TESTING VOCABULARY

SUMMARY

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements of

“English Language Teaching Assessment”
Under Guidance of:
Dr. Nurul Chojimah, M.Pd

By :
Wardiansyah (NIM. )
Zuraida (NIM. 12510174048)

ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND TEACHING PROGRAM

SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES

STATE ISLAMIC INSTITUTE OF TULUNGAGUNG

1
Why Test Vocabulary?
Doubt about the need or advisability of testing grammar also emerges on
vocabulary. Some say it is necessary, while others say it doesn’t. There is an opinion
which is saying that clear knowledge of vocabulary is essential to both the development
and performance of linguistic skill. However, it doesn’t mean that testing vocabulary
separately is necessary.

Wherever teaching vocabulary is apparently judged to be essential being taught

at the classroom, then testing vocabulary in proficiency test is also needed. However,
some argue that testing the vocabulary separately is not necessary when it is only being
taught in a little amount of time. Meanwhile, for those who support that teaching
vocabulary is necessary for the benefit of language learning, the testing of vocabulary
achievement is important for its backwash effect.

To sum, aside from the debatable of the importance of testing vocabulary, the
testing for vocabulary is very essential as it can give the beneficial effect on language
learning process. One of its beneficial effects is on the diagnostic test where testing
vocabulary could give a look at the general indication of the adequacy of the students’
vocabulary. One may choose either a published test of vocabularies or construct his/her
own test to test the students’ vocabulary proficiency.

Writing Specifications

When we are deciding to construct our own test, we have to specify on what
vocabularies to be included in the test. If vocabulary is being consciously taught, then all
items have been taught in the classroom might be tested. Vocabularies taken from any
section of teaching such as listening, reading, etc. can be included in the test.

The next step is grouping those vocabularies based on their relatively importance.
The usual way to specify the lexical items that may be tested in vocabulary proficiency
test is to make reference to one of the published word list that indicate the frequency
with which the words have been found to be used. One reference the test maker could
use is the A general service list of English words written by Michael West (1953) which
contains thousands words frequently used by the native speaker of English.

2
Sampling

Words are firstly grouped according to their frequency and usefulness. Once it has
been grouped, then the test maker could randomly select or choose the lexical items or
vocabularies which are going to be tested.

Item Writing

Multiple choice test item or type may become recommended item for testing
vocabulary as the distractors are readily available. Another reason, guessing, which is
previously discussed being the negative side of multiple choice, is in contrary very
encouraged while it is in relation with testing vocabulary. To highlight, multiple choice
can be the first choice, but one needed to be kept in mind is that the writing of
successful items is not without its difficulties.

Below are the examples of test items which can be selected for testing
vocabulary:

1. Synonyms
2. Definitions

Production

1. Pictures
2. Definitions
3. Gap-filling