Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.15516/cje.v23i4.4145
Measuring Academic Vocabulary Breadth and Depth in Upper- Elementary School Students
Vedrana Gnjidić
orcid.org/0000-0002-4036-4525
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Zagreb Ivana Lučića 3, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Gordana Keresteš
; Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Zagreb Ivana Lučića 3, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Anita Peti-Stanić
; Department of South Slavic languages and literatures Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Zagreb Ivana Lučića 3, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This study analyzes a newly developed measure for assessing the knowledge of general
academic vocabulary in upper-elementary school students in Croatia. This researcherdesigned
instrument assesses students’ command of synonymy and the limits of
collocational use as a proxy for academic vocabulary breadth and depth. Elementary
school students in the 5th, 6th, and 7th grade participated in the study (N = 152, 69,7%
girls). In addition to the newly developed measure for assessing general academic
vocabulary, students completed the Mill Hill Vocabulary Scales, a standardized
measure of general vocabulary knowledge. The results show that the newly developed
instrument for measuring general academic vocabulary knowledge is reliable and
valid—it has adequate internal consistency, is sensitive to the expected age and
gender differences in vocabulary, and correlates highly with the results obtained by
the Mill Hill Vocabulary Scales. This new instrument could fill the gap in academic
vocabulary-related research since the currently available vocabulary assessment
measures in Croatian do not focus on this particular register. More specifically,
our new measure could be used to evaluate various types of academic vocabulary
interventions in schools.
Keywords
collocations; general academic vocabulary; synonymy
Hrčak ID:
272630
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2021.
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