Hung Tan Ha

Read about research being undertaken by Hung Tan Ha, a PhD student in Applied Linguistics.

Phot of Hung Tan Ha PhD student in Applied Linguistics

Thesis title

The development and validation of two new tests of receptive vocabulary knowledge for second language learners: An attempt to address the issues of guessing and word counting unit.

Supervisors

Prof Peter Gu and Dr Irina Elgort

Biography

Hung Tan Ha is currently a Ph.D. student at the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies (LALS), Victoria University of Wellington (VUW). His research interests involve L2 Listening/Reading comprehension and different aspects of Vocabulary Studies.

Abstract

This thesis seeks to address two critical issues in receptive vocabulary testing for second language learners: score inflation due to guessing and the assumption of the word family as the primary lexical unit for measurement. Guessing was addressed by increasing the test format’s item-option ratio, a solution suggested by Budescu (1988) and recently trialled by Stoeckel et al. (2024). The proposed test format was a matching format that included 20 items and 70 options (a 20:70 ratio). The assumption of the word family as a lexical unit was addressed by incorporating measures of word and affix knowledge into the test. In addition, a score adjustment method was proposed.

The first study showed that the 20:70 format can mitigate guessing to a degree comparable to meaning-recall testing. However, the results also suggested that the format’s complexity may introduce unwanted construct-irrelevant variance to test data. The second study showed that actively incorporating measures of affix knowledge into measures of word knowledge significantly improves their correlation to reading.

Publications

Ha, H. T. (2021). A Rasch-based validation of the Vietnamese version of the Listening Vocabulary Levels Test. Language Testing in Asia, 11(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40468-021-00132-7

Ha, H. T. (2021). Exploring the relationships between various dimensions of receptive vocabulary knowledge and L2 listening and reading comprehension. Language Testing in Asia, 11(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40468-021-00131-8

Ha, H. T. (2022). Vocabulary Demands of Informal Spoken English Revisited: What Does It Take to Understand Movies, TV Programs, and Soap Operas? Frontiers in Psychology, 13(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.831684

Ha, H. T. (2022). Lexical Profile of Newspapers Revisited: A Corpus-Based Analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 13(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.800983

Ha, H. T. (2022). Test Format and Local Dependence of Items Revisited: A Case of Two Vocabulary Levels Tests. Frontiers in Psychology, 12(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.805450

Ha, H. T. (2022). Issues in matching learners to their reading levels using receptive vocabulary knowledge – A closer look at the vocabulary levels tests and scoring methods. Heliyon, 8(8), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10244

Ha, H. T., Le, H. T., Phung, D. H., & Nguyen, S. D. (2022). Is “general” easier than “academic”? A corpus‑based investigation into the two modules of IELTS reading test. SN Social Sciences, 2 (159), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-022-00461-1

Nguy, N. L. H., & Ha, H. T. (2022). Lexical Profile of Academic Written English Revisited: What does it take to understand scholarly abstracts?. SAGE Open, 12(3), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440221126342

Phung, D. H., & Ha, H. T. (2022). Vocabulary Demands of the IELTS Listening Test: An In-Depth Analysis. SAGE Open, 12(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440221079934

Trang, N. H., Nguyen, D. T. B., & Ha, H. T. (2023). Vocabulary Demands of Academic Spoken English Revisited: A Case of University Lectures and TED Presentations. SAGE Open, 13(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231155334

Trang, N. H., Truong, D. V., & Ha, H. T. (2023). Quantifying vocabulary learning belief and strategy - A validation study of the Vietnamese version of Gu’s (2018) vocabulary learning questionnaire. Heliyon, 9(5), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16009

Ha, H. T., & Nguyen, D. T. B. (2023). Using structural equation modeling to examine the relationship between receptive vocabulary knowledge and receptive language proficiency: A new light on an old issue. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 32(2), 382-398. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12475

Stoeckel, T., Ishii, T., Kim, Y. A., Ha, H. T., Ho, N. T. P., & McLean, S. (2023). A comparison of contextualized and non-contextualized meaning-recall vocabulary test formats. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 2(3), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmal.2023.100075

Stoeckel, T., McLean, S., Raine, P., Ha, H. T., Ho, N. T. P., & Kim, Y. A. (2023). A Contextualized Meaning-Recall Vocabulary Testing Platform. JALT Journal. 45(2), 211-234. https://doi.org/10.37546/JALTJJ45.2-2

Le, N. H., & Ha, H. T. (2023). Lexical Demands of Academic Written English: From Students’ Assignments to Scholarly Publications. SAGE Open, 13(4), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231216292

Stoeckel, T., Ha, H.T., Nguyen, D. T. B., Nicklin, C. (2024). Can an extended-matching second-language vocabulary test format bridge the gap between meaning-recognition and meaning-recall? Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 3(2), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmal.2024.100109

Ha, H. T., Nguyen, D. T. B., & Stoeckel, T. (2024). What is the best predictor of word difficulty? A case of data mining using random forest. Language Testing, 41(4), 828-844. https://doi.org/10.1177/02655322241263628

Stoeckel, T., Tan, L. Y., Ha, H. T., Ho, N. T. P., Ishii, T., Kim, Y. A., Huang, C., & McLean, S. (2024). Estimating the impact of local item dependency in a test of second language reading comprehension. Vocabulary Learning and Instruction, 13(2), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.29140/vli.v13n2.2126

Ha, H. T., Nguyen, D. T. B., & Stoeckel, T. (2025). A Comparison of Yen’s Q3 Coefficient and Rasch Testlet Modeling for Identifying Local Item Dependence: Evidence from Two Vocabulary Matching Tests. Language Assessment Quarterly, 22(1), 56-76. https://doi.org/10.1080/15434303.2025.2456953

Ha, H. T., Nguyen, D. T. B., McLean, S., & Matthews, J. (2025). Choosing lexically appropriate texts: Vocabulary mastery level or text-range vocabulary size?, Reading in a Foreign Language, 37(1), 1-19. https://hdl.handle.net/10125/67492

Ha, H. T., Nguyen, D. T. B., & Stoeckel, T. (2025). Investigating LID in four test conditions - Do instructions, test formats and item positioning matter?. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 4(3), 100233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmal.2025.100233

Le, L. T. T., Ho, N. T. P., Trang, N. H., & Ha, H. T. (2025). Revisiting the lexical differences between academic and general training IELTS reading tests. SAGE Open, 15(3), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251362269

Book Chapter

Ha, H.T. (2024). Corpus-Driven Assessment - A New Standard for Language Testing. In P. Crosthwaite (Ed.), Corpora for Language Learning: Bridging the Research-Practice Divide (pp. 172-173). Routledge.

Book Review

Ha, H.T., Le, L.T.T., Ho, N.T.P., & Trang, N.H. (2023). Measuring native-speaker vocabulary size. Paul Nation and Averil Coxhead, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, 2021, xiii, 160 pp., Hardbound: ISBN 9789027208149, EUR 95.00; Paperback: ISBN 9789027208132, EUR 33.00; e-Book: ISBN 9789027260291, EUR 95.00. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 33(1), 88-90. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12451

Presentations

Ha, H. T. (2023, May 26). Revisiting the Relationship Between Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge and Receptive Language Proficiency – a Multi-Group SEM Approach. LALS Seminar Series. https://doi.org/10.52843/cassyni.rszt8r

Ha, H. T., Nguyen, D. T. B, & McLean, S. (December 2023). Matching learners with comprehensible texts: Comparing levels and size approaches. Vocab@Vic 2023.

Stoeckel, T., Ha, H. T., Nguyen, D. T. B, & Nicklin, C. (December 2023). An exploratory study of a novel form-meaning test format. Vocab@Vic 2023.

Stoeckel, T., Ha, H. T., Tan, L. Y., Nicklin, C., Ho, N.T.P., Huang, C., Ishii, T., Kim, Y. A., McLean, S. Nguyen, D. T. B, & Wang, X. (June 2025). A replication of Hu and Nation’s (2000) coverage-comprehension study. Vocab@Maryland 2025.

Ha, H. T., Stoeckel, T., & Nguyen, D. T. B. (June 2025). Investigating LID in Four Test Conditions - Do Instructions, Test Formats and Item Positioning Matter? Vocab@Maryland 2025.