Introducing Vocabulary Assessments
Vocabulary assessments were introduced to the Assessment Tool last November and are available to be used with Learners. Please read the document attached below for further information.
The Vocabulary assessments are most appropriate for students with very low reading skills i.e. working at Starting Points or at the lower Steps of the Learning Progressions. They provide one way to assess students who are not yet able to complete a Reading assessment using the Assessment Tool.
You will find the assessment through the usual link to the Literacy and Numeracy for Adults Assessment Tool:
https://assess.literacyandnumeracyforadults.com/Login.aspx
The Vocabulary assessment is computer Adaptive and lets Learners hear the questions being read out to them as well as read them themselves. It is not designed to be a Non-Adaptive assessment or to be sat as a printed paper and pen assessment.
The assessment locates a Learners’ score on a measurement scale and categorises their vocabulary knowledge as emerging, extended, or expanding. The scale was provisional until the end of January 2011 when final calibrations of word difficulty were made using the additional data generated by new users over recent months.
Unlike the other assessments in the Assessment Tool, the Vocabulary assessment does not use the Learning Progressions as its underlying framework. This is because the trials indicated that the three categories stated above provided a clearer report about Learners’ receptive vocabulary, than could be achieved using the vocabulary progressions as the framework.
The Vocabulary assessment items were recalibrated in June 2011. Further information on the Recalibration of Vocabulary Assessment Items is available here.
We hope that the Vocabulary assessment is a useful addition to your assessment toolbox.
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