The Relationship Between Lexicon Rankings and Item Difficulty on the Bracken Basic Concept Scale

Abstract

The subtests of the Bracken Basic Concept Scale (BBCS) were analyzed to determine the relationship between item difficulty and frequency of concept words as judged by independent word lists. Item position within subtests was used as an index of item difficulty. Eight variables from two lexicons (Ginn and Literacy Plus) provided various indices of concept word frequency. All subtests except two (Quantity and Time) showed statistically significant correlations with most objective indices of word frequency. Next, the BBCS was administered to 36 first grade children. Item discrimination indices were obtained and compared with recommended instructional grade levels for each word. Most concept words showed expected item discrimination indices. Some words led to speculation that their difficulty on the BBCS was due to factors unique to each item, and not word frequency.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bangs, T.E. (1975). Vocabulary comprehension scale. Austin, Tex.: Learning Concepts.

Becker, W.C. , Dixon, R. , & Anderson-Inman, L. (1980). Morphographic and root word analysis of 26,000 high frequency words. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon, College of Education.

Bracken, B. (1984). Examiner's manual: Bracken Basic Concept Scale. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.

Brown, R. (1973). A first language: The early stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Carroll, J. , Davies, P. , & Richman, B. (1971). The American Heritage word frequency book. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Carrow, E. (1973). Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language. Austin, TX: Urban Research Group.

Clark, E.V. (1972). On the child's acquisition of antonyms in two semantic fields. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11, 750–758.

Harris, A. , & Jacobson, M. (1972). Basic elementary reading vocabulary. New York: Macmillan.

Johnson, D.D. , Moe, A.J. & Baumann, J.F. (1983). The Ginn word book for teachers: A basic lexicon. Lexington, MA: Ginn and Company.

10.

Kucera, H. , & Francis, W.N. (1967). Computational analysis of present-day American English. Providence: Brown University Press.

11.

Marzano, R.J. , & Marzano, J.S. (1988). A cluster approach to elementary vocabulary instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

12.

Moe, A.J. , Hopkins, C.J. , & Rush, R.T. (1982). The Vocabulary of first-grade children. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.

13.

Naglieri, J.A. , & Bardos, A.N. (1990). Bracken Basic Concept Scale. Diagnostique, 15, p. 41–50.

14.

Williams, K.T., Gridley, B., & Powers, A.D. (1988). Using parental input to predict kindergarten performance. Paper presented at the annual conference of the National Association of School Psychologists, Chicago.