A VOCABULARY TEST 161 



papers and magazines frequently read and of books read since the 

 beginning of the year. It was found that in general those who named 

 the most books and magazines had the larger vocabularies, regardless of 

 their grade. 



The individual differences in size of vocabulary were very great, 

 some ninth grade children falling to the rank of second grade children, 

 while some third or fourth grade children ranked with the average of 

 those in the ninth grade or high school. 



Sometimes a very small vocabulary was accounted for by the fact 

 that the child was of foreign parentage and did not hear English at 

 home, but the mere fact of being of foreign parentage was no assurance 

 that the vocabulary would be small. 



II 



The relation of size of vocabulary to school standing was considered, 

 but owing to the scarcity of data and uncertainty as to its reliability 

 (only a small proportion of the papers were accompanied by the class 

 records or teacher's estimate of ability), no conclusive results were 

 reached. In the grades there was no clear proof of relationship 

 though in one room, where there was reason to think the teacher's 

 estimate had been carefully made, the grading corresponded almost 

 exactly to the size of the vocabularies. In one normal class nearly all 

 of those who had been named by the faculty as belonging to the lower 

 third of the class had small vocabularies. In another class there 

 seemed to be little or no relation between size of vocabulary and 

 estimates of teaching ability. In two colleges, one for women, the 

 other for men, the marks given to the women in English and to men 

 in all subjects were secured for the freshman class and compared with 

 the number of words known. The average number of words known 

 by the men who in general ranked in the various subjects above the 

 average of their class was 5 per cent, greater than for those ranking 

 below the average; while the women who ranked highest in English, 

 averaged nearly 4 per cent, better in vocabularies than those who 

 ranked lowest in English. 



In the case of individuals there was often a wide divergence be- 

 tween the marks and the size of the vocabulary. In some instances 

 exceptionally poor definitions indicated a difference in the standard 

 used in marking words as known, but not always. This divergence is 

 not, however, greater than between marks in different subjects, e. g., 

 students have honor marks in some subjects and fail to pass in others. 



Is size of vocabulary any indication of attainment or ability? An 

 affirmative answer to this can not readily be proved by experiment, be- 

 cause we have no reliable standard of ability and attainment by which 

 the value of the vocabulary test may be determined. It is well known, 



VOL. LXX. — 11. 



