A Validation Study of a Productive Vocabulary Knowledge Test

• Main Authors: Wu, Ming-Ta, 吳明達
• Other Authors: Tseng, Wen-Ta
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/89646455630068451896

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語學系 === 105 === The present study aims to develop and validate a productive vocabulary knowledge test (PVKT) for measuring junior high school English learners’ orthographic knowledge for productive use based on the Basic 1,200 Word List published by Ministry of Education. A partial credit scoring procedure was adopted to evaluate the spelling proficiency of the English learners. The study further attempts to explore the relationship between word length and word difficulty. A total of 2,149 students from a junior high school in the metropolitan area of Taipei, Taiwan, participated in the study. The partial credit model (PCM) was used to analyze the data. The results revealed that the PVKT was valid and reliable (Rasch person reliability = .96) in providing an appropriate measurement. Further, the test was generally slightly easier for the participants while the items still cover the major range of the participants’ ability level. The findings of this study suggest that word length is moderately correlated (r = .38) with word difficulty; however, the correlations weaken as word length shortens. Indications that spelling difficulty could also reside in issues of letter-sound correspondence and cross-lingual transfer were found in error analysis of the spelling of the most difficult words.