Verbaalschaal

Verbaalschaal is a Dutch compound noun that literally means verbal scale. It is not a single standardized instrument but a common label in Dutch-language texts for a scale or rating framework related to verbal aspects of language or statements. The precise definition varies with discipline and author.

In linguistics and language testing, a verbaalschaal may refer to a graded scale used to assess aspects of verbal output such as fluency, lexical variety, syntactic complexity, or overall verbosity. Such scales are typically designed for specific studies and may range from descriptive checklists to Likert-type items, and they are often complemented by objective measures like word counts or type-token ratios.

In forensic or legal contexts, where verbaal relates to spoken statements, the term can surface in descriptions of how thoroughly a witness's verbal account is recorded or how complete a statement is. Again, there is no universal standard, and the term is used informally rather than as a defined methodological instrument.

Because the term is not standardized, researchers and practitioners usually specify the operational definition and scoring criteria within each project. The Dutch expression verbaalschaal should thus be understood as a descriptive label rather than a fixed measurement tool.

See also: Verbal assessment, Verbal fluency, Rating scale, Likert scale.