Analysis of the reading passage difficulty and lexical demands in the Vietnamese high school graduation English tests (2015-2025)

Tạp chí Khoa học và Công nghệ - Đại học Đà Nẵng - Trang 63-68 - 2026
Cao Thi Hong Phuong1, Thai Linh Chi1, Nguyen Thi My Hang2
1Faculty of English, Hanoi National University of Education, Vietnam
2The University of Danang - University of Foreign Language Studies, Vietnam

Tóm tắt

This study investigates the difficulty of the reading comprehension texts in the Vietnamese High School Graduation English Test (VGET), a matter of significant interest to various educational stakeholders. Twenty two passages from 2015 to 2025 were analyzed using classic readability formulas and lexical profiling. The findings suggest a potential misalignment between the measured text difficulty and the expected language proficiency level. This is supported by low reading ease scores (often below 50) and high lexical demand, requiring approximately 3,000-5,000 word families for 95% coverage. Texts with this level of difficulty may not be optimally suited for evaluating student graduation outcomes and could potentially create an excessive burden on test-takers. The study suggests that current test administration practices be reconsidered to ensure the test’s long-term validity and relevance. It also offers practical implications for both teachers and students adapting to the observed text complexity.

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