Introducing LexTALE: A quick and valid Lexical Test for Advanced Learners of English

• Published in: Behavior research methods Vol. 44; no. 2; pp. 325 - 343
• Main Authors: Lemhöfer, Kristin, Broersma, Mirjam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer-Verlag 01.06.2012; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Bilingualism; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive Psychology; Data processing; England; English as a Second Language Instruction; English as a Second Language Tests; English Proficiency; Experimental psychology; Experiments; Female; Humans; Internet; Korea; Language; Language Tests; Language Therapy - methods; Male; Medical imaging; Multilingualism; Netherlands; Pattern recognition; Predictive Value of Tests; Psycholinguistics; Psychology; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; R&D; Reproducibility of Results; Research & development; Second Language Tests; Studies; Translations; Validity; Vocabulary; Vocabulary Size; Young Adult; England; Netherlands; Korea; English vocabulary test; Self-ratings of proficiency; Second language
• ISSN: 1554-3528; 1554-351X; 1554-3528
• DOI: 10.3758/s13428-011-0146-0

The increasing number of experimental studies on second language (L2) processing, frequently with English as the L2, calls for a practical and valid measure of English vocabulary knowledge and proficiency. In a large-scale study with Dutch and Korean speakers of L2 English, we tested whether LexTALE, a 5-min vocabulary test, is a valid predictor of English vocabulary knowledge and, possibly, even of general English proficiency. Furthermore, the validity of LexTALE was compared with that of self-ratings of proficiency, a measure frequently used by L2 researchers. The results showed the following in both speaker groups: (1) LexTALE was a good predictor of English vocabulary knowledge; 2) it also correlated substantially with a measure of general English proficiency; and 3) LexTALE was generally superior to self-ratings in its predictions. LexTALE, but not self-ratings, also correlated highly with previous experimental data on two word recognition paradigms. The test can be carried out on or downloaded from www.lextale.com .