Pecorari, D. orcid.org/0000-0001-5299-8982, Malmström, H. and Warnby, M. (2025) A test of controlled productive knowledge of English academic vocabulary. Acta Didactica Norden, 19 (1).
Abstract
Within the field of language education, language assessment is an important concern, for both pedagogical and research purposes. Vocabulary is a key aspect of language proficiency, underpinning the four skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. In academic contexts, of particular importance is academic vocabulary, the part of the lexicon which is better represented in academic than in general discourse, and which constitutes a key dimension of students’ academic literacy. The present paper details the design and initial validation of a new test of controlled productive knowledge of English academic vocabulary. The test design closely follows that of the Productive Vocabulary Levels Test (Laufer & Nation, 1999) but the new instrument – named the Productive Academic Vocabulary Test – uses a different basis for defining academic vocabulary and employs an updated set of scoring principles. The test was validated using scores from 232 participants at three Swedish universities. Findings indicate that the test can discriminate levels of knowledge of English academic vocabulary amongst the target population and that the scoring principles provide a nuanced measure of vocabulary knowledge. Pedagogical and research implications are discussed.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | ©2025 Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | academic vocabulary; vocabulary testing; language education; Productive Academic Vocabulary Test (PAVT); English for academic purposes (EAP) |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Education (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 09 May 2025 14:16 |
Last Modified: | 09 May 2025 14:16 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | University of Oslo Library |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:226457 |