33 The findings of the preliminary test shows that it was easier to do the 1
st
up to the 5
th
1,000 words since the students have already been familiar with the words. The students can easily find the high-frequency words in the academic books, daily
conversation, and et cetera. Yet, it can be concluded that the sixth semester students of ELESP Sanata
Dharma University were still confused with the low-frequency words and probably they were not familiar and not accustomed yet to use the low-frequency words.
Accordingly, the researcher was able to formulate the instrument objective which is explained in the next step.
2. Development of the Instrument
After getting the findings of the preliminary test, the researcher later on decided to design a vocabulary size test for the sixth semester students of ELESP
Sanata Dharma University. There were four activities in making the design. The activities were explained as follows:
a. Sampling the Words for the Test Items
The researcher took the samples of the test items from the General Service List. The researcher found that the GSL consists of around 2,300 words. Thus, the
test were divided into ten levels with each level ranges of 230 words. Then, the sampling method of selecting words is interval sampling. The researcher took one
word in every multiples of ten word list. The difficulty of the test increases from the high-frequency words to low-frequency words. The word targets was listed as
follows: PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
34
Table 4.2 The Word Targets for the Test Items
Level Word Target
1
st
Level Out, time, first, long, nation, man, interest, set, place,
question
2
nd
level Study, expensive, foot, company, type, grow, tax, organize,
write, ago
3
rd
level Rule, demand, decide, suggest, trouble, east, operate,
serious, especially, growth
4
th
level Help, relate, progress, pool, prevent, recommended, choice,
agency, discuss, destroy
5
th
level
Newspaper, dinner, beat, narrow, flower, stretch, fashion, neck, chairman, knee
6
th
level
Ancient, intend, tomorrow, defend, cup, afraid, wet, sink, noise, scientist
7
th
level
Photograph, visitor, clerk, strict, crop, sacred, storm, actor, shell, ceremony
8
th
level Bold, funeral, dig, behave, boil, leather, kingdom, blade,
confess, shower
9
th
level Omit, airplane, bake, collar, pet, roast, razor, knot, trunk,
cage
10
th
level Comb, receipt, artwork, flour, weed, tidy, barber, notebook,
motherhood, beak
b. Making the Stem
The test uses a stem and four options multiple-choice questions format. This kind of format is used by the researcher since it is easy to use and easy to assess.
The MCQ format used to assess the vocabulary knowledge in this test is the synonym recognition test. The following is the example of the stem.
1.
We keep our story in photograph.
A. Inn
B. Pic
C. Outlet
D. Joint
35
c. Writing the Choices
The third step is writing the choices. The researcher provided distractors in each question taken from the same 1,000 word frequency level. Each test items
contains four choices which are one word target and three distractors. The researcher needed to make sure that the choices were written in easier language than
the tested word.
d. The Order of the Items in the Test
The test items were arranged based on frequency order. It was arranged from the high-frequency words to the low-frequency words. The difficulty is increasing
from the first level to the last level.
3. Evaluating the Instrument
Evaluating or assessing the instrument is needed to create a good test. The researcher asked three evaluators who are experts in vocabulary. They are all the
lecturers in ELESP Sanata Dharma University teaching vocabulary. The researcher distributed a questionnaire in the form of close-ended and open-ended questions to
the evaluators. There were 12 close-ended questions in form of Likert Scale and 2 more open-ended questions to give comment and suggestion related to the test. The
close-ended questionnaire presents the degree of evaluators’ agreement in number
ranging from 1 to 4. The degree of the agreement can be shown as follow: 1
Strongly disagree 2
Disagree 3
Agree PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
