The current study investigated the usage of the bilingual Vocabulary Size Test (VST) within Korean EFL environment. Thirty-two university students with an intermediate to high proficiency participated in this study. The students were given a Korean bilingual version of VST and reported their official English scores. The findings of this study are as following: (1) The VST scores showed a significant relationship with students’ proficiency scores which indicates that students with a bigger size of vocabulary had a higher proficiency of English. (2) When VST scores were divided into each frequency level, no particular frequency band demonstrated a significant relationship with English proficiency. Also, the difficulty of each level did not show a consistent pattern. Based on the results of VST, the influence of Korean EFL environment such as loanwords and the test-oriented education system was discovered. This study provides implications for teaching vocabulary in EFL environment and suggests the need for developing of a vocabulary size test for Korean context.

Laufer, Elder, Hill, and Congdon (2004) proposed the vocabulary strength framework reflecting the process of vocabulary knowledge development with a hierarchical order of four strength modalities: passive recognition, active recognition, passive recall, and active recall. Employing this framework, the present study aims to empirically examine its generalizability to EFL contexts and further explore its availability to validating the TEPS vocabulary section. Three sets of web-based tests for three proficiency groups (beginner (n=37), intermediate (n=31), and advanced (n=30)) are developed with words from three frequency bands (3000, 5000, and 7000). The test includes four sections representing four strength modes and an optional TEPS section for the two upper groups. A one-parameter Rasch model analysis reveals that item difficulties agree to the hierarchical sequence of difficulty order in the framework. Different vocabulary growth rates were found across modes and word bands. The TEPS item difficulties that are closer to recall than recognition may give a theoretical account of the measuring construct that the TEPS items tap upon.

본고는 2015 개정 교육과정이 개발되고 있는 현 시점에서 한문과 교육과정 ‘어휘’ 관련 내용과 적용의 실제 사이에서 발생할 수 있는 간극을 최소화하기 위해, 2010학년도 본수능부터 2016학년도 6월 모의평가까지의 평가 문항을 중심으로 그간 한문과에서 실시된 ‘어휘’ 관련 평가 문항의 내용 요소와 내용 요소별 평가 유형 등을 분석하였다. 그 결과 그간 대학수학능력시험에서 출제된 어휘 관련 평가 문항들은 한자 어휘와 관련된 다양한 평가 요소를 고루 반영하고 있으며, 그 유형도 변화를 거듭하여 다양한 유형으로 안착된 상태였다. 하지만 급변하는 교육 환경 속에서 한문과가 위상을 공고히 하면서 발전해 나가기 위해서는 현재 상태에 안주할 것이 아니라 끝임 없이 새로운 평가 요소를 개발하고 해당 요소에 적합한 유형의 문항을 출제할 필요가 있다.

The present study investigated a washback effect regarding vocabulary test format and students' learning outcomes. Ninety-three Korean university students in English reading courses were given a vocabulary pre-test and pre-treatment survey. Then they were divided into three groups. A control group was taught how to write a summary in English and a receptive vocabulary knowledge group was taught how to study vocabulary, then both of these groups were instructed that they would have a receptive vocabulary knowledge test. A productive vocabulary knowledge group was taught how to study vocabulary and told that they would have a productive vocabulary knowledge test. After 15 weeks, they all were given a post-vocabulary test consisting of both receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge items, and post-treatment survey. Results indicated that the productive vocabulary knowledge group showed the best outcomes overall. Its students earned significantly higher scores on the productive vocabulary knowledge post-test than the other groups. Regarding the receptive vocabulary knowledge post-test, it featured scores similar to the receptive vocabulary knowledge group, which had the highest scores. Moreover, the productive vocabulary knowledge group's pre- and post-treatment survey data revealed that its students had improved their ability to use the vocabulary learning strategies that were taught.

Differential item functioning (DIF) has been studied as a statistical method of finding item bias, and DIF studies have been conducted on tests of verbal abilities such as reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. Recently, researchers of language testing sought to understand the causes of DIF. The purpose of this study was to find possible sources of explaining DIF on an EFL vocabulary test, which can then benefit EFL learners and teachers as well. This study thus applied three DIF detection methods (the likelihood ratio test, SIBTEST, and the Mantel-Haenszel test), followed by a regression analysis using item categories and difficulties as predictors of explaining DIF. As a result, only the “Academic” category was statistically significant, positively contributing to DIF in favor of male examinees. Male examinees were better at academic lexical words than female learners of EFL at the same vocabulary knowledge level. This also means that female learners were relatively strong at nonacademic words in comparison to male EFL learners. This finding may lead to more effective curriculum of teaching English. The need for more evidence from replicated studies with better item categorization is also warranted.