Productive Vocabulary Levels Test

Compleat Lexical Tutor. Retrieved from http://www.lextutor.ca

Knowing your level of productive vocabulary

1. Go to http://www.lextutor.ca 2. On the home page, click on ‘Test your lexis.’ You

will be directed to the Frequency Based Vocabulary Tests (FBVT) page.

3. On the FBVT page, find the English Levels Test (Productive) page and click on the test menu. You will be directed to the Vocabulary Test (Productive) page.

4. On the Vocabulary Test (Productive) page, you will find three test versions (A,B, C)

5. Work on Version A only. Click on the 2000 Level and do the test. Once through, hit Check to see your score. If you score below 50%, stop working on the test and report your productive vocabulary level to your lecturer at 2000.

6. If you score between 50-83%, then click on the Next level button.

What to do once you know your level of productive vocabulary?

1. Once you already know your level of productive vocabulary, go back to lextutor.ca and click on Linked Lists. You will be directed to the List_Learn page.

2. On this page, click on English BNC (1k-20k). See the next slide.

List_learn BNC 20

3. On the list_learn BNC 20 page, choose your appropriate basewrd number from a drop-down list on the upper left-hand corner of the page. Your basewrd number corresponds to your level of productive vocabulary.

4. For example, if your productive vocabulary is at the 3000 level, choose basewrd3 from the dropdown list. The word families that you need to study to improve your level will appear on the left pane of the list_learn BNC 20 page. See the next slide.

Basewrd3 (3000 level)

5. Click on any word on the list. The page will generate a concordance report for you, which is simply a listing of how your chosen word and its forms are used. See the next slide for an example.

Concordance lines for abandon

6. Click on any concordance line for you to generate how a word is used in context. See the next slide.

Abandon as found in a concordance line

7. Click save from bottom

8. Click save.

9. When finished, highlight then copy-paste to MS Excel on your computer.

10. On your excel sheet, copy-paste as many words as you want to study. When you’re confident enough, say after two-three weeks, go back to http://www.lextutor.com and click on Test your lexis. Go to Version B of the test and choose the level where you left off. Your goal at this stage is to move up to the next level.

11. Your lecturer will ask you for your level updates before the mid and final exam weeks. Your overall goal is to reach at least the University Word List level, if you haven’t already done so.

Good luck!