Abstract

Receptive vocabulary knowledge appears to reflect broader receptive L1 and L2 language skills such as reading and listening comprehension. The Yes/No vocabulary test, developed to provide a quick estimate of total receptive vocabulary size, requires subjects to check off known words, leaving unknown words blank. Scoring formulae based on signal detection theory offset the effects of guessing. Yes/No type tests, already administered to ESL learners from several language backgrounds, are still in need of validation. This study used a Yes/No test based on a general word list and a Yes/No test based on a university-entrance level word list. The results of these two instruments were measured against the results of an established North American university ESL placement test (The Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency) and its vocabulary subtest. While for most of this study's subjects the results of the more "academic" Yes/No test correlated more closely with the overall Michigan Test and its vocabulary subtest, two language subgroups produced odd results. Most of the Arabic-speaking subjects obtained unusable scores, perhaps due to a high rate of guessing. The French-speaking subjects, on the other hand, appeared to approach both Yes/No tests with caution, and their results on the overall Michigan Test and its vocabulary subtest correlated more closely with the less "academic" of the two Yes/No tests.