Development of a Diagnositc English Vocabulary Test for the Students who just Entered Junior High School in Japan

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K00886
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02100:Foreign language education-related
• Research Institution: Chiba University
• Principal Investigator: Hoshino Yuko 千葉大学, 教育学部, 准教授 (80548735)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 清水 遥 東北学院大学, 文学部, 准教授 (20646905)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 小学校 / 語彙 / テスト

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we developed an English vocabulary test that can easily measure children's English proficiency when they graduate from elementary school or enter junior high school. First, we created a corpus of all English textbooks currently used in elementary schools and selected vocabulary used in all seven companies. We then checked whether these vocabulary words were also represented in textbooks used in the first year of junior high school, and selected 69 target words that were used frequently in elementary school and also used in junior high school. For each of these words, an illustration was created, two students checked whether the illustration briefly represented the word, and a test was created to select the correct illustration by listening to the audio of the word.

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Free Research Field

外国語教育

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

令和2年度から小学校で外国語科が教科化し、令和3年度末に初めて小学校5, 6年生の2年間外国語科を履修した児童が卒業した。まだ小学校高学年の2年間外国語科を受けた子供たちがどの程度の英語力をつけて卒業しているのかが定かではない。本研究で開発したテストを使用することによって、小学校の2年間でどの程度の語彙力をつけて卒業しているのかという指標を示すことができる。