Test Questions Analysis:
Rationales
The purpose of this test is to assess CSL/CFL learners’ proficiency by filling in the blanks in some
statement from the options of pairs or groups of Chinese synonyms before and after using Sketch Engine.
In the test, we would apply the synonym options with some statements to see how much learners’
improvement after using Sketch Engine. Before our student subjects using Sketch Engine, we’d like to
evaluate their sense of using the groups of synonyms. After receiving the pre and post test results, we can
compare the improvement or differences between the learners before and after adopting Sketch Engine
when distinguishing the usage of the tar get synonyms in order to prove our research hypothesis.
Generate the statements and Analysis s options of targets synonyms
We first decide some Chinese synonyms which are often used by native speakers but easily confused
by CSL/CFL learners. The statements are selected, revised and edited from Word Sketch. The following
are the statements with the options of the key words, their collocations, Salience and Frequency.
Questions
A1 去面試之前,我有_______________的信心及把握,可以得到這份工作。
A2 學生沒有_____ 時間、閱讀與了解這些課文內容 。
A3 配合有規律作息、有__________的睡眠，才能預防近視 。
Key word
collocate
Number of Q
Salience
A1
A2
A3
Frequency
充足
信心
9.6
5
充分
信心
38.3
156
充足
睡眠
36.7
21
充分
睡眠
19.4
10
充足
時間
18.5
24
充分
時間
36.7
274
The number of salience and Frequency are to demonstrate how often the key words with the pair of
synonym are used. In other words, take A1 key words 充足 and 充分 for example, we can find their
collocations 信心 are more often with 充分 than 充足.Thus,充分 is the more accurate answer than
充足 for us. Likewise, in A2 充足 and 充分, we tend to use 充足睡眠 a little bit more frequent
than 充分. By looking at the frequency, we can decide which the key word is to its collocation instead
of simply selecting one definite wrong or right answer.
B1 部分事實還不_____，必須在事實_______明確後,再談其他的問題 。
B2 醫生發覺他神智 _______，但 下半身 有 癱瘓的情形 。
B3 他將會藉由這次機會把話說 _______，而不辜負民眾所託。
Number of
Q
Key word
collocate
Salience
Frequency
B1
明白
事實
9.5
8
清楚
事實
48.2
249
明白
神智
N/A
N/A
清楚
神智
54.8
50
明白
話說
14.5
5
清楚
話說
51.5
114
B2
B3
In addition, we also including the pair indicate more specific and exact key word answer. In B2, there is
no record showing 明白 and 神智. Our final accurate answer for the blank should be 清楚.
And for the Group B, we can point out that 事實清楚 (249) has much more frequency than
事實明白(8). Similarly, 話說清楚(114)is with much higher frequency than 話說明白.
Since we can straightforwardly collect the frequency of the key words with their collocations from
Sketch Engine, it is beneficial for us to look at how the CSL/CFL learners use these Chinese synonyms.