A New Type of Vocabulary Test for Early Language Learning – with a Child and Teacher Friendly Design

Peter Edelenbos and Angelika Kubanek, Germany

Peter Edelenbos worked in Empirical Education at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Then he started his own internationally oriented company Effective Educational Language Services in 2005. He is consultant, researcher and language test developer. He was one of the authors of the national assessment of English of Dutch children aged 11in the 90s and wrote a study on language assessment cultures in Europe. E-mail: info@peteredelenbos.nl

Angelika Kubanek is professor for ELT, specialising in early language learning and intercultural learning at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany. She has published teaching material and is involved in research. Together with Dr. Edelenbos she is the author of the Key Study on Young Language Learners for the European Commission (2006/2007). E-mail: a.kubanek@tu-braunschweig.de

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The development of the new scaled and multidimensional tests
The structure of the test
How and where the tests can be used
References

The development of the new scaled and multidimensional tests

Children start their early foreign language lessons with enthusiasm. Teachers wish to sustain this motivation. On the one hand, they would like to give lessons which are joyful. But on the other hand they need to be informed about the learning progress their students make. Certain criteria should be applied when assessment formats are being developed: The information about the learning progress ought to be obtained without much effort on the part of the teacher and without fear on the part of the students. Language tests for children should not take up much time, allow for a variety of inferences, and be helpful for getting an individual learner profile. Two standardised vocabulary tests for grade 3 and 4 (age 8-10) recently developed by the authors will serve to illustrate how these goals can be attained.

The selection and gradation of words for the test was conducted with the help of extensive testing-theory based and pedagogical procedures; the standardisation is in line with international quality factors. The tests were conceptualised for English at the primary level in Germany, but the focus in this article will be on the general principles underlying the making of the of test and on how such a test might help to increase the quality of early foreign language teaching. Teachers usually get a picture of their students’ knowledge from observation and by assessing their achievements on worksheets related to the textbook they use; some ministries of education might provide assessing material. The vocabulary tests described here follow a different approach: they were developed with the two aims of a) getting an impression of the long-term vocabulary development of children, and b) capturing their level of proficiency with regard to the contextual and semantic meaning of the newly learned words. The vocabulary test constructed by the authors of this article provides six levels for grade 3 and six levels for grade 4. They cover A 1.1 and A 1.2. of the Common European Frame of Reference for Languages. Level 1 measures the children’s prior knowledge at the onset of lessons (in this case grade 3, because the test is based on the current situation in Germany). By this time, many children have already had encounters with the English language due to voluntary classes during their first years in school, English lessons in kindergarten or the influence of English on everyday life.

A vocabulary test for children in early foreign language learning should not consist of a traditional checklist of words. Thus, this test is based on more complex procedures. It takes into account the self-perception of children as regards the amount of words they know (module 1: amount of words), if and how they understand word meaning (module 2: semantics), and how they develop language awareness via the knowledge of words (module 3: language awareness). The multilayered conceptualization allows the teacher to assess the increase of vocabulary in a way that does justice to each child’s interlinked learning processes. It should be noted that this test is actually testing oral comprehension together with the vocabulary, because the written word or picture are there as support. The words and instructions are spoken by the teacher, or might alternatively have been recorded by a native speaker. The tests are designed for a main type of teaching EFL in primary school, i.e. two lessons of 45 minutes per week. However, the two highest levels of the test for grade 4 are intended for classes with a more intensive programme. Similarly, the first test for grade 3 might be used at the end of grade 2. Which of the levels is used as entry point, is left to the decision of the teacher. Each test level is structured in the same way. The amount of words children perceive as known is assessed in a simple way.

The structure of the test

Module 1: The amount of words
= knowledge of individual words

Task 1: Self-assessment by ticking boxes in a list

Do you know the word?

etc. In grade 4, the self assessment is more varied: for example it is being asked whether two words mean the same, or whether the translation is correct.

Task 2: Word-picture matching test

As next step, some of the words they just heard have to be matched with pictures. The student writes the number of the respective word next to the picture. This is a short task in order to maintain the attentiveness of the students. This type of task is probably known to most children; it is used in many workbooks and represents a typical test format.

Module 2: Semantics and the contextual use of words

= competence of the students to capture the meaning of a word,
= competence to use a word appropriately.

In grade 3 and grade 4 this module is constructed a bit differently.
In grade 3, four levels of understanding are possible:

Task: What does the word mean?

An example: green

I have never heard the word before.

I have heard the word, but I don’t know what it means.

It means: _________________________

I can write a sentence: _________________________________

With these four types of answers the children are taken seriously as learners. Moreover, they are given the opportunity to assess themselves. Option 2 is a typical one for all language learners – even for good speakers and irrespective of the age. Being able to translate a word (option 3) is one form of mastery. Sometimes, the similarity of written words with the spelling of the words in the children’s mother tongue can be helpful for children to complete this task, but this is not often the case with English, and does not apply if the writing system of the learner language is not based on the Latin alphabet. A sentence written down by a child (option 4) permits further insight into the level of language acquisition. In grade 4, the learners hear a set of each time 3 sentences. Two are illogical, in the third the specific word to be tested appears in a logical way. Here is an example (from level 1, grade 4).

woman

A woman is a boy older than 18 years old.

Your mother is a woman.

A woman can not have babies.

Module 3: Language awareness

= competence to notice word boundaries,
= competence to segment words,
= competence to connect sentence parts

Task 1: Words within in a word

Examples for level 1:

There are more types of short tasks in module 3, and there is some variation.

How and where the tests can be used

The tests come with a graphic programme that allows to view all the test results. Both an individual profile and the overall class results can be identified. The results can be compared with the average obtained during the standardisation process. The tests have a long introduction where the uses, also for diagnostic purposes, are being explained. They can be used to monitor the progress of a class, to get a momentary picture, to see if certain gaps in the children’s knowledge might not, for instance, be due to a certain teaching approach. In Germany, for example, the natural, oral approach is quite dominant. A negative aspect is that children sometimes do not recognize words which are permanently used, like “him”, because these words have never been written onto the blackboard separately, as the child is supposed to retrieve meaning from the context. Such findings come as a surprise to teachers and might cause some rethinking.

The tests were published by Langenscheidt Munich and simultaneously by Duden-Paetec Berlin (2007, 2008). In recent months both the tests for grade 3 and 4 have been used in research, by regular class teachers and for diagnostic purposes in Germany. The tests are being well received by the teachers once their approach and use are being demonstrated to them. As diagnostic tools, they have even be used for children who are 12 years old and had difficulties in learning English. So far, the instructions for the children are in German, but teachers of English in other countries could easily ask a German-speaking friend to give them these few sentences in English translation. It is also being negotiated with the publisher whether the instructions could not be made available in English.

References

Edelenbos, P. & Kubanek, A. (2007). Langenscheidt Wortschatztest Englisch Klasse 3, Langenscheidt ELT GmbH, München, (also published by Duden Paetec Berlin).

Edelenbos, P. & A. Kubanek (2008). Langenscheidt Wortschatztest Englisch Klasse 4, Langenscheidt ELT GmbH, München, (also published by Duden Paetec).

Edelenbos, P., Johnstone, R. & Kubanek, A. (2006). The main pedagogical principles underlying the teaching of young learners. [EAC 89/04]. Key study for the European Commission. Brussels. German and French translation 2007.

http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/doc/young_en.pdf

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