How to Use AWL and the BNC to Construct a Vocabulary Test
As is known, it is useful for language instructors to design tests using corpus-based approaches (CBA). This paper aims to use the Academic Word List (AWL) and the British National Corpus to construct a vocabulary placement test in terms of the CBA. The basic requirements in a test design, e.g., reliability, validity and item analysis for discriminatory power, were explored. Fifty words were randomly selected from the AWL. Each chosen word was embedded inside of an example sentence that was extracted from the BNC, and designed for the construction of a multiple choice question test. Participants (N= 453) were English major students from ten local universities. Then, a placement test was administered for the classification of all testtakers. The results indicate that three groups were categorized into low (L), medium (M), and high (H), whose means were 44, 65 and 84, respectively, revealing the reliability and validity of the test with a good power of discrimination.
Shih-ping Wang
Department of Applied Foreign Languages National Taiwan University of Science &Technology
国际会议
2009 International Conference on Applied Linguistics & Language Teaching(2009应用语言学暨语言教学国际研讨会)
台湾
英文
452-458
2009-04-01（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）