Assessing the German vocabulary size of elementary school students in Graubünden, Switzerland
- Dominique Caglia
, - Erwin Tschirner
Abstract
Vocabulary size correlates strongly with general language proficiency and is highly predictive of academic skills. Frequency-based vocabulary tests, such as the German VST (‚Vocabulary Size Test‘; Institut für Testforschung und Testentwicklung, 2019; Nation, 2001), are particularly informative. The present study validated this test with 229 fifth and sixth graders from Romansh- and German-instructed primary schools in Graubünden, Switzerland. The study shows a high reliability and internal validity of the German VST as well as a strong correlation of the test with the PPVT-4 (Lenhard et al., 2015) in a sub-sample. The test therefore provides relevant data on the academic vocabulary of students with German as L1, L2 or L3 in the Romansh context.
Keywords
German as a foreign language; German as a second language; elementary school; academic vocabulary; test validity
Author Biography
Dominique Caglia
Dominique Caglia (n. Dosch), doctoral student in German as a foreign and second language at the University of Fribourg. Studied pedagogy/psychology and Romansh and conducts research at the PH Graubünden on multilingualism in schools.
Pädagogische Hochschule Graubünden, Scalärastrasse 17, 7000 Chur
E-Mail: dominique.caglia@phgr.ch
Erwin Tschirner
Erwin Tschirner, Gerhard-Helbig-Professor of German as a Foreign Language, Emeritus at the University of Leipzig, Germany; main research areas: Second Language Acquisition (speaking, reading, listening, vocabulary), language proficiency assessment and assessment theory, German syntax and morphology, language teaching.
Universität Leipzig, Herder Institut, Beethovenstrasse 15, D-04107 Leipzig
E-Mail: tschirner@uni-leipzig.de