Assessing vocabulary breadth and depth

READ Alliance
Jul 27, 2017 · 3 min read

Vocabulary acts as a key component that allows right expression and communication of our thoughts. The knowledge of vocabulary forms the basis of reading comprehension, fluency and knowledge (Anderson & Freebody, 1985). A good vocabulary is something that powers up your reading and writing skills. But, it does not happen overnight, one correct step in the elementary stage of learning will definitely make you a good communicator.

Actually assessing vocabulary is hard, a bit of a head scratcher. How do teachers really get a sense of general vocabulary levels of children? Is there some sort of benchmark? Is there an easy way to measure if a student understands more than a word’s definition?

Building of vocabulary begins with word knowledge. The process of learning a word is incremental such that it grows with each added encounter with a word. According to Dale(1965), following are four incremental stages of word knowledge:

1. Never came across the word before

2. Came across the word, but no knowledge about its meaning

3. Context related word knowledge/ unclear about the word meaning

4. Already acquainted with the word and its meaning

Lack of classroom friendly assessments to test the vocabulary growth is one of the major challenges to effective vocabulary teaching.

The emphasis of assessments should be to measure the vocabulary breadth, that is, the numbers of words for which students possess some knowledge and vocabulary depth, that is, students’ knowledge about different aspects of a given word. Usually assessments focus on measuring the vocabulary breadth rather than the multifaceted aspects associated with word knowledge.

Stahl and Bravo (2010) proposed three assessments, which are Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS), Vocabulary Recognition Task (VRT) and Vocabulary Assessment Magazine (VAM) to test the vocabulary growth to enable informed instructions. These assessments focus on addressing the challenges of teaching disciplinary vocabulary. VKS assesses both the self-reported word knowledge and the constructed response indicating the word knowledge. VKS comprises of the following five categories:

  1. I don’t remember having seen this word before. (1 point)

2. I have seen this word before, but I don’t think I know what it means. (2 points)

3. I have seen this word before, and I think it means __________. (Synonym or translation; 3 points)

4. I know this word. It means _______. (Synonym or translation; 4 points)

5. I can use this word in a sentence: ___________. (If you do this section, please also do category 4; 5 points).

Source: Stahl and Bravo (2010)

VKS is performed before teaching and after teaching the text in order to measure the growth. It can be used in elementary classrooms to assess the vital vocabulary content.

VRT is used to assess the vocabulary recognition specific to a content area and provide instructions focused on less familiar vocabulary. This test measures pretest familiarity of words specific to a context and accordingly prepare the teaching instructions and materials.

The VAM emphasizes on measuring the knowledge, comprehension strategy and reading comprehension of science related text.

Although, this test has been applied to measuring content specific to science, but a similar approach can be used for other context specific teaching.

Research work is going on to improve assessments; however teachers should have more involvement in developing assessments on the basis of their curriculum requirements.

“The more closely assessment matches the instructional context, the more appropriate the conclusions about the instruction will be” (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000)

A variety of approaches that intrigue students can be used to build word knowledge. Some of them are mentioned below:

  1. Games for vocabulary building and assessing like pbskids, other apps on smartphones

2. Read and Read more

3. Use of Narrative text

4. Ask children to give a definition of key words orally or in writing.

5. Encourage children to learn new topic words.

6. Check breadth of understanding by asking for:

  • Another word that means the same
  • Words that are opposite words in the same category (e.g. colors, fruit, furniture, etc.)
  • Word association games
  • Words beginning with the same sound.

So, what do you do to measure vocabulary? Write to us (readalliance@cks.in) with your ideas around activities, apps, games that can be used to measure the breadth and depth of children’s vocabulary. We will be back soon with other techniques used to assess other components of reading.

READ Alliance

Written by

A new approach that brings the public, private and not for profit sectors in inventive and imaginative ways to address early reading challenge in India.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade