Validation of the Vocabulary Size Test

Abstract

The Vocabulary Size Test (VST) is one of the most commonly used assessment tools for measuring English vocabulary size in the field of language testing. Despite its common usage, only a limited number of validity and reliability studies were carried out for the VST. Besides, they were mostly predicated on the Rasch model. This validation study attempted to reveal evidence for construct validity for the VST, and for this purpose, item response theory (IRT) analyses were performed based on the three-parameter logistic model (3PLM). The assumptions of IRT were investigated via factor analysis (unidimensionality) and Yen’s Q3 statistic (local independence). To add evidence based on internal structure and to check fairness as lack of measurement bias, detailed differential item functioning (DIF) analyses were conducted with Mantel-Haenszel, Lord's chi-square test, and Logistic regression methods. The validation results with IRT showed that the 3PLM, which includes the guessing parameter, fitted the data better than the one and the two-parameter logistic models. DIF results indicated that 10 items exhibited large DIF (five favoring males and five favoring females). The results further showed that the guessing effect was not negligible for the VST.

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