upper-elementary school students (5th,6th,7th grade), MHV, MOAV, GAVM, gender, grade
This study analyzes a newly developed measure for assessing the knowledge of general
academic vocabulary in upper-elementary school students in Croatia. This researcher-designed
instrument assesses students’ command of synonymy and the limits of collocational use as a
proxy for academic vocabulary breadth and depth. Elementary school students in the 5th , 6th ,
and 7th grade participated in the study (N = 152, 69,7% girls). In addition to the newly developed
measure for assessing general academic vocabulary, students completed the Mill Hill
Vocabulary Scales, a standardized measure of general vocabulary knowledge. The results show
that the newly developed instrument for measuring general academic vocabulary knowledge is
reliable and valid—it has adequate internal consistency, shows to be sensitive to the expected
age and gender differences in vocabulary, and correlates highly with the results obtained by
the Mill Hill Vocabulary Scales. This new instrument could fill the gap in academic vocabulary-
related research since the currently available vocabulary assessment measures in Croatian do
not focus on this specific register. More specifically, our new measure could be used to evaluate
various types of academic vocabulary interventions in schools.