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Words that go together well: developing test formats for measuring learner knowledge of English collocations

Gyllstad, Henrik LU (2005) In The Department of English in Lund: Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 5
Abstract
This paper describes the development of two test formats, COLLEX and COLLMATCH,

measuring receptive recognition knowledge of English verb +NP collocations, and reports

findings from pilots and initial test administrations involving Swedish upper-secondaryschool

and university level learners. Administrations of the test formats produced highly

reliable scores and the performance of native speakers provided evidence of test validity. The

tests discriminated significantly between upper secondary school learners, university learners,

and native speakers. Significant differences were however not observed throughout between

advanced learner groups only one term apart in terms of... (More)
This paper describes the development of two test formats, COLLEX and COLLMATCH,

measuring receptive recognition knowledge of English verb +NP collocations, and reports

findings from pilots and initial test administrations involving Swedish upper-secondaryschool

and university level learners. Administrations of the test formats produced highly

reliable scores and the performance of native speakers provided evidence of test validity. The

tests discriminated significantly between upper secondary school learners, university learners,

and native speakers. Significant differences were however not observed throughout between

advanced learner groups only one term apart in terms of level of formal instruction. A

vocabulary size measure was found to correlate highly with scores on both tests, which seems

to suggest that learners with large vocabularies have a better receptive command of verb + NP

collocations than learners with smaller vocabularies. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Language testing Applied linguistics Collocation test format English EFL
in
The Department of English in Lund: Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 5
ISSN
1650-691X
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
24fb4bfc-f8f9-45ac-aad5-6aace284da2c (old id 531577)
alternative location
http://www.englund.lu.se/images/stories/pdf-files/workingspapers/vol05/gyllstad-wp-05.pdf
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 09:31:10
date last changed
2018-11-21 20:53:41
@misc{24fb4bfc-f8f9-45ac-aad5-6aace284da2c,
  abstract     = {{This paper describes the development of two test formats, COLLEX and COLLMATCH,<br/><br>
measuring receptive recognition knowledge of English verb +NP collocations, and reports<br/><br>
findings from pilots and initial test administrations involving Swedish upper-secondaryschool<br/><br>
and university level learners. Administrations of the test formats produced highly<br/><br>
reliable scores and the performance of native speakers provided evidence of test validity. The<br/><br>
tests discriminated significantly between upper secondary school learners, university learners,<br/><br>
and native speakers. Significant differences were however not observed throughout between<br/><br>
advanced learner groups only one term apart in terms of level of formal instruction. A<br/><br>
vocabulary size measure was found to correlate highly with scores on both tests, which seems<br/><br>
to suggest that learners with large vocabularies have a better receptive command of verb + NP<br/><br>
collocations than learners with smaller vocabularies.}},
  author       = {{Gyllstad, Henrik}},
  issn         = {{1650-691X}},
  keywords     = {{Language testing
Applied linguistics
Collocation
test format
English
EFL}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  series       = {{The Department of English in Lund: Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 5}},
  title        = {{Words that go together well: developing test formats for measuring learner knowledge of English collocations}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/5346153/625034.pdf}},
  year         = {{2005}},
}