Schmitt's Vocabulary Levels Test (Vlt)

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In addition, Schmitt´s Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) (Schmitt, Schmitt & Clapham, 2001) is another testing tool used to measure receptive knowledge of language students. In general the test is a form-meaning linking diagnostic instrument. Originally, the test was developed by Nation (1990) and later revised by Schmitt, Schmitt and Clapham (2001). It focuses on assessing students´ vocabulary at four frequency levels: 2,000, 3,000, 5,000, and 10,000. Moreover, the VLT contains word items from the Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead, 2000). The academic words are not categorized by frequency levels however measuring academic words especially can be useful for teachers who focus on vocabulary building in an academic context. Each level comprises of 30 items which are clustered together in groups of 6 in 5 columns. Students are requested to match three of the six words from the left-hand column to matching meanings in the right-hand column: Figure 4. Sample taken from the AWL section of the VLT. The VLT was not created to measure students´ vocabulary size. Instead it analyzes word knowledge at specific levels. As previously mentioned in the section on word knowledge, students´ receptive knowledge is higher than their productive knowledge. Both the VST and VLT are …show more content…

Vocabulary depth tests are inherently productive in nature and provide various tasks, such as translating and productive writing. Although it is debated which approach gives the best results, Paribakht´s and Wesche´s (1993) Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) is a distinguished test in determining the stages of students´ developing knowledge. The VKS is a self-report test where students read a word and evaluate their depth of knowledge of that word. It is a five-category elicitation scale and provides a representation of students´ knowledge by using a five-point scoring scale as shown below in Figure

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