GL Assessment revises UK's leading vocabulary assessment
27th November 2009 – GL Assessment has published the third edition of the British Picture Vocabulary Scale, the UK's leading vocabulary assessment for standard English. Ideal for practitioners in mainstream and special education settings, the assessment screens for verbal development and helps the detection of language impairment across the 3 – 16 year age range. The new, fully revised edition includes colour pictures and improved presentation, in a larger format. It has also been re-standardised by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), based on 3,200 pupils from nursery to Year 11 in settings across the UK.
The new edition is very timely, particularly considering the renewed emphasis on boosting children's spoken language and the implications for future success of impoverished vocabulary that were highlighted in the Sir Jim Rose Dyslexia Review. The DCSF has also expressed its commitment to the teaching of effective vocabulary: "Having a low vocabulary can trap children in a vicious circle, since children who cannot read more advanced texts miss out on opportunities to extend their vocabulary … This means that children with low vocabularies need to be targeted early, since catching up is very difficult" (DCSF, Teaching Effective Vocabulary, 2008).
Sue Thompson, publisher at GL Assessment, explains: "Establishing and developing a wide vocabulary from a very young age is essential to children's academic success. The British Picture Vocabulary Scale is a robust and time-efficient benchmarking and progress-checking assessment that can be used with children from pre-school to secondary school. Its simple, appealing format and ease of administration belies the significance of the assessment and how it can help identify any deficits in vocabulary development even before children are in full time education."
Julie Sewell, Principal Research Officer at the NFER, said: "The NFER has trialled BPVS3 extensively in all counties in the UK. Trialling schools have responded positively, particularly to the use of colour. The new edition will be appropriate for the same extensive range of uses as the current version, but the renewed data reflect the vocabulary acquisition of today's children."
The British Picture Vocabulary Scale 3 (BPVS3) assesses pupils' receptive vocabulary. For each question, the teacher says a word and the pupil responds by selecting a picture from four options that best illustrates the word's meaning. The questions broadly sample words that represent a range of areas, such as actions, animals, toys and emotions, and parts of speech, such as nouns, verbs or attributes, across all levels of difficulty. The assessment is untimed but is designed to take approximately 10 minutes to administer.
Since the scale does not require oral or written responses, it can be used with children with disabilities, non-readers and others with written language problems. It is suitable for those with severe speech or language difficulties, as responses can be made by gesture. It can also be used successfully with autistic and withdrawn children, and because neither pointing nor oral response is essential, children with specific learning difficulties such as autism and cerebral palsy are less disadvantaged in the testing situation. The illustrations have black outlines and use vivid colours to help the administration to children who may be colour blind.
BPVS3 costs £155 for the complete set and a pack of 10 record forms costs £10. Customers can purchase by contacting Customer Services on 0845 602 1937.
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Notes to editors:
BPVS is derived from the long-established American product, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test.
The two previous editions of BPVS were published in 1982 and 1997 respectively.
About GL Assessment
GL Assessment is the UK's leading independent provider of tests and assessment services for education. It publishes across the 4 -19 age range, with the majority of its assessments designed for 5-14 year-olds.
GL Assessment has an extensive portfolio of print and digital tests for education which assess children's progress in literacy, ability and numeracy and identify a broad spectrum of special educational needs. It offers tests and programmes that support the development of emotional literacy and thinking skills. GL Assessment also provides assessments for use in the Health and Psychology service by clinical psychologists, speech and language therapists and paediatricians.
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