Using the peabody picture vocabulary test in L2 children and adolescents: effects of L1

ABSTRACT

This study investigated to what extent the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-4) is a reliable tool for measuring vocabulary knowledge of English as a second language (L2), and to what extent L1 characteristics affect test outcomes. The PPVT-4 was administered to Dutch pupils in six different age groups (4-15 years old) who were or were not following an English educational programme at school. Our first finding was that the PPVT-4 was not a reliable measure for pupils who were correct on maximally 24 items, but it was reliable for pupils who performed better. Second, both primary-school and secondary-school pupils performed better on items for which the phonological similarity between the English word and its Dutch translation was higher. Third, young unexperienced L2 learners’ scores were predicted by Dutch lexical frequency, while older more experienced pupils’ scores were predicted by English frequency. These findings indicate that the PPVT may be inappropriate for use with L2 learners with limited L2 proficiency. Furthermore, comparisons of PPVT scores across learners with different L1s are confounded by effects of L1 frequency and L1-L2 similarity. The PPVT-4 is however a suitable measure to compare more proficient L2 learners who have the same L1.

KEYWORDS:

• PPVT
• second language acquisition
• cognates
• lexical frequency
• receptive vocabulary
• assessment

Acknowledgements

We thank Nuffic (formerly EP-Nuffic) for financial support for Experiment 2, and Varendonck College, Asten (and Vereniging Ons Middelbaar Onderwijs) for financial support for Experiment 3. We also thank Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics for lending us the PPVT-4. We are particularly grateful to the students who helped with data collection. During the period of carrying out this research, Mirjam Broersma and Sharon Unsworth were supported by a Vidi Grant from NWO (the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Nuffic (formerly EP-Nuffic).

Notes on contributors

Claire Goriot

Claire Goriot is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Language Studies of Radboud University, Nijmegen. Her research focuses on educational processes, (language) learning, and child bilingualism.

Roeland van Hout

Roeland van Hout is a professor of Applied and Variational Linguistics at the Center for Language Studies of the Radboud University Nijmegen. His work focuses on language variation and change and second language acquisition, from an interdisciplinary perspective (sociology, linguistics, psychology). He also publishes on the application of statistics in language research.

Mirjam Broersma

Mirjam Broersma received a doctoral degree in Social Sciences from the Radboud University in 2005, as well as a Max Planck Society Otto Hahn Medal for outstanding scientific achievements, for her dissertation Phonetic and lexical processing in a second language. In 2006, she started the project Relearning a lost language: Speech perception in Korean by adoptees, funded by a three-year Veni career development grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). She currently leads the project We learn from our mistakes – or do we? Towards more efficient use of talking and listening experience in a second language, funded by a five-year Vidi career development grant and an Aspasia individual grant from NOW.

Vanessa Lobo

Vanessa Lobo received her doctorate from Radboud University in 2013. She is interested in second language acquisition in an educational context and is herself an experienced teacher of English. She has always combined research with teaching in secondary education.

James M. McQueen

James M. McQueen is Professor of Speech and Learning at Radboud University, Nijmegen. His research focusses on learning and processing in spoken language: How do listeners learn the sounds and words of their native and non-native languages, and how do they recognize them? His research on speech learning concerns initial acquisition processes and ongoing processes of perceptual adaptation. His research on speech processing addresses core computational problems (such as the variability and segmentation problems).

Sharon Unsworth

Sharon Unsworth (Ph.D. 2005, Utrecht University) is an Associate Professor of Second Language Acquisition in the department of English Language and Culture, the department of Linguistics and the Centre for Language Studies at Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Her research focuses on the language development of bilingual children and children acquiring a second language in early childhood. Recent publications address the role of input and age, cross-linguistic influence and the operationalisation of language dominance.