PedActa (Jun 2016)
The Develpoment of a Diagnostic Test Assesing Young Learner’s Knowledge of Phrasal Verbs
Abstract
Vocabulary knowledge is a good predictor of general language proficiency (Boers, Demecheleer, Coxhead, & Webb, 2014). It has been reported that receptive vocabulary knowledge predicts productive vocabulary knowledge (Laufer & Nation, 1999). With the emergence of the lexical approach (Lewis, 1993) in language teaching, a new avenue was opened for vocabulary and phrasal verbs (PV) research. In this study, I will present the attempt to develop a diagnostic test battery assessing the knowledge of PVs. The procedure of the instrument development will be presented, and it will be pointed out that six equivalent tests have been created on the basis of t ask solving modality and frequency lists. The basis of selecting items for the PV test was Garnier and Schmitt’s PHaVE List. Since the new diagnostic test assessing YLs’ PV knowledge will first be used amongst Hungarian 6th graders, it was also necessary to check which PVs they were expected to learn) from 4th grade until 6th grade. Similar to Thékes’ (2016) procedure, the items were divided into three categories. Three-word categories were established on the basis of the BNC list and the amount of occurrence of a particular word in the course-books. Three perspectives served as the basis of classifying words into categories: 1) word frequency based on the PHaVE List, 2) occurrence of the words in course-books used by Hungarian YLs, 3) personal judgement on the assumed difficulty of the word. The process of determining word categories is presented in the paper. Further test development and future empirical assessment and classroom implications are discussed
