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This article describes the development and validation of the new CATSS (Computer Adaptive Test of Size and Strength), which measures vocabulary knowledge in four modalities -- productive recall, receptive recall, productive recognition, and receptive recognition. In the first part of the paper we present the assumptions that underlie the test -- the importance of form-meaning link and the concept of four degrees of knowledge that are implicationally scaled. In the second part of the paper we present the core features of the test in terms of item selection, test format, scoring, and feedback to learners. The third part of the paper describes the process of test validation with 453 students of three English proficiency levels. We adopted the argument-based approach to validation and performed Rasch analyses, Cronbach's alpha, and multiple sets of ANOVAs and Post-hoc tests. The results of these analyses demonstrate the stability, sensitivity, and adequacy of the scoring system, the potential generalizability of the scores, the extrapolation of the scores as indicators of learners' proficiency level and expected vocabulary sizes and the possibility of using the test when making placement considerations or assessing progress.

In order to inform English foreign language (EFL) diagnostic assessment of literacy, this study examined the extent to which 175 first-language Hebrew-speaking EFL young learners from fifth to tenth grade exhibited differences in single-letter grapheme recognition, sub-word, and word reading, and rapid automatized naming (RAN) of letters and numbers. In addition, this cross-sectional quasi-experimental quantitative study examined correlations between the aforementioned literacy components and oral reading speed, spelling, vocabulary, syntax, and morphological awareness. There were no differences between the grades for single-letter grapheme recognition, and participants demonstrated incomplete automatic recognition for this task. Sub-word recognition improved across grades. However, the results highlighted a lack of mastery. Sub-word recognition correlated with word reading and spelling throughout. RAN speeded measures and oral reading speed correlated with sub-word, word recognition, and spelling in the older grades illustrating the presence of accuracy and speed components. Correlations across grades between literacy components and vocabulary, syntax, and morphological awareness provided support for theories explaining how knowledge of multiple layers of words contributes to literacy acquisition. These results comprising EFL diagnostic assessment can inform reading and spelling teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English as a foreign language (EFL) spelling was examined longitudinally three times (4th, 9th, 12th grades) during 9 years of EFL study among Hebrew first language (L1) students. The study examined the impact of L1 literacy variables including phonemic awareness, word attack, and spelling on EFL spelling and the relationship between EFL literacy variables and EFL spelling. Results showed that English spelling measured at earlier points strongly predicted later English spelling. L1 literacy skills measured in fourth grade were more significant than English word recognition in explaining end of ninth grade EFL spelling. Beginning of first year EFL letter knowledge in fourth grade predicted end of first-year EFL spelling. These results show qualitatively different L1 and EFL literacy abilities impacting EFL spelling at 4th, 9th, and 12th grades.

In this article, we describe the development and trial of a bilingual computerized test of vocabulary size, the number of words the learner knows, and strength, a combination of four aspects of knowledge of meaning that are assumed to constitute a hierarchy of difficulty: passive recognition easiest, active recognition, passive recall, and active recall hardest. The participants were 435 learners of English as a second language. We investigated whether the above hierarchy was valid and which strength modality correlated best with classroom language performance. Results showed that the hypothesized hierarchy was present at all word frequency levels, that passive recall was the best predictor of classroom language performance, and that growth in vocabulary knowledge was different for the different strength modalities.

Reports survey findings from 325 Israeli secondary teachers on job satisfaction, work centrality, and occupational stress, and their relationships to teacher background variables, teaching conditions, teacher roles, teacher student relationships, and classroom practices. Compares teacher perceptions of ideal and actual teaching conditions and educational practices. Contains 37 references. (SV)

Finds that kindergarteners in schools where children tend to succeed owned far more books and were read to at home far more often than were children in less successful schools. (FL)