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A Case Study Comparing the Use of Three Discrete Vocabulary Tests in Primary School in China
Chapter II Literature Review 文献综述
代语言测试（LT）是应用语言学的一个重要分支，随着教育测量学在二十世纪初的独立和发展而发展和成熟。许多语言测试都是以英语为基础的，包括教学方法、第二语言习得理论、语言学、语用学、心理语言学、认知心理学、教育测量学、计算机科学等。近一个世纪以来，外语测试的发展经历了四个阶段。第一阶段是前科学阶段，在这个阶段，使用传统的语法翻译法外语教学，测试是一个完全主观的测试方法；在第二阶段，结构主义语言学和心理测量相结合，形成一个听和说的阶段。它主要用于单独的测试问题，主体的语言知识和技能进行测试；在第三阶段，转换生成语法和认知心理学的结合，产生一种认知方式，它主要用于综合题；在第四阶段，社会语言学和心理语言学的结合进入功能方法的阶段，它主要用于交际的问题。从英语测试的历史来看，英语测试的一个重要特点是，从过去对语法、词汇等理论知识的测试逐渐转向对使用英语能力的测试。进入二十一世纪，英语语言测试有了很大的发展，涉及多个学科，如心理语言学、教育学、认知科学、语言习得理论、语言学、教育测量学，成为一个跨学科的领域，它已经发展成为一个专业的职业，成为英语教师的专业发展的一个重要内容。现代外语测试的发展趋势是计算机技术的引入，随着计算机技术的成熟，计算机已广泛应用于外语测试领域，因此外语测试的发展进入了一个新的阶段。
2.1 The historical evolution and theoretical basis of English vocabulary test
2.1.1 History of English vocabulary test
Modern Language Testing (LT) is an important branch of applied linguistics, which developed and matured with the independence and development of educational measurement in the early 20th century (Li, 2005). Many language tests are based on English language, involving teaching methods, second language acquisition theory, linguistics, pragmatics, psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology, educational measurement, computer science and so on (Li, 2005). Nearly a century, the development of foreign language testing has gone through four stages (Li, 2006). The first stage was pre-science stage, at this stage, foreign language teaching using a traditional grammar translation method, the testing is an entirely subjective testing method (Li, 2006); at second stage, structuralist linguistics and psychometric measurement were combined to form a listening and speaking stage. It mainly used separate test questions, a subject's language knowledge and skills were tested (Davies, 1968); at third stage, transformational-generative grammar and cognitive psychology were combined to generate a cognitive method, it mainly used comprehensive questions (Oller, 1979); at fourth stage, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics were combined to enter the stage of functional method, it mainly used of communicative questions (Li, 2006). Judging from the history of English tests, an important feature is that English tests gradually transform from the past emphasis on grammar, vocabulary and other theoretical knowledge test to the tests paying attention to the ability of the use of English. Entering the 21st century, English language testing has been greatly developed, involving a number of disciplines such as Psycholinguistics, Pedagogy, Cognitive Science, Language Acquisition Theory, Linguistics and Educational Surveying, becoming as an interdisciplinary field, and it has developed into a professional occupation and become an important content of development of profession of English teachers. The development trend of modern foreign language testing is the introduction of computer technology, with the maturity of computer technology, computer has been widely used in the field of foreign language testing, thus the development of foreign language testing has entered a new stage (Li, 2005).
2.1.2 Theoretical basis
2.1.2.1 Theory of structural linguistics
In the 1940s and 1950s, structural linguistics was born (Yang, 1999). Structural linguistics divides languages into hierarchical systems composed of different linguistic units. The smallest linguistic units are phonemes, phonemes constitute morphemes, morphemes constitute words, phrases, words and phrases constitute sentences. In this way, structuralist linguists divide language into four levels: phoneme, syntax, vocabulary, and culture (Davies, 1968). This division of levels provides language testers with the basis for language test content selection. According to the division of language by structural linguists, testers break down language into different test points to test candidates’ corresponding language proficiency, this test method is called discrete vocabulary tests (Davies, 1968).
2.1.2.2 Communicative language theory
In the 1960s, people put forward different views on the theoretical basis of English vocabulary testing - the definition of English ability, and put forward the concept of communicative competence (Wu, 2002). Oller (1979) proposed unitary competence hypothesis, pointing out that vocabulary level is an inseparable whole, vocabulary testing practices should be replaced by an overall vocabulary test, this test method is called as a "pragmatic" test. He argued that discrete vocabulary tests do not reflect the language level of a person being tested, only "pragmatic" test can truly reflect the level of vocabulary ability of a tested person. Hymes (1974) put forward the concept of linguistic communicative competence. He believed that linguistic competence should be expressed in the use of verbal communicative competence, which includes possible, feasible, appropriate, done, vocabulary ability test should test the vocabulary communication ability that a person being tested has. In 1980, Canale and Swain (1980) proposed another model of communicative competence, which consists of three parts: grammar knowledge, sociolinguistic knowledge and communicative strategy knowledge, and in 1990, Bachman (1990) put forward a communicative vocabulary competence model, a speaker plays the common role of its knowledge structure, language ability, strategy ability and physiological and psychological mechanisms in a specific scene to achieve communicative purposes. In 1999, Bachman and Palmer (1996) also made clear that the main factor of communicative competence is vocabulary knowledge (grammatical knowledge, discourse knowledge) and pragmatic knowledge (functional knowledge, social language knowledge).Therefore, communicative competence has become one of the most important concepts in English teaching.
The theory of communicative competence not only gave birth to the communicative vocabulary teaching method, but also promoted the development of communicative vocabulary testing theory and practice (Zhou and Gao, 1998). Vocabulary tests gradually developed from discrete vocabulary tests of structuralism to comprehensive and holistic "communicative" vocabulary tests. In 1993, Weir completed a book named Communicative Language Testing, which described the theory, principles and rules of communication language testing, since then, communicative vocabulary tests has become the mainstream of vocabulary tests (He, 2001).
2.2 Empirical research on discrete vocabulary tests and integrated vocabulary tests
2.2.1 Content of discrete vocabulary tests
In "Language Testing", the famous language testing authority named Lado (1961) divided language ability into speech, syntax, vocabulary and culture, believing that language tests can be by listening, speaking, reading and writing, these four ways to test pronunciation, syntax, vocabulary and culture. Because language can be broken down into elements, discrete items can be designed to test whether students have mastered these elements. This test method is called discrete-point test, it is also known as atomistic approach (Lado, 1961). According to language skills, discrete vocabulary testing usually divide vocabulary testing into several parts, such as listening, speaking, reading and writing four parts respectively for testing. Teachers can determine what they will test according to what they need to test.
2.2.2 Characteristics of discrete vocabulary tests
Each examination question of discrete vocabulary tests usually only test a examination point, the main types of questions include filling in blanks, completing sentences, error correction and so on (Yang, 1999). The most widely used type of questions in discrete vocabulary tests are multiple-choice questions (Gong, 2002). Because discrete vocabulary tests usually test only a language point, within limited time, students may answer a lot of questions, thus increasing the coverage of sampling. Sampling large helps to achieve high reliability. In addition, the use of multiple-choice questions has objectivity, which further enhances the reliability of vocabulary testing (Wu, 2002; Han, 2000). However, tests of pre-science stage, such as essay writing are highly subjective, the objectivity and reliability is low, thus multiple-choice item / questions with a high degree of reliability came into being. Although this type of questions is controversial, the design of science multiple-choice questions contributes great to large-scale standardized testing and machine scoring (Lyle, 1999). Heaton, a language-testing expert, argued that multiple-choice questions and integrated vocabulary tests are not a one-to-one relationship, and multiple-choice questions can be used restrictively in many integrated vocabulary tests (Heaton, 1988). Discrete vocabulary tests are very particular about the scientific nature of tests, during this period, a series of statistical analysis methods has been developed, including quantitative analysis methods for analyzing the difficulty of test questions, distinctions, reliability of a whole paper and so on, making vocabulary testing a branch of learning with a solid theoretical foundation and a mature measurement of statistical methods (Li, 2005). However, structuralism tests ignore linguistic situation, during this period, it has little concern for the validity of tests.#p#分页标题#e#
As it is easier for discrete vocabulary tests to achieve the accuracy and objectivity required by educational surveying, the American linguist named Lad (1961) founded the scientific modern foreign language testing theory. His study on testing named Language Testing: The Construction and Use of Foreign Language Test has become a milestone in the history of modern foreign language testing. In the book, Lad (1961) used rich and detailed examples to introduce the test methods of linguistic skills such as language, vocabulary, grammar, listening, speaking, reading and writing, and expatiate on the characteristics of discrete vocabulary tests in detail. The characteristics include taking reliability and validity as the basic standard to evaluate English language testing; tests can be carried out from low to high levels of language structure, from listening, speaking, reading, writing, etc. to measure students’ language skills; a question is used to test a language point, thus there will be infinite questions, but the language component is limited, so the test language component is more effective, the test content covers largely; language scenarios are infinite, but language components are limited, so test language components are more efficient, and test questions can be isolated; tests are accurate and objective, the test results facilitate the statistical analysis of the indicators (such as difficulty, distinction, etc.), the most typical type is multiple choice questions (He, 2001; Han, 2000).
2.2.3 Advantages and disadvantages of discrete vocabulary tests
Discrete vocabulary tests have both advantages and disadvantages (Li, 2005; Wu, 2002). The advantages lie in that proposition intention is clear, non-controversial, the answers are clear objectives; testing of the questions is relatively simple, in the design of the test questions, it can predict the difficulty of each question, the difficulty of the entire examination papers; the scoring is objective and reliable; content of papers and related data can be stored in computers for future reference for the proposition, and it even can be reused (Li, 2006). In the long-term testing practice, discrete vocabulary tests also expose a lot of shortcomings, which is mainly reflected in the following areas: characteristics of multiple-choice questions in discrete vocabulary tests, so that students only need to choose the correct answer among the four options. Thus it is very possible for students to guess the correct answer, the probability of guessing correctly is 25% or 20%, testers are difficult to know exactly whether students really understand the meaning of a word; discrete vocabulary tests have limited ability to examine the practical ability of students (Yang, 1999). Many students have high scores in examinations, but they have poor ability in spelling and sentence organization in practical use of vocabulary (Zhou and Gao, 1998).
2.2.4 The impact of discrete vocabulary tests on teaching
Yang (1999) found that in the course of English teaching, discrete vocabulary tests are often used in the following situations, such as testing part of speech, sentence and other related grammar knowledge about words and phrases; explaining grammar of fixed phrase in the introduction of a text; testing grammar knowledge and common sense of translation in the process of telling about a text; examining students' terminology and grammatical knowledge such as affix in their classroom and after-school assignment. Discrete vocabulary test is indeed a traditional method, considering from the above teaching methods, it can be seen that it focuses on forms: through various forms of grammar teaching to improve students’ understanding and grasp of grammar. However, it only focuses on forms and ignores meaning (He, 2001). Many students are able to master the grammar points in a text, but in another environment, they can not be flexible in the use of what they have learned from the text. Students want to be able to further accumulate flexible, diverse knowledge of grammar and have the opportunity to use what they have learned in a variety of occasions (Wu, 2002). However, the use of discrete vocabulary tests in English teaching in China restrict what students think, students' language ability is relatively poor (Li, 2006).
2.3 Integrated vocabulary tests
2.3.1 Contents of the integrated vocabulary tests
In 1979, Oller (1979) put forward two major theoretical hypotheses after the severe criticism of discrete vocabulary tests. First is pragmatic expectancy grammar, the creativity and redundancy of vocabulary enable vocabulary users to predict the content outside the clues given. Second is the unitary competence hypothesis, which has an emphasis on the inseparability of language skills. Oller (1979) argued that a person's linguistic competence is a unitary competence, and vocabulary tests can measure linguistic competence through comprehensive cloze and dictation, since testing of these two forms contains all or almost all of the linguistic competence. Thus, Oller (1979) proposed the integrative approach aiming at discrete vocabulary tests. The main features are to combine the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, so as to measure students’ synthesis language ability; emphasizing the role of context in the use of vocabulary to test students’ ability of using vocabulary in a certain context; testing questions mainly include cloze test, comprehensive error correction, dictation, oral, composition, and so on.
2.3.2 Advantages and disadvantages of integrated vocabulary tests
On the face of it, integrated vocabulary tests and discrete vocabulary tests are the same (He, 2001). However, questions of integrated vocabulary tests are revolved around a task. Teachers are paying attention to the comprehensive testing of students' skills (Li, 2006). In addition, integrated vocabulary tests focus on the context of communication, but people's communication needs are ever-changing, communication context can not be exhausted, thus it is difficult to design a context which is in full compliance with realistic environment to carry out vocabulary test, and it is difficult for teachers to be based on students’ communication skills showed in a context to infer whether they have same language in other contexts, on the premise of testing, it is difficult to say that the designed communication context is true (Wu, 2002). Moreover, considering vocabulary tests, there are difficulties such as how to control variables, how to ensure the objectivity and consistency of scoring, how to explain the scores, it is difficult to ensure the validity, reliability and efficiency of tests (Zhou and Gao, 1998). How to find a balance between validity and reliability, how to control the reliability of scoring, the choice of scoring or grading system are all questions that need to be answered by integrated vocabulary tests. And integrated vocabulary tests are much more complex than discrete vocabulary tests, it has a higher demand for design of outline of papers, proposition design, scoring staff (Li, 2005). Although there are some shortcomings in integrated vocabulary tests, some idea about testing communicative competence of vocabulary put forward by integrated vocabulary tests is worthy of thinking by those who are engaged in vocabulary tests (Li, 2006).
2.3.3 Impact of integrated vocabulary tests on teaching
Integrated vocabulary tests refer to that in terms of words and phrases, it creates a scene for use of language, such as using props to illustrate a problem; in the introduction of a text, it collects some of social linguistic materials to start lively and interesting discussion; in the process of narration of a text, it is through some video and audio information to describe problems of a text; it allows students to carry out professional exercises and lively discussion after class. Integrated teaching has many advantages, but many times it fails to achieve the intended purposes (Gong, 2002). Due to the bottleneck of discrete vocabulary tests in primary schools in China, many realistic materials can not be effectively displayed in the front of students, many real scenes are not very accurate, students master vocabulary knowledge but they do not really feel the most authentic language experience at the same time (Li, 2006).
2.4 Three types of questions of discrete vocabulary tests
Multiple-choice cloze, matching and blank-filling are the three most widely used types of discrete vocabulary tests in China (Zhou and Gao, 1998; He, 2001; Gong, 2002; Wu, 2002; Li, 2005; Li, 2006). This study explores the use of these three types of questions in Chinese primary schools.
Multiple-choice cloze refers to that a text with moderate difficulty is left with 20 blanks, each blank is a question, each question has four options, requiring students to fully understand the content of the text, based on this to choose the best answer for the blank, so that the meaning and structure of the text is restored (Gong, 2002). Multiple-choice cloze is a kind of comprehensive test questions, which combines reading comprehension, sentence structure, vocabulary, fixed collocation and other test features together to test students’ ability to master and use English in many aspects (Zhou and Gao, 1998). However, it is noteworthy that many of China's multiple-choice cloze questions pay much attention to words and phrases, and there is less attention to testing students’ understanding of the context, resulting in that multiple-choice cloze is almost equivalent to multiple choice, lost its comprehensive characteristics (Gong, 2002).
Matching questions mean that a number of details about a text are given, it asks students to find out paragraphs containing these details (Li, 2005). Matching questions examine students’ ability to quickly read, have an access to information and process information. This kind of questions have not been used in Chinese primary school for a long period of time, the teachers still have some problems in the design and use of this type of questions, the principles of designing of this type of questions should follow the principles include: specific content and scene, clear role of characters, reasonable task set (He, 2001).#p#分页标题#e#
Blank-filling refers to leaving 10 blanks in a text, and then 15 word options are given to ask students to choose the correct word to fill in the missing. 15 optional words can only be used once and can not be reused. This type of questions not only examines students 'accurate understanding of vocabulary, but also examines students' understanding of discourse situational knowledge. Wu (2002) also pointed out that many China's blank-filling tests have more emphasis on words and phrases, there is less testing students’ understanding of context, which is needed to improve.
2.5 Discussion and critical analysis
The above studies have done a more detailed analysis on the advantages and disadvantages of integrated vocabulary tests and discrete vocabulary tests (Yang, 1999; He, 2001; Gong, 2002; Wu, 2002; Li, 2005), which provide valuable reference for those who are engaged in English education in terms of how to use vocabulary tests to achieve the purpose of teaching. Theoretically, integrated vocabulary tests are more helpful than discrete vocabulary tests to cultivate students’ practical ability in English. However, it can be seen from the analysis that integrated vocabulary tests also have some shortcomings, and integrated vocabulary tests have higher requirements for teachers (Li, 2006). While discrete vocabulary tests have shortcomings, but it also has the advantages of high reliability, facility of operating, so although the advocates of integrated vocabulary tests point out the shortcomings of discrete vocabulary tests, completely rejecting all the results of discrete vocabulary tests is still not desirable (Weir, 1993). Weir (1990) concluded that it should be recognized that in practice, most tests have integrated vocabulary tests and discrete vocabulary tests in terms of both test questions and evaluation processes.
Currently, integrated vocabulary test reform is being implemented in China's English education, but there are lots of shortcomings in the external conditions, China's primary schools are still based on discrete vocabulary tests (Li, 2006). This study was mainly from two levels to analyze the application of discrete vocabulary tests, such as multiple-choice cloze, matching and blank-filling in primary schools. First of all, considering from the characteristics of discrete vocabulary test itself, whether China's primary schools scientifically design and use these three kinds of tests, making these three tests have sufficient reliability and validity to effectively test students’ grammar, vocabulary knowledge. Then, this study discussed how to integrate integrated vocabulary tests in their discrete vocabulary tests, so that students can improve the application of English knowledge. In theory, the innovative significance of this study lies in combining the two kinds of opposing theories of discrete vocabulary test theory and integrated vocabulary test theory to discuss the choice of English vocabulary test method. In practice, the innovation of this study is to help the teachers of primary schools in China to discuss how to choose an appropriate test method under the current conditions, it also provides a reference case for the reform of Chinese English vocabulary test.
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