An Evaluation Of TEM-4 Vocabulary Items Using The Vocabulary Knowledge Framework

Vocabulary knowledge is widely accepted as a fundamental component of second language proficiency. A clear tendency in this field of second language acquisition is that vocabulary knowledge is no longer viewed as a single dimension but regarded as a multidimension construct. Many various but complementary vocabulary knowledge frameworks have been proposed, in which breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge occupy a primary and central place. The two dimensions offer a rich framework for describing different aspects of vocabulary knowledge. Besides applied to second language acquisition, the frameworks now extend to vocabulary testing. Many vocabulary tests have been developed on the basis of theoretical framework of vocabulary knowledge, such as the Vocabulary Levels Test, the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale and the Word Association Test with the first size-related and the latter two depth-related.However, in China, the researches related to the vocabulary knowledge mainly focus on the vocabulary acquisition rather than on the field of vocabulary testing. The evaluation of TEM-4 is a typical case. The majority of research work on the validity of TEM-4 concentrates on the overall validity of the test or the validity of language skills (listening, reading and writing), with no attention paid on the vocabulary items in it. Its validity might be taken for granted or might be neglected. It is not clear yet what degree of vocabulary knowledge the vocabulary items in TEM-4 can really cover, so it is quite necessary to gain some insight into it.The overall aim of the present study is to validate the vocabulary items presented in TEM-4, using the vocabulary knowledge framework proposed by Henriksen while taking Nation's Vocabulary Levels Test, Wesche's Vocabulary Knowledge Scale and Meara's Word Association Test as the criterion tests. The empirical study was designed to answer the following questions:1) Do the vocabulary test items currently employed in TEM-4 adequately reflect test-taker's knowledge of the target words?2) What is the correlation between TEM-4 vocabulary items and breadth of vocabulary knowledge?3) What is the correlation between TEM-4 vocabulary items and depth of vocabulary knowledge?70 English major students in Grade Two and 5 foreign teachers in Wuhan Institute of Technology were involved in the study. The result analysis is conducted in the light of two aspects of vocabulary knowledge proposed in Hendiksen's vocabulary knowledge framework—breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge.The findings of the study show that TEM-4 vocabulary items have high validity in covering one dimension of vocabulary knowledge—breadth synchronically and diachronically.However, the analysis of statistics shows that TEM-4 items cannot reflect the degree of familiarity with vocabulary meaning efficiently to a certain degree. TEM-4 items are only correlated with the degree of familiarity with vocabulary meaning reflected in Vocabulary Knowledge Scale moderately. Moreover, there is not a high correlation between TEM-4 vocabulary items and the association knowledge and collocational knowledge shown in the Word Association Test. Since these aspects are key components of depth of vocabulary knowledge, the result indicates the low correlation between the depth of vocabulary knowledge and TEM-4 items. As to this point, TEM-4 vocabulary items cannot reflect the test-taker's depth of vocabulary knowledge adequately.Finally, some suggestions and implications for the vocabulary items in TEM-4 are provided and limitations of the study are also stated.