Chapter 5: Testing vocabulary
Heaton, J.B. (1988).
Writing English Language Tests
.
Longman
Testing vocabulary
I. Selection of items
II. Multiple choice items
III. Guidelines for constructing multiple
choice items
IV. Sets (associated words)
V. Matching items
VI. More objective items
VII. Completion items
I. Selection of items
Tasks of a test constructor:
(1) to determine the degree to which
concentrating on passive or active vocabulary
(2) to decide whether the items should be taken
from spoken or written language
Lexical items selected from
: (i) the syllabus,
(ii) Sts’ textbook, (iii) Ss’ reading materials, (iv)
and lexical errors from their free written work
II. Multiple choice items (A)
Choose the word which is nearest in the meaning
to the word in italics
(1) The stem is replaced by the picture.
(2) The stem consists of a definition.
(3) The stem consists of a lexical item (choose the
best synonym or definition)
(4) The stem consists of a sentence. (Vocabulary
tested in context as the context giving specific
meaning and relevance to a word
a
situation should be as linguistically valid
as possible
II. Multiple choice items (B)
more difficult to construct than those in
group A
too little contextinsufficient to establish
any meaningful situation, but too much
contextmany clues both grammatical and
semantic