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.