Measuring Students' Knowledge of Common Expressions

• In Event: 31.088 - Deconstructing Vocabulary to Inform Practice: Investigating Different Aspects of Vocabulary Knowledge With Diverse Learners

Abstract

Objectives

This paper describes development of an instrument to measure students’ knowledge of common expressions, the Test of Common Expressions (TCE). Students’ knowledge of vocabulary beyond the word level has become more important as college and career readiness standards emphasize the importance words and phrases. The TCE may serve as a useful tool for assessing students’ knowledge of phrases and serve as proof of concept of an innovative assessment.

Theoretical Framework

Theories on vocabulary knowledge hypothesize that an individual’s lexicon is not only comprised of individual words, but also recurrent strings of words, or formulaic sequences (Schmitt, 2004; Sinclair, 1991; 2004; Wray, 2002). Formulaic sequences help language users with fluency, focusing on the meaning of discourse (Nattinger & DeCarrico, 1992; Wray, 2002). Corpus researchers have identified many types of formulaic sequences (Schmitt, 2004; Wray, 2002), such as lexical bundles (Biber, Conrad, & Cortes, 2004), idioms (Simpson & Mendis, 2003) and collocations (Shin & Nation, 2008).

Method

The TCE was developed using a corpus-based approach; a corpus of ~20 million words based on based on elementary school English Language Arts books was used. Common expressions that occurred 10 times or more per million were identified using a corpus program called Collocate (Barlow, 2004). Four-word expressions were selected as the focus of study; a total of 260 four-word expressions were identified. Then, expressions were rated by a group of linguists with experience in language teaching. Ratings of frequency and importance were used to identify 25 expressions to use on the TCE.

Data Sources

In a pilot of the instrument 1,450 English learners (ELs), former ELs, and native-English speaking students completed the TCE in Grades 3-8 in the Houston Independent School District.

The TCE contains 25 items. Items consisted of sentences written in a cloze format with the addition of a word bank (Nekrasova, 2009; Revier 2009). Test takers selected each word of a four-word expression from a word bank; a separate word bank was provided for each item.

Results

Analyses of the pilot data were conducted to evaluate both the reliability and validity of the TCE instrument. Results indicate that for all three student groups, the TCE consistently and systematically measures students’ knowledge of common expressions. These findings support the efficacy of the TCE as a tool for assessing knowledge of phrases across students of various levels of English language proficiency.

Scientific Significance

To date, research on knowledge of common expressions has been based on adult language. There is no list of common expressions particular to adolescent language, and little is known about the ages at which students develop knowledge of different expressions, or, if and when different types of expressions become more academically important. Finally, no research has been conducted with adolescent ELs in this area. The TCE has the potential to identify an important area of vocabulary knowledge which is important to helping students increase their vocabulary knowledge. The discussion considers implications for the use of the instrument, as well as instruction of common expressions.

Authors

• Laura J. Wright, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Lindsey Anne Massoud, Center for Applied Linguistics