VOCABULARY AND QUESTION DIFFICULTY IN ENGLISH 30 READING DIPLOMA EXAMINATIONS

This study examines sixteen reading tests given to English 30 students in Alberta between June 1986 and June 1993. The focus of the study is the vocabulary question, that is a multiple choice question that uses as alternative answers, words which might be of difficulty to the average grade twelve student. The words used as alternatives do not appear in context nor do they appear anywhere else on the exam. The student needs to be able to use the word correctly in order to answer the question correctly. The two research questions are (1) How many questions on Diploma Examinations between 1986 and 1993 were vocabulary questions? and (2) What are the difficulty levels of those questions? Difficulty level is defined as the number of students answering each question correctly, as shown by Alberta Education statistics. Individual exams comprised a variety of vocabulary questions ranging from a low of 7.1 % of total questions to a high of 25.7 % of total questions. On several exams vocabulary questions were among the hardest on the test. I