Effects of an Achievable Productive Vocabulary Levels Test on Low English Proficiency Learners’ Performance and Perceptions

The Productive Vocabulary Levels Tests (PVLTs, Laufer & Nation, 1999) to assess second language learners’ size of controlled productive vocabulary have long been used in vocabulary research and assessment. The existing frequency levels of PVLTs between 2000 and 10000 words, however, seem too difficult for low English proficiency (LEP) learners to obtain cut-off scores, usually 75-80%. In order to help and motivate the LEP learners to feel sense of achievement, Abdullah et al. (2013) designed and validated the 500-word level PVLT (henceforth PVLT 500). This paper empirically examines the effects of the low-leveled PVLT 500 upon Korean high school LEP learners’ performance and perceptions, through both validating PVLT 500 in comparison with the 2000-word level PVLT (henceforth PVLT 2000) and analyzing test-takers’ questionnaire responses. With the proper assessment the study reveals that low-leveled PVLT can be actively applied in Korean EFL high school classrooms. Actually, it is LEP learners, who have been neglected and decentralized in the classrooms, who need ‘achievable’ tests, not the tests they often fail.