Assessing depth of word knowledge of beginner learners of French, German, and Spanish aged 11-14 in England

Natalie Finlayson, Emma Marsden

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the development of vocabulary achievement tests for young, beginner learners of French, German, and Spanish as foreign languages. Key challenges at this level include: (1) identifying test items that correspond to relevant aspects of word knowledge; (2) adapting the design of these items to the needs of school pupils; (3) ensuring parity across learners and languages; (4) designing flexible tests that can be completed both in-class and online. We describe our test purpose and relevant rationales, and present examples of items used in England’s National Centre for Excellence for Language Pedagogy (NCELP) tests, which are currently being piloted in some of NCELP’s 45 networked schools and beyond.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInnovation in Learning-Oriented Language Assessment
EditorsSin Wang Chong, Hayo Reinders
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages137-161
Number of pages25
ISBN (Electronic)9783031189500
ISBN (Print)9783031189494, 9783031189524
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Mar 2023

Bibliographical note

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details

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