Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

LexVEN: A quick vocabulary test for proficiency in Venetan

Ferin, Maria ; Gyllstad, Henrik LU ; Venagli, Ilaria ; Zordan, Angelica and Tanja, Kupisch (2023) In Isogloss 9(1). p.1-31
Abstract
While there is growing awareness that knowledge of regional minority languages must be protected, assessing the vitality of such varieties is challenging due to the lack of assessment materials. Our contribution documents the creation and validation of LexVEN, a bimodal yes/no vocabulary task, with the purpose of assessing the proficiency of users of Venetan with receptive and/or productive skills. The materials will be freely available. The vocabulary items were validated in a survey with 161 speakers of Italian, of which 136 came from the Veneto area. We have relied on Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) in validating test items, and we demonstrate correlations with self-reported measures of proficiency and... (More)
While there is growing awareness that knowledge of regional minority languages must be protected, assessing the vitality of such varieties is challenging due to the lack of assessment materials. Our contribution documents the creation and validation of LexVEN, a bimodal yes/no vocabulary task, with the purpose of assessing the proficiency of users of Venetan with receptive and/or productive skills. The materials will be freely available. The vocabulary items were validated in a survey with 161 speakers of Italian, of which 136 came from the Veneto area. We have relied on Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) in validating test items, and we demonstrate correlations with self-reported measures of proficiency and language use. Given the absence of any other assessment tools of Venetan for cross-validation, we further collected speech samples from a subset of the Venetan participants with active proficiency whose proficiency was rated by native speakers of Venetan. We discuss the procedures within a validation framework, concluding that LexVEN is reliable as a proficiency assessment tool of Venetan. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Isogloss
volume
9
issue
1
pages
30 pages
publisher
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
external identifiers
  • scopus:85175248106
ISSN
2385-4138
DOI
10.5565/rev/isogloss.374
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
1a847c02-1979-48b9-8517-87a0c5930867
date added to LUP
2023-11-01 13:54:56
date last changed
2023-12-15 11:27:25
@article{1a847c02-1979-48b9-8517-87a0c5930867,
  abstract     = {{While there is growing awareness that knowledge of regional minority languages must be protected, assessing the vitality of such varieties is challenging due to the lack of assessment materials. Our contribution documents the creation and validation of LexVEN, a bimodal yes/no vocabulary task, with the purpose of assessing the proficiency of users of Venetan with receptive and/or productive skills. The materials will be freely available. The vocabulary items were validated in a survey with 161 speakers of Italian, of which 136 came from the Veneto area. We have relied on Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) in validating test items, and we demonstrate correlations with self-reported measures of proficiency and language use. Given the absence of any other assessment tools of Venetan for cross-validation, we further collected speech samples from a subset of the Venetan participants with active proficiency whose proficiency was rated by native speakers of Venetan. We discuss the procedures within a validation framework, concluding that LexVEN is reliable as a proficiency assessment tool of Venetan.}},
  author       = {{Ferin, Maria and Gyllstad, Henrik and Venagli, Ilaria and Zordan, Angelica and Tanja, Kupisch}},
  issn         = {{2385-4138}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{1--31}},
  publisher    = {{Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona}},
  series       = {{Isogloss}},
  title        = {{LexVEN: A quick vocabulary test for proficiency in Venetan}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.5565/rev/isogloss.374}},
  doi          = {{10.5565/rev/isogloss.374}},
  volume       = {{9}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}