
mastery.
• Test-retest method
Reliability
• Internal consistency method

(Smith, 2010)
 Scoring rubric
• Analytic rubric

(Jacobs, Zingraf, Wormuth, Hartfiel, and Hughey, 1981 cited in Coombe, 2013)
 Level Vocabulary Usage

6 (Reaching) Consistent use of just the right word in just

the right place; precise vocabulary usage in
general, specific or technical language.
5 (Bridging) Usage of technical language related to the
• Holistic
content area; evident facility with needed rubric
vocabulary.
4 (Expanding) Usage of specific and some technical
language related to the content area; lack of Adapted from
needed vocabulary may be occasionally
ACCESS for
evident.
ELLs® Training
3 (Developing) Usage of general and some specific Toolkit and Test
langauge related to the content area; lack of Administration
needed vocabulary may be evident. Manuals, Series
2 (Emerging) Usage of general language related to the 103 (2007-08)
content area; lack of vocabulary may be
evident.
1 (Entering) Usage of highest frequency vocabulary
from school setting and content areas.
Conclusions
• • Vocabulary is the basic aspect of learning a language.
• • In assessing vocabulary, we have to consider several points
such as the reasons, and the dimensions. Therefore, we can use
appropriate types of vocabulary assessment to measure the
students’ vocabulary mastery.
References
• Coombe, C. 2013. Assessing vocabulary in the language
classroom. Malaysia: Kind Permission.
• Hanson, S., & Padua, J. F. M. 2011. Teaching vocabulary
explicitly. Mariana: Pacific Resources for Education and
Learning.
•http://www.acpsk12.org/pl/wp-
content/uploads/2014/10/Formative-Assessment-WIDA-
Rubrics.pdf
• Ibadurrahman, I. 2012. Assessing vocabulary. A paper
assignment for language testing and evaluation. International
Islamic University Malaysia.
• McCarten, J. 2007. Teaching Vocabulary: Lessons from the
Corpus, Lessons for the Classroom. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
• Mukoroli, J. 2011. Effective vocabulary teaching strategies for
the English for academic purposes ESL classroom. Graduate
Thesis, Unpublished, SIT Graduate Institue, Brattleboro.
• Richards, J.C. 2015. Key issues in language teaching.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Smith,N. 2010. Researching vocabulary: A vocabulary
research manual. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Stahl, K.A.D., & Bravo, M.A. (2010). Contemporary
classroom vocabulary assessment for content areas.
International Reading Association, Vol 63, 7, 566-578.
• Thornbury, S. 2002. How to teach vocabulary. Essex:
Person Education Limited.
• Nation (2001)