Event

Beyond knowing words: Assessing the quality of vocabulary knowledge

Saturday, September 4th, 2010, 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM

Speaker: John Read

One of the basic goals for second language learners is to increase the number of words they know, and we now have good measures of vocabulary size, such as Paul Nation’s Vocabulary Size Test. However, it is also important for learners to develop the quality, or depth, of their vocabulary knowledge. This talk will consider various approaches to testing vocabulary depth, including the speaker’s own word associates format, which has been investigated in a variety of educational contexts over the last 20 years, along with other word association measures. Another perspective on vocabulary depth is knowledge of multi-word lexical units, or collocations, and there will be some discussion of how that kind of knowledge can be assessed.

John Read is an associate professor in the Department of Applied Language Studies and Linguistics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and was Head of Department from 2007 to 2010. He has taught applied linguistics, TESOL and EAP at institutions in New Zealand, the United States and Singapore. His main research interests are in assessing second language vocabulary and the testing of English for academic and professional purposes. He is the author of Assessing vocabulary (Cambridge, 2000) and was co-editor of Language Testing from 2002 to 2006. He is currently Vice-President of the International Language Testing Association and will serve as President in 2011-12.

Organization: Fukuoka Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (Fukuoka JALT)

Cost: JALT Members: free
Non-members: 1,000 yen

Venue: Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Satellite Campus, (9F), Tenjin 2-8-38, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka-shi

Location: Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan

Contact Fukuoka JALT

Trevor Holster