Is Frequency Enough?: The Frequency Model in Vocabulary Size Testing
Is Frequency Enough?: The Frequency Model in Vocabulary Size Testing
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DOI：
10.1080/15434303.2020.1860058
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发表时间：
2021-01-20
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
Hashimoto, Brett James
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hashimoto, Brett James
现代词汇量测试通常基于这样的概念：某个单词在某种语言中出现的频率越高，学习者就越有可能知道该单词。然而，在有关词汇量测试的文献中，这一假设很少受到质疑。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)，对 403 名英语学习者进行了测试，该样本来自该语料库的前 5,000 个最常用单词，按 10% 进行系统随机抽样。 Rasch 项目难度（考生知道某个单词的概率）与频率之间的皮尔逊相关性仅为 r = 0.50 (r(2)= 0.25)。这种适度的相关性表明，单词的频率只能预测哪些单词的已知程度有限，并且其他因素也在影响词汇习得的顺序。此外，使用 1,000 个单词的词汇量级别/范围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有效性提出了质疑。然而，需要未来的验证性研究来全面确定单词频率与学习者词汇量的相关程度。
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 (r(2)= 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.