Abstract
A multiple-choice vocabulary test involving 100 basic German verbs was administered to 523 students in 19 classes at Hiroshima University. This was the first attempt in Japan to show the actual state of vocabulary acquisition in German beginner’s classes on a university-wide scale. In this paper, the characteristics of the test and the performances of the 523 learners are presented. The results are analysed from two perspectives: 1) their relation to the teaching conviction of each instructor, and 2) the semantic and syntactic properties of the tested 100 basic verbs themselves. A statistical analysis ventured to shed light on factors influencing the scores. Also, an attempt was made to classify the 100 verbs into four groups according to correct answer rate, in order to find out if there are any semantically or syntactically common features which the verbs of the same groups possibly share. The 100 basic verbs were also categorized into four groups by a combination of “used / not used in the textbook” and “high / low correct answer rates” to find out which groups of verbs have a strong correlation to test scores.
