Measurement of Vocabulary Knowledge: Problems and Solutions

It has been widely acknowledged that vocabulruy plays a significant role in second language acquisition. To a Iru·ge degree, Ieruners' improvement in L2 acquisition depends on their progress in acquiring individual words and word pruts (Barcroft, 2004). Meara and Fitzpatrick (2000) claimed that communicative effectiveness can be achieved more successfully by Ieamers with a Iru·ger vocabulruy pool than by those with a more detailed command of a smaller one. Since the 1990's, reseru·ch on L2 vocabula1y acquisition study has drawn increasing attention, and researchers have conducted a large nmnber of studies on various aspects of L2 vocabulruy acquisition. Understanding the ways to measme word knowledge is critical to the reliability and validity of research. However, there has not been a consistent standru·d to assess word knowledge. This chapter examines and compru·es different measmements ofvocabulruy knowledge, analyses their merits and deficiencies, and attempts to identify efficient and reliable approaches for word measurements.