ABSTRACT

Research Findings: The aim of this study was to construct and validate “English Picture Vocabulary Test (EPVT)” that aimed to assess the very young learners’ (VYLs) receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge for specific content areas in English as a foreign language (EFL). In this context, EPVT was created in several stages. One of them was initial construct identification with the literature review on various aspects of assessment in early year’s FL learning and development aspects of very young EFL learners. The other stages were “pre-piloting” with 4 experts and 20 VYLs to obtain their perspectives on the test construction and administration and “final piloting” implementation with 5–6 years old private pre-primary school children (251) to ensure reliability, validity, and test quality. After designing the process of the EPVT was clarified considering the ethical and effectiveness issues, the item analysis with Kuder-Richardson 20 and Point-Biserial Correlation was conducted. Besides, the distribution of the items among the ranges of difficulty and the discrimination index values were specified. Practice and Policy: The findings support that EPVT is child-friendly and effective in assessing preschoolers’ English vocabulary receptively and expressively. Furthermore, it could also serve to provide feedback for teaching and supporting for learning L2.

摘要

研究成果: 本研究的目的是构建和验证“英语图片词汇测试 (EPVT)”，旨在评估非常年轻的学习者 (VYL) 对英语作为外语 (EFL) 特定内容领域的接受和表达词汇知识. 在此背景下，EPVT 分几个阶段创建。其中之一是对早期英语学习和非常年轻的英语学习者发展方面评估的各个方面进行文献综述的初步结构识别。其他阶段是与 4 位专家和 20 位 VYL 进行“预试”，以了解他们对测试建设和管理的看法，以及与 5-6 岁私立学前儿童（251 名）进行“最终试行”以确保可靠性，有效性和测试质量。在考虑伦理和有效性问题阐明了 EPVT 的设计过程后，使用 Kuder-Richardson 20 和点双序列相关进行了项目分析。此外，指定了项目在难度范围和辨别指标值之间的分布。实践和政策：调查结果支持 EPVT 对儿童友好，并且可以有效地评估学龄前儿童的英语词汇接受性和表达性。此外，它还可以为第二语言的教学和支持提供反馈。