Welcome!

LexEst is a fast and short vocabulary test with which it is possible to assess the language proficiency of learners of Estonian. The learners ‘ assessment of their language skills is usually very subjective, and they tend to be over or underconfident in their skills. Language tests, in general, are very extensive, and their assessment is difficult and takes a long time. However, previous research (Milton, 2010; Laufer and Ravenhorst-Kalovski, 2010) has shown that learners’ vocabulary knowledge gives a fairly good overview of their general language skills. Therefore, following the example of LexTALE (Lemhöfer and Broersma, 2012), we have prepared a language proficiency test for the Estonian language based on vocabulary knowledge.

LexEst consists of distinguishing existing words in the Estonian language from pseudowords. Pseudowords are words that are structurally similar to Estonian words, but have no assigned meaning. The test taker sees a word on the screen and has to decide whether he thinks it is a real Estonian word or a made-up word. In total, the test taker is presented with 90 words, of which 60 are Estonian words and 30 are pseudo-words. The test takes about 5 minutes. To save the results, follow the instructions given in the test, the results are not saved automatically!

After completing the test, a score calculated based on correct and incorrect answers is displayed. The test has been prepared primarily as a tool for researchers to get an idea of the general vocabulary knowledge of the Estonian language learners participating in your research. In addition to LexEst, we recommend using other language proficiency measures in the research.

The test has been uploaded to our GitHub.

The project is funded by Kadri, Nikolai ja Gerda Rõugu foundation.

Literature:

Laufer, B. & Ravenhorst-Kalovski, G. C. (2010). Lexical threshold revisited. Reading in a foreign language, 22, 15-30.

Lemhöfer, K., & Broersma, M. (2012). Introducing LexTALE: A quick and valid lexical test for advanced learners of English. Behavior Research Methods, 44, 325-343.

Milton, J. (2010). Development of vocabulary breadth across CEFR levels. In Bartning et al.(Eds). Eurosla monograph (pp. 211-232).