关于英语词汇测试设计的几点建议

【前言】关于英语词汇测试设计的几点建议由文秘帮小编整理而成，但愿对你的学习工作带来帮助。Test validity in designing vocabulary tests A valid vocabulary test is one which tests what it is supposed to test. There are two points should be concerned here： one is the selection of lexical items； the other is the ways of constructing items ...

摘 要：词汇测试作为英语语言测试的重要组成部分，必须有效并且可信。有效的词汇测试是指测试该测试的词汇而可信的词汇测试则是指在同等的条件下给出相同的测试结果。词汇测试的设计必须要考虑到其效度与信度。

关键词：词汇测试 效度 信度 选择题

Abstract： Vocabulary test， as an important part of English language tests， should be valid and reliable. A valid vocabulary test is one which tests what it is supposed to test， while a reliable vocabulary test is one which will always give the same result under the same condition. At the first place， vocabulary test should be therefore designed with considering validity and reliability.

Keywords： testing vocabulary， validity， reliability， multiple-choice

Vocabulary test is considered as an important part of language tests， because there is a sense in which learning a foreign language is basically a matter of learning the vocabulary of that language. It is pointed out that the purpose of vocabulary tests is usually to supply information， and the information should be accurate. So vocabulary tests should be valid and reliable， and should be designed with considering validity and reliability.

Test validity in designing vocabulary tests

A valid vocabulary test is one which tests what it is supposed to test. There are two points should be concerned here： one is the selection of lexical items； the other is the ways of constructing items for testing vocabulary.

The writer of a vocabulary test first determines the degree to which he/she wishes to concentrate on testing the student’s active or passive vocabulary， and decides whether the lexical items in the test should be taken from spoken or the written language. Lexical items can be selected from：

----the syllabus （including a word frequency list if available）；

----the students’ textbook （provided the items approximate to those used in natural speech situations）；

----the students’ reading material （e.g. simplified readers， literary texts）； and

----lexical errors taken from students’ free-written work （or from students’ incorrect answers in a cloze test）.

Then the writer of a vocabulary test should select out the typical words from the lexical items. What is called “typical” is that it can test the extent of a student’s vocabulary by some typical words. Suppose there are 30 words selected， which can be divided into several classes. And it is possible measure the extent of a student’s vocabulary according to the class that the typical words recognized or produced belong to. That’s the test validity on selecting lexical items.

There are kinds of ways of constructing items to test vocabulary. Generally speaking， the items are designed on the basis of two points as follow. One is to test the vocabulary validly； the other is to change ways of constructing items according to the purpose of the tests.

Let us take， for example， a test which is designed to find out whether students understand the meanings of certain words in a written context. The rubric for the test may say： ‘ Give the meanings of the following words taken from the passage that you have just read’： （then follows a list of words）. What is this wrong with a test of comprehension？ The problem is that it is possible to understand the meaning of a word without necessarily being able to produce another word （or phrase） which has the same meaning. This is therefore a test of both comprehension and production. If we are only interested in comprehension then we should adopt another testing strategy， perhaps by rewording the rubric thus： ‘look at the following list of word meanings. Opposite each one write down a word from the passage which has that meaning.’ This involves the candidate only in matching the meaning with a word taken from the passage， a purely receptive skill.

A similar problem arises with the multiple-choice vocabulary items. Exercises 1&2 of the following test items are belong to vocabulary items， while exercises 3&4 test the grammar including usage and tense.

Ex1.

The minister accused the farmers of ____ the potato shortage in order to force prices up.

A. depleting B. expecting C. exploiting D. misapplying E. misappropriating

Ex2.

Since 1954 the rivalry in military strength between the world’s great powers has produced a ____ balanced peace.

presently B. precociously C. previously D. deviously E. precariously

Ex3.

Why do you keep____ your eyes？

rub B. rubbing C. rubbed D. to rub

Ex4.

He made the ____ mistake in the dictation exercise.

less B. least C. fewer D. fewest

Another example of test that may not be valid often occurs with the exercise as follow. The rubric of the test may say： ‘Use the following words in sentences： pretty， drive， complex…’ and the answers may be like this：

Mary is a pretty girl.

I got a pretty picture from the shop.

But testing the extent of a student’s vocabulary is only one aspect of the whole problem： control of the vocabulary at his or her disposal must also be measured. Let us take the multiple choice （which are usually organized so that the candidate has a number of options， only one of which is correct， the others being wrong.） unless the vocabulary item being tested has a very low frequency count （i.e. is very rarely used）， however， the item writer is advised to limit the options to the same general area of activity where possible.

Item1 Item2

apparition apparition

A. skeleton A. scenery

B. ghost B. ghost

C. nightmare C. magician

D. corpse D. castle

If item2 were set in a test， students who had read a few ghost stories would probably select option B because they would associate apparition with the stories they had read. In item1， however， students are required to show a much greater control over vocabulary.

An ability to discriminate between words is of the utmost importance at all but the elementary levels. Here the stem of multiple choice consists of a sentence： the testees have to select the best synonym or definition of the lexical items underlined.

The burglar was arrested， but the person who helped him in the crime got away.

his associate B. his affiliate C. his accomplice D. his employer

Einstein’s theory of relativity seemed incredible when it was first introduced.

unbelievable B. unaccountable C. impressive D. inconsistent

She trembled as she admitted what she had done.

A. stumbled B. shrank C. hesitated D. shook

In broader terms， this ability mentioned above may be regarded as developing a feel for the language. Vocabulary is much more useful tested in context since it is the context that gives specific meaning and relevance to a word， thus creating a situation which is as linguistically valid as possible in the circumstances. Please compare these two items：

Item1

contemptuous

deep in thought B. without a sense of humor C. self-satisfied D. scornful

Item2

Lan was contemptuous of the efforts of his friends to raise some money for the charity.

deep in thought B. without a sense of humor C. self-satisfied D. scornful

Obviously， item2 is valid when the lexical item is put in a context.

Test reliability in designing vocabulary tests

A reliable vocabulary test is one which will always give the same result under the same conditions. Fortunately， reliability is not usually such a great problem in vocabulary testing as it is in some other areas of language testing. In testing composition or testing conversational competence， for example， there is often a subjective element which has to be overcome， by using a detailed marking scheme， perhaps， and/or by using more than one examiner. That’s why the multiple-choice technique is so popular as a testing device， especially in a vocabulary test.

One of the main problems in making up multiple-choice tests is that the distractors have to be plausible （seem possible）， with being misleading. For example：

Is that gentleman married or______？

A. alone B. bachelor C. single D. without wife

All the options in the above question are in roughly the same area of meaning， but only C （single） sounds natural， since married and single are words which usually collocate as opposites. On the other hand， care must be taken not to unfairly mislead the candidate， as in the following example.

The sergeant showed the new____ how to salute.

A. volunteers B. conscripts C. recruits D. novices

The current answer is given as C （recruits）， but it could be argued that A （volunteers） and B （conscripts） are also possible.

So this item is not reliable.

There are several rules should be obey when designing the multiple-choice item on the standards of reliability.

1. Each option should belong to the same word class as the word in the stem， particularly when the world appears in the context of a sentence. For example：

What happened to Jack in the accident？

A. came about B. came across C. carried out D. brought about

It is no saying that “ What came about to jack？” so the stem should be changed into form like this： Can you tell me how this accident happened？

2. The correct option and the distractors should be at approximately the same level of difficulty or have the same grammar constructions. For example：

Item1

theatrical

angry B. histrionic C. proud D. foolish

Item2

Tom seems to have told a ____ story to his friends， for everybody is laughing.

detective B. without any humor C. funny D. unbelievable

In item1， students will select the correct option B not because they know it is correct but only because they know the other option A. C. D are wrong. And in item2， students can eliminate option B for judging from the grammar construction. So those two item are neither reliable.

3. It is advisable to avoid using a pair of synonyms as distractors： if the testees recognize the synonyms， they may realize immediately that neither is the correct option， since there can be only one correct answer.

The old woman was always ____ when anyone spoke to her.

polite B. glad C. kind D. pleased

Even such near synonyms as glad and pleased are sufficient to indicate to intelligent students that the choice must be between polite and kind.

4. It is also dangerous to “pair off” options by providing an antonym as a distractor. Option A and C in the following vocabulary item immediately stand out； again， clever students will be able to narrow their choice down to two options once they realize that A means the opposite of C.

ascend

A. go up B. talk C. come down D. fetch

Conclusion

Validity and reliability are two important standards of assessing a test. Since they used in designing vocabulary tests， the chance is much bigger for the constructors to achieve the expected effect----to supply information.