ERIC Number: EJ1350915
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Oct
Pages: 26
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0265-5322
EISSN: EISSN-1477-0946
Development and Initial Validation of Productive Vocabulary Tests for Isizulu, Siswati and English in South Africa
Language Testing, v39 n4 p567-592 Oct 2022
Multilingualism in education is encouraged in South Africa, and children are expected to become bilingual and biliterate during the early primary grades. Much focus has been placed on measuring literacy in children's first language, often the medium of instruction (MOI), and English, the language typically used as MOI from fourth grade. However, vocabulary development in African contexts is underexplored, owing to the cost of existing English standardized tests, and the comparatively fewer linguistically and contextually appropriate vocabulary assessments in African languages. To address this gap, we document the development of corpus-informed contextually appropriate tests of productive vocabulary in isiZulu, Siswati, and English, which were used for a project evaluation. The initial validation phase included 412 children. Both tests were reliable and were concurrently validated with reading comprehension tests in each language, and oral language skills in English. This study contributes to our understanding of the factors that affect the variation in vocabulary knowledge in an African context, including age, grade repetition, and vocabulary in the other language. Only English vocabulary was affected by the remote rural location of the school. We recommend some modifications to the tests before they are validated further in other populations.
Descriptors: Test Construction, Test Validity, Reading Tests, Reading Comprehension, African Languages, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Vocabulary Skills, Age Differences, Grade Repetition, Foreign Countries, Multilingualism, Elementary School Students, Language of Instruction, Native Language, Language Tests, Standardized Tests, Computational Linguistics, Program Evaluation, Oral Language, Rural Schools
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: South Africa
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Data File: URL: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2102/10.25828/h109-3y92