OATA EVALUATION AND METHODS RESEARCH

The

and

Rationale,Development,

Standardizationof

a BasicWordVocabularyTest

A methodological

measurement of

acquisition.

report on the conceptual

American-English basic

representation and

word vocabulary

DHEW Publication No. (HRA) 74-1334

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE

Public Health Service

Series 2Number 60

Health Resources Administration

National Center for Health Statistics

Rockville, Md. April 1974

VitaI and Health Statistics-Series 2-NO. 60

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price $1.15

NATIONAL CENTER FOR HEALTH STATISTICS

EDWARD B. PERRIN, Ph. D., Director

PHILIP S. LAWRENCE, SC.D., Deputy Director

DEAN E. KRUEGER, /lctirzg Associate Director@ ArdysisGAIL F. FISHER, Associate Director for the Cooperative Health Statistics .Systenz

ELIJAH L. WHITE, Associate Director for Data Systems

IWAO M. MORIYAMA, Ph. D., Associate Directorfor International Statistictd Programs

EDWARD E. MINTY, Associate Director for Management

ROBERT A. ISRAEL, Associate Director for Operations

QUENTIN R. REMEIN, Associate Director for Program Development

PHILIP S. LAWRENCE, SC.D., Acting Associate Director for Research

ALICE HAYWOOD, Information Officer

DIVISION OF HEALTH EXAMINATION STATISTICS

ARTHUR J. McDOWELL, Director

GARRIE J. LOSEE, Deputy Director

HENRY W. MILLER, Chief Operations and Quality Control Branch

LINCOLN 1, OLIVER, chief Psychological Statistics Branch

HAROLD J. DUPUY, Ph. D., Psycholo~ical Advisor

Vital and Health Statistics-Series 2-No. 60

DHEW Publication No.(HRA) 74-1334

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 73-600251

PREFACE

The National Health Survey Act of 1956 provides for the establish-ment and continuation of a National Health Survey to obtain informationabout the health status of the population in the United States. The re-

sponsibility for the development and conduct of that program is placedwith the National Center for Health Statistics, a research-oriented sta-tistical organization within the Health Resources Administration of thepub]ic Health Servicem The Health Examination Survey is one of three

different programs employed by the National Center for Health Sta-tistics to accomplish the objectives of the National Health Survey. It isused to collect data by drawing samples of the civilian noninstimtion-alized population of the United States and undertakes to characterizethe population under study by means of medical, dental, psychological,and nutritional examination and various tests and measurements.

In addition to the data collected by the examining, measuring, andtesting procedures, a wide range of other data are collected concern-ing each of the sample persons examined. Therefore it is not only pos-sible to study the many potential relationships of the examination find-ings to one another but also to investigate the relationships of thesefindings to demogr aph.ic and socioeconomic factors.

The psychological component of the Health Examination Surveys isincluded to provide a more complete assessment of the health and weH -being of the U.S. population. It is embedded in an interdisciplinary ap-proach in the study of mental health, psychologic relationships withmedical and nutritional conditions, and of growth, development, andaging.

Examination conditions and competing requirements for examina-tion time dictate that each examination component must be specificallydesigned to fit within these constraints. A long range effort is under-way to develop specific psychological examination procedures withinan overall plan of psychological assessments that can be employed inthese Health Examination Surveys. A first effort was directed towardsdeveloping a test that could be used in assessing level of developmentin verbal ability. Verbal ability was selected because of its centralrole in intellectual development and in formal human communications,

ill

The result of this effort was the development of a vocabulary test, theBasic Word Vocabulary Test. The rationale and development of this testare described in this report. The test was developed to provide a meas-urement instrument of word knowledge acquisition with two additionalproperties that are not extant in any other standardized vocabularytest. These two properties are reflected in its content representation(content validity) of a carefully specified population of words and in itsrange of application from about the third grade level of literacy to thehighest level of word knowledge acquisition. These two properties per-mit assessment of a wide range of vocabulary development in terms ofabsolute level (as estimates of the word population) and relative standingin reference to various normative groups, i.e., age-education standing, onone continuous scale, With proper developmental work, assessment ofvocabulary development can be extended downward to about 2 years ofage and thus extend measurement-capability along the full range of thisdevelopmental aspect of psychosocial functioning.

Iv

CONTENTSPage

Preface ------------------- -------------------------------------------

Functions of Language and Vocabulary Development -----------------------Vocabulary and Language Development and Gro\vth ----------------------Vocabulary and General htellectualDevelopment -----------------------Vocabulary and Human Communication --------------------------------!’ocabulary and Symbolic ntiking ------------------------------------Vocabulary Tests and CulturalBias -----------------------------------

Rationale of the Basic Word Vocabulary Test -----------------------------Conceptual Representation -------------------------------------------Puqoses and Objective ----------------------------------------------

Development of theTest ----- -------------------------------------------

Defining the Unit of Measurement and Estimating the Word Population----

Criteria for Establishing Knou’ledge of the Basic~~ords -----------------

Standardization -------------------------------------------------------Procedure ---------------------------------------------------------Sex and Grade Relationships ------ -----------------------------------

Item Analyses ------------------------------------------------------Grade and Age Norms--- --------------------------------------------

Adult Norms -------------------------------------------------------~her Norms -------------------------------------------------------Use of Tables ------------------------------------------------------Alternate Short Forms ofthe BWVT -----------------------------------Special Short Form of the BWVT -------------------------------------Recommended ScoringMethod ----------------------------------------

Reliability andl~alidity -------------------------------------------------Reliability of the BWVT ---------------------------------------------Validity of the BIVVT ------------------------------------------------

Discussion -----------------------------------------------------------Limitations --------------------------------------------------------

Growth and Development of Basic Word Vocabulary --------------------Applications of tieBWVT --------------------------------------------Further Research and Development -----------------------------------

. ..Ill

1122

33

334

447

99

101114181920222326

292930

3333333435

v

CONTENTS— Con.

Page

Summary and Conclusion -----------------------------------------------

References -----------------------------------------------------------

Appendix I. Brief Description of Dictionaries --------------------------

Appendix H. Listing ofNonbasicWordsin l-PercentSamplefromWebster’s-Derived, Variant, and Redundant Words -------------------------------Technical, Archaic, Foreign, and Slang Words -------------------------Words Not Main Entries in all Four Dictionaries -----------------------Abbreviations ------------------------------------------------------Hyphenated Words and WordCompounds -------------------------------Proper Names -----------------------------------------------------

Appendix 111. Instructions for Administering the BasicWordVocabularyTest

ina School Situation --------------------------------------------------

Appendix IV. The Basic Word Vocabulary Test --------------------------

Appendix V. Scoring Method for Full Scale Basic Word Vocabulary Testand Answer Key------------------------------------------------------

Appendix VI. Short Forms X, Y, and Z, TheBasicWord Vocabulary Test----

AppendixVII. Scoring Method for Short Forms and Answer Keys -----------

35

36

37

38383940

454650

53

54

61

62

71

vi

SYMBOLS

Data not available -------------------------------------- ---

Category not applicable ------------------------------ . . .

Quantity zero ---------------------------------------------- -

Quantity more than O but less than 0.05 ----- 0.0

Figure does not meet standards ofreliability or precision ------------------------------ *

vii

THE RATIONALE, DEVELOPMENT, ANDSTANDARDIZATION

OF A BASIC WORD VOCABULARY TEST

Harold J. Dupuy, Ph. D., Diuision of Health Exmnimztion .Wtisfics

FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE ANDVOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

Language has been devised and developed forall kinds of uses—for exciting attention, for theexpression of feelings, for graphic description,for conveying instructions, for service in closelyreasoned thinking, for scientific exposition, fordisputation, for rhythmic delight, for gossip, andfor abuse. Language serves to assistmemory andfacilitate thought; to communicate meaning and,when necessary or desired, to disguise it; to stateintentions or merely to intimate their nature; to

influence or control the actions of others; and toprovide substitute satisfactions for those thatwould normally be gained by the exercise ofbodily activity.l

Measurement of vocabulary has long inter-

ested educators and psychologists because of itsimportance in language development and growth,its relationship with general intellectual develop-ment, its use in human communication, and itsfunction in symbolic thinking.

In studying the relationships of vocabularysize with language development and growth, pre-cise definitions of terms, measurement proce-dures used, and the nature of the measuring sit-uation must be clearly stated. Attention should be

given not only to measuring vocabulary growth interms of the increase in number of words avail-able for use but also in terms of the knowledgeof range of definitions and precision of meaningsgiven words may have.

The strong relationship between vocabularysize and measures of general intellectual devel-opment has long been noted not only among in-dividuals in the normal range of general intel-lectual ability and maturity but also among thegifted, mentally retarded, and for children as

young as 2 years of age.A person’s ability to read and listen with

understanding, to express himself accuratelyand preciseIy in speech and writing, and to usewords effectively in symbolic thought processesis undoubtedly related to the number and kinds of

words he understands and has at his command.

Vocabulary and Language Development

and “Growth

One of the earliest studies, cited byMcCarthy,~ of the measurement of vocabulary inlanguage development and growth was done byFeldmann in 1833, when he reviewed the reportsof the vocabulary of 33 children. Since that timea great number of studies of language develop-ment and growth have been conducted in tryingto estimate the size of the general English lan-guage and of individual vocabularies for differentage and educational leveLs.1-3 However, theseefforts have not been successful. These authors 1-’]

‘ - have noted some of the difficultiesand others “ain obtaining consistent estimates across differentstudies. These include differences among authorsin definition, or evenall of the following:

failure to specify some or

1

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

definition of the unit of measurement —the word,estimates of the word population,basis for sampling, e.g., the size of thedictionary or the nature of the use sit-uation from which the sampling for thetest was taken, andcriteria used in determining word knowl -edge.

For example, criteria of word knowledge whichmay be applied are:

(1)

(2)(3)

(4)

Thus it

recognition of the commonest meaningof a word,definition in the subject’s own vmrds,

proper use of the word in a sentence,citing an illustration, or naming an ob-ject, orsimply counting the number of differentwords used in a given context,

is important when using a measure ofvocabulary size in studying language developmentand growth that alI these aspects of measure-ment be clearly stated and explicitly defined.

Vocabulary and General

Intellectual Development

The strong relationship between vocabularyand general intelligence was noted as early as1838 by the French physician Esquirol in hisstudies of mental retardates,6 He concluded thatthe individual’s use of language provides the mostdependable criterion of his intellectual level. Thefirst acceptable measure of general intelligence,the Binet-Simon Scale developed in 1905, also put

special emphasis on verbal skills.6 Terman7 in1918 reported a correlation of .91 between mentalage and vocabulary with the Stanford Revision ofthe Binet-Simon Scale. He concluded that a mentalage based on a vocabulary test could serve aswell as the entire scale. Miner s in 1957 re-viewed 21 different studies of the relationship ofvocabulary with more comprehensive tests ofgeneral intellecmal functioning and found a me-dian correlation of .83. Practically all major gen-eral educational achievement tests and aptitudetest batteries for use in school and occupational

counseling and personnelselectionand classifi-

cation include a test of verbal ability. ~ Thosewhich do not are usually explicitly labeled as non-verbal or as performance tests of intelligence.Thorndike and Gallup in 19449 indicated the need,both in research and in practical projects, forsome yardstick with which to measure adult in-telligence. Thorndike and Gallup, 9 and Miner sused a 20-item structured vocabulary test intheir respective studies of American adult in-telligence. In the two major tests used for indi-vidual testing of general intelligence, the corre-lations between the vocabulary subtest scores andthe total test scores are .83, .82, and .83 forthree adult age levels in the Wechsler Adult In-telligence Scale 10 and range from .86 to .96 forfour levels of adult intelligence in the Stanford-Binet Form L-M. 11 Miner concludes from hisreview that vocabulary tests correlate at leastas well with tests of general intelligence as themore comprehensive instruments correlate witheach other. It is also worthwhile to note that testsof vocabulary or verbal ability can be used asearly as age 2 years if not earlier in the meas-urement of general intellectual attainment.

Vocabulary and Human Communication

Words are our principal means of commu-nication with one another. A limited vocabularyhinders, restricts, and confines the possible useof one’s social and intellectual potential. Educa-tional level and attainment of positions in higherlevel occupations are closely related to the sizeof one’s vocabulary, A person’s vocabulary canbe divided into two categories: active, composedof speaking and writing vocabularies, and passive,composed of listening and reading vocabularies.Among literate adults speaking vocabulary is gen-erally the most limited while reading and listen-ing vocabularies are the largest. Young children,of tour se, first build listening and speaking vo-cabularies and these predominate until the timewhen reading and writing skills have been suffi-ciently developed for effective use and furtherdevelopment. Note should also be taken of the manyspecialized vocabularies in technical fields andoccupational trades, among cultural subgroups,and geographic region to mention only a few. Also,there are many meanings or definitions for a given

2

word as well as differences in the depth or breadthof meaning exqmessed in a definition of a word.Vocabulary size alone does not insure effective

communication but is a major tool in such ef -forts.1.4’ 2-14

Vocabulary and Symbolic Thinking

\Vords mav he regarded as “thought ele-ments” in the complicated and intricate processof symbolic thinking. Watts, ~ for example, ex-pressed the relationship between language andthought along the following lines: “We find some-times that we have been thinking only after wehave said what we have thought.” He quotes othersources. “I talk so as to find out what I think—don’t you? 1, rl[~~emust continue to ta~ about our-

selves , . . till we know ourselves.” “I endow’dthy purposes with words that made them known. ”He cites others who have indicated that intellec-tual insights may have to be expressed and thusseen for what they really are before the individ-ual himself can accept or reject them. For ex-ample, an artist does not, in general, first forma complete image of what he wants to express butfinds out what he wants to express by expressingit; he does not know what he will say until he hassaid it, and it comes as a revelation to himself.A great many thoughts, of course, occur beforethey are expressed in words. However, whenthought is tentatively following new tracks andbreaking fresh ground we must put our thoughtsinto words to make them known. Then we are ableto find out what we think by expressing it.

Vocabulary Tests and Cultural Bias

A conwnon criticism of vocabulary tests isthat they are unfair to culturally disadvantagedpersons. Every psychological test measures abehavior sample. Insofar as culture affects be-havior, its influence will and should be reflectedin the test. The same cultural differentials thatimpair an individual’s test performance are likelyto handicap him in schoolwork, job performance,or any other activity correlated with performanceon the test. Tests are designed to show what anindividual can do at a given point in time. Theycannot tell why he performs as he does nor can

they tell how well he might have performed ifhe had been reared in a more favorable environ-ment. Tests should reveal the effects of culturaldeprivation (and the effects of other conditions) .so that appropriate remedial steps can be taken.To conceal the effects of cultural disadvantagesby rejecting tests can only retard progress to-ward a genuine solution of certain social prob-

lems. ~Certainly an English vocabulary test should

not be given to a non-English speaking personand then interpreted as an indicator of his gen-eral intellectual development. However, it can beused to ascertain the level of acquisition of Eng-lish word knowledge. While there are many dif-ferent vocabularies, for example baseball, math-ematics, carPentry, and gambling, a generalpurpose vocabulary test should be based on a goodsample of basic American-English words thatreflect the vocabulary acquisition of the main-stream of the American-English speaking culture.Verbal communication is important in most ofour activities both in receiving and transmittinguseful information to the individual and to society.

RATIONALE OF THE BASIC

WORD VOCABULARY TEST

Conceptual Representation

The fundamental conceptual formulation isbased on an assumption that if there is a pop-ulation, or subset, of basic or core words in theAmerican-English language that can be identifiedand defined by a set of criteria, then the acquisi -tion of knowledge about these words can be viewedas a sample of behavior of psychological interest.The construct term “basic word vocabulary” whenapplied to a person or persons will be used torefer to a sample of behavior presumed to re-flect the acquisition of knowledge about this sub-set of words. It is postulated that if the acquisi-tion of a basic word vocabulary reflects growthand development in basic word knowledge, in gen-eral verbal ability, and in general intellectualability, then the measured level of basic wordvocabulary will increase with age in the earlyyears and will be positively correlated with other

3

indicators of verbal and intellectual ability. For

a given measure of basic word vocabulary, itspsychometiiic properties, functional relationshipwith early age, and magnitude and direction ofrelationships with other indicators of verbal andintellectual abilities for specific samples of in-dividuals are questions for empirical investiga-tion.

Purposes and Obiective

The importance and value of measuring vo-cabulary size are consistent with the current viewamong some psychologists h that psychologicaltests, including tests of general intellectual de-velopment or intelligence, measure the level ofone’s developed abilities. If a suitable means canbe developed to measure the size of one’s basicword vocabulary, then methods, techniques, andconditions can be expIored and developed where-by the size of one’s basic word vocabulary can befurther increased.

A distinction can be made between the sizeof vocabulary in absolute and relative terms. By“absolute” is meant the total number of words inone’s vocabulary. This can be estimated by one’sknowledge of a representative sample of a givenpopulation of words. By “relative” is meant thesize of one’s vocabulary in relation to the vo-cabularies of other groups of persons. There isa need for having some idea of the absolute sizeof vocabulary at the elementary and high schoolleveIs so that growth in size can be assessedthrough the school years.’] At the adult level suchinformation would be useful in determining theextent of cultural or environmental deprivation,vocabulary deficiency, and the amount of changeover long time periods invocabulary developmentdue to educational enhancement and other influ-ences and in assessing thelevel of communicationskills required in different occupations.

Thus the purposes for developing a struc-tured basic word vocabulary test are to providea measure, within certain limits, of the approx-imate size of an individual’s basic word vocab-ulary and to provide a standard of comparison ofhis level of verbal development with others ofsimilar characteristics such as age, education,and education within age.

The need to develop such a vocabulary testis based upon the fact that no current vocabulary

test exists which purports to measure both theabsolute and relative size of one’s vocabulary.Two previous studies were found in review of theliterature in which attempts have been made todevelop ~~cabulary tests of absolute size. 5~12However, both of these studies are outdated andthey suffer from some weaknesses inmethodologyand procedures. Theydonotprovide clearly statedcriteria of the population of words thattheirsam-ple represents, or the criteria used in definingtheir “basic” words (they appear to bemain entrywords from the 1937 and 1940 editions of the Funkand WagnalI’s Dictionary), nor do they provide

expIicit criteria of word meanings used in deter-mining whether one knows a word.

Thus the objective was to develop a basicword vocabulary test which can serve as ameas -ure of both the absolute and relative sizeof one’svocabulary. This required developing and explic-itly stating the criteria to be used in (1) definingthe basic unit of measurement—the basic word,(2) defining the population of basic words, and (3)determining whether one knows a given basicword for the measurement of the absolute size ofone’s vocabulary. To measure the relative sizeof one’s vocabulary requires administering thetest to a number of individuals and developingstandards of performance onrepresentative sam -pies with certain characteristics.

The results of this research and develop-ment effort should provide a useful toolorinstru-ment that can be used in studying the developmentand growth of language, the effects of experimen-tal procedures to promote language growth, andthat can be used as a measure of general verbaland intellectual development with results com-parable to individually or group administeredtests or test batteries of these general abilities.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEST

Defining the Unit of Measurement

and Estimating the Word Population

The following procedures were used in de-fining the unit of measurement and in estimatingthe size of the population of words. First a setof criteria was prepared for drawing a sample

of main entry words from H’ebsfe?’ps Third NeuJ

International llic~kmnvy.~; This dictionary hasthree columns of m~in entries per pagewhichareIabelled herein as A, B, or Cfrom left to right.The criteria for defining a main entry wordwere:

1.

‘7-.

.3.

4.

Only main entries were considered, i.e.,those wards appearing in boldface typeand printed at the left margin of the col-umn.All homogr. rphs (main entry words spelledthe same) for a given word were countedas one word. In the dictionary they arepreceded !q J superscript number. If thefirst homograph appeared in the column,it was counted as one word while succeed-

ing homographs were ignored. If the sec-ond, third, etc., homographs appeared inthe column but the first homograph didnot, the word was not counted at all.Prefixes md suffixes were not countedas words, but abbreviations were counted.The letters of the alphabet were not coun-ted as words in any case.

The procedures used in selecting the pagesfor the sample count were:

1. Pages which were numbered but containedno main entry words, only charts orgraphs, wme counted and subtracted fromthe total number (2, 662) of dictionarypages. There were 13 such pages.

2. The firm and last pages for each letterof the alphabet were counted separately.The middle column was used to obtainan estimate of the number of words onthese pages. The number of main entrywords was estimated by this method for

49 pages. The letter itself was never coun-ted as a word.

3. Of the remaining 2,600 pages, a sampleof 300 pages was drawn. Every 10th pagewas used, starting with page 10, unlessthe page to be used was a first or lastpage of a letter or was a chart page. Inthat case, the next page was used. Fortyadditional page numbers were selectedrandomly in order to get exactly 300pages. A count was made of the numberof words in a column, either the left-hand column (A), the middle column (B),

or the right-hand column (C). ColumnsA, B, or C were counted alternately andonly one column per page was counted.Thus for each column A, B, and C 100separate pages were counted and the countby columns was recorded separately. Ananalysis of variance among the three col-umns was computed and the differencesin mean number of words per column werenot significant at P = .10 level (F= 2.102with 2:297 df). The mean or average num-ber of main entry words per column forthese 300 pages was 30.2.

The estimated number of main entry wordsin Webs terrs Thz%d New Interns ticmal Dic tionavy,

based on the 300 sampled columns, was 235,693.An additional 3 ,S13 words were estimated fromthe first and last pages of each letter. The es-timated total number of main entry words was239,506 with a 95-percent confidence limit of~10,610 words.

The next step in the procedure was to selecta 1-percent sample of main entry words from arounded population estimate of 240,000 for furtherconsideration. One word was taken from everypage of the Webster dictionary except from pageswhose numbers ended in 1 (e.g., 1, 521, 831,1061). The third word from the top of the columnwas chosen. In determining which word was thethird, the same criteria were applied as wereused for counting words in the population (i. e.,

not counting prefixes and suffixes, ignoring allbut first homographs, etc,). If the page numberended in 2, 5, or 8, the third word from the topof the left column (column A) was chosen. Thethird word down in the middle column (column

B) was chosen from pages with numbers endingin 3, 6, or 9. Column C, the right column, wasused for pages ending in 4, 7, or O. An exampleof the procedure follows:

Column and Page Numbers

A B c2 3 4

5 6 7

8 9 1012 13 14

etc.

5

Pages 1, 11, 21, and so forth were skipped. Ifthere were fewer than three usable main entriesin the column, the page number was noted and thepage was omitted. When this procedure was com-pleted, the total word count in the sample was 56words short of the 2,400, the number necessaryfor a 1-percent sample, so 56 pages ending in thenumber 1 were sampled. Every fourth page end-

ing in 1,(31,71,...) was sampled until 2,400 wordsin all were obtained. Columns A, B, and C weresuccessively chosen as in the original procedure.

The words thus chosen were classified intofour categories: (1) compounds of two or more

words and hyphenated entries, (2) proper names,

(3) abbreviations, and (4) others or remainders.Compounds were entries made up of two or moreseparate words such as “cough drop. ” Hyphen-ated words were any entries in which a hyphenappeared in the spelling of the word. Words clas-sified as proper names were main entries fol-lowed by an indication that the first letter wasalways, usually, or sometimes capitalized. Ab-breviations were entries followed by the diction-ary indication abbrev. Only those words des -ignated as “others or remainders” were furtherconsidered. There were 1,360 main entry wordsin this category.

Next, three other major American diction-aries were consulted: The Random House Dic-tionary of thg English Language,l 6 the Wo~ld Book

Dictiona~y, 1*and Funk and Wagnulls New StandaYd

Dictionary of the English Lang’mge. 18 (See Ap-pendix I for a brief description of the four die- .tionaries used.) Any main entry from Webster’sdictionary which was in the “other” category butwas not a main entry word in any one of theseother three dictionaries was put into a separatecategory. There were 979 such words. The 381remaining words were main entries in all fourdictionaries that were not compounds, hyphenated,

proper names, or abbreviations in Webster’s.

The Random House dictionary was used next todetermine if a given word among the 381 remain-ing words was defined as foreign, archaic (in-cluding obsolete or rare), slang or informal, ortechnical. This dictionary precedes a given def-inition with an italicized indication of these cat-egories. If the italicized limited-usage indicatorpreceded all the definitions, the word was appro-priately classified. If there was more than one kind

of limited-usage indicator, the first meaning wasused to classify the word. A total of 74 words fellwithin one of these categories.

If the word was listed as a main entry in allfour dictionaries and was not of limited usage asspecified in Random House, it was consideredfurther. The remaining 307 words were classi-fied as either derived or basic according to a set

of criteria developed for this purpose. A mainentry was considered a derived or variant wordform if in any of the four dictionaries

1. The definition mentioned or referred toanother form of the same word (e.g., beck:

a beckoning gesture) or was simply a dif-

ferent tense form (e.g., supposed: sup-pose).

2. The definition was simply a differentspelling (e.g., calimanco: calamanco).

3. The definition was a different word whichprovided a fuller definition (e.g., boxberry:the check erberry).

4. The entry was a combination of two ormore words and the definition included areference to one or more of the words(e.g., bookkeeper one who keeps accountbooks).

5. The entry word was a derived form witha base word and affix whose meaning couldbe understood with knowledge of the mean-ing of the word and affix (e. g., adiabatic:not diabatic).

Thus a basic word is a single word form and nota proper name, abbreviation, affix or letter witha main entry common to the four major Americandictionaries whose referent terms furnish a com-

prehensive definition, and it is not subordinateto another basic word form of the same term or

classified as foreign, archaic, slang, or technical,,This procedure also eliminates simple, regular,,or common variations of basic word forms suchas words formed with affixes, plurals, compar -atives, adjectives, verb forms, etc.

The complete set of procedures used hereresulted in a final sample of 123 main entry ba-sic words in Webster’s which were also mainentry basic words in the other three major Amer-

ican dictionaries. Since these words came froma 1-percent sample, the population estimate is12,300 (123 X 100) basic vocabulary words thatwere main entries in the four major American

6

Table A. Number and percent distribution of l-percent sample of main entry words se-lected from h’ebster’sThird International Dictionary by categorization of words

Categorization of words

All main entry words~ ---------------------

Checked only in Websters ’s------------------

Compound or hyphenated --------------------------Proper nouns ------------------------------------Abbreviations -----------------------------------

Not a main entry in 3 other majordictionaries?------------------------------

A main entry in all 4 dictionaries ----------

Classified in Random House as:Technical ---------------------------------------Foreign -----------------------------------------Slang-------------------------------------------Archaic -----------------------------------------

Derived, variant, or redundant3-----------------Basic--------------------- ----------------------

Number of words

l-percentsample

2,400

1,040

775239

26

979

381

5014

;

184123

Populationestimate

240,000

104,000

77,50023,900

2,600

97,900

38,100

5,0001,400

700300

18,40012,300

Percentdistribution

100.0

43.3

32.39.91.1

40.8

15.9

2.1.6.3.1

7.75.1

.‘Excludes main entries which were prefixes, suffixes, letters. and other than the

first-listed homographs.~Random House, World Book, and Funk and Wagnalls Dictionaries.3Categorized by three psychologists (1 Ph.D.; 2 B.S.’s) according to specified cri-

teria (see text). One basic word. Denis. was reDlaced bv the next closest basic word.. .pennan~, following penis in IJebst&r;s. “

dictionaires. With a population estimate of

240,000, asample size of 2,400, anda5.l25-per-cent incidence of basic words inthesample, undersimple random sampling statistics thepopulauonestimate of 12,300 couldbe expected to fall with-inthe rangeof 10,200to 14,400 titha 95-percentlevel of confidence (Guilford,lg p. 168). SeetableA for a detailed breakdown of results of theseprocedures.

Criteria for Establishing Knowledge

of the Basic Words

Having concluded the process of samplingand having arrived at a final list of 123 basicwords, the next step was thatofdevelopingcri-teria for establishingknowledge of the words.

This was accomplished by specifying criteriatobe used in the actual test formulation and con-struction. Thus the whole procedure provides anoperatiorul dej%-nition for establishing knowledgeofthe words for theBasic Word VocabularyTest

(BWVT). Of course, many other operational def-initions are possible and ifused, could becom-p=ed with this procedure. The form used was afive-choicemultiple-choicetestwith each item

containinga stem word or phrase, the correct

response,and fourdis~actors.

Several criteriawere developedto act as

guidelinesin the item construction.These cri-

teriawere stringentlyadheredtotoassure con-

sistencywithinand between items. Where pos-sible,thestem was thesingleword beingtested.

7

In a number of cases, however, it was advanta-geous to use a phrase tomake the item clearerand to aid in adherence ;O other specified cri-teria.

The criteria used for constructing the cor -rect responses were:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

The correct responses were chosen torepresent the most common meaning of~he stem word as indicated by the WovldBook Dictionary.The correct response was a less difficultword than the stem word; that is, it wasa more frequently used word as deter-mined by the Thorndike and Lorge 20 wordcount. aWhere possible, the correct response wasa single word synonym of the stem word.Where this was not feasible, a word orphrase was used to set the context of thestem word.Explicit attention was given to avoidingalliteration between the stem word andthe correct response in order to preventgiving clues. Where this was not feasible,distracters were chosen that also sounded

like the stem word.

Explicit attention was given to balancingthe length of words or phrases so that thecorrect responses were not consistentlylonger or shorter than the stem word anddistracters.

Where applicable, the correct responsewas given in parallel form to the stem

‘A few exceptions to this criterion exist.1, Some items were at such a low level of difficulty (AA,A

in Thornd]ke aud Lorge) that It was impossible to con-struct adequate, correct responses at a lower level of dif-ficulty; therefore, they are at the same level of difficulty.This is the case for the following stem words: car, poor,thu~, xhore, advice, desert, event, stage, witness,

2. In the item with the stem word destztute, the possiblecorrect responses (other than poor which was avoidedbecause earlier in the test it was a stem word) were all ata more difficult level. In this case, the word needy, whichwas at the closest level of difficulty to destitute, was cho-sen.

3, In the item with the stem word g-hb, there was a lack ofsny feasible correct responses at a lower level of difficul-ty; therefore, the word j%errt, which is at the same levelof difficulty, was used.

word in relation to tense and part ofspeech.

The following criteria were used for con-structing the distracters:

1.

2.

3.

4,

5.

The distracters were less difficult thanthe stem word and at the same or slightlylower difficulty level than the correctresponse.The clistractors were in parallel form tothe stem word, the correct response, andeach other in regard to tense and part ofspeech.Spelling and sound similarities wereavoided between the stem word and thedistracters except where necessitatedbecause of sound or spelling similaritiesbetween the stem word and the correctresponse.Distracters were chosen to assure thatthey had no relationship to any of the def-initions of the stem word.Effort was made to keep repetition ofdistracters (and correct response) to aminimum throughout the test.

With the use of the above lists of criteria,the actuaI test items were constructed. The itemswere then ordered from easiest to most difficultaccording to the frequency of occurrence in theThorndike and Lorge word count. Where therewas more than one stem word at any specificlevel, they were listed alphabetically. There were39 words which were not listed at all in Thorndike,and they were placed alphabetically at the end ofthe list. This was a tentative order of difficultyto be used until empirical data could be obtainedand used to order the items by level of difficulty.

The next procedure was to assign the posi-tion of the correct response (A, B, C, D, or E) toeach item. The format used was that of randomlyassigning within each group of 20 items an equal

bone exception to this criterion exists, that being the itemwith the stem word pifion and correct response pine. Because of

. . .sPellmg and sound slmdarltles between stem word ~d correctresponse, It was necessary to choose distracters with similaritiesin spelling and sound. Since none were available at the same orlower levels of difficulty, more difficult distracters were chosen.

8

number of A, B, C, D, orE correct response pos-itions. Equalizing the number of times any par-ticular response (A, B, C, D, or E) was the cor-rect answer was done to compensate for the effectof any tendency among some subjects to chooseparticular response options merely by position.This also insured that no particular position wasoverselected or underselected for the correctanswer, thus eliminating a possible response cue.

STANDARDIZATION

Procedure

The next step in the development of the BasicWord Vocabulary Test was that of pretesting. This

process was conducted in two phases and servedthe purpose of collecting data on subjects’ actual

performances. The pretesting also provided theopportunity to obtain a critical evaluation of thetest by the subjects.

in phase one of the pretesting, 15 adults vary-ing in age (19 to 45 years), occupation (secretary,statistician, physician), and level of education(high school to N4.D. and Ph. D.) from the NationalCenter for Health Statistics were tested. Thesecond pretesting phase was more extensive, asit included 133 subjects from a variety of sourceswith an age range from 1I to 61 years. The rangeof occupations and the educational levels of thesesubjects included housewives and students withas little schooling as the sixth grade and as much,]s the doctorate level-

About 50 of the subjects who participatedin one of the two pretests were personally in-terviewed and asked to evaluate each item in re-gard to several criteria:

1.

9-.

3.

4.

Could the correct response be logicallyderived even though the meaning of thestem word w~s not known?Were there ,my alternatives which couldbe eliminated immediately because of lackof plausibility?Were there any grammatical inconsis-tencies within an item?Were there any clues given as to the cor-rect response by spelling or sound sim-ilarities between the stem word and theright answer?

5.

6.

Were there any items in which there wasmore than one possible correct response?Were there any other general faults suchas ambiguity within an item, poor itemconstruction, or spelling?

After each of the two pretests, this evalua-tive inform ation along with the actual data on testperformance was used to revise and reorder thetest items from easiest to most difficult.

The development of age and educational normson the B WVT, studying criterion-related validityby comparison with scores on standardized testsof verbal achievement and performing other testand item analyses, required that the standardiza-tion study be conducted on a rather massivescale. Help from the public schools in Fairfax

County, Virginia, was obtained, and 3,100 studentsin grades 1 through 12 were given the second re-vision of the BWVT. Data from the standardiza-tion study also served as a basis for selectingitems for shortened forms of the test and formaking final test alterations.

Students at three elementary schools (lst-6thgrades), at one junior-senior high school (7th-1lth grades), and at two high schools (12th gradeonly) were given the test at a time that was mid-way in the academic year (January 1970). Parentsof these children were mostly military, govern-ment, or construction employees and thus rep-resent a diversity of parental background withrespect to geographic origin, occupation, andsocial status.

Children in 1st and 2d grades answered onlythe first 45 items of the second test revision, 3dgraders the first 71, 4th through 6th graders thefirst 99 items, and students in grades 7 through12 took the entire test of 123 items.

In administering the test, teachers read onlythe instructions to the children. Since part of the

purpose of this testing situation was to developa measure of reading vocabulary level, no helpwas given on reading any test items or answerchoices even in the primary grades. Given orallythe test would not have achieved the same pur-pose. There was no time limit for completingthe test; however, most examinees finished inabout 30 minutes. The instructions also calIedfor the examinee to guess when he did not know ,the answer.

9

—

To provide external criteria for validity andstandardization studies of the B WVT, scores on

established nationally standardized tests of ver -bal achievement were obtained from the children’sschool records. Date of birth, sex, and schoolgrade were obtained directly from each studentbut were also verified from school records whenquestionable or incomplete responses were noted.

of the standardized test scores were preparedfor each grade for each sex.

Chi square was used to determine if therewere any significant differences by sex on thevocabulary and standardized tests within grades.The distributions of scores for those studentswith both standardized and vocabulary test scoreswere split at their medians for eachgrade. Therewere no significant (.05 level or better) sex dif-ferences by grade for the standardized tests, andonly the second grade had a significant difference(chi square= 5.76; 1 df; p = .02) on the vocabu-lary test, with girls -scoring higher than boys.An over aH test combining all grades 1-12 ex-cept grade 2 was performed next. The sex dif-ference was not significant (chi square = 1.735;1 df; p = .20), although girk scored slightIyhigher.

Table B shows how the distribution of scoresthrough the 12 grades assumes a definite pattern.The expected relationship between grade in schoolznd vocabulary score can be seen here.

Sex and Grade Relationships

In scoring the tests, a formuIa to adjust forguessing was used. Scores were arrived at bythe formula

S = R - ~~ or in this particular case S=R.E4

(S = scorer l? = number of right answers, W =number of wrong answers, n. number of responseoptions). Omitted items were not counted. Fre-quency distributions of the corrected scores and

Table B. Grade in school distributions by sex and by BWVT scores

Score rangeand s ex

Grade in schoolAll

grades1st 2d 3d 4th 5th

259

6th

239

7th

243

8th

175

9th

248

10th

228

llth 12th

325Total --

Sex

Male ---------Female -------

Score range

91-1o4-------81-90 --------71-80 --------61-70 --------

- 51-60 --------41-50 --------31-40 --------21-30 --------11-20 --------l-lo ---------Less than l--

3,100 255

123132

14!106

274

142132

i

i:157

59

309 288 257

1,5661,534

2;;379390330294233236281459206

142146

123658

H37

5

129110

11

;;53

2;22

31

70105

1;

:;3827

8

:

104124

3:65662620

321

177148

:2110

5421

62

10

The results of these analyses indicated thatsex differences in vocabulary level by grade werenot Sufficiently great to warrant separate distri-butions by sex and that vocabulary developmenthas a strong positive relationship with grade levelattainment as expected.

Item Analyses

Item analyses were performed to determinedifficulty level, internal consistency, distractereffectiveness, and sex differences for each ofthe 123 words on the test. Starting with the 302tests with scores of S1-109, frequency counts ofright answers were compiled for each vocabulary

item. (Note: 10 adults scoring 91 or more wereadded to the 6S students scoring 91-104 to providemore stability in the analyses at this level.) Evenfor this high level group, less than 20 percent (be-low chance) correctly answered five of the words.

Of the 302 subjects in the 81-109 score group,only 9.5 percent chose the correct answer forthe word dwbav, which was the most difficultitem on the test and was accordingly assignedthe rank of 123. The 41 items which were an-swered correctly by less than 70 percent of thesubjects in this top score group were assignedranks on the basis of the percent passing eachitem. To continue the rank ordering of the itemsfor difficulty, eight overlapping vocabulary scoregroups of 20 points each were used (groups scor-ing 71-90, 61-80, 51-70, 41-60, 31-50, 21-40, 11-

30, 1-20), and the performance of the subjectswithin these score groups served as the basis forranking the remaining items. These tallies madecomputation of percent passing each item possibleand provided necessary inforinaticm for checkingfor sex differences by items and for studying over-chosen or underchosen distracters (see table C).

The percent of correct responses to an itemwas used to place the items in rank order withina given group. Items with greater than 70 percentcorrect responses were carried on to the nextlower score level for ordering by difficulty level.

When the final order had been established,Spearman rank order correlations were computedto compare this order with the Thorndike-Lorgeword-count order and with the order used in thesecond revision. In the first case, the result wasa rho coefficient of .794; in the second, a rho of

.964. These results indicate that using theThorndike-Lorge ordering to select correct an-swer options and distracters at equal or lowerfrequency of occurrence than the stem word wasappropriate and that the rank ordering finally ar -rived at should be relatively stable across differ-ent samples of subjects.

With the items arranged in order of difficulty,a measure of internal consistency was computed.Chi square values were computed for each itemby comparing the number of correct answers forthe item with total vocabulary score within scoregroups of 40-point rmges at about the 40-percentto 70-percent passing level for the item, Therewere 19 items with chi square values which didnot reach the .01 level of significance. Thesewere all from the top 34 most difficult items andprobably reflect a lack of subjects with scoreshigh enough (110 or better) to provide differential

results, Table C summarizes these data, givingthe final rank order of item difficulty, the per-cent passing each item in its score group, theinternal consistency contingency coefficient, andestimated product-moment correlation for each

item within groups with a score range of 40.

The pulling power of the four distracters foreach item was evaluated by computing the percentselecting each distracter among those failing theitem within the 20-point score ranges used to rankorder the items for difficulty. lXstractors that

drew more than 40 percent or less than 10 per-cent of the incorrect answers were replaced.These limits were beyond two standard errorsfor all groups from an expected 25 percent level.There were 90 distracters outside these limitsand almost cne-half of the rest items had one ormore distracters falling outside this range. Thesedistracters were replaced based on the initialcriteria of distracter selection.

Sex differences were checked for every word,using the data groups of 20-point score ranges,to determine which items were correctly an-swered more often by one sex or the other. Therewere 25 words on the BWVT with sex differenceswithin these restricted score ranges that had achi square value significant at the @= .05 levelor better (two-tail test). Fourteen were signifi-cant at the .01 level or better and the other 11were significant at the .01- .05 level. Of these

11

Table C. Rank order of difficulty. percent passing, and coefficients of internal consistency within totalt&t score grou~s for each BWVT word

Rank orderof

difficulty

123122

111110109108107106

97

;29493929190

82818079

;776757473

7271706968676665

6463

::

Score grcmp and basic word

81-109 (median 86.3, N = 302)2durbar ----------------------------------------centaury --------------------------------------seecatch--- ..........-------------------------jaconet ---------------------------------------redact --------------------------------- .......garganey --------------------------------------pyrope ----------------------------------------edac~ous --------------------------------------lempira ---------------------------------------diabolo ---------------------------------------maenad ------------------ ----------------------pococurante -----------------------------------fuscous ---------------------------------------tringle ---------------------------------------flagellum -------------------------------------larine----------------------------------------qua---: ---------------------------------------anthemlon -------------------------------------sarcophagus -----------------------------------dint------------------------------------------glib--------------------------,----------------sored~um --------------------------------------cinereous -------------------------------------ruumer --------------------------------- -------. .scintillate -----------------------------------emir------------------------------ .-----------bezant ----------------------------------------conventicle -----------------------------------terrine ---------------------------------------pinon -----------------------------------------abstracted ------------------------------------fetid -----------------------------------------whist -----------------------------------------brob ------------------------------------------triphthong ------------------------------------nubilous --------------------------------------pomander --------------------------------------yew-------------------------------------------apropos ---------------------------------------grackle ---------------------------------------picador ---------------------------------------

71-90 (median 77.7, ~= 592)2trajectory ------------------------------------mackintosh ------------------------------------afflux ----------------------------------------fOrgO- ----------------------------------------bastion -------------------------------- -.-----mullet ----------------------------------------sputum ----------------------------------------jujube ----------------------------------------isopod ----------------------------------------discreet --------------------------------------

61-80 (median 70.6, ~ = 704)2destitute -------------------------------------mesquite--------------------------------------albacore --------------------------------------concrete --------------------------------------potpourri -------------------------------------Smc -----------------------------------------manipulate ------- .......---------------- ------horde -----------------------------------------

51-70 (median 62.4, N = 545)2console ------------------------------- --------decelerate ------------------------------------faction ---------------------------------------gristle ---------------------------------------

Percent ofstudents

passing item

1;:218.519.619.820.320.722.623.824.525.026.526.627.128.629.532.032.933.434.934.937.237.738.841.145.846.847.051.352.753,054.655.156.360.160.561.561.962.568.769.3

50.155.455.956.859.864.464.464.966.868.2

47.452.255.658.662.462.966.469.1

57.162.462.563.2

Internal consistency

c

(’:)(:;)

.358(:!)

.n:

(’).:4;

(‘,)[v)( !)

(1)(7)

.21.3(!1

.384

.281

.376[3)

.223(?)

.415,315.399(J)(3)

. ’26;

.402

.325(1)

.225

.221

.260

..218

.262

.239

.229

.350,362.321.305.277.201.269.241.359.408

.470

.477

.341

.433

.384

.328

.577

.547

AM:

.366

.399

lInternal consistency coefficients: c = contingency coefficient; ?’= estimated product-moment(see P-338 of reference 19).

r

.28

.48

.29

.32

.29

.51.

.38

.50

.30

.56

.4:2

.53

.35

.54

.44

.32

.30

.37

.31

.37

.34

.32

.50

. Cjz

.46

.44

.37-27

.36

.32

.48

.’55

.63

.64

.146

.58

.51,44.77.73

.65

.75

.49

.53

coefficient

‘- ~N= number of persons. ‘.05 level~NOt Significant at .O1 ~eve~.

4Not significant at

12

Table C. Nnk order c.fdifficulty, percent passing, and coefficients of internal consistency within totaltest score groups for each BWVT word—Con.

Rank orderof

difficulty

60

5150

::4746

454443424140

23

2221201918

12111098

1

Score group and basic word

51-70 (median 62.4, N= 545)2-Con.lank------- ----------- ..----------------------

41-60 (median 49.3, hr= 451)Vcurriculum ------------------------------------rafter ----------------------------------------scavenge --------------------------------------thus------------------------------------------Sltuatc ---------------------------------------demote ----------------------------------------aghast ----------------------------------------cardiac .......------- -------------------------gratify ---------------------------------------jolt ------------------------------------------gorge -----------------------------------------stage -----------------------------------------juvenile --------------------------------------mango -----------------------------------------

31-50 (median 41.8, ~= 443)2exclude ---------------------------------------pennant ---------------------------------------muff------------------------------------------ghetto ----------------------------------------sassafras -------------------------------------gust------------------------------------------

21-40 (median 30.3, N= 417)2eligible --------------------------------------sneer -----------------------------------------mutiny ----------------------------------------minus -----------------------------------------barely ----------------------------------------tarantu La------------------------ ..------.-.--abandun -------------------------------------- -bristle ---------------------------------------event -----------------------------------------approach ------- ---------------------------- ...-jurist ----------------------------------------plateau ---------------------------------------trmendous ------------------------------------seams tress ------------------------------------dame ------------------------------------------burlap ----------------------------------------corps -----------------------------------------

11-30 (median 19.6, N= 490)2tomb------------------------------------------advice ----------------------------------------crisp-----------------------------------------phony-----------------------------------------encyclopedia ----------------------------------puss---------- ............--------------------quit------------------------------------------howl------------------------------------------ambush ----------------------------------------witness ---------------------------------------

1-2o (median 9.7, N= 573)2desert ----------------------------------------violet ----------------------------------------tistake ---------------------------------------stable ----------------------------------------cambat ----------------------------------------tricycle --------------------------------------eagle-----------------------------------------shower ----------------------------------------poor------------------------------------------ink-------------------------------------------shore-----------------------------------------~ar-------------------------------------------

Percent ofstudents

passing item

64.4

49.149.551.152.756.957.459.260.360.461.363.165.667,767.9

57.561.061.764.465.768.2

48.849.850.552.753.454.055.055.256.256.357.458.459.167.669.269.769.9

49.353.556.558.561.062.464.867.468.469.7

43.544.147.448.055.663.567.468.670.372.575.884.7

Internal consistency]

c

.456

.524

.392

.396

.419

.320

.336

.315

.381

.524

.482

.404

.268

.500

.251

.596

.470

.440

.541

.521

.547

.533

.506

.496

.521

.531

.476

.493

.465

.566

.447

.467

.546

.500

.583

.403

.553

.549

.535

.596

.399

.528

.559

.389

.421

.581

.522

.590

.625

.541

.594

.608,582.672.669.569.670.656.611.363

.6L

.70

.52

.53

.56

.43

.45

.42

:%.65.54.36.67,34

.80

.63

.59

.72

.70

.73

.71

.68,66.70.71.64.66.62.76.60.63.73.67.78.54.74.73

.72

.80

.53

.71

.75

.52

.56

.78

.70

.79

.84

.72

.80

.81

.78

.90

.90

.75

.90

.88

.82

.49

‘Internal consistency coefficients: C = contingency coefficients; T = estimated product-moment coefficient(see P.338 of reference 19).

q~= number of persons.

13

Table D. BWT words correctly identified significant.lymore often by one sex in rankorder of difficulty with percent of students passing item and chi square

BWT word

1.2.

::5.6.

;:9.10.

;;:13.14.15.16.17.

1.

::4.5.6.

;:

Words better known by males

edacious -------------------------sarcophagus ----------------------rammer ---------------------------emir -----------------------------grackle---------------- ----------picador --------------------------trajectory-----------------------afflux---------------------------bastion ------------------ --------mullet ---------------------------rafter---------------------------scavenge-------------------------jolt--------------------- --------pennant --------------------------plateau---------------- ----------ambush---------------------------combat---------------------------

Words better known by females

abstracted-----------------------fetid----------------------------whist ----------------------------pomander---------------- ---------mackintosh -----------------------aghast---------------------------sneer----------------------------howl -----------------------------

Xank orderof

difficulty

1161051009884

:;8078

;;57

U28148

93

H

::533815

Percent of studentspassing

Male

29.942.246.154.559.963.975.562.652.764.659.658.269.068.262.939.960.1

45.548.745.341.447.450.742.036.5

Female

17.624.332.437.849.745.920.749.039.451.142.046.655.052.252.830.550.2

62.260.160.850.065.568.953.845.3

Chisquare

t4.610.8t4.67.4+5.720.3

137.611.513.513.112.2t5.1

1;::75.1+5.8t5.7

9.2t3.914.874.518.917.3t6.Ot4.o

1Dagger indicates significance level between .01 and .05. All others significant at

.01 level or better.

words , 17 favored males, and 8 favoredfemales, which is not a significantdifference

from an even split(tableD).Thus whilesexdif-

ferences in terms of totalscore withingrades

were not great,certainspecificwords appear to

be betterknown by one sex over the otherat

comparable levelsofoverallvocabularydevelop-

ment. Although this findingis not surprising,what is notableis thatthiswas foundforabout

one-fifthofallthewords.

These analyses indicatethatthe words in

the BWVT form an orderlypatternofitemdif-

ficultyat variouslevelsofattainment,theorder

of difficultywas very stableacross samples,the

items have ahighdegree ofinternalconsistency

except at the highestlevelofdifficulty,and that

sex differencesin word knowledge for about20

percent of the BWVT items were significant.

Grade and Age Norms

Nationallystandardizedtestscores ofver-bal achievement were obtainedfrom schoolrec-

ords forover 70 percentofthe studentswho had

14

Table E. Standardized tests from which scores were obtained from school records, bytype of score, date test administered, and number and grade in school of students towhom administered

Gradein

school

12th---

llth---

10th---

9th----

8th----

7th----

6th----5th----

4th----

3d-----

2d-----

lst----

Stand-ardized

test

SCAT 1

SCAT T

SCAT ‘

SCAT 1

DATJ

CTMM‘]L_T !

L-T ~CTMM‘]

L-T ~

CTMM‘~L-T~

MRRT:CTMM‘]~mT 3

Type of score

10th grade: verbal-grade percentile12th grade: verbal-grade percentile

verbal-grade percentile

verbal-grade percentile

verbal-grade percentile

verbal reasoninggrade-sex percentile

language I.Q.

verbal-grade percentile

verbal-grade percentilelanguage I.Q.

verbal-grade percentile

language I.Q.verbal-grade percentile

grade percentilelanguage I.Q.

grade percentile

1SCAT - School and Colle~e Ability Tests~DAT - Differential Apt~tude Tes;‘~CT~D~-‘IL-T _

California Test of Mental MaturityLorge-Thorndike Intelligence Test

: MRRT - Metropolitan Reading Readiness Test

taken the BWVT. Table E lists these tests, whichscores were used, when they were given, and thenumber of students by grade level. The means,

standard deviations, and the product-moment

correlation coefficients for the BWVT and stand-ardized tests are shown in table F by grade.

13ecausetheBWt’T wastoodifficult forg-rades1 and 2, and ages 6and7, these groups were notconsidered in the development of the normativetables. Development of age norms based onstu-dents lSyears of age andoverwerenot attemptedbecause these subjects hada sharp drop in meanvocabulary scores compared to the peak meanlevel for 17-year-olds. The BWVT means, stand-ard deviations, and total number with BWVT testscores for all students are shown in tableG byeducation and age.

Dateadminis-

tered

9/679/69

9/69

9/69

9/69

10/69

9/69

1/70

9/689/68

9/69

9/68l/69

9/68IU68

6/699/69

Numb erof

students

41235

227

222

238

166

212

225

10627

261

1;:

11251

The decision was made to construct a 23-level percentile normative table by grade witha median at the 50th percentile and an age de-

viation table showing aBWVT Vocabulary Devel-opment Quotient (BWVT Vm or VIXl) with amean of 100.0, standard-deviationof 15.0, and ascale midpoint rsnge of72 points (plus or minus2.40 standard deviations on the normal curve).These values correspond, respectively, to theDifferential Aptitude Test grade norms and theWechsler intelligence scales IQmeans andstand-ard deviations based on age specific means anddeviations, Table Hpresents some psychometricproperties of the grade and age norm scales.Standardized test score distributions were or-deredinto the same percentile intervals asshownin table H.

Is

Table F. Means, medians, and standard deviations for the BWVT and standardized testsand correlation coefficients, by grade in school and number of students

Standardized tests

Percentiles

BWVT

Numberof

stu-dents

Corre-lat ioncoeffi -cient

Grade in school Stand-ard

ievia -tionz

Stand-

Median arddevia -tion

MedianMean

I

I78.2 10.872.8 13.969.4 13.966.9 14.262,5 15.347.8 17.547.4 16.940.2 17.024.9 L4.311.6 12.2

3.91.0 ;:;

lath ----------------lath ----------------lath ----------------‘&-----_---------

--- - .- -- - -- - - - - --7th-----------------6th-----------------5th-----------------4th-----------------3d---- ----- ---- -----2d------------------Ist-----------------

276227222238166212225133261149125163

77.363.664.770.355.560,667.754.454.956.259.770,7

79.064.o62.570.560.665.065.554.158.458.663.068.0

756:766.772.788.603.664.839.760.801.461.450,282

78.071.568.465.160.745.545.338.226.614.45.81.5

.841.02

.88.89.98.98.94.94.86.76

1.04.89

1

‘Percentile ranks were converted to midpoint standard scores and then the means weretransformed back to percentile scores.

‘Standard deviations are in standard score units for the standardized tests.

The basic method used in developing thenor-

mative tabIes was to transform the BWVT rawscores to represent a normal curve distributionof cases and then into the distributions shownin tableH. However, the sample hadhighermeansand generally lower standard deviations on thestandardized tests than the expected values of50,0 and 1.00, respectively (table F). Significantskewness in distributions were also noted on theBWVT for some education and age groups whenmeans and medians were compared. So ratherthan doing adirect transformationon the samplecases, the following procedure was usedtotrans-form the BWVT raw scores.

The mean BWVT scores were computed foreach percentile level of the standardized tests

for each grade. The average of themean BWVTscores in the nine percentile levels from 30 to70 were then computed to obtain amid-50th per-centile score for each grade. These averageswere plotted on a graph along with the grademedians. The mid-50th percentile values were

then smoothed by inspection and judgment toob-

tain the “constructed” midpoint values. Thesevalues are shown below.

Mid-pointaver-age

constructedmidpoint

va lU e

Grade inschool Median

77.272.469.266.862.447.047.340.425.413.2:.;.

12’ch ---------llth ---------10th ---------9th---_--..--8th----------7th----------6th----------5th----------4th----------3d-----------2d-----------lst----------

69.667.464.659.3

a58, 546.839.1

a37.422.310.7

4.20.7

69.567.564.559.553.546.539.531.522.510.5

4.50.5

aThese two values a?mearto be serious-lV out-of-line as midpoint indications

a–;d probably reflect a perturbation due tothe standardized test score used in thesedetermination.

Table G. NuYIIberofcases. Basic Word Vocabulary Test (BWVT) means, medians, and standarddevia~ions of all sample cases by education and age

Median

Stand-arddevia-tion

Num-berof

stu-dents

stand-arddevia-tion

Num-berof

stu-dents

Mean

74.2271.2265.50

65.1852.4344.55

41.3134.2423.4013.21

Grade inschool

Mean

75.9470.5768.0264.6560.1444.1945.2938.7427.0415.326.381.54

AgeMedian

77.1872.4369.2566.7762.4047.0047.2740.3525.3913.254.701.02

14.4413.5715.27

15.5321.3217.94

20.5519.3215.5412.03

76.6872.1767.59

67.5657.1047.09

44.2535.2122.0010.50

17 years---16 years---15 years---

271250222

221190247

234304277264

11.6714.2214.5514.3215.2318.2616.7216.6814.5212.547.874.04

32525722824817524323925928830927$255

12th------llth------10th------9th-------8th-------7th--------6th-------5th-------4th-------3d--------2d--------lst-------

14 years---13 years---12 years---

11 years---10 years---9 years----8 years----

Some psychometric Properties Of the BWVT grade and age no~ative scalesTable H.

Age scaleGrade scale

Percent of areaunder normal

curveMid-pointstand-ard

score

2.401.961.601.281.04.84.67.52.39.25.13

.00

-.13-.25-.39-.52-.67-.84

-1.04-1.28-1.60-1.96-2.40

Per-centilelevel

Mid -point

Percentile internal BWVT VDQ interval

Cumul a -tive

100.098.998.297.195.593.390.386.481.675.869.261.8

54.0

46.038.230.824.218.413.69.7

::;2.91.81.1

Jithin

i35-137-------------132-134-------------129-131-------------126-128-------------123-125-------------120-122-------------117-119-------------114-116-------------111-113-------------108-110-------------105-107-------------102-104-------------

99-101--------------

96-98---------------93-95---------------90-92---------------87-89---------------84-86---------------81-83---------------78-80---------------75-77-,-------------”72-?4---------------69-71---------------66-68---------------63-65---------------

1.070.721.081.592.223.003.894.845.796.657.657.81

8.04

7.817.656.655.794.843.893.002.221.591.080.721.07

136133130127124121118115112109106103

100

U91

::82797673

:;64

98.5+---------------96.5-98.4------------92.5-96.4------------87.5-92.4------------82.5-87.4------------77.5-82.4------------72.5-77.4------------67.5-72.4------------&J$-----------

------------52:5-57:4------------

47.5-52.4------------

:;.;-;;.:------------------.-----

32:5-37:4------------27.5-32.4------------22.5-27.4------------17.5-22.4------------12.5-17.4------------7.5-12.4-------------3.5-7.4--------------1.5-3.4--------------0.0-1.4--------------

9997959085807570656055

50

4540353025201510531

17

Table J. Cumulative percent of sample casesacross grade and age groupsby normative scalevalues for the BWV!Iand grade for standardtests

Percentilelevelscale

99---------97---------95---------90---------85---------80---------75------------------

i)--------60---------55---------

50---------

45---------40---------

---------R--------25---------20---------15---------1o---------5----------3----------1 ----------

Actualscale me-dian------

Scale mid-pointcumulativepercent---

Number ofswdents--

Percent forgrades 3-12

Standardtest

100.097.695.086.778.970.464.960.055.048.042.2

37.6

32.328.523,619.416.113.19.5

2::1.00.3

62.8

35.0

2,109

BWVT

100.097.193.587.379.571.364.358.952.548.441.7

36.5

32.327.424.119.515,813.19.65.42.61.30.2

61.3

34.4

2,109

Vwscale

136----133----130----127----124----121----118----115----112----1139----106----1133-..-

1oo----

97-----94-----91-----88-----85-----82-----

%:=73-----

E=64-----

Actualscalemedi-an----

Scalemid-pointcum -lativeper-cent--

Numberofstu-dents-

!rcentm agesI-17

100.098.197.396.294.291.687.082.174.566.455.847.4

39.1

30.424.718.714.111.38.5

;::2.11.10.50.2

104.0

34.8

2,500

The area under the normal curve for eachmedian was then obtained in terms of standarddeviation units (table G) above the constructedmidpoints. The BWVT raw scores were thennormalized for the upper end of the distributionsfrom the medians. Since the distribution of casesfalling below the constructed midpoints appearedto be fairly normal, the raw scores were nor-

realized for the bottom half below theconstructed

midpoints of the distributions. The standard de-viation values for the raw scores from the con-structed midpoint values to the medians wereused to complete the normalizing procedure forthat portion of each grade distribution. Somescore adjustments were then made within gradesto provide a set of symmetrical values acrossgrades for the full grade and normative tablearray. case distributions were then comparedbetween the normative table and the standardizedtest distributions by percentile intervals for each

grade. The distributions were very close andthusindicated that the normalizing procedureprovideda scale representative of the normal curve for anormally distributed sample.

The age normative table was constructedin

the same way as the table for education exceptthat the constructed midpoint values were de-rived differently. The mean educational levelfor each age was computed and plotted on the ed-ucational abscissa and the corresponding BWVT

score was read from the ordinate. After the nor-mative table was constructed, case distributionswere made and carefully inspected. The distri-butions appeared to be well in line with whatcould be expected for this sample in terms ofmedians, standard deviations, and lower andupper limits of case distributions. The overalldistributions for education and ageare shownintable J.

Adult Norms

After completing the grades 3-12 and ages8-17 normative tables, projections for highereducational levels and the adult population weremade. Pretest results from 84 cases beyond thehigh schoollevel, including9cases atthedoctorate

level, indicated a fairly orderly progression ofBWVT scoresfortheupper educational levels.Theprojection was made basically throughuseofnor -mative data from the Nelson-Denny VocabularyTest:l and, of course, on some assumptions. TheNelson-Denny isafive-choice vocabularytest with

norms for 9-16 years of education based onthou-sands of cases. Gains in mean vocabulary scoresfrom the9th grade upward were computed forthetwo tests basedon each test’s12thgrade standarddeviation. The relative gains instandard deviatictnunits from 9th to 10th, 9thto llth, and9thto 12th

18

grades were then computed for each test and areas follov?s:

I I

Grade change ~lwT Nelson-Denny

9th tO 12th -------------- .86 .869th to llth -------------- .68 .609th to 10th -------------- .43 .32

These relative gains were acceptedasbeing closeenough for projection purposes for constructingmidpoint values to the higher grades.TheNelson-Denny relati~re gains were then computed for 12through 16 years of education and applied to theBWVT. The decision was madetousethe standarddeviation method for obtainingscoredistributionswithin each educational level on the assumptionthat basic word knowledge development wouldbefairly normally distributed about the median atthese educational levels. Since thestandarddevia-tions decreasedfrorn grade7upward ontheBWVT,a further decrease at higher grade levels wasassumed. The standard deviation was decreasedfrom 11.67 at 12th gradeto 10.Oforgrades 13, 14,and 15 and then further decreased slightly forhigher educational levels as shown in the norma-tive table. Midpointvalues beyond those obtainedthrough grade 16were also assumed to increasewith a slightly greater increase from 16 to 17(entering graduate school) than from 15t016 andthen to show only avery small increaseby edu-cational level thereafter. Noteshouldbe takenthat

a gain of one score represents an increase inbasic word vocabulary knowledge of a hundredwords and that these values are beginningto ap-preach the upper Iimitsofthe estimated populationof basic words.

In developing the general adult normativetable, figures from a U.S. Bureau of the Censusreport on the educational attainment of adults asof March 1970 were used to estimate the mid-point BWVT score. Themedianschoolyears corn-

pleted by age groups as of March 1970 are shownin the table below. The median of 12.2 years ofcompleted education for the age group 21 yearsand over was used as the midpoint value for theadult population. The estimated BWVT scoreequivalent tc this educational level was obtainedby linear extrapolation between the normative

18-1920-2122-2425-2930-3435-4445-5455-6465-74

years ------------------years ------------------years ------------------years ------------------years ------------------years ------------------years ------------------years ------------------years ------------------

12.212.812.712.612.512.412.210.7

8.875 years and over ------------(21 years and over) ---------- (12!i;

midpoints or the 12thand 13thgrades which repre-sent completed educational attainment of 11.5 and12.5 years, which is equal to a BWVT score of73.85. The distribution of scores on the BWVTfor the Vocabulary Development Quotient (VDQ)was assumed to be similar to the distribution ofthe 17-year- olds. The derived VDQ distributionwas them plotted on normal distribution graphpaper to obtain the correspondingpercentile leveldistribution.

These projections for adult norms are offeredas a guide to what could reasonably be expectedbased on the methods and assumptions used.Calibration and standardization on large repre-sentative samples would provide a more desirablebasis for such norms. However, these normsshould be worthwhile and usable forreportingre-search for comparison purposes across studiesuntil more definitive norms are established.

Other Norms

1’WO additional setsoftabies wereconstructe.1in order toprovide moreprecise normative valuesfor education and age.

Grade and ageequivalentvalues were derivedgraphically byconnecting the grade and age mid-point normative values with s~aight lines betweenthe points and then reading the BWVT scoreordinate value corresponding to a given grade andage abscissa value for years and months of edu-cation and age. Adjustment factors for time oftesting other than the midgrade and age periodsused in thenormative tables forchildren were alsoderived by the samemethodused forthegrade andage equivalent values.

19

PercentileleveL

99-------------97-__----------95-------------90-------------85-------------

80-------------75-------------70-------------65-------------60-------------55-------------

50-------------- ------ ------

:i------------35-------------30-------------

--------- ----R-------------

15-------------1o-------------5 -------- ---- --3 ---------- - ---1- - - .- ----- ----

Median ---------

Table K. Midgrade percentile norms for the BWVT

Grade in school

3rd

45+40-4435-3930-3426-29

23-2520-2218-1916-1714-1512-13

10-11

8-9

:

?3

0-2

10.5

4th

58+53-5748-5243-4739-42

36-3833-3530-3228-2926-2724-25

22-23

20-2118-1916-1713-15

9-125-8

i:;

22.5

5th

65+61-6456-6052-5548-51

45-4742-4439-4137-3835-3633-34

31-32

29-3027-2824-2621-23;;-;:

8-123-70-2

31.5

1

6th

71+67-7063-6659-6255-58

52-5449-5147-4845-4643-4441-42

39-40

37-3835-3632-3429-3125-2821-24

16-2010-14

3-90-2

39.5

The six sets of normative and adjustmentvalues are shown in tables K-P.

Use of the Tables

While an individual’s earned score on theBWVT is the best estimate of his performance,the user should be awzre that the standard errorof measurement is about 3 raw scores on theBWVT.

7th

77+73-7669-7265-6861-64

58-6056-5754-5552-5350-5148-49

46-47

44-4542-4339-4136-3833-3529-32

24-2819-2312-18

3-110-2

46.5

8th

83+79-8275-7871-7468-70

65-6763-6461-6259-6057-5855-56

53-54

51-5249-5047-4845-4642-4438-41

34-3729-3322-2810-21

0-9

53=5

9th

88+8& -8780-8376-7973-75

71-7269-7067-6865-6663-6461-62

59-60

57-5855-5653-5451-5249-5046-48

42-4537-4130-3618-29

0-17

59.5

10th

92+88-9184-8781-8378-80

76-7774-7572-7370-7168-6966-67

64-65

62-6360-6158-5956-5754-5551-53

47-5042-4635-4123-24

0-22

64.5

llth

95+91-9487-9084-8681-83

79-8077-7875-7673-7471-7269-70

67-68

65-6663-6461-6259-6057-5854-56

50-5345-4938-4426-37

0-25

67.5

L2th

97+93-9689-9286-8883-85

81-8279-8077-7875-7673-7471-72

69-70

67-6865-6663-6461-6259-6056-58

52-5547-5140-4628-39

0-27

69.5

The grade percentile Ievelis readas amid-point value. Thus if an inclividual’s score placeshim in the 60th percentile level for hi%grade, hedid about as well as or better than 60 percent ofstudents in general doathis grade level.

The age Vocabulary Development Quotientscale is based on a mean of 100.0 and a standarddeviation of 15.0 and has the same order ofrelationship inbasic wordvocabularydevelopmentinterpretation as other test scores reported in

20

IQ terms. As anaid inqualitativeinterprera~ionthe classificationisshowp below.

—— .—

Midpoint VDQ

130 and above-------------------------------------l2l-l27-------------------------------------------ll2-ll8-------------------------------------------9l-lo9--------------------------------------------82-88---------------------------------------------73-79---------------------------------------------70 and below--------------------------------------

Qualitativeclassification

Very superiorSuperiorAbove averageAverageLow developmentVery low developmentDeficient

Percentilelevel

Table L. Projected higher educational norms for the BWT

99--------------------------

.%------------90-------------85-------------

80--------------------------

%------------65-------------60-------------55-------------

50-------------

45-------------40-------------

-------------AL------------

-------------;L------------

15-------------1o-------------5--------.-----3--------------1----.---------

Median ---------

Standard de-viation -------

Percentincluded

College education

Fresh-man

13

97+94-9690-9387-8985-86

83-8481-8279-80

78

;;

75

7473

70-;:68-6966-67

64-6561-6357-6054-560-53

75.0

10.0

Undergraduate

Sopho-more

14

101+98-100.94-9791:9389-90

87-8885-8683-84

::80

79

787776

74-7572-7370-71

68-6965-67.61-6458-600-57

79.0

10.0

Junior

15

104+101-10397-1oo94-9692-93

90-9188-8986-87

858483

82

818079

77-7875-7673-74

71-7268-7064-6761-630-60

82.0

10.0

Senior

16

105+102-10498-10195-9793-94

91-9289-90

88878685

84

83828180

78-7976-77

74-7571-7367-7064-660-63

84.0

9.0

Graduate

Master’s level

17

108+105-107101-10499-1oo97-98

95-9693-94

;:9089

88

8786

83-%81-8279-80

77-7875-7671-7468-700-67

88.0

9.0

18

109+106-108102-105100-101

98-99

96-97

E939291

90

8988

u

83-::

81-8279-8075-7871-740-70

90.0

8.0

Doctorate level

19

io7YI103-106101-10299-1oo

97-9896

;:9392

91

u

%

84-%

82-8380-8176-7972-750-71

91.0

8.0

20+

111+108-110104-107102-103100-101

98-9997

u9493

92

RI

%

85-;:

83-8481-8277-8073-760-72

92.0

8.0

‘Highest year attending, completed, or attended to or beyond the midyear.

21

Table M. Midage vocabulary development quotients (VDQ) for the E7JVT

VDQ1

136------------l_33------------130------------

127------------124------------121------------118------------115------------

112------------1o9------------106------------1o3------------

1oo------------

97-------------94-------------91-------------88-------------

85-------------82 --------..---79-------------76---=---------73---”-”---”---

...----.---- -rL------------64-------------

Median

8

46+44-4542-43

39-4136-3833-3530-3227-29

23-2619-2215-1811-14

8-10

5-743

0-2

9.0

9

55+53-5451-52

48-5045-4742-4439-4136-38

32-3528-3124-2720-23

17-19

14-1611-139-1o7-8

5-6

u

18,0

10

64+

61-:;

59-6056-5853-5550-5247-49

43-4639-4235-3831-34

27-30

24-2621-2318-2015-17

12-149-11

Ro-2

28.5

11

71+

68-;;

66-6764-6561-6358-6055-57

51-5447-5043-4639-42

35-38

31-3427-3023-2619-22

15-1811-148-105-73-4

0-2

36.5

1 Mean = 100.0; standard deviation = 15.0.

To use the grade equivalent values, locate the in-dividual’s score in the body of table Oand thenread his grade andschoolmoath cooxha:evzlues.

Thus if the score is 45, the grade equivalentis7th grade, 4th month. If thescoreis720r above,table L can be used to obtain higher grade levelequivalence by referencetothenearest grade levelmidpoint (50th percentile) value. The grade equi-valent values thus correspond to BWVT scoresequal to the midpoint performance at that educa-tional level.

Age in years

12

77+

74-;:

72-7370-7167-6964-6661-63

58-6054-5750-5346-49

42-45

38-4134-3730-3326-29

22-2518-2114-1710-13

6-9

3-50-2

43.5

13

83+

BO-%

78-7976-7773-7570-7267-69

64-6661-6357-6053-56

49-52

45-4841-4437-4033-36

29-3225-2821-2417-2012-16

6-113-50-2

50.5

14

88+

85-:2

83-8481-8278-8075-7772-74

69-7166-6863-6560-62

51-59

54-5651-5348-5044-47

40-4336-3932-3527-3121-26

14-207-130-6

58.0

15

92+

89-%

87-8885-8682-8479-8176-78

73-7570-7267-6964-66

61-63

58-6055-5752-5449-51

46-4842-4538-4133-3727-32

20-2611-190-1o

62.0

16

96+

93-H

91-9289-9086-8883-8580-82

77-7974-7671-7368-70

65-67

62-6459-6156-5853-55

50-5246-4942-4537-4131-36

23-3014-22

0-13

66.0

17

98+

95-;:

93-9491-9288-9085-8782-84

79-8176-7873-7570-72

67-69

64-6661-6358-6055-57

52-5448-5144-4739-4332-38

24-3115-230-14

68.0

The age equivalent values areusedandinter-preted in the same way as the grade equivalentvalues. Th’us a score of 66 is eq’uivalen: to the

midpoint attainment of individuals 16 years and 5to 9monthsofage, or 16years7 months.

To use the grade and age score adjustmentsfor time of testing in table P, note the time oftesting and add (or subtract) thegivenvalueto theindividual’s BWVT raw score and use that scorein the grade or age norms table.

1

,

i1

22

Table N. Proiect.e_d_ adult~orms_by percen-tile level and BWT vocab=ary develop-ment quotient

Percentilelevel

99----------97----------95-----------. . ——

------. . . .K--------

80------------ . . - -- . --

%---------65----------60----------55----------

50----------

%=::=35----------30----------25----------20----------

-------- --:;----------5-----------3-----------1-----------

Median

BWVTscores

103+99-102.95-9891-9488-90

85-8783-8481-8279-8077-7875-76

74

72-7370-7168-6966-6764-6561-63

57-6051-5641-5026-400-25

74.0

BWTVDQ

136------133------130------

127------124:------121--...-118------

115------

112------1o9------106------1o3------

1oo-------..----

L---91-------88-------

85-------

.-..---%-------76-------73-------

70-------67-------64-------

BWT;cores

103+102

100-101

98-99.96-9793-9590-92

87-89

84-8681-8378-8075-77

73-75

70-7267-6964-6661-63

58-60

54-5750-5345-4938-44

30-3721-290-20

74.0

with less than three distracter changes were se-lected. A sample of 111 boys andlll girls wasdrawn with equal score distributions from -8 to

104. The percent failing each of the W items wascomputed for this sample, and two pools of40items each were selected by cumulating the per-cent failing each item witht hose below itstartingwith the easiest two items to form the two pools.A second sample of 103 boys and 102 girls withequal and full score distributions was drawn forcross-validation purposes. Test papers wererestored for the two short forms for bothsamples. Means, standard deviations, and prod-uct-moment correlations are shown for the two

forms intableQ.Score distributionswere checkedfor each form an~were hir]yuniformthroughoutthe scale length. Since the correlations betweenthe two forms were uniformly high (.92 andaboveacross sex and samples) and since both formscorrelated .98 with the full scale BWVT for thetotal of 427 cases, equivalent score transforma-tions to the BWVT were constructed. Theincre-ment in total score for eachshortform score wasobtainedby taking the average standard deviationfor both forms and dividing into the standarddeviation for the full scale BWVTfor thesecases.Then theY intercept “a’’wasderived. Theresult-ant equations Y’ = 2.729(X) -3.769. Scores O, 1,and 2 were given unit weights; then the Y~ valuewas usedfor eachshortform score.TableR showsthe BWVT full scale equivalent scores for both

forms.When the short forms are used, theequiva-

For individuals of18 yearsand oldertheedu-cational norms tables shouldbe used, since basicword vocabulary development is presumed to behighlyrelated coeducational leveldueto selectivefactors as well as formal learning among adults.However, if a general adult comparison istobemade, then tableN should be used.

Alternate Short Forms of the BWVT

Two alternate 40-item forms of the BWVTwere developed from the pool of 123 items in theBWVT(short forms Xsnd Y,appendix VI). Eightyitems based on no significant sex differences and

lent full scale BWVT scores can be used in thenormative tables. These forms arerecommendedfor use when two short forms are needed. Thespecial short form described next should be usedwhen only one short form is needed.

Special Short Form of the BWVT

A special short form of the BWVT with 41items (short form Z, appendix VI) was constructedby selecting those items from the full scale whichcorrelated highest with the verbal scores on thenationally standardized tests for grades 1, 2, 3,4, 8, and 12. The procedure used was to dividethe fkst grade into two groups, a high and a lowscore group based on their standardized test

23

Table O. Grade and age equivalent scores for the BWVT

School month

Grade in school 1 1 1 I

3 4 5 6 7 8

t

69 69 70 70 7068 ::

2: :; 65 :; 65 %58 59 60 60 61 6152 53 54 54 55 55

21

lath---------------------lath---------------------lath---------------------9th----------------------8th----------------------7th----------------------6th----------------------5th----------------------4th----------------------ad-----------------------

Usual school month-------

69666357

::36

;;6

Sep

44 45 46 4737 38 39 39 :; ;!30 31 32 3421 22 x 24 ;; 268 9 10 12 13 14

Nov Dec JanI

I Febl Marl Apr

Months of age to the nearest 15th day

Age

3 I16865161

z413426166

_ :

45

68 6865 6661 6257 5749 5042 4335 3627 2816 1778

—

6—

686662

%43

%189

—

T78 9 10 11

17 years-----------------------------16 years-----------------------------15 years---------------------- -------14 years-----------------------------13 years-----------------------------12 years-----------------------------11 years---------------------- -------10 years-----------------------------9 years------------------------ ------8 years------------------------------

686662585144

696663595244

%6359524538302111

3830

19 2010 11

I

Table P. Grade and age BWVT score adjustments for time tested from midpoint

3-month intervals 4-month ageintervals

Grade in school AgeMar. 1-May 31

-1.0 17 years-----------1.0 16 years-----------1.0 15 years-----------2.0 14 years-----------3.0 13 years-----------3.0 12 years-----------3.0 11 years-----------3.0 10 years-----------3.0 9 years------------3.0 8 years-----------

Dec. 1-Feb. 28

$ept. 1-JOv. 30 0-3 4-7 6-11

11.0 0.01.0 0.01,0 0.02.0 0.02.0 0.02.0 0.03.0 0.03.0 0.03.0 0.04.0 0.0

-1.0,

-l,CI-1.0-2.(3-2.0-zDcl-3.0-3.()-3.0-3.()

12th---------------llth---------------10th---------------gth----------------8th----------------7th----------------6th----------------5th----------------4th----------------3d---.-.-.-c--..-.-

1.01.02.02.03.03.03.0

:::4.0

0.00.00.00.00.00.00.0

:::0.0

ITO nearest 15 davs Of age. Thus 12 years, 3 months, and 16 days would fall in theinterval 12 years, 417 months.

24

Table Q. Means, standard deviations, and product-moment correlations of full scaleBWVT and short forms X and Y, by sex within samples

Item

Number of students ----------------

Full scale BWVT

Mean ------------------------------------Standard deviation ------------------- ---

Short form X

Mean ------------------------------------Standard deviation ----------------------

Short form Y

Mean ------------------------------------Standard deviation ----------------------

Correlations

Full scale BWVT and:Form X--------------------------------Form Y----------------------- ---------

Form X and Form Y-----------------------

Total

427

47.430.7

18.611.4

18.911.1

.98

.98

.95

Sample 1

Male

111

48.831.7

18.811.6

18.911.1

.98

.98

.94

Female

111

48.931.8

19.211.5

19.611.4

.98

.99

.99

Sample 2

Male

103

46.429.5

18.111.0

18.211.0

.97

.96

.93

Female

102

45.529.4

18.211.3

18.810.8

.98

.97

,92

score distributions. Chi square wasusedtoselectthe most discriminating BWVTitem. Item 1 washighly significant and was selected first. There-after the two most discriminating items out of

each block of six items’arranged byitemdifficultylevel were selected. If the chisquarevalueswerenot significant at the .001 level, the next higher

grade wasu$ed. The lastnineitems wereselectedbased on their internal consistency chi squarevalues (table D), again selecting two ineachblockof six items.

The222 cases usedinsample lfordevelopingalternate test short forms were scored onthe41selected items. Total scores were obtained firstby the conventional R - W/4scoringmethodand

t:len by scoring the number of right answersthrough the 3d14th, and5th errors andomitteditems. Scoring through the 4th error and omits(4 - EO) yielded the same mean score as the

R - W/4 method. The correlation coefficientsbetween the full scale scores and the short formscores were .948 and .979 for the R - W/4and the 4 - EO methods, respectively. The lattertwo correlated .965. The 4 - EO scores also.correlated .961 with the scores obtained from the82items notin the short form scale.

Seventh grade students were selected tofurther study therelationships oftheshortformZ,scored 4 - EO, andobtained by the R -

the BWVT full scale scoresW/4methodand scoring the

25

Table R. Equivalent full scale BWVT scoresfor ~oth short forms X and Y

Short formscore

40.--.-.-_--39----------

i 38----------

::::::::::::

35----------

I34----------

I 33----------32----------

31----------313----------29----------

I28----------

i 27----------I 26----------

25-_--------24----------23----------

- . --------1--------

Fullscalescore

105103100

K92

%84

81

;:

737067

646259

5654

Short formscores

20----------19-_--------18----------

17----------16----------15---_._--_-

14----------13----------12--_----_--

11----------lo-----_----9-----------

8 -------- ---7-----------6-----------

5-----------4-----------3-----------

2-----------1-----------0-----------

Fullscalescore

:;45

434037

34

;;

262421

181513

10

i

2

i

NOTE: Equation: Y’ = 2.729(x) - 3.769

number of right answers through the 10th error(lo - E method, described in the next section).The relationships of these three scores with thestandardized test scores from theCaliforniaTestof Mental Maturity (CTMM)were also considered.

The items for the short form had been selectedbased on four other nationally standardized tests

(see table E).The seventhgradehad notbeen usedin this item selection procedure, and very fewstudents used in grades 2 and 3 had CTMM testscores. Thus these students and the CTMM testscores can be considered an independent cross-validation sample. The product-moment inter-correlations among the three BWVT test scoresand with the language, nonlanguage, and full scaleCTMM scores are shown in table S. The shortform correlated slightly higher with the BWVT

full scale 10 -E scores than with theBWVT fullscale R - W/4 scores. It also correlated as wellwith the three CTMM scores asdidtheBWVT fullscale R- W/4scores.TheBWVTfull scale 10 - Escores correlated somewhat higher with allvari-ables compared to the BWVT full scale R - W/4

method. These results indicatethatthe shortformcorrelatedas well with the criteria as the BWVTfull scale and that the 10 - E method maybeaslightly more accurate scoring method than theconventional R - W/4 method.

Inorder to check the relationship oftheshortformwiththe full scaleBWVTat highscore levels,1.68 cases scoring from 70 through 1090nthe fullscale were also scored on the short form. Themeans were 86.18 and 30.24 for the fullscale andshort form, respectively. The product-momentcorrelation was.881,which indicates that the shortform functions quite well even atthehigh endofthe full scale.

The linear regression equations forthe BWVTfull scale (Y) from the short form Z(indicatedasX) for the 222 persons in sample 1, for the 2127th graders, andthehigh level sample of168 per-sons are shown below. The general equation is:

Y’=, (Q(X-F)+Tw (+

Sample 1

~r, =.979 (31.758)(10.752)

(X-17.87) + 48.85

l“=.979 (2,954X) - 2.83= 2.892X - 2.83

7th grade

~, =.906 (17.524)— (X-15.97) + 45.63( 5.896)

Y’ =,906 (2.986X) + 2.43= 2.705X + 2.43

Both groups

~,= .962 (25.856)( 8.769)

(X-16.94) +47.27

Y’= .962(2.949X) - 0.79= 2.837X - 0.79

High level group

‘g) (X-30.24) + 86.18‘=”881 ( 4,999)

Y’ =.881 (2.013X) + 32.56 = 1.773X + 32.56

26

Short formZ score

Fullscalescore

Short form Zscore

Fullscalescore

41---------40---------39---------

---- - - - --R--------36---------35---------34---------

------- --AL--------

----.--- -%---------29---------

- -- - --- - -;;---------26---------25----=----2L---------z------------.--- --L------

108106104102100

98969492

;:86838077

;:68656259

-- -- - - - - -3--------18---------17---------16---------

----.----H---------

-------- -E---------11---------1o---------9 --------- -8 --------- -

---.------L---------5 ------- - - -4----------3 ---- - - - ---

------ ----L---------0 ----------

565350

::423936

:;272421181512

‘263

i!

The increment inthefullscale scoresforeachform Zscorewas obtainedbydividing thestandarddeviation of the full.scalebythe standarddeviation

of the short form scored4 - EOfor the combinedsample 1 and the 7th graders. The Yintercept “a”was also derived. The equation is Yr = 2.49X- 2.686. However, when theequationwas appliedatthe higher scoring levels, theequivalentfull scalescores were higher thanthemeanfullscalevaluesobtained from the high level sample. The equationfor this sample is Y’=2.013X+ 25.307. Full scaleequivalents were computed by both methods andcompared. Equivalent values converged at a full

SCdC score ofS6for ashortformscore of30 andthen diverged for scores above and below 30.Thefirst equation was used for deriving full scaleequivalents below 30, and the secondequationwasused for scores 30 and above on theshortform.

Eqlfivalent score transformations tothefullscaleare shown at left. Scores of O and 1 were given

Table S. Intercorrelations of some BWVT and CT’MMscores of 7th grade students, by sex

[l15malc;97fcmde]

Test and sex

BWVT short form scored 4 - EO1

Male -----------------------------Female ------------------------ ---

BWVT full scale scored R - W/4

$:~~e------------------------ -----Female------------------------- --

BWVT full scale scored 10 - E

Male -----------------------------Female ---------------------------

CTMM language score

Male -----------------------------Female ---------------------------

Variables:

141 items selected in terms ofthrough 4th error or omitted item.

BWT fullscale

scoredR - W/4

.907

.892

. . .,.,

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

BWT fullscale

scored1O-E

.947

.920

.954

.944

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

cmlanguagescores

.725.646

.722

.643

.744

.654

. . .

. . .

CTP?Mnon -

Languagescore

.439

.426

. ~~o.450

.396

.467

.679

.614

CTMTlfull

scalescore

.675

.592

.633

.610

.673

.627

. . .

. . .

correlations with standardized test scores. scored

27

unit weights, and then the equations were appliedto all scores 2 and above.

Recommended Scoring Method

Since the BWVT was de btiloped from a sample(1 percent) of words selected from a defined sub-

population of main entry words common to thefour major American dictionaries, and since itis a five-choice test, adjusting or correcting forchance or guessing is necessary in estimating thenumber of words from the subpopulation that anindividual would know if he were actually testedon all the words in exactly the same way as isdone in the BWVT. The usual method for makingadjustments for chance is to subtract the num-ber of items incorrectly answered (wrongs) di-vided by one less than the number of choicesfrom the number of items answered correctly.Omitted items are not counted. The formula forthe BWVT is R - W/4 = adjusted score. Thisformula of course assumes that when the indi-vidual has to make a guess, any one of tht) five

choices is equally likely to be chosen, Whenthe individual can accurately reject any of thedistracters, his chance of selecting the correctanswer is better than one in five. A commonobservation in the B WVT pretesting, however,was that when the words were in rank order ofdifficulty and the individual had missed severalwords he would indicate that he was “just guess-ing.” Thus it appeared that when an individual hadreached his upper limit of certainty of the correctanswers, he in fact began to make random guessesfor most of the remaining items. It was reportedeven from the school testing program that theitems were easy up to a point and then theysuddenly became difficult for the individual. Inreviewing scored test records it was very ap-

parent that after on] y a few errors rhe remain-ing correctly answered items assumed a randompattern. Thus for the BWVT there is an abruptchange from known to unknown words for eachindividual as he reaches the upper limits of theBWVT words known by him. These observationsled to trying an alternative method of scoring the

B WVT. This method was to find the point wherebeyond a certain number of errors the number ofcorrect answers for the remaining items wouldbe at about the chance level of one-fifth and thescore wouid be about equal to the adjusted scoreThe point beyond the first 10 errors was found tosatisfy both of these conditions when tried on 26512th grade records. The method was simply tc)score through the 10th error and count the numberof items answered correctly below that point, notcounting omitted items. Since out of 10 errors oneprobably guessed correctly 2.5 items, then thenumber of items answered correctly beyond 1(Ierrors when corrected for guessing should beC1OSe to this figure. Another way of studying thisis to compare total scores from the adjustedmethod with the 10-error (10 - E) method. Thiswas done for the 427 cases used in developingshort forms X and Y of the BW-VT. Tables T and

U present the results of this stur!y for meandifferences and the product -moment correlationsfor the two methods. Since the mean differencesare minor and the two scores correlate .994, the10 - E method provides essentially the samescores as the adjusted method. As can be notedin table T, the 10 - E method shows a much highe:rscore than the adjusted method for the two inter-vals at 5 and below. This is because the 10 - Emethod does not yield a negative score. Since thenorm tables place scores O-2 in the lowest scalevalue for each group, this will not have any im-portant effects,

Since the standard error for guessing can becomputed from these data a further analysiswas performed. Assuming that the obtained meanof 47.4 by the adjustment method is a true scorefor the 427 cases, guessing then occurred on theremaining 75.6 items (123-47.4). The standarderror for guessing would be equal to 3.48 (-=;

~ x .2 x .8). The standard deviation of theactual score differences was 3.87. Also the vari-.

ante due to guessing increases as the adjustedscores get lower and more items are guessed at,while in the 10 - E method this variance remains

constant with a standard error of only 1.41. Thissuggests that the 10 - E methods actually reducesthe error variance due to guessing.

20

Table T. Number of students participatingin the BWVT and comparison of 10 - E andR - W/4 scoring methods

Numbersof

students

4~7_.

43--------------

:L---40_______41-------44-------33----_--42_---_--41_------19_------20-------26-------

Scorein-

terval

. . .

91-10481-9071-8061-7051-6041-5031-4021-3011-206-101-5-6-0

R ; W/4Mean

47.4

95.185.375.565.555.345.034.725,815.2

<::-2.8

1O-EMean

47.5

95.385.274.765.054.645.433.725.415.48.15.41.6

Dif-fer-ence

.1

.2-.1-.-.:

-:i-1.0-..;.3

:::

The 10 - E method is alsomuch easierto

use inscoring,sinceone stopsatthe 10therror;it is also much eas~.erto use in computingthefinalscore,sinceonlylOerrorshavetobe countedplusonlyomitteditems up tothatpoint,which are

rare inasmuch as mostomittingoccurs beyondthe10- Elevel.Whenthereareno;mittedi t~ms,

Table U. Product-moment correlationsmethod by

the

most usual case, all one has to dois submact 10from the number of the 10therroritem. Thus ifthe 10th error occurred at item67andthere were

no omits to that point, 10 is subtracted and thefinal sccmeis 57.

Another final point in favor of the 10 - Emethod is that whole number scores are obtainedat all points. In the adjusted method forthe BWVTone obtains decimal scores most of thetime, i.e.,in R - W/4 with 62 right, 61 wrong, the adjusredscore would be 62-61/4=62-15.25 =46.75. Thepractice used in the scoringof the BWVT was to

round to the nearest whole number. Howeversince thedecimal values include .25, .50, and ./5,the values .25 and .50 were dropped in all casesbefore subtracting from the number of rightanswers. Since the even-odd rounding practice ishard to explain and use by most test scorers, thiswas not used. However, when scoring the BWVTthis way, score gaps occur at every five-pointinterval, i.e., 120, 115, 110, 105, etc., unless someof the 123 items were omitted. The 10- E methodis the recommended procedure for scoring the fulllength BWVT.

The short forms are scored through the 4therror but omitted items are counted as errors and4 subtracted from the 4th error or omitted itemnumber. Thus if an individual made two errorsand omitted one through item 15 and then missedor omitted item 16, his score would be 12 (16-4).

of 10 - E scoring method with R - JJ/4 scoringsex within samples

Sample 1 Sample 2

Score range Total

Male Female Male Female

Number of students--------------------------- 427 111 111 103 102

Full range ------- ------- ------- ------- - .994 .989 .994 .993 .998

R- W/4 Scores 51 and more ------------------- .972 .971 .972R

.974 .971- W/4 Scores 50 and less ------------------- .970 .949 .980 .973 .976

29

RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY

Reliability of the BWVT

Test reliability refers to the accuracy (con-sistency and stability) of measurement by a test.Several estimates of the internal consistency ofthe BWVT were obtained from the standardizationsample.

As indicated in the subsection on Item Analy-ses, chi square values were computed for eachitem within groups with a 40 score range. All chisquare values were significant except for 19 itemsin the top 34 most difficult items. Table C alsoshows the contingency coefficients derived fromchi square and estimated product-moment co-efficients for each item= Eighty-four of the items

had contingency coefficients above .300, which

corresponds to product-moment coefficient esti-mates of .400 and above.

Internal consistency esnmates of reliabilitywere also computed at different test score levelsas shown beIow.

BWVT score range

81-109 --------------71-90 ---------------61-80 ---------------51-70 ---------------41-60 ---------------31-50 ---------------21-40 ---------------11-30 ---------------1-20 ----------------

Nuinberof Reliability

items

43 .69320 .89220 .88920 .905

.896;: .91520 .95020 .94820 .932

These results are consistent withthe item analy-ses data and indicate very high levels of internalconsistency even within ranges of only 20 scorepoints.

The correlation of .95 between the two shortforms X and Y of the BWVTalso provides a basisfor estimating full scale internal consistencyreliability bythe Spearman-Brown formula (p. 458of reference 19). The coefficient is .97. The 41-item short form Z also correlated .961 with thescores obtained on the remaining 82 items.

Taking the mean of 60,14 and the standarddeviation of 15.23 for the Sth grade (table G), the

following estimate is made. The standard errorfor guessing is 3 .165; dividing this by 15.23.

squaring the results and subtracting from 1.000

gives an estimated reliability of .957.These results indicate that the overall inter-

nal consistency reliability of the BWVT is clos,eto .96, which is about as reliable as a five- choic,etest can be, which is about .96. Asscming a stand-ard deviation of 15.0, the standard error of

measurement is 3.00 raw score points. No dataare available on test-retest overtime or alternateform reliabilities.

Valiciity of the BWVT

Validity information indicates the degree towhich a test is capable of achieving certain aims.The Standards for Etiucational an6 PsychologicalTests 22 describe three aspects of validity cor-responding to three aims of testing and are namedcriterion-related validity, content validity, andconstruct validity.

CYi tevion+elu ted validity .—Criterion-re -

lated validity aims at estimating an individual’spresent or future standing on some variable ofparticular significance that is different from thetest. It is demonstrated by comparing the testscores with one or more external variables con-sidered to provide a direct measure of the

characteristic or behavior in question. This com-parison is most commonly shown by correlatingthe test score to a criterion measure.

The BWVT scores were correlated withseveral criteria obtained from the standardizationsample, These were education, age, test scoreson the verbal sections of five different nationallystandardized tests, and test scores from fivedifferent tests of the Sequential Tests of Edu-cational Progress (STEP) and the School andCollege Ability Tests (SCAT) published by tlheEducational Testing Service. Table F presentsthe 12 correlations of the BWVT with the verbalsections of the five standardized tests. The mediancorrelation was .76. The low correlations forgrades 1, 2, and 3 are consistent with the findingsthat the B WVT is too difficult at these levels whengiven as a reading test. Thus there was not enoughdifferentiation on the B WVT to show the full rangeof individual differences. Also the standardizedtests had been administered up to 18 months

30

earlier than the BWTT (see table E) which meansthat at the early ages of 6, 7, and S considerabledifferential changes in level of achievement hadprobably occurred.

Eta correlation coefficients were computedfor education and age because the BWVT hadacurvilinear relationship with them. The BWVTtest score was the dependent variable. Eta co-efficients were also computed for the STEP andSCAT tests. These test scores were the dependentvariables. The correlations are shown in table v.

The means of the arr~ys for STEP and SCAT werelinear and positive. All the correlations are

statistically significant at better than the .01 level

Table V. Eta correlations of BWVT withvarious criteria

Item

Educational level

Grades 3-12 -------Grades 3-7--------------

Grades 8-12 -------------

Age

Ages 8-17 years ---Ages 8-12 years ---------

Ages 13-17 years --------

Sequential Tests ofEducational Progress 1

Reading ----------130 ys ---Girls --

Writing----------Boys ---Girls --

Science ----------Boys---Girls --

Math--- ----------Boys---Girls --

School and colleg~ability tests~

Quantitative-----Boys ---Girls --

—-

lGrade 10

Numberof

stu-dents

2,5711,338

1,233

2,5001,326

1,174

1;;102117

1:;98

119

104119

Corre -lation

.806

.600

.361

:X

.412

.696

.756

.683

.707

.606

.662

.532

.515

.602

.577

and are as high as, ifnothigherthan, most corre-Iations found between two tests specificaHy de-signed to measure the same general factor from

two different nationalIy standardized tests.Theseresults indicate that basicwordknowledgelevelofattainment as measured bytheBWVTishighlyre-lated coeducational andage level for childrenandrelates quite well to subject matter achievementin four areas including science and mathematics.

Content zxzlidity .—Content validity aims atdeterming how an individual performs at presentin a universe of situations that the test situationis claimed to represen&. The Standards give anexample of content validity wherein a vocabularytest might be used simply asameasureof presentvocabulary, the universe being all words in thelanguage. A useful way of looking at thisuniverseof words is to consider it tocomprisea definition

of the achievement to be measured by the test.

The BWVT test was developed trom al-per-cent sample of words that were defined as basicwords based on several explicitly stated criteria.The population source of basic words was alsoexplicitly defined.

Two problems of content validity seem par-ticular relevant for the B WVT. The first problem

is concerned with the size of the estimated popu-lation of basic words. This population was esti-mated based on a 1-percent sample of the esti-mated number of main entries in We bste@sThivd International Dictiomvy of the Rzglish

Language. The best method for determining this

population is to go through all the main entriesand the other steps that were taken to obtain thefull population. Efforts are underway to do thisnow. Until this is accomplished an estimate ofthe size of one’s basic word vocabulary knowledgeas measured by the BWVT is subject to con-siderable variance,

The second problem relates to how accuratethe B WVT is in estimating knowledge of the popu-lation of basic words even though it may be some-what more pi less than a l-percent sample ofsuch words. Results from the item and the inter -nal consistency analyses and short forms analysesindicate that the BWVT covers a wide enoughrange of basic word knowledge acquisition and

provides reliable measurements throughout therange except possibly at the verv top; hence

31

accurate estimates can probably be made when thepopulation of basic words is finally determined.

The heart of the notion of content validity isthat the test items constitute a representativesample of the content universe to which a general-ization ran be made. The procedures that wereused in drawing the sample were designed with theexplicit purpose of providing a basis for inferringcon!ent validity. How adequately this was accom-plished must be checked by a logical evalua~ion ofthese procedures and by comparing this sampleof words with other samples or the populationitself.

Construct ualzdity.— Construct validity aims

at providing a basis for inferring the degree towhich an individual possesses some hypotheticaltrait or quality (construct) presumed to be re-

flected in the test performance. The Standardsprovide an example where a vocabulary test mightbe used as a means of making inferences about“intellectual capacity. ” Construct validity isevaluated by investigating what qualities a testmeasures, that is, by determining the degree towhich certain explanatory concepts or constructsaccount for performance on the test. To examineconstruct validity requires a combination of logi-cal and empirical attack. A simple procedure forinvestigating what a test measures is to correlateit with other measures or tests. Construct validityis relevant when no existing measure is acceptableas a definitive criterion of the quality of interest,or when a test will be used in so many diversedecisions that no single criterion applies.

The logical basis from which the BWVI’ testwas constructed was to develop a vocabulary testwith content validity as a sample from an ex-

plicitly defined subpopulation of words to whichthe construct term “basic word vocabulary” wasapplied. The properties of this construct, and thebehavioral domain it represents, were explicatedby means of a set of specific criteria which pro-vides its operational definition rather than by logi -cal linguistic analyses. An assumption implicitin the construct formulation is that one’s basicword vocabulary forms the core of one’s largervocabulary.

Websterrs Dictionarypopulation from which tocomprehensive coverage

was selected as thestart because of its

and its authoritative

standing. Abbreviations, hyphenated words, com-pounds of two or more separate words, and properrmuns were included and recorded separately inthe 1-percent sample count but not consideredlater because they were v!ewed as developed,perhaps fairly temporal, phrases or expressionswhich did not coincide with the objective of de-termining the fairly basic or core words in theAmerican-English language. The other threemajor American dictionaries were used to arriveat a set of words on which there was a type ofconsensus of their relevance in the American-English language. Foreign, archaic, slang, andtechnical words were considered as representingspecialized vocabularies. The derived, variant,or redundant words, of course, wzre not con-sidered as basic words by definition.

The procedures followed to the point of dif-ferentiating basic from derived words werestraightforward and mechanical. However, thedevelopment of the criteria used for differentiat-ing basic from derived words represent con-siderable thought, evaluation, and deliberation,

The criteria were applied by other individualsin the tedious and detailed work of sample selec-tion, population estimation, and cross-checkingthe four dictionaries. The whole procedure shouldbe given careful attention in evaluating the prop-erties of the basic word vocabulary construct andin using these criteria, because any deviation willyield different results.

The method used in arriving at the operationaldefinition of a basic word was logico-heuristic.The task was not begun with a well-defined orexplicit idea of what constitutes a basic word butbegan with the general notion of a basic wordvocabulary domain from which a sample could beextracted for use as a basic word vocabulary test.

The general notion and the method to follow hadbeen germinating for 10 years in thought and

studies of vocabulary development. The decisionsrelated to starting with main entries from Web-ster’s, what to consider as a main entry word, thesize of the sample (1 percent), and the majorcategories used in classifying the sample of mainentries were made prior to actually starting thefinal task. The elimination of certain categoriesand the use of the other three dictionaires weredecided on after looking at the sample of mainentries. The criteria that were used for differ-

32

entiating basic from derived words were developedby careful study of the last 307 words and theirdefinitions. If a word and its definitions appearednot t~ fit the general notion of what constitutes abasic word the question “Why not?” was asked.This led to the development of an explicit state-ment of how it differed from other words in thesample which had been considered as “basic. ”Each word and its definitions were then evaluatedby the resulting criteria. The total process thusled to sequential sets of explicitly stated decisionlogic rules which were applied to each word.

Loevinger”’” pro!’ides three criteria for eval-uating the construct validity of a test. These cri-teria require that the substance or content of the

- items shall be consistent with the proposed in-terpretation, that the structural relations of theitems shall be consistent with the structural re-Iations of ncmtest manifestations of the same trait,md that the external correlations of the test scoreshall not all be zero and shall be consisterit withpredictions based on what is known of the postu-lated trait. Evidence for construct validity, ac-cording to Loevinger, can be broken down intoevidence that the test measures something syste-matically and evidence for the particular inter-pretation of what it measures. The degree of inter-nal structure of the items and the magnitude ofexternal correlations are the former, or psycho-metric, evidence; the nature of the structure, con-tent of the items, and nature of the external re-lations are the latter, or psychological, evidence.

‘1he procedures used in sampling, in definingthe unit of measurement—the basic word—and indeveloping the B\\7VT test were used to provideassurance that the substance or content of the

BWVT items are consistent with the proposedinterpretation. Since it was assumed that basicword knowledge is acquired and would increasewith educational attainment and age in the earlyyears, the high correlations of the BWVT witheducation and age (table U) indicate that thestructural relations of the BWVT items form ascale that is consistent with the structural re-lations of nontest manifestations of basic wordknowledge development. The external corre-lations of the BWVT with other tests of verbalability (tables F and U) were all high and con-sistent with the postulate that the B WVT measuresgrowth in verbal ability related to reading and

writing. Evidence that the BWVT measures some-thing systematically has been presented by show-ing the degree of internal structure of the itemsby item correlations with subsections of the testat several levels of difficulty (table C), the inter-nal consistency reliability of items within theselevels (see section on reliability), and by themagnitude of the external correlations of theBWVT with other factors. Evidence on the natureof the structure of the BWVT was presented whichindicated that the items form a progressive seriesor scale and the content of the items can be in-ferred to reflect the progressive acquisition ofbasic word knowledge in the early years. Evidenceon the nature of the external relations of the BWVTwas presented showing a positive relationship withgrowth and acquisition of knowledge in other areas.

These findings present positive evidence forthe construct validity of the BWVT as a measureof the level of acquisition of basic word knowledge,vocabulary development, and more general as-pects of verbal ability.

DISCUSSIONLimitations

A major limitation of the BWVT is that it istoo difficult at the lower education and age rangewhen given as a reading test. This is due mainlyto limited reading ability at the early ages. Per-haps a pictorial type cf vocabulary test can bedeveloped for individual and/or group adminis -tration at the earlier ages which can be tied inwith the BWVT. Orally given and responded to

vocabulary tests can be given at about age 6.Pictorial materials can be used as early as age 2as vocabulary measures. It appears that a full-range test of basic word” vocabulary could beconstructed for use from age 2 onward.

A larger sample of basic words would havebeen useful for selecting a 1-percent sample moreevenly distributed in terms of difficulty levels andfor selecting more words at the easiest levels forbetter cliff erentiation among individuals at thelower grades and ages.

Since the standardization sample of individ-uals was drawn from a limited geographic area,certain biases in word difficulty levels probably

33

occurred compared to a nationwide sample, Thissample also was well above average in verbal

I ability as measured by the nationally standardized

I tests. The median percentile score was 61.4instead of 50.0, which is about .29 standard scoresabove the national level. This problem led to theneed for using constructed values for the nor-mative means and distributions rather than thoseprovided directly by the sample. The number of

I cases per grade was also low for good standardi-zation, although having a wide range of gradecoverage tended to compensate for this. Whilestandardized test scores were obtained for mostof the students, they came from five differenttests reflecting verbal ability. Since the contentof these tests varied, their correlations with theB WVT probably varied more than if one standard-ized test had been available for all 12 grades, andthe normative standards among these five testsprobably differ quite a bit. Also only language IQinstead of grade percentile scores were availablefor the 7th grade and in some cases in grades 2, 3,and 5. The time interval between the adminis-tration of the standardized tests and the B WVT alsovaried from less than a month to almost 2!4 yearsin some cases, Grade 12 students were obviouslymuch higher in comparative verbal ability on thestandardized tests than the other grades, and forsome unknown reascm the 7th grade students didnot show the typical grade progression patternabove the 6th graders on the BWVT.

All these factors contributed to some un-certainty in establishing midpoint values andscore distributions for the normative tables.

Growth and Development of

Basic Word Vocabulary

The B WVT was cleveloped with the notion LIIu.

it could ;erve as an indicator of the growth anddevelopment of basic word vocabulary by educationand age among children. The findings derivedfrom the standardization sample provide someindication of the grclwth function of basic wordvocabulary.

The fact that the words in the BWVT couldbe fairly evenly orclered in terms of difficultylevels and the observations and findings for the10 - E scoring method indicate that the acquisi-tion of knowledge about given basic words doesnot occur in a random fashion. If there are no

theoretical reasons for assuming that one basic

word should be learned earlier than another one,then exposure to, interest in, and awareness ofthese words may be the most important reasonsfor acquiring knowledge about them.

Gvowth with education and age. —When theBWVT score distributions are studied by edu-cation and age (tables K and M) a definite patterncan be seen. Using age for example, the range ofscores is much higher above than below the mid-point for years 8 and 9 and then shifts over to a

larger range below the midpoint from about age11 and above. Thus at age 17 the lower range fora VW of 67 is 43 raw scores below the median,while the upper range for a V@ of 133 is only29 raw scores, The differences between the meansand medians (table G) also show this skew patternin distribution of scores.

The growth rate pattern by educational levelis shown in figure 1. The actual median values

‘“ r 95th ,R.

I percentile /-scores -0

so

70 [

a123456789 10 11 12

MI DGRADE EDUCATIONAL LEVEL

Figure 1. Basicword vocabulary growth pattern of children by

educational level.

34

show a fairly orderly pattern of growth from gradeto grade except for the 7th and 12th grades whichwas discussed in the previous section on limita-tions. The constructed normative values for the5th, 50th, and 95th percentile levels are alsoshown. The growth pattern of basic word vocabu-lary as shown by the BWVT increases fairlyrapidly up to grade ‘~ and then begins to slow downrapidly.

Estimated absolute size of basic word voca-

bulary. —An estimate of the absolute size of basicword vocabulary represented by a given score onthe BtVVT can be obtained by multiplying thatscore by 100. The percent level of attainmentcan be obtained by dividing the given score by 123.These estimates are, of course, subject to error.The two major sources of error are the standaraerror of the sample to population estimate ofbasic words and the standard error of measure-ment as reflected in the measurement reliabilityof the test. The standard error of the sample esti-mate is 1.,07.3 and the standard error of measure-ment for the BWVT is about 3 raw scores or about300 for the population estimate. Thus if an individ-ual’s raw score on the BWVT is 60, the estimatedabsolute size of his basic word vocabulary is6,000 with a combined standard error of aboutplus or minus 1,114 words.

Another feature of the BWVT is that a givenscore reflects quite accurately the actual itemsthat were passed. Thus the midpoint score of 60for 9th grade students indicates that about half ofthe students at this grade level know the BWVTword Item 60, which is “lank. ”

Applications of the BWVT

PrcJ2ahly the two most widespread a@ica-tions of the BWVT will be in education and in

personnel selection and training. Since the B WVTis easy to administer, score, and interpret,teachers and personnel officers who have reasonsto believe that a basic word vocabulary is im-portant in learning their course materials or foreffectively handling a given job can give the

BWVT and evaluate the individual as to hisprobable competence in the given situation.

The BWVT can also be used as a standardized

test for evaluating growth and development ofindividuals and of groups. One of the advantagesof the BWVT over many other standardized testsis that the content of what is being measured iseasily grasped both by the individual taking thetest and by the person who must interpret it andtranslate the findings into some action programs.Another application of the BWVT, particularlythe short forms, would be in research studies.Not only the level of basic word vocabulary ofthe research subjects could be ascertained butexperimental and control groups could be equatedon this factor whenever it had a bearing on thedependent variables of interest.

Further Research and Development

The most immediate research and develop-ment need for the BWVT is to obtain more pre-cise normative data for educational, age, andoccupational groups as well as for specificschool courses and subject matter areas. Effortscould also be made to extend the BWVT contentnotion down to about 2 years of age. Developmentof other basic word vocabulary tests from othersamples of basic words would permit recurrenttesting for evaluating growth and developmentduring each school year. Validation studies of the

relationship of the BWVT with school coursegrades, occupational success, and measures ofgeneral intellectual a~tainment can be undertaken.

The research and development implicationsthat can be generated are almost limitless if the

construct properties of a basic word vocabularyprove to be sound. Some possibilities that areopened up are for studying the relationships ofthe clevelcpment cf a basic wcrd vocabulary withlanguage growth and development, learning toread, effective verbal communication, and changesin symbolic thinking and reasoning as well asits relationship with general intellectual develop-ment. If a large basic word vocabulary is relatedto effective coping with a number of practicalproblems such as formal learning and occu-

pational success, then ways and means of ef-fectively developing a large usable basic wordvocabulary should be explored.

35

SUMMARY AIND CONCLUSION

The results of the studies to date indicate thatthe Basic Word Vocabulary Test provides a rangeof items in terms of item difficulty levels usefulin printed form from about the third grade to thehighest educational levels. Since pictorial andorally given vocabulary tests are used from aboutages 2 to 8 years, further work should be done toextend the scale downward so that a single com-prehensive vocabulary scale ranging from age 2years to the highest level of verbal developmentis available for general use.

Validation studies should also be conductedwith other well-known intelligence tests so thatscores can be compared. Alternate forms need

to be developed to allow for longitudinal studiesof growth and development.

The use of a single standard of measurementof vocabulary development, suitable over a widerange of age and ability levels, by different in-vestigators should materially aid in comparingresults across studies and samples and lead tomore consistent findings, advances in knowledge,and wider application of findings in practicalcircumstances,

The findings presented in this report indicatethat the Basic Word Vocabulary Test adequatelymeasures basic word knowledge acquisition anddevelopment. The BWVT is suitable for evaluationof individuals and for use in making group com-parisons in levels of basic word knowledge attain-ment, growth, and development.

REFERENCES

1watts A, F.: ~Ie lanp~,zge and mental development ‘f

children. London. Harrap, 1944.?-McCarth~, D.: Lan~a,ge development in children, L.

Carmichael, cd., IIfanual of Child Psychology. New York.

Wiley, 1946.3Smith, M. K.: Mea~~re~le~t o{ the size of genera] English

vocabulary through the elementary grades and high school.

GeFzet. P.,ychol. Monogr. 24:311-345, 1941.4Dolch, E. W,, and Leed;j, D.: Vocabulary tests and depth

of meaning.]. Educ. Res. 47:181-189, 1953.5Seashore, R, FL, and Eckerson, L. D.: The measurement

of individual differences in general English vocabularies. ].

Educ. psychol. 31:14-38, 1940.6Anasta~i, A.: P~Ycho[o~ic~Z testing, New York. MaCMiHan,

1968.l’Terman, L, M.: The “oc:LbuIarY test as a measure of intelli-

gence. J. Educ. Psychol. 9:452-466, 1918.8Miner, J. B,: I~tel[igence in the United States. New York.

Springer, 1957.9Thorndike, R, L., and IGa]]up, G. I-I.: Verbal intelligence

of the American adult.]. Gen, Psychol, 75-85, 1944.1Owechsler, D.: ~~antidz for the Wechszer Adult Intelligence

Scale. New York. psychological Corp., 1955.1 lTerman, L. M., and Mer~il], M, A.: Stanford-Binet Inte[[i-

gence Scale; Form L-M. Boston. Houghton-Mifflin, 1960.,12J3rown, J,: Vocabu]av, key to communication. Educa-

tiOn. S0:80-84, 1959.

13Funk, E.: The way to vocabulary power and culture. New

York. Wiffred Funk, Inc., 1946.14 Rinsland, H. D.: A bczric vocabulary of elementary school

children. New York. MacMillan, 1945.15 Webster’x Third New Intemationa/ Dictioncny of the Eng-

lish Language, Unabridged. Sptigfield, Mass. G. &C. MerriamCo., 1961.

16 Ran&,m Hou~e ,Dictionq of the Englkh Lvzgr.rage, J.

Stein, ed. New York. Random House, Inc., 1966.17Barnhart, C. L.: The Itiork! Book Dictionary. Chicago.

Chicago Field Enterprises Educational Corp., 1969.

~8Funk and Wcsgrmlk New Standard Dictionary of the Eng-

lish La-rguage. New York. Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1965.19Guilford, J, P.: Fundamental StatMics in Psychology and

Education. New York. McGraw-Hifl, 1965.20 Tho~dike, E. L.. and Lorge, 1.: The Teacher’~ Word BOOk

of 30,000 Words. New York. Bureau of Publications, TeachersCollege, Columbia Universityl 1944.

21 me Ne~on-Denny Reading Test. Boston, HOughtOrr-

Mifflin Co., 1960.ZzStandar& for Educafi”onal and Psychological Tests ~d

Manuak. Washington. American Psychological Association,

1966.23 Loe~nger, J., Objective tests as instruments of psycholog-

ical theory. PsychoL Rep., 1957, Mongr. Suppl. 9.

000

36

APPENDIX I

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DICTIONARIES

The following brief descriptions were obtained from Webster’s :1g More than 450,000 entries; 2,662the self-description of each dictionary used in develop- pagesing the Basic Word VocabuIaty Test. Entries or terms Funk and Wagnalls:l~ 458,000 terms defined; 2,757as used by these dicticmm_ies are not main entries, that pagesis, the alphabetic entry, but are probably used to des- World Book: 17 Over 200,000 enmies; 2,415 pages

16 zfjo ()()0 entries; 11ihmate all the main entries plus derived forms and sub- Random House: , 664 pogesentries that are defined.

000

37

APPENDIX I I

LISTING OF NONBASIC WORDS IN l-PERCENT SAMPLE FROM

Derived, Variant, ❑nd dictation implantRedundant Words diesis impropriety y

dilatorily inefficiency

adiabatic cliff idence infamy

advanced discontinuity inkstand

anesthetize discrimination insanitary

snvwis e rbsinfect insphere

armigerassortment

beckbe spanglebillionairebookkeeperbooteeboxberrybracerbressummerbuilder

catfootchancefulcharitablecheckeredcivilityclamperclerklycollectaneacoloraturacomfortercommunitarianconceitedcongelationconquistadorcon stringentcowledcullender

dashendeceptivedeccmatedecorativedefiancedefrockdeliverancedespumate

dispatcherdissuasivedominationdraughtdrifter

easterlyebonelucidateem bayendamageenduranceepiscopalismexaltedexhibitionexorcismextravaganza

failingfatalismfiddlewoodflapdragonfloatagefollowerfurther

ghostlygodchildgrandchildgunboatgymnasiast

hagberryhardnesshowbe ithydromedusahypnotize

immoral ity

institutionalizeinsuppressibleintelligentialinterstitialirateisostacyisthmian

jetton

koorajong

leapfrogleperIethargizeliberalismlocatorlogging

marrowbonemediaevalmelodiousmethodologymetrifymidwintermilfoilmimicrymonocular

narcotismnominal

WEBSTER’S

obscenityoccultationoffenseoutbreedoverarchoverflyoverwrite

38

packagepadoditepalpitationpantaloonpapyraceousparsimoniouspayablepersuasivepestilentialpolitesseproapregnancyprovisional

valedictorianvaporizevarioloidventuresomevisionaryvisitant

nullipora

orthogonal

placeboprussiatepygidiumwarranter

retinitisrousant

zip

Technical, Archaic, Foreign,

and Slang ‘Words sonorantsuperciliary

Technicalradiantrampancyrarefyrealityrelictreproachfulrespectivelyresupinerhombohedronrobustiousrookeryrusticate

thionyltribachalopecia

anaphaseant ierqmeantilogarithmaposematicarchitravear il

vacuoleviosterolvoltage

zamindar

buccinatorbuntline

Archaic

amus ive

lucarne

paly

carpellatecessionarychaIazachoripetalouscodaconchscorodycourmarincreosol

Sacramentalscorchingscutasedulityseepageseismoscopeservingseveraltysilviculturesingularity

skeletonizeslatyslumberoussmithyspreaderstrengthstylographicsubsurfacesulfatizesunkensuperstratumsupposed

Fore ign

ageedigitalindourine byre

epigas tr iumeuplast ic

claught

grutchfantiguefluorforestayformaldehyde

jillet

Iicht

grippe makimono

herpesholmium

ruddockthreadfintitledtoothachetragediontraineetransformationturnabout

se]interplead

tirltrachlelymphadenitis

Iytic

warwaggonwyte

martens itemethylunbelief

39

Slang

battybenny

confab

offish

snottysplendiferous

wallop ing

Words Not Main Entlries In

411 Four Dictionaries

abembryonicabolitionismabruptlyacademicianaccelerographaccip itr idacephalinaacknowledge ableacridanactabilityadaadministrableadornoaerationaestheticianaffabilityagalagpaiteakepiroal ifalkydallactiteallophanam ideallothimorphallylenealternamentealumnalalveonambassadorshipamenablyam isamoramph idampyxanaerobiananam iteanchimonomineralandriteanhungeredanionotyopyanonymuncule

antagonisticallyantiquitariananxiouslyaphelinidaeapochaapplicablenessapt ingarboraryarchbandarcticizearistoiarrayerarrowplateasheryassailmentasseverasthenobiosisastonishableattristaurinasalautarch icautoerotismautoingau totomyavulseaxeazon

babblingbackwoodsbacteriofrenicbadmashbaledosballoonberrybanjoistbarbarousnessbarmotebarnsbasichromatinbataleurbatoneerbeezerbefroggedbeh itebelonitebendaybenzalberingitebesetmentbet itlebibliolatrousbieberitebikinibindsbismocliteblack acrebiasblazingly

blowbackbobacheeboildownboltedbondarboozerboritybmssebowdenbrachyblastbravenessbreezewaybutterballbutyratebyzant

caballercalathoscalcifugecalimancocarminesscantilatecapriciousnesscaraibecartilaginouscase inatecassingcatalyticcatskincattlemancaussecavitomacazacelebratorcembalistcephalizat ionceremonialismchangeroomchannelbillcharabanchasedchaussurechenfishchidrachiffonadechitosanchloroanemiachloromachoirwisechondropha~ngeuschoosychromanchromoisomerchrysographychurchlesscircumventcitolerclasmatocyte

40

cliquelessclosef is tedclosestoolc Ioudle tcoactiveCoastvmysCoccospherecockiercodehydragenase IIcoerulignolcohocoleopt ilccollogencolophenecolumhatecomfiestcommendatorycommitteemancompensabilitycomplanat ioncomptwmissionconfibwrativeconfusinglycon juryconsonantalconstercontraindicateconvalescentconverted,-oracobrachidliswrnerbindcorcicoafferent,:osmolog ist

countercheckcounterslopecount inghousecoupledcrazyweedcreededcrockedcrosnescrownbeardcru is iecumbersomelycupidoncupressineouscuriosocutbankcycIopedistcytogamy

dacentdaughterlydavydeathtrapdeclassifydeduc iblcdciacement

degreeddehrnitedelegatordelorenzitedemonstrabilitydendrophys isdent iformdependablenessdepraverderangeablederidinglydesdesignatadesmonemeckuceddwilrydibutyldiminutivaIdimpsydipcoatdiphthero iddipotassiumdisallydiscussiondisgrwiousdismaskdisposabilitydispositionsdissavedissolvabledistinctivenessditingdividedlydizoicdoctorhooddoganadolt ishklopeheadborylinedozeneddraggeddrawlingdromicdrostdydrunkeqdudleyitedwineddysgonic

ecstaticallyeditorialisteffecti!deeidetic

eightfoilekhimielectroanalysiselectroplexy

elenwntarilyelongationembroileremulsifierencephalos isendolimaxengrainedennoblingcmadenthrallmententirenessentropionepibolicep iphyt icepizoOtiologicaIequatoriallyeremiticerogenyescapedescapingesoteryessoinestoqueether if icationetiolationevaccorexceptionlessexecratorexpiatorex@oiteeeyne

fagotcrfalculafamiliarizationfarmhandfarrucafatcakefederacyfeeIessfeelinglyfencelessfertilenessfilopodiumf lakelessf lavorpurpurinfleshlessfloodboardfloscuIusfluoroformflywayfoldawayfoot backformularize

fors lowfoundat ionaryfreezesfretize

41

frightenedlyfrontingfrontsfumigatorfundo

gadgegalactocelegallasgallusedgangsgantgastroptosisgayatrigeisothermgenergeneralcygentlefolkgeomagnet iciangeoselenicgerminatorgidgeegillinggimlet ygladygliffing

glode~lossopyrosisglutonousl ygnawinggonifgonosomegr iffonnegroundiergroutitegulgymnosophical

gyrocompasss

habitallyhabronemiaslshairstanehallothhamblehandlebarhangbirdhaploidharmalhatbandhatchettinehaustrationheadrailhemipteroidheptynehere biologistheterachromehexamethylenehexed

hideouthighveldhinderlandshistogenesishitchinghivelesshockeyisthohlf16’tehomeot ichomolateralhooplikehusbandlyhuskedhydrazobenzenehydrocarbonatehypaethralhypermotilityhypochIoremiahypophysectomizehypsometry

ichthammolideologicalidylliumillustrationalimitationalimpartmentimplementationimposttrousimprint inginbearingunconnectedinconstantnessincubationalindenterinducinginfatuatorinformalizeinforminglyinheritageinquisitivelyintellectualistintercreedalinterdictoryinterjaculatoryintimationintolerabilityintrauterineintuit ionalistinmdableinversioninvitediodhydrinironizeironbackirremissiveisard

ishikawaiteisodrinitemingivybells

javalijelly breadjocundnessjoining

kampferolkayleskeelbillkeffiyehkiakik ifkinderk irkmanknichtknobwoodknucklebonekommetjekweekkrrikurveyor

Iabellatelabyrinth ianladkinIamplessIapettedlathererlaverwortlaxistleevelegitimationleontiasisIeptoteneleucoindigoleveledIexicostatisticsIieutenantryliftedligg1ikedlimbsIimnephilidlineableIinolein[iquifiableIithocystIoamlessIocallteIocustarianlookedloveylovingly

42

lullerIurdaneluringlyIutulent

mticroblastmagniloquencemajnrat ionmallmblenessmantel lonemarimondamarketabilitymashedmassivitymatchhoardingmamrenessmwiemattnessmemorylcssm,:ningiomamercurialismmeritermerocyaninemesopheremetachromatismmetanyrnmcrensommosismicruiichemicrolepidopteristmicrosporonmiddlermilIeringmillablemineral ocorticoidmisadjustmentmisdcscriptivemisogynistmisputm itochondr ionmock agemonaxialmonetitemononu-c~sisrnonotrlglyphmonumentalityrnoosewoodmorsalmosaicistmotorymouthbreedermuliebralmowermungamunitioneermusafmycotrophicmyelopathicmyrmecophilism

mythicistrnyxine

napalmnativenessnaturallynavigationalnebbynectareanneighboringnephographnephrosisnestableneurineneuro,glianicotinatenightshirtnitranilineniyoganominativelynoncontagiousnonmedicalnonopr ic alnontheisticnorthwardsnormalnessnotacanthidnotharctidnot ifiablenoticeablynucleocytoplasmicnumeric

eaterobeahobstructiveoilskinnedoleoplastomohyoidontogenesisonychos isoppilateoptimityOrchiectomyorthopsychiatricosteolepiformesosteriaoutgoeroutpouchingoutstepoutvalueoverpaymentoveredgeroversimplify

paddleboardpaintspalatability

paleothermalpalimbacchiuspalmaceouspandparalyzingparadoxologyparallelogrammaticparcdlationpardspatrilocalitypaulinpedimentedpegaso idpelliculapeloricpenciledpensionnairepentoseperacuteperfidiousnesspericarpoidalperishablenessperoxidat ionpers ifleurperspectivistpetrifactivepetzitepkenomenalitypililomathphloroglucinalphotomuralphrenologicalphyllozooidphysiologuepickoverp icudillapiezochemistrypikedpinacolonepinglepintadoitepiraticalplatyfishpleuracantheaplombageplumpnesspoggypointespollenizerpolycomponentpolyenepolymicrobicpoiypspolysporeportabil icyportsiderpossessinglypostclypeus

43

practicednessprakaranapreanimismprecipitatelyprecisionistpredictorprefilterprepalatalpresentablypresidingpresgiouspretypifyprevelarprimmerprickierprocaviidproctorizeprofligatenessproliferousprolongatepronenesspropalinalproperdinprosciuttoprosternat ionproportion mgprotocolistprotohistoricprovolettepseudozoeapteridoid

pteropaedic

puericulwrepulmonatepulpiterpunctuationpuppetizepursinesspurringlyputrescinepyrazolinepyrotechny

quadruplicityquatersquickbeamquivering

rachiticrageousrdlIsOInL>]-

l-mherishrattlebagreactivityrebuterecondemnreconstruct ional

recruitingredeemablereechref or maderefusibleregulantreimbursablerelatednessresentmentreluctatereminiscentlyremixrent ingrepenterrephotographrepostreproductionistrequinresentmentrespitelessresolutioneerretablorenaturationretrocessivereused

revokinglyrevolvablerhapontmribaldrousridgebonerimaterisenritual izationrobingroestone

romamicalness

rootiest

rostralis

rowed

rottlerin

ruckumlaut

ruggedize

rumpot

saddlenosesadlysagaciouslysaintingsalmonflysalutarinesssamelsandaledsapinsatisfiersauropodscenaristscobicularscolding

scraplerscreenlikescripterscrupulousnessscutipedsectoralsellaitesemiroundsensiles“emimentalistsequestreeserpoletferriferousshadbellyshapingshareefsheavemmshroudlessshuttensidescrapersigsightedsimIinsimplifiedsisalana

skipdem

slan:ishslapd:lbslickensslouchilysnoopysoapboxsoaringsociometristsolderlesssolubilizesomersorochesourberry,southssparger

spasmogen ic

spatuliform

speechcraftspirocyclicspewyspiesspindleberryspiracularslatheringsportfulsprugsquaresst alworthstartling-stearicstenionsterning

44

stockingedstourystraightwaysstretchbzrrystrikingnessstrivingstron[ ianifcrous

strutterstufferstupendouslysubduedlysubfaunasubjunct ivelysubnutritionsubsidizable:ubver~i~al

suckenSuffsufficientnesssuggestivenesssuperlttnarysuppormtionsurfersurrenderorsusceptionsusurrationswashbuckleringswillingstinginglyswooshswordsplayersymbionsymphyl idsynk inesiasynonymic

tableclothtalaritallygalonetamperertangleheadtautnesstawerytechedteguteloblasttempestuousnesstendenztenoristteraiterm inetestabilitytetchinesstemapteroustetramethylened iaminetextusthermocl inalthinghood

thisnessthundercracktiddlertiewigt insmithytoatoddicktongawallatonguelesstopengtouchertowablemxigenictransfusionisttranslatortransplantertrapballtreatingtrellagetrestlemantriazotrichoidtrihydrated

tritencephalontrocheametertrothlesstruxillinetubectomytumbledturbinertypecase

unadjusteduncessantunchristianizeinconsonantundeludeunderairunderleafunderstandedundissectedunemployabilityunex~endedunfraternalunhangunhelpedunimaginedunitalunliterilunmownunneutralityunpossibleunrecoflectedunbelievableunscaleunsimiIarunsmdiousuntillable

unwanderedunweet ingupstanderuranoscopidurva

vancour iervarnishervelveretvengefullyverditvernacularizeverticallyvesturalvirtuosev itam inoloh~~vraicking

walk awaywardwalkwasteIesswhatmanwiggywinterkillwolframineworthilywouldstwreatherwronged

xeromorphicxiphisternum

yadyarneryawneryous

zw inger

Abbreviatians

abn.appd.

dol.

E. O.H. P.extl.

fgn.F.O-R.F. P.U.

45

gl .

IM[NA

lit.

Me

MOHMPI

OblOcsOEOTS

prof.

refd.

SC and SSing.

S.s.w.

TH1

U and O

Hyphenated Words and

Word Compounds

absorption bandacetaldehyde ammoniaachievement tes[activated sludge processaddition polymerizationaddressing machineadjwtamrs callagent inteIlectahead ofair engineall-firedaIphabet bookangle ironangular displacementannual bluegrassapple leafhopperarabonic acidarrack punschart formartificial nucleation

artist’s proofasexual sporeaspect ratioatom smasher

average bondazimuthal equidistant projection

backache brakeback loadbad belowbalance coilbanded olive snakebarren brome grassbasal wallbasket saltbeam and scalesbearded argalibeat backbeaver dambed rotbell crownbinomial expansionbiotic formationbird’ s-foot violet

bitter aloesblack-backed gullblack flagblack oyster catcherblack rootblade backblind tireblister cankerblood pheasantblood typeblue asbestosblue beamblue nevusblur circleboathouse rumbody cellbois coteletbosun birdbottom breakboundary layerbranch circuitbreach of trustbreak and entrybreast-beatingbridge birdbright squa bluebright peachbroadleaf treebrokers’ boardbrood capsulebrown brushbrush arborbubble chamberbuck sailbuffalo currantbulk eraser

bull oakbull thistlebum steerbush doebustard quailbutterfly crab

cab-overcadency markcalendar stonecall pricecalyx toothcameo glasscamphorated oilcanal cellcanary cedarcandlestick Ii.lycame ce.cfarcap-and-ballcapital assetscarbonic oxidecardinal climbercarnation rosecarrion beetlecartridge startercastor oilcatch coltcellulose estercera flavacervical canalchaff-flowercharge-a-platechevron moldingchime maulchip carvingchunk honeycidar applecinnamon tealcirculating decimalclam catcherclaver grasscleaning markclearing bathclimb-downclip -clopclumphead grasscognovit notecollective bargainingcommissioning pennantcomparative literature

complement-fixation testcomposite dikecompressibility effectconditional complexcon gustocontact bedcontent analysiscone-bearing

46

contingent fundcontract bondcontraction jointcook cheesecoordinate geometrycopper nickelcoralline limestonecore bitcorn brancorrespondence theorycossack postcough dropcourmsy cardcover chargecrab plovercrack drrestercramp ironcrape jasminecribriform platecrinkum-crankumcrossed beltcross-staffcrowfoot grasscry backcrypt-analystcrystal vinegarcuckoo-breadcurry powdercushion dancecut-and-covercut square

dandy feverdark beaverdead-smoothdeclaration ofwardependent variabledetention homedew-drinkdialectical theologydiaphragm horndirect controldirect salesmandirectional gyrodischarge coefficientdistribution boxdog cockledonkey enginedoppio movimentodouble-actiondouble capitaldouble-talkdove rs -footdown- and- outdragon boat festivaldray horsedress circle

dropping bottledry-waxeddual uniondumb aguedung wormdyer’s cleavers

ear rotearth licheneau de Javelleeconomy coileffective horsepoweregg albuminelbow chairelcmentag’ bodyempire buildingempty-headeden passantequilateral archequivalence zoneessential hypertensioneudemis motieven courtevil eyeexecutive sessionex~erimental psychologyeqmess carextended famiIyextreme fibereye appeal

face and fillfair usefalse annuaf ringfaucal pIos ivefavorite sonfeather bedfellow feelingfender boltfern clubmossfictitious personfield kitchenfifty- threefighter-bomberfile signalfinder switchfingernail clamfire and brimstonefire blanketfire-retardedf iah-and-chipsfissure of Rolandofive-fingerflare gunflat backflax-s ickflight payflowering straw

fly-aboutfocal areafool hayforce accountforce of frictionforeign-bornforty-secondfoul berthfour-posterfreak of naturefree fieldfreeze-dryingfrogbit familyfruit bark beetlefuel dopefulI bottomfunctional calculusfur breederfuture tense

games-allgas bactilusgas helmetgaudy nightgentleman-rankergive offglass runglove boxgoing forthgold bloc&old import pointgo [clgovernor’s councilgrade beamgrain beetlegrand father- in-lawgrapple plantgray antimonygreat anteater

greater omentumgreen adder’s mouthgreen-striped maplewormgreeting cardgrooving sawgrowing zoneguardian by customguide card

halfhead bedsteadhand and foothand nutharmonic intervalharsh-furred harehawkbilledhawthorne rustheart attackheather ale

47

heavy sparheel-and-toe watchhell driverhelve hammerhemp treeher~d of armshigh-angle firebight courthokus-pokushold overhollow newelholy dayhomogeneous reactionhoney badgerhonor systemhooded miIfoilhorny Iaminaehorseshoe bathot-air furnacehotel dieuhue circlehuman ecologyhouse boardhum notehunter’s moonhybrid coilhysteresis loss

ice partridgeicterus gravisill at easeimperial cityin chiefincluded sapwoodindefinite propos it ionindirect lightinginduct ive inferenceinfinite canonirmom inate veinins ide qu ireintent ional speciesintermittent pulse

jaal goatjack-by-the-hedgejet blackjudgment by defaultjumble salejus in re

kahili gingerkick aroundking ortolanknot garden

lag faultlast clear chancelast-ditch

laughing jackasslaw of the minimumlay onleaf-and-tongueleaf-cushionlead arsenateleave inlegal jointurelet downlicensed premiseslightning calculatorline space leverlistener-inlittle houselivery cupboardliving languagelong hundredlook downloose serumlord registerlowland ploverlug chairlumpy skin disease

magazine safetymagnesium hydroxidemagpie mothmail clerkmake-peacemalignant hypertensionman-about-townmandarin orangemanrope knotmany-valuedmasked bobwhitemaster stationmeadow nematodemean placemeat choppermechanical aptitudemedium chrome greenmelon fruitmesh knotmetropolitan boroughmine detectorminister plenipotentiaryminute handmiter jointIn ixt le - maxt iemodern figuremolding bookmole crabmolybdic acidmonotoriaf systemmooring boardmoral sensemother bulbmother ship

mountain haremountain rosebaymuck soilmultiplier onionmushroom jelly fishmussel poisoning

naked boysnature philosophynegative angleileu tral conductornight hitchninety- seventhnodding 1ilynovel ass ignmentnurse’s aide

obscure gIassoccupational therapyoffset wellone-night standopen-tankophthalmic glassoptical pyrometerorange scaleorgan neurosisoriginal contractorographic rainosmic acidout and awayoxeye daisyoyster agaric

package beespaper bailpara-analgesiaparietal eyeparlor gameparrot bluepartial correlationparting pulleypartition coefficientpass outpastry bagpatent rightpat handpeacock butterflypear thripspectoral ridgepep talkperfecting pressperiodic acidperiodic cometpermanent hardnessperpetual canonpharyngopalatine archDhase-contrastphosphorus trioxide

40

pilaster stripptilow fightpinch barpipe-bandpit canalpitch-and-run shotpit-pairplace nameplain clo~hesplain sailingplantagc seedplaster basepl.tc metalpIay backplay-prettypIug flowplunge poolpocket bsachpoker-facedpolecat treepond-scum parasitepoor man’s orchidpopulation pressurepost-officepotassium ferrocyanidepotato-leaved tomatopound cakepour batterpower appendantpre- medprerogative writpress agentprimary alcoholprinciple of associationprison campprivate bankprogressive diesprotein crystalpseudogeneric namepsychological distancepublic assistancepuddle duckpump-actionpurchase-money mortgage

quail callquantitative inheritancequarter buttquench ing bathquick matchquinine flower

radiohumeral bursitisrain barrelraked jointraking courserange-bred

range of accommodationrate basisraw waterrayless goldenrodreasonable carerecessed archre-claimred seaweedred-tailed hawkreference lineregimental combat teamremade milkremittance manresidual estateresting nucleusreverse bearingrift-sawedrigging loftright-handed roperind diseasering ploverrip-raproad brandrocking pierroi fain= antrolling eightroseate spoonbillrose familyrubber beltr unitrural servitude

sales checksand mulletsanitary cordon

scale barkscarf cloudscrew arborsea devilsea mailseason cracksecond anglesecond-story manseff-analysisself-involvedsemicircular canalsemipalmated snipesense-datumsepa a tiIageseries parallelset aidsettle bedseventy-threesex cordshagbark hickoryshamanistic danceshave hook

sheet chainshield bearershift bidshingle towship of warshock bumpshort lineshoulder armshoulder-of-mutton sailshrinkage rulesib testside armsignificant figuressilica WI

silicone rubbersilver ashsingle transferable vote

six-wheelerskill facetskirmish linesky hooksleeper sharksling unloaderslip stitchsliver lapperslugging matchsmall-beersmash fixersmooth-tonguedsnake flysnap beansnuffbox beansocial ascidiansodium fluosilicatesodium propionatesoft soldersolar parallaxsou markeesour dockspace-charge effectspangled glassspecial depositspecific surfacespeclded turtlespencer mastspheroidal statespike bollspiral springsplit-boardspoils systemspontaneous generationspool heelspotted nemophilaspot welding

square bodysqueeze offstained paper

49

standing ropestarch bluestar thistlestatute fairsteady loadsteering armstep trenchstereo camerastick riderstinging nettlestifiking badgerstitch aloftstock-share leasestomodaeal foodstoop cropstorage carstraight grainstrangulated herniastrawberry cactusstraw manstripe smutstubborn diseasesubstitution instances ulf onated oilsumm(lm jussuperior conjunctionswamp ashsweep checksweet oilsynchronous telegraphs’ystemic circulation

tableau curtaintack and half tacktailored gardeniatake in

tall bellflowertank bargetap drilltarragon oiltassel-gentletea borerteasel gourdtelephone transmitterten-cent storeten-week stockterrestrial magnetismtheater- in-the-romdthen and therethird basementhorough-bandthreshing floorthrough archthrough-composedthrush lichentile oretime allowancetittle-tattle

toilet settoken moneytossed saladtotaI-annular eclipsetower clocktrade agreememtranscendental equationtraveling post officetrigonal tristetrahedrontripIe-spacetroop ducktruck Iigh[true balsamtrunk calltry for pointtuck boxtungsten bronzeturntable ladder

twenty-ninetwin valvetwo-guntwo-sided

umbilical cordunfair method of competitionuniversal millupper alveolar indexuric acidusurae usurarumutter barrister

vacuum-tube voltmetervegetable leathervegetative mutationvestibular nervevicar apostolicvoice glottisvulturine guinea fowl

wandering tattlerwantage rodwarp and woofwasher-upwater bailiffwater-groundwater purslanewater-smokewave bandweak feintsweathered oakwedge gageweigh-inwelfare factorwestern ring-necked snakewhack-upwheel scraperwhet slate

whing-dingwhip cranewhite-crested touracowhite flesherwhite pelicanwhite workwhole-timewicket damwild alIspicewild peachw iHow beautywindow-efficiency ratiowing coverwise guywood alloywood snailword associationwork-and-backworking ballworm conveyorwrinkIe-lipped bat

yellow azaleayellow sedgeyouthful offender

zenith telescopezero driftzone of mobility

Proper Nome5

AccraAcn ida

African izationAfro- EuropeanAida trumpetAixAlcyonaceaAlexandrine ratAmerican scoterAndaman padaukAnno HegiraeArgasidaeAnthropomorphidaeAscaropsAsuriniAthecoideaAth iorhodaceaeAttaleaAudubon’s shearwaterAureomycin

BalahiBalling scaleBamba

50

BantamBarbareaBaur$Bd:llonemermaBellacodaBignoniaceaeBlenheim spanielBlockflbteEionpaBrahmanBranchiopodaBro\vnismBuprestidaeBurow’s solution

Ca~oulardCalyceraceaeCariamaCastaliaCentral American cedarChamarCheilodactylidaeCherokeeChinese bush cherryChristmas begoniaCloot ieCocceianColacialesConnecticutConservative BaptistCotonerol ACrescentiaCyathaspisCyclOstomaCynoglossidaeCystophora

DahomeanDardanianDebye- Huckel theoryDemerara sugarDeuterostomataDiapensialesDic:yoninaDutch bargainDutch pink

IkhinopanaxEnglemarm spruce beetleEpanorthidaeErwiniaEuropean apple sawflyExogyraExpectation week

FerungulataFirst Reader

FIorida mossFrankfurt horizontalFrench vermilionFuchs ine

Gael icizeGeneva crystalGirdle of VenusGoa BeanGoodyeraGrantiaGuatemalteean

Hamitic languagesHebricianHeleniumHemigalusHeteropidaeHippophaeHyenia

IatmuIIgnerilndio,l ,.hcrr~[ndicatoridaeIngaevonic

.TagataiJane DoeJapan lacquerJob’s tearsJove.Junebud

Karmat ianKepler’s LawKeresKeyauweeKingdom HallRiwanianKlemantan

hcrima ChristiLagos rubberlambeth DelftLancashireLandolphiaLaudnum Bunches

Leblanc processLinumLondon brownLoricati

MacedoiiianMadagasarMalayicMarnmalia

Nlan:aniaMarchantiaMarquis of Queensbury ruleshlaxwell trianglehlegaloceroshl~garhyssaAlel~noplushlichaelmashlonsteraMormoness

Nabothian cystNaticidaeNelumbiumNe~LamarckianNew EngIand asterNev, YorkyNgbaka

Nyctim.mm

OdaciaaeOdontosyllisOld German Baptist BrethrenOlmecOnaOrdinesOxypolis

Pace eggPan- HispanismFarascarisPaschens IawPassalusPathanPauropodidaePedicellinidaePercopsisPhallalesPlnilippizePhthalogen Brilliant Blue 1F3GPhysopsisPlectospondyliPlymouth RockPolish berryPnrphyrula

I?rlmmesProcellariiIormesPromraPurkinje’s network

RabbinicsReceptaculidaRedjangReinecke acidRhinonyss idaeRhizidiaceaeRichardson[s grouseRydberg

51

SabbatsSabineSaint Andrew’s crossSalopSamniteSa rc inaSatsuma wareSavoyardSay’s phoebeScandahoovianScheuchzeriaceaeSchmidt telescopeSchopenhaureanismScotch stoneScottishnessSenec ioSheltaSine. JapaneseSirenidaeSolidagoSpringfield

Starford - 13inet testStates’ RightsStegosauriaStrige idaeSub-AtlanticSuboscinesSupreme Court of JudicatureSvanSwaveSympetalaeSyphacia

Taeniarhynchus“ragakaolo

TherapeutaeThibetTibareniTinamiformesTorahTorre6nTreasurer of the Household

Turd idaeTutchoneTyroglyphidae

UlotrichalesUpland cottonUstilago

ValparaisoVat Jade GreenVerona earth

Victor ian hazelVizsla

W3iwaiWelsh groinWestern bezoarWilliam and MaryWisconsin white pineWittgensteinian

Yokohama fowl

000

52

APPENDIX 1![

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ADMINISTERING THE BASIC WORD VOCABULARY TEST IN ASCHOOL SITUATION

Basically the test should be administered as in anynormal testing situation. Each teacher is expected touse a procedure suitable to the grade level being tested.

After handing out the tests, read to the studentswhat they have to do (fill in name (possibly print): firstname, middle initial, last name, date tested, date ofbirth, current grade level). Read the DIRECTIONS andthe example—walk around the class to see if each stu-dent seems to understand what is required. Discouragelooking at other students’ answers of course! ‘Try toinsure that they answer all items—even if only guessing.

DO NOT READ THE TEST ITEMS TO THE STU-DENTS. Do not prorwu.ncQ any words either. Part of thefunction of the test is to determine literacy level; thusthe ability to read and understand these words is partof the test’s purpose. If the student cannot read, be swrethe identifying information is completed on the test form.

NOTE .-Try to insure that all identifying informa-tion is correct. Note particularly the grade level and

date of birth—ofien the cunmnt yeay will be writteninstead of year of birth.

Grade levels .—Each person should answer everyitem for his grade level. Test through the followingitems for each grade. If a student makes fewer than 10errors by the end of the test, return it to him to com-plete more items. This will be the rare case.

Grade kerns

ad----------------------- 1-554th---------------------- 1-6S5th---------------------- 1-756th---------------------- 1-817th---------------------- 1-878th---------------------- 1-939th---------------------- 1-98lath --------------------- 1-102llth-12th ---------------- 1-107College ----------------- 1-123

000

53

UNTIMED

APPENDIX IV

THE BASIC WORD VOCABULARY TEST FORM A

Month Day YearNAME:

— .DATE TESTED:

-—

SEX: M F DATE OF BIRTH: —

EDUCATION: Current grade level If not in school, highest grade successfullycompleted E in college, or college graduate: Academic major.-and highest degree earned

—

DIRECTIONS : Select the word or phrase which has the same meaning,EXAMPLE

or most nearly the same meaning, as the underlined word. CIRCLE a b~isathe letter (A, B, C, D, or E) of your answer choice. Read all answer A. lipchoices before making your choice. If you do not know the correct B. bushanswer-guess !

g %%E. horse

1. a~ristoA. start fires withB. eat onC. take picturesD. ride inE. draw with

2. the shore is by theA. seaB. trainc. letterD. tableE. paper

3. ~ is used toA. walk onB. write withc. cut withD. serve withE. stand on

with

4. ~r means havingvery little

A. moneyB. hairc, sunD. timeE. snow

5. shower:A. fieldB. doctorC. rainD. postE. battle

6. e:A. familyB. cupc. lakeD. coatE. bird

7. a tricycle is toA. hear withB. ride onc. lie onD. walk underE. see through

8. combat:A. pointB. reportC. fightD. startE. admit

9. stable:A. husbandB. windowc. oceanD. buildingE. street

54

10. a mistake issomething done

A. fustB. wrongC. nextD. oftenE. alone

11. violet:A. plantB. shipc. storyD. homeE. river

12. a desert is veryA. kindB. strongc. dryD. braveE. dark

13. a witness is aperson who

A. trains animalsB. bakes cakesc. observes actionsD. fixes machinesE. grows wheat

14. ambush:A. attitudeB. addressC. artistD. attackE. authority

15. ~:A. roarB. designC. proposeD. departE. succeed

16. quit:A. hopeB. tradeC. learnD. takeE. stop

17. puss:A. factoryB. devilc. exerciseD. campE. cat

18. encyclopedia:‘A. woman

B. reasonC. nationD. foodE. book

19. phony:A. toughB. neutralC. vividD. fakeE. hasty

20. crisp :A. safe and warmB. hard and thinc. deep and wideD. soft. and shortE. round and heavy

21. advice:A. recordB. visitC. bridgeD. opinionE. minute

22. t-b :A. babyB. marketC. graveD. roofE. scale

23. COTS:A. angry teacherB. tired workerC. sick animalD. military unitE. special vacation

24. burlap:A. tunnelB. medicinec. soilD. engineE. fabric

25. dame:A. ladyB. voicec. bayD. partyE. region

26. a seamstress is awoman who

A. writesB. SeWSc. singsD. paintsE. bakes

27. tremendous:A. seriousB. enormousc. religiousD. famousE. precious

28. plateau:A. large postB. big presentC. kind princeD. great playE. high plain

29. a jurist is an expert inA. lawB. businessC. weatherD. artE. history

30. approach means to comeA. thrOUgh

B. withc. intoD. betweenE. near

55

A. occasionB. temperc. notionD. monumentE. explanation

32. bristle:A. difficult problemB. stiff hair-c. official orderD. sweet fruitE. broad stream

33. abandon:A. look overB. hold onc. lift upD. fall downE. give up

34. tarantula:A. grapeB. highwayc. buttonD. spiderE. verse

35. barely:A. generallyB. scarcelyc. completelyD. especiallyE. gradually

36. minus:A. aboutB. throughc. acrossD. lessE. into

37. mutiny:A. strangerB. puzzlec. rebellionD. lemonE. tenant

38. sneer:A.B.c.D.E.

listen with interestpractice with carelook with scornlift with easedance with joy

39. eligible:A. lonesomeB. carelessc. qualifiedD. inferiorE. profound

40. a gust is a suddenA. rush of windB. act of dutyC. increase of painD. loss of friendsE. need of money

41. sassafras:A. treeB. waveC. eggD. boardE. yard

42. a detto is a section of a

45. exclude:A. educateB. excitec. eliminateD. encourageE. ensure

46. mango:A. fruitB, armyC. uncleD. starE. stone

47. juvenile:A. hauntedB. youthfulc. intimateD. favorableE. unable

48. stage:A. step in a processB. tear in a netC. condition in a

treatyD. light in a towerE. article in a

newspaperA. storyB. wallC. churchD. cityE. garden

43. muff:A. water heaterB. hand warmerc. glass cleanerD. paint dryerE. wood burner

44. pennant:A. routeB. flagC. journalD. speechE. leader

49. gorge:A. circleB. chainC. valleyD. hallE. queen

50. jolt:‘A, justify

B. joinC. judgeD. jarE. journey

51. gratify:A. heatB. shoutC. hopeD. chargeE. please

56

S2. cardiac means of theA. armB. feetC. heartD. legsE. head

53. aghast:A. similarB. modernC. luckyD. limitedE. terrif]ed

54. demote:A. inviteB. reducec. strokeD. pauseE. excuse

55. situate:A. wearB. addC. takeD. placeE. study

56. thUS:

Z notB. tooC. whyD. SO

E. do

57. scavenge:A. check certificatesB. change residenceC. support legislationD. divide inheritanceE. remove rubbish

58. rafter:A. angelB. canalc. beamD. lambE. trunk

59. curriculum: 66. manipulate:A. school of fish A. reserveB. collection of pictures B. devoteC. type of window C. handleD. range of mountains D. inquireE. program of studies E. introduce

60. lank: 67. sumac:A. slender A. prayerB. grateful B. rewardC. musical C. shrubD. lively D. doctrineE. rare E. porch

61. gristle:A. fortitude

68. potpourri:A. ~ilor

B. cartilage B. embassyC. graphite c. schoonerD. arrogance D. medleyE. overture E. parson

62. faction: 69. concrete:A. dinner A. cleanB. blood B. mean Ic. group c. lowD. passage D. niceE. hill E. real

63. decelerate means reducing 70. albacore:A. velocity TtieB. disorder B. soldierc. enthusiasm c. boxD. hazards D. f~hE. expenditures E, stick

64. console: 71. mesquite:A. compare A. officeB. conclude B. treeC. comfort C. fueD. command D. storeE. collect E. gate

65. horde:A. circle

72. destitute:A. respectful

B. shade B. div-heC. word C. urgentD. crowd D. slipperyE. sand E. needy

57

73. discreet:A. fragrantB. prudentc. unpleasantD. radiantE. gallant

74. isopod:A. advertisementB. edKlceC, meteoriteD. philanthropistE. crustacean

75. jujube:A. candyB. echoc. poemD. harvestE. brick

76. sputum:A. saloonB. sickleC. shawlD. salivaE. sermon

77. mullet:A. birdB. ballc. dogD. stoneE. fish

78. bastion:A. fortificationB. qualificationc. appropriationD. legislationE. illustration

79. forgo :A. representB. sacrificeC. justifyD. determineE. display

80. afflux:A. flOW

B. foolc. fallD. flyE. floor

81. mackintosh:A. raincoatB. tractorc. honeybeeD. cartoonE. saucepan

82. trajectory:A. curved pathB. ill healthc. bold typeD. glorious spiritE. strong back

83. picador:A. statesmanB. horsemanC. conductorD. sultanE. fisherman

84. grackle:A. chipmunkB. pumpkinc. strawberryD. blackbirdE. caterpillar

85. apropos:A. instructiveB. respectfulC. forbiddenD. pertinentE. dominant

86. yew:A. evergreen treeB. dismal dayc. shabby houseD. twisty roadE. frightful dream

87. a pomander isA. magneticB. explosivec. aromaticD. frailE. rotten

88. nubilous:A. cloudyB. incrediblec. liberalD. spiritualE. ragged

89. a triphthong is acombination of three

A. fossilsB. cablesc. diagramsI). vowelsE, atoms

90. b~b:A. jailB. pouchc. taxD. spikeE. cavern

91. w~:A. captainB. gamec. soulD. fingerE. rock

92. fetid:A. exhaustedB. stinkingC. patheticD. meagerE. insane

93. abstracted:A. unmovedB. insulatedC. preoccupiedD. dominatedE. devastated

94. pifion:A. piano

101. cinereous:A. ashen

B. pioneer B. preciseC. pine C, bashfulD. pinch D. valiantE. pint E. nimble

95. terrine: 102. soredium:A. knife A. cellB. railway B. buildingc. chicken c. conventionD. wagon D. powderE. vessel E. funeral

96. conventicle: 103, glib:A. major enemy A. unawareB. royal gentleman B. fluentc. impossible question C. reluctantD. sharp object D. philosophicalE. secret meeting E. inquisitive

97. bezant: 104. dint:A. hotel ‘A. SUp#y

B. coin B. wishC. mill ‘ C. forceD. harbor D. priceE. desk E. demand

98. an ear is an Arabian 105. sarcophagus:A. drink A. coffinB. farmer B. insectC. chief C. interview

b D. song D. wharfE. horse E. mushroom

99. scintillate: 106. anthemion:A. develop A. departmentB. whistle B. remedyc. ruin c. ornamentD. breathe D. punishmentE. flash E. election

100. rummer: 107. qua:A. union A. duringB. knight B. asc. coal C. whileD. shoe D. ifE. glass E. when

108. Iarine means Ike aA. sleighB. mirrorC. wreathD. gullE. matron

109. flabellum:A. fortB. frostc. fanD. ffleE. flock

110. tringle:A. waveB. benchc. lightD. rodE. mirror

111. fuscous:A. outrageousB. austerec. contagiousD. swarthyE. eloquent

112. pococurante:A. ignorantB. frightenedc. distinguishedD. indifferentE. dainty

113. maenad:A. insidious laughB. picturesque sceneC. unscrupulous masterD. caustic replyE. frenzied woman

114. diabolo:A. bedB. danceC. gameD. markE. record

59

115. Iempira:A. chairB. moneyC. saltD. earthE. music

116. edacious:A. auspiciousB. voraciousc. maliciousD. atrociousE. luscious

117. pyrope:A. reptfieB. heatherc. sloganD. mantleE. garnet

118. garganey:A. heroB. framec. bushD. skirtE. duck

119. redact:A. editB. invertc. convictD. inheritE. afflict

120. jaconet:A. tribeB. giftc. portD. treatyE. cloth

121. seecatch:A. shieldB. schemeC. settleme~tD. sealE. sport

122. centaury:A. herbB. signalc. torchD. paymentE. fortress

123. durbar:A. quarrelB. sailorc. audienceD. paintingE. province

000

60

APPENDIX V

SCORING METHOD FORFULL SCALE BASIC WORD VOCABULARY TEST

AND ANSWER KEY

Recommended scoring met}zod. –Simply score through the 10th error and subtract 10 plus omitted

items up to the 10- E item f~-om the item number of the 10th error. Thus if an individual’s 10th error

occurred on itcm 60 and he had omitted t~vo items below 60, his score would be 60-( 10+2) or 48.

Page 54

1-D9 A;:B4-A

5-c6-E7-B8-C9-D

Page 55

10-B 21-D

11-A 22-c1~-~ 23-D13-C 24-E14- D25-A15-A 26-B16-E 27-B17- E28-E18-E 29-A19- D30-E20-B

Page 56 Paae 57

31- A42-D32- B43-B33-E 44-B34-D 45-c35-B 46-A36- D47-B37-c 48-A38-C 49-c39-c 50-D40-A 51-E41-A

Page 58

73- B84-D

74-E 85-D

75- A86-A

76-D 87-C

77- E88-A

78- A89-D79-B 90-D

80- A91-B

81-A 92-B

82-A 93-c

83-B

Page 59

94-c 105 - A95-E 106 - C96-E 107 - B97-B 108 - D98-C 109 - c99-E 110 - D100 - E 111 - D101 - A 112 - D102 - A 113 - E103 - B 114 - c104 - c

Page 60

115 - B116 - B117 - E118 - E119 - A120 - E121 - D122 - A123 - C

52-C 63-A53- E64-C54- B65-D55 -,D 66-c56-D 67-C57-E 68-D58-C 69-E59-E 70-D60- A71-B61-B 72-E62-C

61

—

APPENDIX VI

SHORT FORMS X, Y, AND Z

UNTIMED THE BASIC WORD VOCABULARY TEST SHORT FOFIM X

Month Day Year— . .NAME : DATE TESTED:

-.

SEX: MF DATE OF BIRTH:

EDUCATION: Current grade level If not in school, highest grade successfullycompleted If in college, or college graduate: Academic majorand highest degree earned

EXAMPLEDIRECTIONS: Select the word or phrase which has the same meaning,

or most nearly the same meaning, as the underlined word. CIRCLE a boy is athe letter (A, B, C, D, or E) of your answer choice. Read all answer z lipchoices before making your choice. If you do not know the correct B. bushanswer—guess !

& z;E. horse

1. ac~istoA. start fires withB. eat onc. take pictures withD. ride inE. draw with

2. poor means havingvery little

A. moneyB. hairc. sunD. timeE. snow

3. shower:A. fieldB. doctorc. rainD. postE. battle

4. stable:A. husbandB. windowc. oceanD. buildingE. street

5. violet:A. plantB. shipc. storyD. homeE. river

6. a desert is veryA. kindB. strongC. dryD, braveE. dark

7. quit:A. hopeB. tradeC. learnD. takeE. StOp

8. CliSp :

A. safe and warmB. hard and thinC. deep and wideD. soft and shortE. round and heavy

9. burlap:A. tunnelB. medicinec. soilD. engineE. fabric

62

10. dame:A. ladyB. voiceC. bayD. partyE. region

11. a seamstressis awoman who

A. writesB. sewsc. singsD. paintsE. bakes

12. a jurist is an expert in-T

B.c.D.E.

lawbusinessweatherarthistory

13. event:A.B.c.D.E.

14. bristle:A.B.c.D.E.

15. barely:A.B.c.D.E.

16. minus:A.B.c.D.E.

occasiontempernotionmonumentexplanation

difficult problemstiff hairofficial ordersweet fruitbroad stream

generallyscarcelycompletelyespecially~~adually

aboutthroughacrosslessinto

17. a gust is a suddenA. rush of windB. act of dutyC. increase of painD. loss of friendsE. need of money

18, a ghetto is a section of aA. storvB. wal~C. churchD. cityE. garden

19. exclude:A. educateB. excitec. eliminateD. encourageE. ensure

20. mango:A. fruitB. armyc. uncleD. starE. stone

21. gorge:A. circleB. chainc. valleyD. hallE. queen

22. situate:A. wearB. addc. takeD. placeE. study

23. curriculum:A. school of fishB. collection of picturesC. type of windowD. range of mountainsE. program of studies

24. gristle:A. fortitudeB. cartilageC. graphiteD. arroganceE. overtire

25. decelerate means reducingA, velocityB. disorderc. enthusiasmD. hazardsE. expenditures

26. manipulate:A. reserveB. devoteC. handleD. inquireE. introduce

27. sumac:A. prayerB. rewardc. shrubD. doctrineE. porch

28. concrete:A. cleanB. meanc. lowD. niceE. real

29. discreet:A. fragrantB. prudentC. unpleasantD. radiantE. gallant

30. isopod:A. advertisementB. edtilceC. meteoriteD. philanthropistE. crustacean

63

31. sputum:A, saloonB. sicklec. shawlD. salivaE. sermon

32. forgo:A. representB. sacritlceC. justifyD. determineE. display

33. apropos:A. instructiveB. respectfulc. forbiddenD. pertinentE. dominant

34. ~w:A. evergreen treeB. dismal dayc. shabby houseD. twisty roadE. frightful dream

35. conventicle:A. major enemyB. royal gentlemanc. impossible questionD. sharp objectE. secret meeting

36. scintillate:A. developB. whistlec. ruinD. breatheE. flash

A. unawareB. fluentc. reluctantD. philosophicalE. inquisitive

38. flabellum:A. fortB. frostC. fanD. fileE. flock

39. pyrope:A. reptileB. heatherc. sloganD. mantleE. garnet

40. durbar:A. quarrelB. sailorc. audienceD. paintingE. province

64

uNIIMm THE BASIC WORD VOCABULARY TEST SHORT FORM Y

Month Day YearNAME :

—.DATE TESTED:

SEX: M F DATE OF BIRTH:

EDUCATION: Current grade level If not in school, highest grade successfullycompleted If in college, or college graduate: Academic majorand highest degree earned

EXAMPLEDIRECTIONS: Select the word or phrase which has the same meaning,

or most nearly the same meaning, ;S the underlined word. CIRCLE “ a bov is athe letter (A, B, C, D, or E) of your answer choice. Read all answerchoices before making your choice. If you do not know the correctanswer—guess!

1. the shore is by theA. seaB. trainC. letterD. tableE. paper

2. ~k is used toA. walk onB. write withC. cut withD. serve withE. stand on

3. *:A. familyB. CUP

C. lakeD. coatE. bird

4. a ticycle is toA. hear withB. ride onC. lie onD. walk underE. see through

5. a mistake issomething done

A. fwstB. wrongC. nextD. oftenE. alone

6. a witness is a person whoA. trains animalsB. bakes cakesc. observes actionsD. frees machinesE. grows wheat

7. puss:A. factoryB. devilC. exerciseD. campE. cat

8. encyclopedia:A. womanB. reasonC. nationD. foodE. book

9. advice:A. recordB. visitC. bridgeD. opinionE. minute

10. tomb.~- baby

B. marketc. graveD. roofE. scale

11. corps:A. angry teacherB. tired workerc. sick animalD. military unit

E. special vacation

12. tremendous:A. SWiOUS

B. enormousC. religiousD. famousE. precious

65

13. approach means to comeA. throughB. withc. intoD. betweenE. near

14. abandon:A. look overB. hold onc. lift upD. fall downE. give up

15. tarantula:A. grapeB. highwayC. buttonD. spiderE. verse

16. mutiny:A. strangerB. puzzlec. rebellionD. lemonE. tenant

17. eligible:A. lonesomeB. carelessC. qualifiedD. inferiorE. profound

18. sassafras:A. treeB, waveC. eggD. boardE. yard

19. muff:A. water heaterB. hand warmerc. glass cleanerD. paint dryerE. wood burner

20. stage:A.B.c.D.E.

step in a processtear in a netcondition in a treatylight in a towerarticle in a newspaper

21. gratify:A. heatB. shoutc. hopeD. chargeE. please

22. cardiac means of theA. armB. feetc. heartD. legsE. head

23. thus:A. notB. tooc. whyD. SO

E. do

24. lank:A. slenderB. gratefulC. musicalD. livelyE. rare

25. faction:A. dinnerB. bloodc. groupD. passageE. hill

26. console:A. compareB. concludec. comfortD. commandE. collect

27. horde:A. circleB. shadec. wordD. crowdE. sand

28. potpourri:A. tailorB. embassyC. schoonerD. medleyE. parson

29. albacore:A. tireB. soldierc. boxD. fishE. stick

30. mesquite:A. officeB. treec. tireD. storeE. gate

31. destitute:A. respectfulB. divineC. urgentD. slipperyE. needy

32. jujube:A. candyB. echoC. poemD. harvestE. brick

33. a triphthong is acombination of three

A. fossilsB. cablesc. diagramsD. vowelsE. atoms

66

34. ption:A. pianoB. pioneerc. pineD. pinchE. pint

35. bezant:A. hotelB. coinC. millD. harborE. desk

36. cinereous:A. ashenB. precisec. bashfulD. valiantE. nimble

37. d~:A. SUPPIY

B. wish

38. qua:‘A. during

B. asC. whileD. ifE. when

39. redact:A. editB. invertc. convictD. inheritE. afflict

40. jaconet:A. tribeB. !@C. portD. treatyE. cloth

C. forceD. priceE. demand

67

UNTIMED THE BASIC WORD VOCABULARY TEST SHORT FORl~

Month Day YearNAME: DATE TESTED: — — ‘——

SEX: MF DATE OF BIRTH: —

EDUCATION: Current grade level If not in school, highest grade successfullycompleted In in college, or college graduate: Academic major —and highest degree earned

EXAMPLEDIRECTIONS: Select the word or phrase which has the same meaning,

or most nearly the same meaning, as the underlined word. CIRCLE a boy is athe letter (A, B, C, D, or E) of your answer choice. Read all answer Z lipchoices before making your choice. If you do not know the correct B. bushanswer—guess ! C. rock

@ childE. horse

1. acaristo~. start fires withB. eat onc. take pictures withD. ride inE. draw with

2. &k is used toA. walk onB. write withc. cut withD. serve withE. stand on

3. poor means havingvery lit tle

A. moneyB. hairC. sunD. timeE. snow

4. combat:A. pointB. reportc. tightD. startE. admit

5. a mistake issomething done

A. fwstB. wrongC. nextD. oftenE. alone

6. howl:A. roarB. designC. proposeD. departE. succeed

7. phony:A. toughB. neutralC. vividD. fakeE. hasty

8. advice:A. recordB. visitc. bridgeD. opinionE. minute

9. burlap:A. tunnelB. medicinec. soilD. engineE. fabric

10. a seamstress is awoman who

A. writesB. sewsc. singsD. paintsE. bakes

11. approach means to comeA. throughB, withc. intoD. betweenE. near

12. abandon:A. look overB. hold onc. lift upD. fall downE. give up

6B

13. barelv:-T.-

B.c.D.E.

14. sneer:A.B.c.D.,E.

generallyscarcelycompletelyespeciallygradually

listen with interestpractice with carelook with scornlift with easedance with joy

15. eligible:A. lonesomeB. carelessC. qualifiedD. inferiorE. profound

16. exclude:A. educateB. exciteC. eliminateD. encourageE. ensure

17. juvenile:A. hauntedB. youthfulC. intimateD. favorableE. unable

18. jolt:A. justifyB. joinC. judgeD. jarE. journey

19. gratify:A. heatB. shoutC. hopeD. chargeE. please

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

rafter:A. angelB. canalC. beamD. lambE. trunk

lank :A. slenderB. gratefulc. musicalD. livelyE. rare

console:A. compareB. concludec. comfortD. commandE. collect

manipulate:A. reserveB. devoteC. handleD. inquireE. introduce

concrete:A. cleanB. meanc. lowD. niceE. real

destitute:A. respectfulB. divineC. urgentD. slipperyE. needy

bastion:A. forttlcationB. quaMcationc. appropriationD. legislationE. illustration

27. forgo:A. representB. sacriilceC. justifyD. determineE. display

28. mackintosh:A. raincoatB. tractorc. honeybeeD. cartoonE. saucepan

29. trajectory:A. curved pathB. ill healthC. bold typeD. glorious spiritE. strong back

30. a t~ isa combination of three

A.’ fossilsB. cablesC. diagramsD. vowelsE. atoms

31. w~:A. captainB. gamec. soulD. fiigerE. rock

32. fetid:A. exhaustedB. stinkingC. patheticD. meagerE. insane

33. bezant:A. hotelB. coinc. millD. harborE. desk

69

34. scintillate:A. developB. whistlec. ruinD, breatheE. flash

35. glib:A. unawareB. fluentC. reluctantD. philosophicalE. inquisitive

36. d~t:A. Stlpply

B. wishC. forceD. priceE. demand

37. sarcophagus:A. coffinB. insectc. interviewD. wharfE. mushroom

38. diabolo:A. bedB. danceC. gameD. markE. record

39. lempira:A. chairB. moneyc. saltD. earthE. music

40. pyrope:A. reptileB. heatherC. sloganD. mantleE. garnet

41. redact:A. editB. invertC. convictD. inheritE. afflict

000

APPENDIX Vll

SCORING METHOD FORSHORT FORMS AND ANSWER KEYS

Recommended scoring nzethod. -score through the 4th error or omitted item and subtract 4 from

the 4th error or omitted item number. Thus if an individual made two errors and omitted one itemthrough item 19 and then missed or omitted item 20, his score would be 20-4 or 16.

Form X

1-D 21-C2-A 22-D3-c 23-E4-D 24-B5-A 25-A6-C 26-C7-E 27-C8-B 28-E9-E 29-B

1O-A 30-E11-B 31-D12-A 32-B13-A 33-D14-B 34-A15-B 35-E16-D 36-E17-A 37-B18-D 38-C

39-E;!33:40-C

Answer Keys

Form Y

1 -A 21-E2-B 22-c3-E 23-D4-B 24-A5 -B 25-C6-C 26-C7-E 27-D8-E 28-D9-D 29-D

lo-c 30-B11-D 31-E12-B 32-A13-E 33-D14-E 34-c15-D 35-B16-C 36-A17-C 37-c18-A 38-A19-B 39-A20-A 40-E

(300

Form Z

1 -D2-B3-A4-c5-B6-A7 -D8-D9-E

1O-B11-E12-E13-B14-C15-C16-C17-B18-D19-E20-C

21-A22-c23-C24-E25-E26-A27-B28-A29-A30-D31-B32-B33-B34-E35-B36-C37-A38-C39-B40-E41-A

71

UNTIMED THE BASIC WORD VOCABULARY TEST FORM A

Month Day YearNAME : DATE TESTED:

—. —

SEX: M F DATE OF BIRTH:

EDUCATION: Current grade level— If not in school, highest grade successfullycompleted If in college, or college graduate: Academic majorand highest degree earned

DIRECTIONS: Select the word or phrase which has the same meaning, EXAMPLEor ❑ost nearly the same meaning, as the underlined word.CIRCLE the letter (A, B, C, D, or E) of your answer choice. a~isaRead all answer choices before mak+ng your choice. If YOU do A. lipnot know the correct answer—guess. B. bush

+ ::::.

1.

2.

3.

4.

a car is toA. start fires with

9.

10.

stablq:A. husband

17. us :A. factoryB. devilc. exercise

& :::p

B. eat ontake pictures with

$’ :;::gth.

B. window

+ ;;;;;ingstreet

the shore is by the@ seaB. trainc. letterD. tableE. paper

a mistake issomething doneA

d

firstwrong

c. nextD. oftenE. alone

18. encvcloDedj a:A. womanB. reasonc. nation

& ;:::

l’. %% ’toughB. neutral

+

vividD. fake. has ty

ink is used toA. walk on

9write withcut with

D: serve withE. stand on

11.

12.

13.

violet:

~Pt.

c. s toryD. homeE. river

= HHeha-C25moneyB. hairc. sunD. timeE. snow

20. y:safe and warm

9B; hard and thin. deep and wide

a desert is veryA. kindB. strong~ dry

braveE: dark

D. sof~ and shortE. round and heavy

21. advice:A. recordB. visit

5.

6.

7.

8.

shower:A. field

a witness is aperson who

A. trains animalsB. bakes cakes

9c observes actions

fixes machinesE: grows wheat

bridge& opin~onE. minute

doctor& rain

post:: battle

22. tomb:T babv*“ . .family 14.

15.

16.

ambush :A. attitudeB. address

B. cupc. lake

Acoat

E: bird-

E. scale

23. y:angry teacher

B: tired workerc. sick animal

F. military unit. special vacation

a tricycle is toA. hear with howl :

~ roarB. designc. proposeD. departE. succeed

$%7 ride on“d. lie onD. walk underE. see through

combat:A. Point Clu;t:

hopeB: tradec. learn

;eport~~’ fightD-. startE. admit

–2–

47. fiuvenile:A. haunted

25. d e:

eA ladyB. voice

36. minus :A. aboutB. through

across& less

E. into

~ youthful. intimatec. bay

D. partyE. region

D. favorableE. unable

37.

38.

mut inv:A.

48.strangerpuzzle

& rebellionD. 1emonE. tenant

3a-sta e:step in a pr,ocess

B. tear in a netc. condition in

a treatyD. light in a towerE. article in a

newspaper

26. a seamstress is awoman whoA. writes

4? sews. sin~s

D. paGtsE. bakes sneer :

A. listen with interest27.

28n

29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.

tremendous : practice with careser~ous

+

& look with scorn 49.enormous D. lift with ease

. religious E. dance with joy%F’circle

D. famousE. precious

3’- %&+%esorne E. queen

%%%%ge postB. big presentc. kind prince

50- * justifyB. join

judge+ jar

. journey

‘1 %F%Lat

I

E. profoundD.

(9

great play. high plain 40. a

C&

ust is a suddenrush of wind

@-

a ‘urist is an expert in “B: act of dutyaw c. increase of pain

business D. loss of friendsc: weatherD. artE. history

E. need of money

41. -e. wave

B. shoutc. hope

C-?&) ;%to come

52. cardiac means of theA. armwith -

E: into

&

between. near

c. eggD. boardE. yard

42. a ghetto is a sectionof a

A. storyB. wall

event:

TA occasion. temper

53. SqQE&:. similar

church

@ city. garden

B. modernc. lucky -

c. notionD. monumentE. explanation b limi~ed

E. terrified43. muff:

A. water heater

P. hand warmer

glass cleanerD: paint dryerE. wood burner

bristle:A. difficult problem

?stiff hair

. official order

54. demote:A. invite

(,E reducec. strokeD. pauseE. excuse

D. sweet fruitE. broad stream

44. pennant:A,

$?

routeB flag. journal

abandon:A. look over 55. situate:

A. wearB. add

B. hold onc. lift up

fall down& give up

& ;;&:e

E. Study

D. speechE. leader

t~antula:A. grape

45. exclude:A. educate 56. thus :

& ZR%ateD. encourageE. ensure

A. notB. too

why+ so

. doE. verse

barely”:A. generally

9. scarcely

completelyD: especially

46wfruitB. armyc. uncleD. starE. stone

57’ %%%ck certificatesB. change residencec. support legislation

6

divide inheritanceE: remove rubbish

E. gr~dually-

–3–

58. rafter : 69. concrete:A. clean

mean:: low

80.

81.

82.

83.

84.

85.

86.

87.

88.

89.

#

90.

+

aff UX:A. flow. fool

. .A. angeL

&. can al

beamD. lanbE. trunk

c. fallD. flyE. floor

nice

&real

70.59.

60.

61.

62.

63.

64.

65.

56.

67.

68.

curriculum:A. school of fishB. collection of picturesc. type of windowD

.!

range of mountains. program of studies

albacore:A. tire

soldier:: box

~ fish. stick

mackintosh:

=t%tc. honeybeeD. cartoonE. saucepan

71.%?%fice~ tree

c. fireD. storeE. gate

lank:

ws1endergrateful

c: music alD. livelyE. rare

-ed pa..B. ill healthc. bold typeD. glorious spiritE. strong back

72.*;titude~ cartilage

c. graphiteD. arrogance

destitute:A. respectfulB. divinec. urgentD. slippery

a. needy

picador:

@

statesman. horseman

conductorD: sultanE. fishermanE. over~ure

faction:A. dinner. blood

+grouppasszge

E: hill

73. discreet:A. fragrant

9. prudent

unpleasantD: radiantE. gallant

%ipmunkB. pumpkin

strawberry& blackbirdE. caterpillar

74. isopod:

+

. advertisementedifice

. meteorite

decelerate means reducing

E. disorderc. enthusiasmD. hazardsE. expenditures

apropos :A. instructiveB. respectfulc. forbidden

9D pertinent. dominant

philanthropist‘~;: crustacean

75.

w~andYB. echoc. poemD. harvestE. brick

console:A . compare

conclude~ comfortD. commandE. collect

ew:b evergreen treeB. dismal davc. shabby ho&eD. twisty roadE. frightful dream

76.horde:A. circle Wsaloon

shade:: word

“~J ;r-~d. E. sermon E. rotten

77. mullet:A. bird

nubilous :‘A9

cloudyincredible

c: liberalD. spiritualE. ragged

manipulate:A. reserveB. devote

Phandleinquire

E: introduce

B. ballc. dog

& ::::e

78. a triphthong is acombination of threeA. fossilsB. cables

X?

‘- diagramsvowels

E: atoms

sumac;A. prayer

+< R%ddoctrine

E: porch

c. appropriationD. legislationE. illustration

79. *:represent

@ ;~;;~ce

D: determineE. display

b=:A. jailB. pouch

B. embassy

aschoonermedley

E. parson

-4-

91.

92.

93.

94.

95.

96.

97.

98.

99.

100.

101.

whist LA. captain

$?:::

I fingerL rock

fetid:exhausted

6$ stinking. pathetic

D. meagerE. insane

abstracted:A. unmoved

insulated%~1 preoccupied

dominated=&J devastatedL

*.

... piano

+ %Yher

E: pint

terrine:A. knifeB. railwayc. chickenD. wag on

‘OE. vessel

bezant:

bhotelcoin

c. millD. harborE. desk

an emir is an ArabianA. drink

—.D. songE. hors e

c. ruinD. breathe

‘KE. flash

rummer:A. union

}E. glass

cinereous :/\’A. ashenB. precise

102. soredium:V

. buildingc. conventionD. powderE. funeral

103. +&. unaware

Pfluentreluctant

D: philosophicalE. inquisitive

104. dint “r“ supply

6B ~> wish\ . forceD. priceE. demand

‘O’”%%%%B. ins ect

interviewwharf

&mushroom

106. anthemion:If> A. department

9B remedy

~</ ),fl- ornament/“iL- D. punishment

E. election

conventicl e:A. major enemy

royal gentleman& impossible question

sharp object@ secret meeting

107. ~:A. during

P. as. while

D. ifE. when

108. larine means like aA. sleighE& mirror(C-VIwreathy;. gull

. matron

109. flabellum:[ fortE. frost

j, c. fanD. fileE. flock

110. tringle:A. wave~ benchc. light

I/D. rod“ E. mirror

111. fuscous:A. outrageousB. austerec. contagious

)/D. swarthy

a. eloquent

112.%R&-%tB. frightened

. bashfulvaliant .-& %:z%::ed

&nimble ‘E. dainty

D. caustic replyW . frenzied womanJI

114. diabolo:A. bed

dance

‘4 xrdE.

115. lempira:A. chair

9@-. money

saltD: earthE. music

116.

117.

118.

119.

120.

121.

122.

123.

edacious :

d

. auspicious,. voracious:. maliciousD. atrociousE. luscious

Pw ope:A. reptileB. heather

slogan&? mantle~E. garnet

?53=JB. framec. bush

skirtJ% duck

redact:~ditB. invert

convict:: inheritE. afflict

jaconet:A. tribeB. giftc. port

kreaty

&cloth

seecatch:. shield

%B; scheme. settlement

~D . sealE. sport

centaurv:,~A- herb.-

&? ::g;lD. paymentE. fortress

&-;arrelB. sailor

)$. audiencepainting

E: province

Series 1. Programs and collection procedures- Reports which describe the general programs of the National Center for Healrh Statistics and its offices and divisions, data collection methods used, definitions, and other material necessary for understanding the data.

Series 2. Data evaluation and methods research.- Studies of new statistical methodology including: experi- mental tests of new survey methods, studies of vital statistics collection methods, new analytical techniques, objective evaluations of reliability of collected data, contributions to statistical theory.

Series 3. Analvtical studies.- Reports presenting analytical or interpretive studies basedon vital and health statisttcs, carrying the analysis further than the expository types of reports in the other series.

Series 4. Documents and committee reports.- Final reports of major committees concerned with vital and health statistics, and documents such as recommended model vital registration laws and revised birth and death certificates.

Sm.es 10. Data from the Health Interview Survev.- Statistics on illness, accidental injuries, disability, use of hospital, medical, dental, and other services, and other health-related topics, based on data collected in a continuing national household interview survey.

Series 11. Data from the Health Examination Survey. -Data from direct examination, testing, and measure- ment of national samples of the civilian, noninstitutional population provide the basis for two types of reports: (1) estimates of the medically defined prevalence of specific diseases in the United States and the distributions of the population with respect to physical, physiological, and psycho- logical characteristics; and (2) analysis of relationships among the various measurements without reference to an explicit finite universe of persons.

Series 12. Data from the Institutional Population Surveys.- Statistics relating to the health characteristics of persons in institutions, and their medical, nursing, and personal care received, based on national samples of establishments providing these services and samples of the residents or patients.

Series 13. Data from the Hospital Discharge Survey.- Statistics relating to discharged patients in short-stay hospitals, based on a sample of patient records in a national sample of hospitals.

Series 14. Data on health resowces: manpower and facilities.- Statistics on the numbers, geographic distrl- bution, and characteristics of health resources including physicians, dentists, nurses, other health occupations, hospitals, nursing homes, and outpatient facilities.

Series 20. Data on mortality.- Various statistics on mortality other than as included in regular annua! or monthly reports- special analyses by cause of death, age, and other demographic variabl.es, also geographic, and time series analyses.

Series 21. Data on natality, marriage, and divorce.- Various statistics on natality, marriage, and divorce other than as included in regular annual or monthly reports--special analyses by demographic variables, also geographic and time series analyses, studies of fertility.

Series 22. Data from the National Natality and Mortality Surveys.- Statistics on characteristics of births and deaths not available from the vital records, based on sample surveys stemming from these records, including such topics as mortality by socioeconomic class, hospital experience in the last year of life, medical care during pregnancy, health insurance coverage, etc.