Word Associates Test Research Articles

Vocabulary and Grammar Knowledge in Second Language Reading Comprehension: A Structural Equation Modeling Study

AbstractUsing structural equation modeling analysis, this study examined the contribution of vocabulary and grammatical knowledge to second language reading comprehension among 190 advanced Chinese English as a foreign language learners. Vocabulary knowledge was measured in both breadth (Vocabulary Levels Test) and depth (Word Associates Test); grammatical measures focused on learners' implicit (timed grammaticality judgment task), as well as explicit knowledge (grammatical error correction task); reading comprehension had three indicators, namely, co‐reference, textual inference, and gist. Vocabulary knowledge related significantly to reading comprehension; grammatical knowledge showed a weak contribution to reading comprehension after controlling for the effect of vocabulary knowledge. In addition, learners' implicit knowledge of grammar had a stronger relationship to reading comprehension than explicit knowledge, over and above the effect of vocabulary size.

Depth versus Breadth of Lexical Repertoire: Assessing Their Roles in EFL Students’ Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

This study explores the roles of depth and breadth of lexical repertoire in L2 lexical inferencing success and incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading. Students read a graded reader containing 13 pseudo-words and attempted to infer the meanings of underlined target words. The Word Associates Test (WAT, Read, 2004) and the Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt, Schmitt, & Clapham, 2001) were administered to measure depth and breadth of lexical repertoire respectively. To rate retention of inferred meanings, I administered the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS, Paribakht & Wesche, 1996, 1997) with a repeated measure design. The results indicated that (a) both breadth and depth of lexical knowledge correlated positively with long-term retention of inferred word meanings. However,depth of vocabulary knowledge indicated a higher correlation; and (b) scores on both breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge had a significant positive correlation with success of lexical inferencing through reading, but depth of vocabularyknowledge was a stronger predictor of inferencing success.

The Role of Vocabulary Knowledge in Iranian EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension Performance: Breadth or Depth?

Two important aspects of vocabulary knowledge, namely breadth and depth, continue to play an indispensable role in vocabulary research. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, and to find out which aspect of vocabulary knowledge, breadth or depth, has greater impact on determining reading comprehension performance. Hence, three language tests were used viz. a reading comprehension test, Vocabulary Levels Test revised by Schmitt et al. (2001), and Read’s (1998) Word Associates Test. A total of 78 freshmen majoring in TEFL at Islamic Azad University of Najafabad, Iran, participated in the study. The results of the two-tailed Pearson Correlations and multiple regression analyses revealed that 1) test scores on vocabulary breadth, depth of vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension were positively correlated 2) vocabulary breadth was a stronger predictor of reading comprehension than depth of vocabulary knowledge and 3) breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge were closely interrelated (r= .85, p< .01).

The Effect of Extensive and Intensive Reading on Iranian EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Size and Depth

This study investigated the effect of Extensive and Intensive Reading on Iranians’ EFL learners’ vocabulary size and depth. To this end, 120 participants studying English as a foreign language at Omid English Language Centre were chosen based on their Oxford Quick Placement Test (2004) scores. They were divided into two groups, intermediate and advanced. Then the students in each group were randomly further divided into two groups, one receiving Intensive Reading treatment, while the other Extensive Reading treatment. Two types of vocabulary test—Schmidt’s Vocabulary Levels Test (2001) and Read's Word Associates Test (1998) were administered. Each was run twice, once before the treatment (IR/ER) as a pretest and once after the treatment as a post-test to check the effects of the two treatments on vocabulary size and depth of the participants. Two-way ANOVA was used to analyze the data. The results of the study showed that both IR and ER have an impact on learners' vocabulary size and depth significantly and that the students' vocabulary knowledge in terms of size and depth had increased. Moreover, the students at the intermediate level took more advantage of IR than ER, but in the advanced group the students benefited more from ER than IR. Finally the study demonstrated that reading both intensively and extensively can lead to vocabulary development in a way that the number of vocabulary which each learner knows in terms of each word's synonym, antonym and collocation will be improved significantly.

An interview with John Read

How do we measure a student’s vocabulary? John Read of Auckland University, New Zealand, is the person best qualified to answer this question. Along with Paul Nation and Paul Meara, he has spent the last 30 years researching vocabulary knowledge, acquisition and assessment. In this interview he explains how he came to be interested in vocabulary assessment, and how he wrote his two well-known works: the word-associates test and the book Assessing Vocabulary.

VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE AND ADVANCED LISTENING COMPREHENSION IN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

This article presents an empirical study that investigates the role of vocabulary knowledge in listening comprehension with 115 advanced Danish learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). The dimensions of depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge (measured by the Vocabulary Levels Test and the Word Associates Test) were found to be significantly correlated with listening comprehension (measured by a listening test from the Cambridge certificate of proficiency in English) and could predict half of the variance in the listening scores. This study thus provides empirical evidence that vocabulary knowledge is an important factor for successful listening comprehension in EFL. Furthermore, the results suggest that a lexical coverage of 98% is needed for coping with the spoken texts that constitute the listening test. This coverage figure is consistent with findings from reading research.

The Relationship Between Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge and L2 Learners’ Lexical Inferencing Strategy Use and Success

This article is republished from The Canadian Modern Language Review, 61, 1, 2004, pp. 107–134. It is published as an article exchange between the MLJ and the CMLR. The articles for the exchange were selected by committees from the Editorial Board of each journal according to the following criteria: articles of particular relevance to international readers, especially those in the United States and Canada; and articles that are likely to provoke scholarly discussion among readers of the journal of their republication. The MLJ thanks Martha Nyikos, chair, Michael Everson, Richard Kern, and Peter Robinson for their work selecting this CMLR article for republication in the MLJ. The MLJ article “Testing the Development of French Word Knowledge by Advanced Dutch- and English-Speaking Learners and Native Speakers,” by Tine Greidanus, Bianca Beks, and Richard Wakely (MLJ, 89, 2005, pp. 221–233) appeared in CMLR 62, 2 ( June, 2006). The editors of both journals hope their readers will find this sharing of scholarship interesting and beneficial. This study examines the relationship between English as a second language (ESL) learners’ depth of vocabulary knowledge, their lexical inferencing strategy use, and their success in deriving word meaning from context. Participants read a passage containing 10 unknown words and attempted to derive the meanings of the unknown words from context. Introspective think-aloud protocols were used to discover the degree and types of inferencing strategies learners used. The Word-Associate Test (WAT) (Read, 1993) was used to measure the learner's depth of vocabulary knowledge. Results indicate a significant relationship between depth of vocabulary knowledge and the degree and type of strategy use and success. They reveal that (a) those who had stronger depth of vocabulary knowledge used certain strategies more frequently than those who had weaker depth of vocabulary knowledge; (b) the stronger students made more effective use of certain types of lexical inferencing strategies than their weaker counterparts; and (c) depth of vocabulary knowledge made a significant contribution to inferential success over and above the contribution made by the learner's degree of strategy use. These findings provide empirical support for the centrality of depth of vocabulary knowledge in lexical inferencing and the hypothesis that lexical inferencing is a meaning construction process that is significantly influenced by the richness of the learner's preexisting semantic system.

The Relationship between Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge and L2 Learners' Lexical Inferencing Strategy Use and Success

This study examines the relationship between ESL learners' depth of vocabulary knowledge, their lexical inferencing strategy use, and their success in deriving word meaning from context. Participants read a passage containing 10 unknown words and attempted to derive the meanings of the unknown words from context. Introspective think-aloud protocols were used to discover the degree and types of inferencing strategies learners used. The Word-Associate Test (WAT) (Read, 1993) was used to measure the learner's depth of vocabulary knowledge. Results indicate a significant relationship between depth of vocabulary knowledge and the degree and type of strategy use and success. They reveal that (a) those who had stronger depth of vocabulary knowledge used certain strategies more frequently than those who had weaker depth of vocabulary knowledge; (b) the stronger students made more effective use of certain types of lexical inferencing strategies than their weaker counterparts; and (c) depth of vocabulary knowledge made a significant contribution to inferential success over and above the contribution made by the learner's degree of strategy use. These findings provide empirical support for the centrality of depth of vocabulary knowledge in lexical inferencing and the hypothesis that lexical inferencing is a meaning construction process that is significantly influenced by the richness of the learner's pre-existing semantic system.

The Relationship between Depth of Vocabulary Knowledge and L2 Learners' Lexical Inferencing Strategy Use and Success

This study examines the relationship between ESL learners' depth of vocabulary knowledge, their lexical inferencing strategy use, and their success in deriving word meaning from context. Participants read a passage containing 10 unknown words and attempted to derive the meanings of the unknown words from context. Introspective think-aloud protocols were used to discover the degree and types of inferencing strategies learners used. The Word-Associate Test (WAT) (Read, 1993) was used to measure the learner's depth of vocabulary knowledge. Results indicate a significant relationship between depth of vocabulary knowledge and the degree and type of strategy use and success. They reveal that (a) those who had stronger depth of vocabulary knowledge used certain strategies more frequently than those who had weaker depth of vocabulary knowledge; (b) the stronger students made more effective use of certain types of lexical inferencing strategies than their weaker counterparts; and (c) depth of vocabulary knowledge made a significant contribution to inferential success over and above the contribution made by the learner's degree of strategy use. These findings provide empirical support for the centrality of depth of vocabulary knowledge in lexical inferencing and the hypothesis that lexical inferencing is a meaning construction process that is significantly influenced by the richness of the learner's pre-existing semantic system.

A brief introduction to The Word Associate Test

An examination format assessing the intraverbal repertoire of individuals in psychology is described and results using it reported. The Associate Test is easy to prepare, to take, and to grade. Its reliability measures are satisfactory; its ability to predict later behavior is reported upon. The Associate Test is computer friendly, and its methods can be applied for examination in any field, and at any level.