探究EFL國中學生對圖形化單字量測驗的態度與認知歷程

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(1)國立臺灣師範大學英語學系碩. 士. 論. 文. Master Thesis Department of English National Taiwan Normal University. 探究 EFL 國中學生對圖形化單字量測驗的態度與認知歷程 Exploring EFL Junior High Students’ Attitudes and Cognitive Processing of Taking the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test. 指導教授：曾文鐽博士 Advisor: Dr. Wen-Ta Tseng 研究生：呂宜芳 I-Fang Lu. 中華民國一百零一年八月 August 2012.

(2) 摘. 要. 本研究主在探究台灣國中學生對於圖形化單字量測驗的觀感、作答的認知歷程，並進一步改善不適合的試題。受試對象為 476 位台灣某國中的學生，藉由施行兩次圖形化單字量測驗來獲取他們對此種測驗的觀感。測驗後從中挑選出九位受試者進行訪問，並請他們針對 12 題不合適的題目說明他們作答時的想法。從訪談錄音帶和訪談文字記錄分析後顯示，學生對於此種以圖為題幹，四個單字為選項的圖形化單字量測驗，在情意接受度上給予正面肯定的回應。從三個面向來分析，一、在心理狀態上，這種圖形化測驗能有效減少學生的受試焦慮，讓他們在考試中不因焦慮而有失常的表現；二、在試題形式的評價上，學生表示喜歡這種題型，因為測驗中高品質的圖片對他們而言相當有趣而且清楚易懂，省去他們閱讀長句的負擔，大大提升了他們作答的動力，且單字選擇題旨在單字的辨識，讓學生不因字母排序的錯誤或遺忘字尾 s 而扣分；三、在考試耐受度上，90 個題目看起來是個負擔，但圖和單字之間的對應選擇題型縮短了他們的反應時間，大部分的同學皆能在 45 分鐘內完成且不會感到疲累。而學生作答的認知歷程中也歸納出一種模式。首先學生會嘗試理解圖片的意思，然後在四個選項中尋找正確的對應單字。對所有學生而言，測驗中彩色、繪圖精確的圖片清楚傳達了所要呈現的意思，但在四個選項的辨識中，學生依精熟度不同而有不同認知。高度精熟的學生對於四個選項幾乎全數認出；中度精熟的學生認識大部分的選項，偶有一兩個不確定的選項，在經由消去法後也能大大提升答對率；但對低度精熟的學生，他們認不出的單字大大超越認識的單字，因此經由消去法或其它的作答技巧也無法提升答對率，大部分還是經由猜測。針對不合適的題目之試題改善與教學建議歸納為以下七種。一、選擇單字的基礎形式，二、避免過於簡單的目標單字，三、改善無效的誘答選項，四、區別語音或拼寫上相似的單字，五、測驗同音同形異義詞中較常見的字義，六、強化圖片與目標單字的聯結，七、避免猜測效應。研究結果顯示學生在情意接受度上對此圖形化單字量測驗呈現正向肯定的反應，此測驗在檢測台灣國中學生基礎一千兩百個單字量上俱有示範引領的價值。. 關鍵字：單字量、圖形化測驗、受試焦慮、單字測驗、認知歷程 i.

(3) ABSTRACT The importance of developing an adequate vocabulary size for students in Taiwan has recently be recognized and emphasized. However, so far there is no workable vocabulary size test aimed to test the first 1,200-word for Taiwan junior high school students. The study used the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test to estimate the vocabulary size of Taiwan junior high school students. The purposes are to explore students’ attitudes towards this test, to describe the cognitive processing of the test-taking and to provide suggestions for the misfit items. 476 junior high school students participated in this study. Nine subjects were selected as the interviewees and 12 items were identified as the misfit items. The analyses show that this Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test serves as a successful instrument for testing Taiwan junior high school students’ vocabulary size from an affectively perspective. Besides, a certain pattern is found in the cognitive processing of the test-taking and seven suggestions are presented to improve the overall test quality and to facilitate vocabulary teaching.. Key words: vocabulary size, pictorial test, test anxiety, testing vocabulary, cognitive processing. ii.

(4) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS After being away from this graduate program for many years, I am finally heading for the completion of this thesis. The thesis would not have been completed without the assistance and support from numerous people. First and foremost, I would like to delicate my greatest gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Wen-ta Tseng, who has given me so much inspiration in completing this thesis. With his patient guidance and encouragement, I could regain my strength whenever I almost gave up. I am sincerely grateful for his expert guidance and constant encouragement. I would also like to express my thanks to my committee members, Dr. Yeu-ting Liu and Dr. Hsing-fu Cheng. They generously offered me precious insightful advice and helped me improve the quality of my thesis. Furthermore, I am also grateful for the help from my kind colleagues and lovely students. Their support not only accelerated my data collection process but also warmed my heart during this painful process of thesis writing. Last but surely not the least, I would like to give my thanks to my beloved family: my parents, who encourage me to face my fear and overcome the barrier; my husband, who voluntarily takes over all the housework without complaints; and my two lovely sons, who behave so well like angels when Mom’s not home and comfort me with their smiles and kisses whenever I am down. Here I delicate my thanks to all the people who have given me love and support during this painful but fulfilling period.. iii.

(5) TABLE OF CONTENTS CHINESE ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ 1 ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 Background & Motivation ................................................................................................ 1 Statement of Problem ........................................................................................................ 2 Aims of the Study ............................................................................................................. 4 Research Questions ........................................................................................................... 5 CHATPER TWO: LITERARUE REVIEW .............................................................................. 6 Importance of Vocabulary Learning and Teaching ........................................................... 6 The Nature of Knowing a Word ........................................................................................ 8 What is counted as a word? ...................................................................................... 8 Word Knowledge .................................................................................................... 12 Vocabulary Test: Breadth versus Depth .......................................................................... 16 Vocabulary Size and Learning Approaches .................................................................... 19 Vocabulary Size to Perform Language Four Skills ................................................. 20 Learning Approaches Suggested to Different Vocabulary Size .............................. 23 Prototype Theory ............................................................................................................ 27 Test Anxiety .................................................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................... 30 Subjects ........................................................................................................................... 30 Instruments ...................................................................................................................... 30 Tseng’s Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test ................................................................... 31 Follow-up Interviews .............................................................................................. 31 Procedures ....................................................................................................................... 33 The Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test ......................................................................... 33 Follow-up Interviews .............................................................................................. 34 Data Analysis .................................................................................................................. 35 CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .......................................................... 37 Attitudes towards the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test. .................................................... 37 Mental State ............................................................................................................ 38 Comments on the Test Format ................................................................................ 42 Test Endurance ........................................................................................................ 44 The Process of the Test-taking ........................................................................................ 48 Suggestions for Twelve Misfit Items .............................................................................. 50 iv.

(6) CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................... 76 Answers to Research Questions ...................................................................................... 76 Pedagogical Implications ................................................................................................ 78 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research .......................................................... 79 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................... 81 Appendix A: 476 Subjects’ Scores on PVST I & II ................................................................ 86 Appendix B: Rasch Model Fit Results of 180 Items ............................................................ 100 Appendix C: 12 Misfit Items ................................................................................................ 105 Appendix D: The Descriptors of 12 Misfit Items ................................................................. 107. v.

(7) LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Word Types and Text Coverage………………………………………………….22. Table 2. The Sampling of Nine Interviewees………………………….………………….32. Table 3. A Model of Cognitive Porcessing of Test-taking……………………………… ..50. Table 4. Twelve Misfit Items’ Fit Results………………………………..…….………….51. vi.

(8) CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Background & Motivation Though being treated as a minor role for past decades in the development of second language research, vocabulary has now captured increasing attention, and it now is gradually considered as an important domain in the study of second language acquisition. Plenty claims for putting extra attention to the role of vocabulary have been made recently (e.g. Gass and Selinker, 1994; McCarthy, 1990; Nation, 1990). Specifically one stretch of vocabulary is the issue of an adequate vocabulary size in the second language learning. The following quotations illustrate this:. “Teachers and researchers have seen lack of vocabulary as one of the main obstacles to progress in the receptive skills of listening and reading.” (Nation, 1990). “ No matter how well the student learns grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a wider range of meanings, communication in an L2 cannot happen any meaningful way. ” (McCarthy, 1990: viii). Similarly, Taiwan’s researchers also highlight the importance of acquiring adequate. 1.

(9) vocabulary size. For example, Huang (1997) stated that one of the major difficulties in reading English textbooks can be attributed to the lack of English vocabulary. Ou (1997) analyzed the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) Scores of 707 Taiwanese college students and concluded that students in general do not have enough vocabulary. This is reflected in their poor performance in the TOEFL tests. Thus, according to Nation (1990), McCarthy (1990), Huang (1997), Ou (1997), it seemed that an adequate second language vocabulary size is crucial for successful second language acquisition.. Statement of Problem Junior high school students in Taiwan take lots of English tests every day at school. These tests would test students’ different aspects of language abilities, like listening, reading, grammar and vocabulary. Since in this study the researcher focuses on students’ vocabulary size, only the current vocabulary tests carried on in class would be furtherly addressed below. The. vocabulary. quiz. in. class,. usually. in. the. form. of. Chinese-English,. word-to-word-translation, is served to make a rough check on students’ progress and keep them on their shoes. While in other achievement tests, the vocabulary part only takes a rather small portion in the whole test, maybe one or two sections only in the form of one or two sentences with a single word missing. Both of the two kinds are not qualified enough to be the instrument of the vocabulary size test for the present study. The following quotation. 2.

(10) illustrates this:. “When we refer to vocabulary assessment we may mean different things. The assessment that teachers carry on in classes (to test whether students have learnt the words included in a particular unit) needs to be distinguished from the type assessment that is done in an academic inquiry.” (Olmos, 2009). When any researcher wants to conduct a study relating to examining students’ vocabulary size or knowledge, usually they would choose some well-known language tests, like Nation’s Vocabulary Levels Test, the Eurocentres Vocabulary Size Test or The Vocabulary Knowledge Scale. In this study, the researcher didn’t not use any of them because the context of these three is set within the context of native speakers, which is quite different from the cultural background and English teaching-and-learning circumstances in Taiwan. In addition, for Taiwan junior high school graduates, their vocabulary size is expected to reach 1,200 words. However, the problem is that there is no test for the first 1,000 level in the Vocabulary Levels Test since it is impossible to give the definitions using words from a higher frequency level than the tested words.. In sum, among all kinds of the vocabulary. tests, no matter they are either international well-known language tests or common small-scale vocabulary tests carried on in the classroom, there is no vocabulary test. 3.

(11) specifically designed for the purpose of testing Taiwan junior high school students’ vocabulary size. Therefore, a new improved version of vocabulary size test is needed in this study.. Aims of the Study Due to the problems addressed previously, no adequate vocabulary size test for the first 1,000 words level and suitable for Taiwan EFL junior high school students in a non-native English speaker language context in Taiwan, the researcher now is aware of a need for creating an innovative format of the vocabulary size test for Taiwan junior high school students. However, the process of designing a new improved version of vocabulary size test definitely needs great amount of time, expertise and money, which the researcher myself alone obviously cannot afford or be capable of. Luckily, thanks to Professor Wenta Tseng’s generosity, the researcher got the permission from him to use this Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test, that Professor Ten designed and just completed in December, 2011. With this instrument of Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test, the researcher aims to explore Taiwan EFL junior high students’ attitude towards and perceptions of this Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test. Whether this test is emotionally more acceptable for Taiwan EFL junior high school students and how the researcher can do to improve the misfit items in the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test are the main concerns of the study.. 4.

(12) Research Questions Based on the problems and the aims of the study, the researcher in this paper will try to answer the following questions: 1. What are the subjects’ attitudes towards the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test? 2. How can the subjects’ cognitive test-taking processing be described? 3. How can the misfit items be improved?. 5.

(13) CHATPER TWO LITERARUE REVIEW This chapter offers a general review of the literature related to the significance of vocabulary learning and teaching, word knowledge, vocabulary test, vocabulary size, different vocabulary teaching approaches, mental model theory and anxiety. First of all, the status of the vocabulary learning and teaching is highlighted. Then the nature of knowing a word is introduced. Later on, the issue the size dimension versus the organization dimension in the vocabulary test is discussed. Then the vocabulary size required to perform language skills, as well as different teaching and learning approaches suggested to learners of different vocabulary sizes are reviewed and discussed. Finally, mental model theory and anxiety were briefly reviewed in the last part of this chapter.. Importance of Vocabulary Learning and Teaching Vocabulary has begun to gain its right status since 1970s. Researchers and theorists began to notice the significance of vocabulary in language learning. It was claimed that lexical knowledge should deserve considerable emphases in TESOL program and learners should learn massive vocabulary as early as possible (Judd, 1978). In the early-nineties, vocabulary has gradually become “the guest of honor” (Maiguashca, 1993). In effect, judging from different aspects, it can be found that such change seems to be the discovery of a. 6.

(14) long-existed fact and vocabulary surely deserves such great attention and investigation. The following findings support the importance of vocabulary. First, lexical errors outnumber syntactical and phonological errors and seriously hinder communication (Angelis, 1074; Peregoy, 1989; Widdowson, 1978). In Politzer’s (1978) study, native speakers of German considered the lexical errors of learners of German as the most serious. Widdowson (1978) also indicated that native speakers could understand ungrammatical utterances which have the accurate lexis better than the utterances correctly structured with the wrong lexis. Angelis (1974) revealed that lexical errors accounted for 48.5% of all the errors which caused listening misperception, while only 38.5% were perceptual and 13% errors were syntactical errors. Second, ESL/EFL learners express that vocabulary is their greatest difficulty (Gormanm 1979, Meara, 1980). For native speakers, after having acquired the syntactical structures, they still continuously expand their vocabulary faculties in adulthood (Laufer, 1986; Mervis, 1983; Richards, 1976) Laufer (1986) stated that any experienced teacher knew that even after students had mastered grammar, they still faced masses of unknown words as they continued to study. According to her own teaching experiences, she indicated that students felt great achievement when the teaching materials could increase their vocabulary control. Likewise, Gorman (1979) also reported that 68% of the investigated ESL students indicated that inadequate vocabulary was the main factor for problems in academic reading.. 7.

(15) Third, vocabulary closely relates to learners’ proficiency (Kelly, 1991, Raimes, 1985). Language is for communication. Especially in literated societies, word knowledge becomes particularly significant (Hodges, 1984). For Communicative Approach, the goal of language learning is communicative competence for performing different types of tasks (Richards and Rodgers, 1986). Such competence necessitates adequate lexical knowledge. Therefore, in order to convey a message relatively easily and comprehensible, it is not grammatical accuracy but vocabulary correctness and adequacy that count. Laufer and Sim (1985) agreed that inadequate vocabulary severely hampered learners’ comprehension abilities. Krashen (1981) believed that language learning was benefited when the input “strikes ‘deep’ enough” (p. 103), which refers to words, not structures. In consideration of the previously-mentioned aspects, it is true that lexis is of great importance to language learning. In the words of Laufer (1986), she stated that “the learning of vocabulary lies at the heart of language learning” (p.69) and “without adequate lexis there is no proper language competence or performance” (p.70).. The Nature of Knowing a Word What is counted as a word? Since it is important to acquire adequate vocabulary to have appropriate language competence and performance, it makes sense to measure how much vocabulary one already. 8.

(16) has, thereby offering as a reference to his/her language ability. However, from the early studies, it is discovered that there exist various estimates of the number of words known by native speakers (i.e. college students and adults), ranging from 3000 words to 216,000 words (Fries and Traver, 1960; Lorge and Chall 1963; Diller, 1978). For instance, Diller (1978) estimated that native English secondary school children learned 20,000 words a year, suggesting that they learn language English vocabulary in a rate of around 60 words a day. However, this figure has been suggested to be greatly inflated (Goulden et al., 1990). According to Lorge and Chall (1963), one of the causes of the divergences between these estimates is that there is no agreement as to what to count as words, That is to say, early researchers had different opinions as to the criteria of deciding “what is counted a word?” when they chose the words. It is debatable whether words such as names of persons, geographical place names, homonym, inflections and affixes should be counted as different words or not. For instance, if we count the words fix, fixing, fixed as different words, this inevitably will lead to bigger, inflated estimates, compared with the result treating them as only one word. Therefore, to give a reliable and valid estimate of one’ vocabulary size, it is necessary to set different criteria according to different needs (Nation, 1999). Nation (op.cit.) has suggested four ways to count words. Firstly, if our goal is to count how many words there are in a spoken or written text, it is suggested to count every running word (i.e. token). For. 9.

(17) instance, the sentence She says that he is sick. is counted as having six words. However, this kind of method has its problems; that is, it is a question whether the hyphenated words like time-lag, spoken language like um or er and contracted forms like can’t or I’m should be counted as simply one token or two tokens. Secondly, if our goal is to answer such questions as “How many words do you need to know to read this book?” or “How many words does this dictionary contain?”, it is suggested to count by types, rather than by tokens; that is when we see the same word again, we do not count it again. Thus, the sentence “He says that he is sick.” is counted as having five words. It seems that this counting method is adequate regarding the questions it answers, as this method can avoid the problem like over-estimating one’s vocabulary size. However, there are also numerous problems in counting types; for instance, it is not easy to cope with a word of more than one quite different meaning, i.e. polysemy or homonym; similarly, two different forms may be the same type, e.g. It and it or Will and will. Thirdly, if our goal is to measure “productive vocabulary size” (i.e. speaking or writing), it is suggested to use lemma consisting of a headword and its inflected forms and reduced forms (n’t). According to Swenson and West (1934), learning burden can be explored by using the lemmas as the unit of counting. This is because once learners can use the inflectional system, the learning burden like –s or –ing can be negligible. However, using the lemmas as the unit of counting words is not without its problems. One problem to be faced in. 10.

(18) forming lemmas is to decide what will be done with irregular forms such as mice, is, brought, beaten and best (Nation, op.cit.). Likewise, another problem is that how we decide what the headword of the lemma – the most frequent form or the base form? (Sinclair, 1991: 42). Finally, if our goal is to measure “receptive vocabulary size” (i.e. listening or reading), it is suggested to use word families consisting of a base word together with its inflected and derived forms that share the same meaning. If a person knows the base word (i.e. headword) extend, it is assumed that h/she “should be able to figure out what the other word forms mean by applying a little knowledge of English suffixes and getting some assistance form the context in which the word occurs” (Read, 2000: 84). Unlike the estimates of using tokens, using word families as the unit of counting words can lead to more conservative estimates of vocabulary size (Read, op.cit.). This suggests that using word families as the unit of counting words can bring forth a more reasonable measure of one’s vocabulary size. As Nation (op.cit.: 248) states, “The use of word families as the unit for counting is essential for sensible estimates of vocabulary size”. Likewise, another support for using words families would be the evidence offered by Goulden et al. (op.cit.). They concluded that,. “If proper words, compound words, affixes, and homographs with unrelated meaning are also included as base items, then there are just over 110,000 base items in “Webster’s Third”, Clearly, estimates of the vocabulary size of adult. 11.

(19) native speakers which credit them with vocabularies of 216,000 words (Diller, 1978) or 80,000 words (Miller and Gildea 1978) are greatly inflated. It is more likely that the average educated native speaker has a vocabulary of around 17,000 base words and has acquired them at the average rate of about two to three words per day.” (Goulden et al., op.cit.: 356). However, it is suggested that in such studies, it is essential “to be very clear and explicit about what is included in a word family and what the criteria are for consistent judgments” (Nation, op.cit.: 248). In sum, it is clear that the identification of the units to be counted is an important step in research on vocabulary size. Different approaches of counting words, as pointed out above, will lead to conspicuous discrepancies of the estimated vocabulary size. When counting words, Nation (op.cit.: 251) concluded that “it is safest to distinguish subcategories that later can be added together”, and thus this give researchers with different purposes an access to making use of the results of counting.. Word Knowledge If a learner is claimed to know 5000 words (word families), a further question necessary to be asked would be that what aspects of these 5000 words the learner knows. That is, what. 12.

(20) does “knowing a word” mean? Historically, this question has drawn tremendous attention from language educators. In some linguists’ perspective, knowing a word is only described as having the knowledge of a set of features. Chomsky (1965) and Gibson and Levin (1975) defined words as a set of dictionary entries, each containing syntactic, phonological, semantic, or orthographic information. Likewise, another simple view of knowing a word is to consider that a word is composed of the form and meanings with the proper sound, stress, and intonation which are available in different contexts (Lado, 1964). However, these views may not be appropriated in their own right. Numerous researchers (e.g. Nation, 1990; Richards, 1976) have stressed the complexity of knowing a word (word knowledge) and proposed many types of knowledge that comprise full understanding of a word. Richard (1873: 83) proposed eight assumptions as to lexical competence. The first assumption is that the vocabulary knowledge of native speakers continues to expand in adult life, in contrast to the relative stability of their grammatical competence. The other seven assumptions cover a range of aspects of what is meant by knowing a word: 1. Knowing a word means knowing the degree of probability of encountering that word in speech or print. For many words we also know the sort of words most likely to be found associated with the words. 2. Knowing a word implies knowing the limitations imposed on the use of the word. 13.

(21) according to variation of function and situation. 3. Knowing a word means knowing the syntactic behavior associated with the word. 4. Knowing a word entails knowledge of the knowledge of the underlying form of a word and the derivations that can be made from it. 5. Knowing a word entails knowledge of the network of associations between that word and other words in the language. 6. Knowing a word means knowing the semantic value of a word. 7. Knowing a word means knowing many of the different meanings associated with a word. This set of assumptions has frequently been taken as general framework of vocabulary knowledge (Read, 2000). However, Meara (1996a) indicated that Richards’ paper did not originally intend to provide a systematic account of what knowing a word meant and as a whole it was not as comprehensive as it looked. Similarly, Kelly (1991) also disagreed about some of the assumptions asserted by Richards, such as word frequency, syntactic structure, word association and word registers, and looked upon them as being at the advanced level and far beyond the needs of foreign language learners. Nevertheless, despite the criticisms, theses seven suggestions have pointed out the rich content of lexical knowledge and the basic components of massive vocabulary expansion, involving “a great deal more than just memorizing the meaning of a word” (Read, op.cit.: 25).. 14.

(22) Nation (1990) took a step further by incorporating Richards’ assumptions to develop another set of word knowledge. He claimed that knowing a word meant knowing its spoken and written forms, grammatical patterns, collocations, frequency, appropriateness, concept, and associations. More importantly, he also stressed that word knowledge should include both receptive and productive abilities. As for this point, learners’ vocabulary should be judged by how effectively they could communicate in certain social situations, not by how many words they may have in their mental lexicon. One’s vocabulary should be enlarged both receptively and productively. Therefore, Schmitt (1997; 12) described Nation’s listing of words knowledge as “the best and most elegant to date”. Moreover, although both Nation’s listing and Richards’ assumptions are good specifications of what it means to know a word, “(W) e must remain aware that …in reality the different kinds of word knowledge are almost certainly interrelated” (Schmitt, 2000: 6). For instance, frequency is related to register: more frequent words tend to be less formal, and less frequent words tend to be be more formal. As a result, “it might be possible in theory to construct measures to assess each of these types of knowledge for particular words; in practice, it would be very difficult to do this for more than a handful of items” (Meara, 1996b: 46). In short, although it is suggested that currently it is very difficult to gauge all aspects of word knowledge suggested above simultaneously, it is showed that word knowledge is. 15.

(23) many-faceted. Therefore, it would be no longer suitable to assume that knowing a word is simply the ability to recognize and possibly reproduce its written form, because this idea may set the threshold level of word knowledge at an unacceptable low proficiency (Read,op.cit.). Vocabulary Test: Breadth versus Depth Traditionally, vocabulary tests are designed to assess learners’ knowledge of individual word meaning, and two types of categories of that knowledge have been created, as defined by Anderson and Freebody (1981: 92-93):. “It is useful to distinguish between two aspects of an individual’s vocabulary knowledge. The fist may be called “breadth” of knowledge, by which we mean the number of words for which the person knows at least some of the significant aspects of meaning…[There] is a second dimension of vocabulary knowledge, namely the quality or “depth” of understanding. We shall assume that, for most purposes, a person has a sufficient deep understanding of a word if it conveys to him or her all of the distinctions that would be understood by an ordinary adult under normal circumstances.”. This distinction (i.e. breadth versus depth) is further made clear by the distinction. 16.

(24) between tests of vocabulary of “how many words people know” and “how well these words are known” (Read, 1993 & 2000; Paribakht and Wesche, 1993; Wesche and Paribakht, 1996). In other words, current vocabulary tests are designed to gauge either the “size” of learners’ vocabulary or “organization” of their vocabulary (Meara, 1996b). As for the vocabulary size (breadth) test, thus far various kinds of vocabulary size tests have been developed (Wesche and Paribakht, 1996), such as The Vocabulary Levels Test (Nation,1990), and The Eurocentres Vocabulary Size Test (Meara and Jobes, 1990). Acquiring enough vocabulary appears to be the first and most fundamental thing while learners want to have a good command of English language skills.. “The basic dimension is size. All other things being equal, learners with big vocabularies are more proficient in a wide range of language skills than learners with smaller vocabularies, and there is some evidence to support the view that vocabulary skills make a significant contribution to almost all aspects of L2 proficiency.” (Meara, 1996b:37). Likewise, although “[vocabulary size] tests may seem superficial, they can give a more representative picture of the overall state of the learners’ vocabulary than an in-depth probe of a limited number of words” (Read, 2000: 115).. 17.

(25) On the other hand, as for the organization (i.e. depth) of vocabulary tests, thus far there are also several test formats developed to tap into how well the words are known, such as word association tests (e.g. Meara, 1982; Schmitt and Meara 1997) and Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (Paribakht and Wesche, 1993; Wesche and Paribakht, 1996). However, it has been suggested that there is not any vocabulary test currently available to tap into all aspects of vocabulary knowledge (Meara, 1996b; Schmitt and Meara, 1997; Schmitt et al., in press). Similarly, another difficulty to be faced is that, “it is even difficult to measure the degree of knowledge of single type of word knowledge confidently (e.g. meaning, collocation, appropriateness)” (Schmitt et al., in press).. However, despite the limitations of testing the depth of vocabulary knowledge, either in the case of L1 or of L2, one’s overall picture of the depth of vocabulary knowledge might be inferred from his/ her overall vocabulary size. As Meara (1996b) states,. “[I]n L1, it would be very unusual to find a speaker with a very large vocabulary who did not also have a good grasp of the meaning of at least some of the words being recognized…In short, the circumstances which lead people to develop moderately large vocabularies in their L1 also allow them to acquire other types of information about the words as well…Most people acquire L2 words from exposure. 18.

(26) to the language, not from learning lists of words in the abstract, and it is inevitable that while they are doing this, they also acquire a broader knowledge about the words they already know. ” (p.44-45). Therefore, it is probable that learners with large vocabularies can also have a better understanding of word knowledge (e.g. collocation, register, or association), whereas those with fewer vocabularies may not be able to do so. For instance, Schmitt and Meara (1997) have stated that Japanese learners with large vocabularies are much better in forming associations of English words and identifying morphological derivatives of English root words, than are learners with fewer vocabularies, both in ways of productively and receptively. In this case, it is suggested that word association knowledge and suffix knowledge have relationships with overall vocabulary size. To summarize, according to Meara (1996b: 45), he put forward that. “vocabulary size is probably the only dimension of any real importance as long as we are dealing with a small lexicon”. That is, knowing “five or six thousand words” is fundamentally important and critical for any English language learners. After this threshold, a well-structure mental lexicon (i.e. depth of vocabulary knowledge) can be expected. (Meara, op.cit.).. Vocabulary Size and Learning Approaches. 19.

(27) Vocabulary Size to Perform Language Four Skills Intuitionally, it seems right that learners with larger vocabulary will have less learning burden, if compared with those with less vocabulary. In effect, vocabulary size has been suggested to serve as a good predictor of reading comprehension (Anderson and Freebody, op.cit.) and as a determinant of writing quality (Linnarud, 1986). Similarly, it is also suggested to be an essential component of fluency in speech (Laufer, 1998). Goulden et al. (1990) concluded that the dictionary Webster’s Third contained about 58,000 word families. However, it seems that it is an ideal goal for second language learners to memorize this number, as even English educated native adults have only a vocabulary size of about 20,000 word families (Goulden et al., 1990; Nagy and Anderson, 1984; Nation and Waring, 1997). Specifically, to have a good command of language skills, each requires different size of vocabulary. Regarding listening, studies of spoken language (i.e. colloquial English used in informal situations) suggest that a vocabulary of about 2000 frequent word families can provide over 95% coverage (Schonell et al., 1956). If 95% coverage of running words of input is understood, according to Nation (1999), this can provide learners with reasonable comprehension and make them succeed in guessing from context. In addition, if it comes to formal spoken English such as academic lectures, a larger proportion of low frequency words might be needed (Nation, 1990 & 1999).. 20.

(28) In the aspect of speaking, about 2,000 words are necessary for everyday conversation (Washburn, 1992). Schonell et al. (op.cit.) found that the 1,000 most frequent words in their count covered 94% of the material, and the first 2,000 words covered almost 99% of the material. Hence, Nation (1990) suggested that the 2,000 words of the General Service List (West, 1953) could serve as the reasonable goal to memorize. As to writing, Nation (1990; 47) pointed out that, “Work in simplification of texts has shown that a small number of words (around 2000 to 3000) can be used effectively to express an enormous number of ideas”. However, what needs to be noticed is that L2 learners tend to use basic vocabulary whereas a good native-speaking writer would use more accurate lower-frequency words (Schmitt, 2000). Therefore, it is suggested that, the solutions to this problem are to further improve vocabulary size as well as to recycle and elaborate receptive vocabulary to the extent that it becomes productive (Schmitt, op.cit.). When it comes to reading, there has a lot of research concerned with this issue. Nation and Hwang (1995) proposed that learners with a sight vocabulary of the 2,000 most-frequent word families of English could usually recognize and use around 84% of the words in a range of texts. However, it is claimed that this figure (84%) is not enough for general text comprehension; that is, according to Nation (1990) and Laufer (1997I), it requires learners to know approximately 3,000 words families (5,000 lexical items) to cover 95% of texts for reasonable comprehension. Nevertheless, for accurate context guessing, it seems that a reader. 21.

(29) needs to know at least 98% of the words in the text and a sight vocabulary of 5,000 word families (8,000 lexical items) is needed (Hirsh and Nation, 1992; Laufer, 1997a). To cover 95% of texts, Nation (op.cit.) suggested that learning the first 2,000 high-frequency words and the words in the University words list (UWL) (835 words) (Xue and Nation, 1984) could reach this goal. To cover 98% of texts, it is further suggested that in addition to learning the first 2,000 high-frequency words and the UWL, 2,000 technical words in specialized texts are also required (Table 1.) (Nation, op.cit.). Table 1. Word Types and Text Coverage No. of words. Proportion of text. High-frequency words. 2, 000. 87%. University word list. 800. 8%. Technical words. 2,000. 3%. Low-frequency words. 123,200. 2%. Total. 128,000. 100%. (Source: Nation, 1990:16) The difference between the words in the UWL and the technical words lies in that the words in the UWL are “common in most kinds of technical writing”, whereas the technical words “occur only in a very limited area” (Nation, op.cit.: 16). Nevertheless, both types of words are worth learning (Nation,op.cit.). Likewise, for Dutch, it is argued that the minimal. 22.

(30) vocabulary size needed for university studies is 10,000 word families (Hazenberg and Hulstijn, 1996). Therefore, the estimates of vocabulary size needed for reading comprehension range from a minimal threshold of 3,000 word families (95% coverage of texts) to a fuller level of comprehension (98% coverage) supported by a vocabulary of 5,000 word families to 10,000 word families for university studies.. Learning Approaches Suggested to Different Vocabulary Size Nation (1990) suggested that different vocabulary size levels required different learning approaches. For the high-frequency words such as 2,000- and 3,000-word levels, it is suggested that it is worth for teachers spending class time on them. As Nation (op.cit.:263) states, “The direct teaching of vocabulary through class teaching and individualized exercises is appropriate for most high-frequency words”. Likewise, for the 5,000-word level which is on the boundary of high-and low frequency words and 10,000-word levels which contain low-frequency words, it is suggested that learners learn these words by extensive/ intensive reading and learning prefixes and roots (Nation, 1990&1999). This is because low-frequency words cover a very large group of words (around 123,200) but they occupy only a very small proportion of any text (around 2%) (Nation, 1990). Therefore, “It is not worth spending time on such words” and “It is more important to teach learners strategies like guessing from context, or using word parts to deal with these words as they occur” (Nation,op.cit.: 17).. 23.

(31) According to the study by White, Power and White (1989), approximately 60% of the words with such prefixes as un-, re-, in- and dis-, could be understood from knowing the commonest meaning of the case word, and approximately 80% of prefixed words could be understood by getting help from context and knowledge of the less common meanings of the prefixes. Therefore, regarding using the knowledge of affix and root to learn vocabulary, Nation (op.cit.: 168) proposed that it had two values for advanced learners of English:. “It can be used to help the learning of unfamiliar words by relating these words to known words rt to known prefixes and suffixes, and it can be used as a way of checking whether an unfamiliar word has been successfully guessed from context.”. As for the role of incidental learning from guessing from context, Nation (1999: 178) considered this approach as “the most important of all the sources of vocabulary learning ”. The reason is that as indicated, low-frequency words averagely consist of only 2% coverage of texts, but they in fact cover a very large group of words (123,200 words). Learning from contexts includes “learning from extensive reading, learning from taking part in conversations, and learning from listening to stories, films, television or the radio” (Nation 1999: 178). Huckin and Coady (1999: 182) put forward that incidental learning of vocabulary. 24.

(32) had certain advantages over direct instruction: 1. It is contextualized, giving the learner a richer sense of a word’s use and meaning than can be provided in traditional paired-associated exercises. 2. It is pedagogically efficient in that it enables two activities- vocabulary acquisition and reading- to occur at the same time. 3. It is more individualized and learner-based because the vocabulary being acquired is dependent on the learner’s own selection of reading materials.. However, although incidental learning of vocabulary has its advantages, Schmitt (2000: 153-155) summarized from the literature that there were also several points to be noticed: a.. The context must be rich enough to offer adequate clues to guess a word’s meaning.. b.. Readers are better able to use local clues in proximity to an unknown word than more global clues that are located further away.. c.. Learners may mistake an unknown word for one they already know with a similar orthographic or phonological form.. d.. Cognates can help guessing from context if they are used prudently.. e.. Background knowledge about the topic and the culture being discussed aids inferencing.. 25.

(33) f.. Learners need to be skilled in guessing.. g.. Guessing a word form context does not mean that it will be remembered.. Therefore, it is noticed that even though incidental learning from context has its merits, it can also lead to such problems as imprecision, misrecognition or interference with the background information. When this approach is adopted, it is suggested that a great deal of prior training in basic vocabulary, word recognition, metacognition, and some familiarity with subject matter is needed (Haynes, 1993; Laufer, 1997a). Finally, learning vocabulary from explicit teaching and from learning from contexts are not incompatible, but in fact complementary.. “Explicit attention may be an excellent way to meet the word, and to gain some initial information about it. But gaining the more complex aspects of collocational knowledge, frequency intuitions and register constraints would probably take a massive amount of exposure, something which would only come from reading in all likelihood” (Schmitt and McCarthy, 1997: 321).. They stated that even native speakers might not be able to attain the majority of words they (partially) know, not to mention L2 learners. They suggested that “extensive exposure is the answer for these higher levels of word knowledge, and in practical terms must mean. 26.

(34) implicit learning” (Schmitt and McCarthy, op.cit.: 321).. Prototype Theory As its name suggests, Prototype Theory derives from the classical theories of categorization in the notion of prototypicality. Prototypicality has a two-dimensional meaning. On the horizontal axis, the prototypical member is the most central member of a category. On the vertical axis, the prototypical level is the basic level. Membership of a category is a gradient from the center to the periphery. As a result, the central member and the basic level take the most salient position in human cognition. In Rosch (1975), she investigated the membership of several categories like ‘furniture’, ‘vehicle’, ‘clothing’, etc. For example, subjects were presented with a list of household items and they were asked to rate to what extent each item could be regarded as a good example of furniture. A statistically highly reliable order of rank was found among these items. It was shown that degree of category membership is a psychologically valid notion such that ‘chair’ was a more prototypical member of furniture than ‘telephone’. Rosch also showed prototypical effects in the experimental paradigms. In a priming task, the category names activated the names of the more prototypical members of the category. When subjects were asked to name examplars of a category, the more prototypical members tended to be mentioned first.. 27.

(35) Although Prototype Theory concerns primarily with our conceptual categorization, large scale study of the cognitive hierarchical status of lexical items can be very useful for other disciplines in linguistics domain. In the setting of foreign language education, vocabulary learning is considered as the building block of language skills. Students often receive word lists in which the order of the words is supposed to guild their learning process. Cognitive hierarchical level research can help language teachers to judge what words should be taught first and what words should be taught next. If Prototype Theory is right in proclaiming that basic level words contain the largest bundles of naturally correlated attributes for categorization, these words should be learned prior to the words at the other levels (Ungerer 2001).. Test Anxiety Scovel (1978) described anxiety as subjective and consciously perceived feelings of “uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension, and worry” (p.134). The anxiety mentioned above is too global and not a precise term for describing the anxiety happening during learning a foreign language. As a remedy, almost a decade after Scovel’s review, Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) proposed a theoretical framework of language anxiety. Horwitz et al. (1986) describes three components of foreign-language anxiety. The first one is communication apprehension, “a type of shyness characterized by fear of or anxiety about. 28.

(36) communicating with people” (p.30). Learners with high communication apprehension would show anxiety not only in the scene of a foreign language classroom but also in their daily lives while using the foreign language to talk to people. The second component, closely related to the first one, is fear of negative social evaluation. People with high anxiety of this kind would be afraid of other people’s negative evaluation on them so that they are extremely worried they can not make proper social impression. The last component is text anxiety, namely the apprehension over academic evaluation. According to Horwitz et al. (1986), test anxiety is “a type of performance anxiety stemming from the fear of failure in the test situation” (p.30). People who suffer from test anxiety may regard any imperfect performance on the academic evaluation as a failure. No matter learners possessing which kind of anxiety, these three kinds of anxiety all have debilitating effect on their performance.. 29.

(37) CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY This chapter provides a detailed description of the methodology to conduct the present study. The background of the subjects and the sampling of the interviewees are introduced in the first section, followed by the description of the test design of Tseng’s Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test and the questions asked in the follow-up interviews. The third part is the procedure of administering the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Tests and the follow-up interviews. The last part is the data analysis.. Subjects Nineteen intact classes in a municipal junior high school in the northern part of Taiwan jointed the study. A total of 476 students, containing 7th graders to 9th graders, were recruited in the study. As to the subjects’ gender, students of both sexes are educated together so that the ratio of boys to girls is about 1:1. Though these students graduated from different elementary schools, they had respectively received four years’ elementary school English education prior to entering junior high. They all used the same English textbooks published by Han Lin Publishing Co., LTD.. Instrument. 30.

(38) Tseng’s Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test One of the instruments used in this study is Tseng’s Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test. The researcher has two reasons to choose Tseng’s test as the instrument in this study. One is that the simplified format in Tseng’s test makes it possible to test subjects numerous words on 1,200–word list within limited time. The other reason is the receptive competence examined in Tseng’s test is like the way that most of the class tests are designed to test at school. Unlike Nation’s Vocabulary Levels Test, which requires test-takers to match the words to the definitions, test-takers in Tseng’s test are supposed to choose the right word among the four options best corresponding to the picture. The Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test contains three sections and each section has thirty items. In total, there are ninety items included in one Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test. The target words in the test are based on the 1,200-word list released by the Ministry of Education. This 1,200-word list is provided as a reference for preparing the English BC test.. Follow-up Interviews The researcher began the follow-up interview right after the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test II. The researcher chose nine subjects to be the interviewees. Though the number of the interviewees seemed small, the similar background which the nine interviewees shared with all subjects made them become the reasonable representatives for the overall subjects. The. 31.

(39) whole process of the interview was audio-recorded with their permission for the convenience of making transcriptions. The researcher needed three interviewees for each of the grade, and the three interviewees on the same grade had to be at different levels, high-proficiency, intermediate-proficiency, and low-proficiency, based on their scores on the two tests. Finally the 9 interviewees were again checked by their English teachers to make sure they were able to convey thoughts in an organized way. The researcher interviewed only one student at one time to avoid interference from other people. The questions in the interview were basically the Chinese version of the research questions in this study. The questions were about how the interviews would comment on the test, how they described their test-taking process and why they didn’t get the answers right among the misfit-items. Whenever the vague or inconsistent comment appeared, the researcher would ask more questions to probe for understanding. After the interviews, the researcher started the analysis using the strategy of tape-based analysis. Table 2. The Sampling of Nine Interviewees 7th grade. 8th grade. 9th grade. 1 (7L). 1(8L). 1(9L). Intermediate-proficiency 1(7I). 1(8I). 1(9I). High-proficiency. 1(8H). 1(9H). Level. Low-proficiency. Grade. 1(7H). 32.

(40) Procedures The present study was a qualitative research of EFL students’ attitude towards and perceptions of Tseng’s Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test. The data collection procedure of this study was as follows: The Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test Step One: The researcher asked 7 English teachers to help the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Tests. They all agreed to use two classes to give students the tests. The Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test was given to students twice, one in last December and the other one in February. Step Two: When giving 7 English teachers copies of the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test, the researcher also briefly explained the purpose of the study to them. Step Three: Before the students started to do the test, their English teachers informed them two things. 1. The scores were only for the use of this study and they would not be included in the school academic evaluation, but please take the test seriously. 2. The students were given 45 minutes to take the test, but extra time was allowed if. 33.

(41) they could not finish the test in time. Step Four: The students were supposed to choose the English word best responding the picture among the four options. They had 45 minutes to complete the test and they were required to mark their answers on the computer scoring answer sheet for the ease and accuracy of the data collection. Step Five: After the test, the computer scoring answer sheets were immediately collected by the teacher and were given to the researcher. The researcher checked each answer sheet for whether there was any too-light marking one by one visually. Then these answer sheets were sent to score by the computer.. Follow-up Interviews Step One: After having the scores back, the researcher started the follow-up interview. The researcher first chose 9 students, 3 on each of the grades and one at each of the levels, high-, average-, and low-proficiency. Step Two: The researcher audio-recorded the whole process of the interview with 9 interviewees’. 34.

(42) permission. Through the use of semi-structured interviews with a set of open-ended questions, students’ comments on perceptions of the test and test-taking process and suggestion for improving the misfit items were obtained. Step Three: After the interview, the researcher carefully listened to the tapes and prepared abridged transcripts, which contained comments that directly relate to the topic. Step Four: The researcher analyzed question by question, looking for themes within questions and across questions. Then the researcher presented the findings and discussion based on interviewees’ comments, test-writing principles and the researcher her own teaching experience.. Data Analysis The data in this study is from two sources. One source is from 476 students’ scores on PVST I & II (See Appendix A); the other one is from the interviews with nine subjects. First, the researcher calculated how many items the subject scored in 180 items. Next, based on 476 subjects’ scores, the researcher utilized Rasch model to examine the extent to which 180 items fit the Rasch model (See Appendix B). After the analysis, 12 items were found to deviate significantly from what Rasch model had predicted (See Appendix C & D). 476. 35.

(43) subjects’ scores on PVST I & II and 12 misfit items were the results of the quantitative data analysis. From 476 subjects’ scores, the researcher chose nine subjects to be the interviewees. The 9 interviewees were 3 seven graders, 3 eight graders and 3 nine graders. The same graders were further picked respectively from three levels, namely the low-proficiency, intermediate-proficiency and high-proficiency. After the selection of the interviewees, the researcher conducted the interviews and the whole process of the interview was audio-recorded. Grounded theory method was used in this qualitative research. The researcher first did data collection from the interviews. From the data collected, the key points were marked with a series of codes, which were extracted from the tapes and transcriptions. The codes were then grouped into similar concepts in order to make them more workable. From these concepts, categories were formed, which were the basis of the researcher’s findings.. 36.

(44) CHAPTER FOUR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS The present study is aimed to investigate EFL students’ attitude towards the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test. The findings of the present study are arranged and discussed in the sequence of the research questions. In each question, a descriptive summary with some quotes is presented first responding to the question, accompanied by Chinese abbreviated transcripts giving the essence of the interview.. Research questions: 1. What are the subjects’ attitudes towards the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test? 2. How can the subjects’ cognitive test-taking processing be described? 3. How can the misfit items be improved?. Attitudes towards the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test. As to the first question, some phrases were mentioned repeatedly in the interview with the 9 subjects. The researcher noticed that phrases like, less anxious, more interesting, much easier and not time-consuming, constantly appeared in the interviews’ transcriptions. To present the findings in a more organized way, the researcher arranged and discussed the findings from three aspects, namely the mental state, comments on the test format, and test endurance. 37.

(45) Mental State (Before the test) The subjects were not told in advance that they would have the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test. Just before the test, their English teacher informed they were the subjects of this vocabulary size test but their scores on the test would not be included in the school evaluation. However, to make sure they would take the test seriously, the scores would be given back to the students since the test results would be a precious reference for their current vocabulary size. From the interviews, 6 of the interviewees told that when they realized they were going to be given a test, they felt a little worried or uncomfortable about the test. 7H interviewee described his anxiety as “……whenever I am nervous, my hands sweat. Sometimes I even left wet stains on the test paper.……” 8L interviewee stated her mental state as “……I was completely awake after hearing the test and even felt a little upset. No one would like tests?” 9I interviewee said she was a little nervous because she wanted to get a good grade on the test. She was worried she would make mistakes in spelling, like reversing the alphabet sequence. She claimed she tended to make this kind of mistakes whenever she is nervous. 8I interviewee said that her anxiety stemmed from her fear of getting a poor grade on the test and the possibility of being scolded by her mom. EXCERPT 1 from six nervous interviewees: . 9I: 還是會有點小緊張，因為我想要考好，測測看自己的程度到哪裡。我怕考的時候拼音會錯亂顛倒被扣分。我只要緊張，原本會拼的字也會拼錯。 8H: 雖然不計分，可是形式上還是一個考試，又是題本，還有答案卡的，好像 38.

(46) 很正式，就弄得我也有點神經兮兮的。 . 8I: 我一向很討厭考試，雖然說不計分，可是老師又說會把分數發回來，那我們老師一定又會叫我們寫在聯絡簿上給家長簽，到時還不是一樣被我媽罵。反正有點煩啦，不想考，上課就好了嘛。. . 8L: 老師沒有先講，也不知道要考什麼，還是會有點緊張。本來剛睡醒還想睡，一聽到又要測驗，就清醒了，心情不太好，誰會喜歡考試。 7H: 我想要知道自己現在的程度如何，所以會想要好好考，有一點擔心不知道. . 要怎麼考。每次只要我一緊張，手就會冒汗，會一直留手汗，有時候還會弄到考卷。 7I: 老師說不算分，可是還是會緊張，因為成績還是會公布。 Only three interviewees did not suffer from the anxiety. The reason for not being. worried aroused interest.. Three interviewees, one at high level and two at low-proficiency,. said they did not feel nervous at all. 9H interviewee described his mental state as “under the conditions that the score would not be included in our school evaluation, I didn’t feel nervous at all. Even though the score would be included, I’ve already got used to tests since I have to face lots of tests every day”. For the two low-proficiency students, they said they would just do the blind guessing from the beginning to the end of the test because even though they tried to read the text carefully, they expected themselves not to understand most of the words in the text. In this case, whether they carefully went over the test or not would make no difference on their scores. Therefore, they chose the easiest way to finish the test, namely blind guessing.. 39.

(47) EXCERPT 2 from three not-nervous interviewees: . 9I: 還好，不會緊張啊，就憑實力。反正老師說不列入成績啊，就算列入成績也沒差啦，每天一直考考考，沒差，習慣了。就測單字嘛，這我比較不怕。. . 9L: 不會緊張，不是說不算分嗎？(成績還是會算出來，只是不列入你們的日常成績計算。)反正我一定看不懂，就用猜的，用猜的很快，不會緊張。 7L: 老師，說實話嗎？(當然，我只是想了解原因，不是來評判你的對錯。)我. . 考試都用猜的，所以我都不會緊張。我英文很爛，從小學就很不好。題目都看不懂，所以我都用猜的，因為就算認真寫，出來的成績就跟猜的都差不多，有時運氣好，猜的還比較高。. (During the test) However, once the nine interviewees turned to the first page of the test, the interviewees’ mental state had a huge change. Six interviewees who felt anxious before the test all felt relieved during the test because they thought the test was not as difficult as they expected. 9I interviewee described her mental state as “I was relieved because there was no blanks for vocabulary and which eased my pressure a lot”. 7H interviewee said his hand-sweat condition was getting better once he glanced at the items. He thought the test was easy and he was not nervous. The other three not-nervous interviewees said they were surprised at the format of the test, which was presented in such an easy way, and they wished the tests would all be shown in this simplified way. 9L interviewee gave the description as “I was extremely happy to see there were all pictures in the tests. The pictures were like comics and I wrote down the answers from my instinct without thinking too much and I liked the test”. The reason for their change in mental state lies in the simplified format of the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test. The stem of the item was not texts but the picture and the subjects were 40.

(48) not required to write down the whole spelling of the target word, but to choose one among four options. The test format, the picture as the stem and four English words as the options, were much easier than the one in the vocabulary tests they used to have in class. The demand for fulfilling this task in the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test is lower than the ones their teachers usually carried on in class. The students all expressed they were less anxious in this test. In conclusion, this simplified test format in the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test does effectively reduce students’ test anxiety, which would have a debilitating effect on students’ performance (Horwitz et al, 1986). The following presented the nine interviewees’ abbreviated transcripts about their mental state while taking the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test. Q:. How did you feel when you turned to the first page of the test and saw the items?. EXCERPT 3 from six interviewees who felt nervous before the test: . 9I: 就鬆了一口氣，因為沒有我最怕的填單字，這樣就解除我很大的壓力。 8H: 本來還會緊張，可是翻開第一頁，還有整本都是這樣，就完全不緊張，.  . 因為沒有很長的句子填空，反正就順順的這樣寫下來， 8I: 整個就…呼…大解脫，就不會緊張了，跟我想得不一樣，有圖看，又有得選，從來就沒這樣考過，以後都這樣考就好了。. . 8L: 有點嚇一跳，想說怎麼都是圖，沒有一堆字。看到題目還高興了一下，因為有幾題我還會寫。像是漢堡那一題和考「8」那一題，還有一些…我忘了，不過難得我還有幾題會寫，應該(分數)不會太低。. . 7H: 看到題目以後，就覺得很簡單，手汗就沒那麼嚴重，就不用一直墊衛生紙，就不緊張了。. . 7I: 感覺蠻簡單的，沒有想像中的難，我寫得還蠻快的，一下就寫完了。. 41.

(49) EXCERPT 4 from three interviewees who were not nervous before the test: . 9H: 跟我當初想得有點不一樣，應該說差很多。太簡單了吧，想說老師怎麼那麼好。. . 9L: 想說怎麼那麼爽，都是圖，像在看漫畫一樣，會就會不會就不會，不用怎麼想，我喜歡這樣考。. . 7L: 翻開看到都是圖，而且還彩色的，很高級的樣子，可是下面的字還是看不懂，不過比起之前的考試，我比較喜歡這種，因為至少我會幾題。. Comments on the Test Format All the interviewees had the similar first impression on the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test. They all claimed that they were surprised at this simplified test format because the stem was in the form of the picture instead of long sentences with the target word missing. Moreover, they felt it would be easier for them to choose the answer from the four options compared with the form of blank-filling. Generally speaking, they preferred this kind of format because the picture was interesting, the options were easy for them to get the answer right, and the response time to each item was short. When they were asked whether they liked this Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test or not, they said if the test was inevitable, they preferred this kind of test. 9I interviewee said she was surprised at the test format when she turned to the first page of the test because the test was not as difficult as she expected. The reason why she claimed the test was easy was because the stem was only a picture without any texts so that she could quickly pick the answer without spending lots of time on reading long sentences as she used 42.

(50) to do. Besides, she said she tended to make spelling mistakes whenever she was nervous; however, in the form of multiple-choice in options, she was free from that worry. (See. EXCERPT 5). 8I interviewee said that she could tell that test-writer must spend lots of time and money on illustrating these pictures. According to her descriptions, she thought these colored pictures were all high-quality and easy to understand compared with the black-and-white pictures she saw in other tests. She also mentioned that she liked the multiple-choice options because she had the confidence of picking the right answer among four options. In the old format, which students were supposed to write down the target word corresponding to the black-and-white picture, she complained that her answer had been disapproved even though she thought her answer was acceptable (See EXCERPT 6). 7I interviewee said she liked the multiple-choice options. She remarked she often forgot to add “s” in the end of verb base form for the third-person singular or “s” in the end of the noun for the plural noun. Such mistakes usually frustrated her a lot (See EXCERPT 7). EXCERPT 5 from 9I interviewee: R: 你對於這個測驗中考試的題型你覺得如何? 9I: 你是說都是圖配合字的這種考法嗎? R: 對，你喜歡這種考法嗎? . 9I: 喜歡啊。我一開始翻開題目的的時候還嚇一跳，想說怎麼這麼單，我以為會很難。 R:. . 你覺得簡單的原因是？. 9I: 它題目都是圖，沒有字，我可以很快下判斷，不需要去閱讀很長的句子，然後. 只需要選答案，也不用寫單字，因為老師沒有先說要考，所以有些. 不熟的單字，有時一緊張就會寫不出來，或是不確定拼法。 43.

(51) EXCERPT 6 from 8I interviewee: R: 你對於這個測驗中考試的題型你覺得如何? 8I:老師你是說選擇題嗎? R: 我是指整個，就是題目只有圖，選項是四個字，然後看圖選一個。 . 8I:就蠻簡單的啊，它的圖我覺得蠻有趣的，因為都是彩色，看起來蠻用心的，跟那種平常我們在考卷上看到的不太一樣，那種有時候會看不太懂。 R: 為什麼看不懂. . 8I: 因為那種圖是黑白的，比較粗糙，有時候不知道它在指什麼，是講整個圖，還是細部的某一個東西，而且它是看圖填單字，沒得選，有時候填的字不是他要考的，可是也說得通，可是老師就是算我錯。 R: 你覺得你還喜歡它什麼部分?. . 8I: 就是選項的部分，因為它有提供四個選項，有得選我大該都能選得出來。. EXCERPT 7 from 7I interviewee: R: 你對於這個測驗中考試的題型你覺得如何? . 7I: 還不錯。 R: 你喜歡它哪一個部分？是圖的部分，還是選項的部分？ 7I: 我覺得選項的部分還蠻適合我的。 R: 怎麼說?. . 7I: 我寫單字時常常會忘了 “s”，像是第三人稱加 “s” 或單複數，因為這樣被扣分就很氣，覺得要全對好難，可是如果用選的，我就比較有把握應該都會對。. Test Endurance There were ninety items included in the Pictorial Vocabulary Size Test. Normally we can expect that test-takers may feel impatient or exhausted while taking the test with a large number of items. What we are worried is that the reliability may be jeopardized by the fatigue of taking tests. Among nine interviewees, three interviewees, all at low-proficiency, 44.