LexCHI: A quick lexical test for estimating language proficiency in Chinese

Abstract

A prominent methodological issue in cognitive research on bilingualism is the lack of consistency in measuring second language (L2) proficiency. To reduce the inconsistency in L2 proficiency measurements, brief and valid vocabulary tests have been developed as an objective measure of proficiency in a variety of languages (e.g., English, French, Spanish). Here, we present LexCHI, a valid lexical test to measure Chinese proficiency. This freely available short test consists of 60 two-character items presented in simplified Chinese. Although it only takes a few minutes to complete LexCHI, the LexCHI scores in two studies correlated significantly with L2 participants' performance in a translation task and a cloze test. We believe that LexCHI is a useful tool for researchers who need to objectively measure Chinese proficiency as part of their investigations.

Keywords: Bilingualism; Chinese vocabulary test; Language proficiency.

Fig. 1

Item response curves for three Chinese word: 亵渎 (profanity), 愤怒 (anger) and 慷慨 (generous)

Fig. 2

LexCHI by LEXTALE_CH in Experiment 2 with a linear regression line which is shaded by the 95% confidence intervals (normalised Ghent scores; Left: L1 group; Right: L2 group)

Fig. 3

Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve with the 95% confidence intervals (left) and optimal criterion cut-off plot (right) for LexCHI (normalised Ghent scores, %)

Fig. 4

Violin plots showing the distribution of LexCHI scores over self-reported proficiency levels in the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). The dots within boxplots indicate the means. The CEFR has three tiers of proficiency levels: A1 (Beginner) & A2 (Elementary) as Basic Users, B1 (Intermediate) & B2 (Upper intermediate) as Independent Users, and C1 (Advanced) & C2 (Proficient) as Proficient Users

Fig. 5

Violin plots showing the distribution of LexCHI scores over proficiency levels in Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK). The six levels in HSK correspond to A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2 in the CEFR