VOCABULARY: NEEDED IF MORE CHILDREN ARE TO READ WELL

Vocabulary has long been recognized as a strong determinant of reading success. Despite the importance of vocabulary knowledge, very little information is available about effective strategies for vocabulary instruction in elementary grades and there is a paucity of data on the relative merits of the different programs that are designed to promote vocabulary growth in elementary children. Available information indicates that, until they reach about grade three, children’s vocabulary knowledge is largely determined by informal factors such as parental interaction and other incidental sources such as the TV. In this article, I will address the following topics: (a) individual differences in vocabulary acquisition, (b) the amount of vocabulary needed for successful learning, (c) the predictable sequence of vocabulary acquisition, (d) the need for direct instruction for vocabulary growth, and (e) promising methods for promoting vocabulary knowledge.     

汉语儿童英语口语词汇与阅读学习的关系

以120名四、五年级小学儿童为被试,探讨汉语儿童英语口语词汇与阅读学习的关系,并检验了英语语音意识在其中的中介作用。结果表明:(1)汉语儿童的英语口语词汇与阅读学习之间存在密切关系。控制一般认知能力和母语口语词汇的影响后,英语口语词汇对阅读学习仍具有显著的预测作用。其中,英语口语词汇产生对于英语单词认读的预测作用更重要,英语口语词汇理解则对英语单词理解的预测作用更重要。(2)英语口语词汇产生既可以直接作用于英语单词认读、理解和假词拼读,也部分通过英语语音意识的中介间接作用于英语阅读;英语口语词汇理解对英语单词理解也具有直接作用,并部分地通过英语语音意识的中介发挥间接作用     

儿童英汉口语词汇知识与英语语音意识的关系

以120名母语为汉语的四、五年级小学儿壹为被试.探讨英语和母语口语词汇知识与英语语音意识的关系.结果表明: (1)英语和母语口语词汇知识与英语语音意识之间存在密切关系. (2)英语口语词汇产生对英语音节、首音一韵脚和音位意识具有显著的独立预测作用,英语口语词汇理解对英语语音意识的独立贡献性不显著. (3)汉语口语词汇产生对英语音节意识具有显著的预测作用,汉语口语词汇理解对英语音位意识具有显著的预测作用;汉语口语词汇产生既可以直接作用于英语音节意识,也可以通过汉语语音意识的中介发挥间接作用:汉语口语词汇理解则完全通过汉语语音意识和英语口语词汇产生的中介间接作用于英语旨位意识.     

COMPUTER ASSESSMENT OF READING VOCABULARY: A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE,WORD FREQUENCY,AND RESPONSE TIME

The assessment of vocabulary knowledge has posed a number of problems which have resulted in widely differing estimates of children's vocabulary growth. Such estimates assume importance when school texts are controlled for vocabulary diversity, and in pedagogical debates concerning the value of vocabulary instruction. In this paper we outline a computer‐based methodology which obtains simple timed responses to sets of words and word‐like nonsense items. We present pilot data depicting estimated vocabulary knowledge, and relating it to word frequency and decision response time, and we speculate about the question of total vocabulary size.     

Tracing children's vocabulary development from preschool through the school‐age years: an 8‐year longitudinal study

In this 8‐year longitudinal study, we traced the vocabulary growth of Chinese children, explored potential precursors of vocabulary knowledge, and investigated how vocabulary growth predicted future reading skills. Two hundred and sixty‐four (264) native Chinese children from Beijing were measured on a variety of reading and language tasks over 8 years. Between the ages of 4 to 10 years, they were administered tasks of vocabulary and related cognitive skills. At age 11, comprehensive reading skills, including character recognition, reading fluency, and reading comprehension were examined. Individual differences in vocabulary developmental profiles were estimated using the intercept‐slope cluster method. Vocabulary development was then examined in relation to later reading outcomes. Three subgroups of lexical growth were classified, namely high‐high (with a large initial vocabulary size and a fast growth rate), low‐high (with a small initial vocabulary size and a fast growth rate) and low‐low (with a small initial vocabulary size and a slow growth rate) groups. Low‐high and low‐low groups were distinguishable mostly through phonological skills, morphological skills and other reading‐related cognitive skills. Childhood vocabulary development (using intercept and slope) explained subsequent reading skills. Findings suggest that language‐related and reading‐related cognitive skills differ among groups with different developmental trajectories of vocabulary, and the initial size and growth rate of vocabulary may be two predictors for later reading development.     

学前儿童英语语音意识、字母知识及口语词汇之间关系的研究

本研究以北京市两所普通幼儿园3~6岁共122名儿童为被试,运用测验法对英语语音意识、字母知识、口语词汇之间的关系进行了考察。结果发现,汉语学前儿童的英语语音意识和字母知识、语音意识和口语词汇、以及字母知识和口语词汇之间都具有显著的相关关系;英语口语词汇对语音意识和字母知识具有显著的预测作用,字母知识和英语语音意识对于英语口语词汇具有显著的预测作用。     

小学低年级儿童口语词汇知识的发展轨迹及其影响因素

以149名小学生为研究对象, 对其口语词汇知识进行了历时3年的5次追踪测试, 采用潜变量增长模型探索了小学1~3年级学生汉语口语词汇知识的发展轨迹, 并考察了语音意识、同形语素意识、复合语素意识和家庭社会经济地位对口语词汇知识发展轨迹的影响。结果发现：(1) 1~3年级学生口语词汇知识发展轨迹呈曲线形式, 其中前两年呈线性发展, 三年级时呈加速发展, 发展速度是前期发展的两倍, 起始水平和发展速度均存在显著的个体差异; (2)语音意识、同形语素意识、复合语素意识和家庭社会经济地位均可以正向预测学生口语词汇知识的起始水平; (3)只有同形语素意识和家庭社会经济地位可以正向预测学生口语词汇知识的发展速度。     

Developing Reading Comprehension and Academic Vocabulary for English Language Learners Through Science Content: A Formative Experiment

This formative experiment explored the extent to which two instructional frameworks that varied in the explicitness of academic vocabulary instruction, comprehension strategy instruction, and supports for student autonomy influenced reading comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, perceptions of autonomy supports, and reading engagement in fourth-grade English-language learners (ELLs). In the contextualized vocabulary instruction (CVI) framework, four reading comprehension strategies were integrated with two autonomy-supportive (motivation) practices and implicit instruction of academic science vocabulary. In the intensified vocabulary instruction (IVI) framework, students experienced explicit instruction of academic science vocabulary in relation to reading, without explicit strategy instruction or attention to autonomy supports. Results indicated that the IVI framework increased students’ academic vocabulary even 3 weeks after the intervention was over, whereas CVI benefited students’ reading comprehension as well as their perceptions of autonomous learning in the classroom. Both quantitative and qualitative results are interpreted under the lens of formative experiments.     

Summer Reading: Predicting Adolescent Word Learning from Aptitude,Time Spent Reading,and Text Type

Mostly low-income African American and Hispanic teens (N = 192) were tested in (a) passage comprehension, (b) vocabulary ability, (c) cloze task performance, and (d) listening comprehension in the spring and vocabulary in the fall. Students were surveyed about reading (a) narrative, (b) expository, (c) teen culture, and (d) online texts. Interaction terms created by the product of cloze task scores with the time and frequency of student narrative and expository reading were both significant predictors of fall vocabulary. Online reading was popular but did not predict vocabulary gains. Teen culture reading predicted vocabulary loss. Text type and student profiles both play a role in predicting fall vocabulary scores from summer reading.     

Early vocabulary development: Relationships with prelinguistic skills and early social-emotional/behavioral problems and competencies

The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate early vocabulary development and its relationships with prelinguistic communication skills and social-emotional/behavioral (SEB¹) problems and competencies. The participants were 58 healthy Finnish-speaking children (30 girls, 28 boys). First, the concurrent relationships were investigated at the age of 18 months. Second, the relationships between prelinguistic communication skills and SEB problems and competencies at 18 months, and subsequent vocabulary scores at 24 and 30 months, were examined. Parental reports on early vocabulary (MacArthur Communicative Developmental Inventories; MCDI), prelinguistic communication skills (The Infant-Toddler Checklist of the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile; ITC), SEB problems and competencies (Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment; BITSEA) were gathered. Compared to boys, girls scored significantly higher on ITC Speech Composite at 18 months and expressive vocabulary measures at 18, 24, and 30 months. Vocabulary, as well as prelinguistic communication measures, correlated with SEB competencies at 18 months. Furthermore, vocabulary, as well as ITC Symbolic Composite and Total Score, correlated negatively with externalizing problem and SEB Total Problem scores. With regard to subsequent vocabulary development, all of the prelinguistic communication measures at 18 months correlated with vocabulary at 24 and 30 months. However, when accounted for gender and earlier vocabulary, only the associations with ITC Speech Composite and Total Score at 24 months remained significant. SEB Competencies at 18 months correlated positively, while externalizing problems at 18 months correlated negatively with vocabulary at 24 and 30 months, however, these associations did not remain significant, when accounted for gender and earlier vocabulary.     

Joint Reading of Informational Science Text Versus Narrative Stories: How Does each Affect Language and Literacy Abilities Among Kindergarteners?

The effectiveness of a literacy intervention program based on a joint interactive reading of informational science texts in increasing children’s science vocabulary, language and literacy skills, delivered by the kindergarten teacher, was examined in 34 Hebrew-speaking kindergarten children exhibiting different levels of emergent literacy skills. The impact of the informational science text intervention was compared to that of a similar program based on narrative stories. Post-intervention, both groups improved their domain-specific vocabulary – science or narrative – but the change in domain-specific vocabulary learning was lower in the informational science group as opposed to the narrative group. Improvement was also found with regard to general vocabulary, print concepts, and listening comprehension following both interventions. Change in scientific vocabulary was positively related with change in morphological awareness, change in print concepts, and listening comprehension. No such findings were found with regard to narrative vocabulary. The study suggests that a short informational science intervention program can enhance science vocabulary and literacy skills in kindergarten children and should be used more often in kindergartens.     

From terrible twos to sassy sixes: The development of vocabulary and executive functioning across early childhood

Across the early childhood period of development, young children exhibit considerable growth in their executive functioning (EF) and vocabulary abilities. Understanding the developmental trajectory of these seemingly interrelated processes is important as both early vocabulary and EF have been shown to predict critical academic and socio-emotional outcomes later in childhood. Although previous research suggests that EF and vocabulary are correlated in early childhood, much of the existing longitudinal research has focused on unidirectional relations among preschool child samples. The current large-scale study, therefore, sought to examine whether children's vocabulary and EF abilities are bidirectionally related over time across four measurement waves in early childhood (i.e., at ages 2, 3, 4, and 6). At each timepoint, children's vocabulary skills were positively correlated with their concurrent EF abilities. After controlling for child sex and maternal education status, the best-fitting, cross-lagged panel model was a unidirectional model whereby children's early vocabulary scores predicted their later EF performance at each timepoint. Although age 2 EF significantly predicted age 3 vocabulary size, this association was no longer significant after accounting for maternal education status. Our results illustrate that vocabulary size plays an important role in predicting children's later EF performance across various timepoints in early childhood, even after controlling for children's initial EF scores. These findings have important implications for intervention research as fostering early vocabulary acquisition may serve as a possible avenue for improving EF outcomes in young children.

Research Highlights

• Children's vocabulary size is positively correlated with their concurrent executive functioning skill at ages 2, 3, 4, and 6
• Young children's early vocabulary scores predict their later EF performance across measurement waves, even after controlling for initial EF skill
• There is stability in children's relative vocabulary size and executive functioning performance over time in early childhood

     

Joint Book Reading and Receptive Vocabulary: A Parallel Process Model

The purpose of the present study was to understand the reciprocal, bidirectional longitudinal relation between joint book reading and English receptive vocabulary. To address the research goals, a nationally representative sample of Head Start children, the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (2003 cohort), was used for analysis. The children were aged 3–4 years at programme entry. The mothers' average age at programme entry was 39 years old. A parallel process model was utilized to examine the growth factors of joint book reading and receptive vocabulary in parallel. Three significant findings emerged: (1) initial levels of English receptive vocabulary and joint book reading positively covaried; (2) English receptive vocabulary and joint book reading were positively and reciprocally related to each other; and (3) slopes for joint book reading and English receptive vocabulary negatively covaried. Results suggest that joint book reading can support and scaffold Head Start children's English receptive vocabulary. Reciprocally, Head Start children's English receptive vocabulary appears to predict the extent to which they engage in joint book reading at home. Moreover, the frequency of joint book reading decreases as the children demonstrate higher levels of English receptive vocabulary. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

What Can Bilingual Children Tell Us About the Developmental Relationship Between Vocabulary and Grammar?

Strong correlations between vocabulary and grammar are well attested in language development in monolingual and bilingual children. What is less clear is whether there is any directionality in the relationship between the two constructs, whether it is predictive over time, and the extent to which it is affected by language input. In the present study, we analyzed data from 100 bilingual children with English as an additional language who were tested on measures of vocabulary breadth and depth, morphology, and syntax at three time points at 6-month intervals from the age of 5;8. We used bivariate growth models to test the directionality of the relationship between vocabulary breadth and depth, and measures of morphology and syntax; testing bilingual children allowed us to use measures of English input as covariates in the analyses. All the models showed a correlation between vocabulary and grammar, but no correlation between their growth slopes, suggesting that vocabulary and grammar grow independently. Three of the four bivariate models showed a significant correlation between the intercept of grammar skills and the slope of vocabulary growth. Length of exposure to English predicted the intercept of vocabulary breadth and grammar, suggesting that children exposed to English earlier had larger vocabularies and better morpho-syntactic skills. Current English input predicted the intercept of both measures of vocabulary as well as the slope for vocabulary depth, the only measure for which there was a significant relationship between intercept and slope, suggesting a Matthew effect for this dimension of vocabulary. All materials, data, and code are available at https://osf.io/x3wht/ . Research highlights

• Vocabulary breadth and morphological and syntactic skills increased linearly for all participants, without any difference between lower and higher achieving children.
• Vocabulary depth grew more over time for those children with deeper vocabulary knowledge and higher levels of current English input at the start of the study.
• All of the bivariate growth models showed a correlation between vocabulary and grammar, but failed to show any correlation between their growth.
• Significant relationships between the intercept of grammar and the growth of vocabulary showed steeper lexical growth in children with better grammar skills.
• Length of exposure to English had an effect on morphological and syntactic skills, while only current English input had an effect on vocabulary depth.

     

Effects of Vocabulary and Phonotactic Probability on 2-Year-Olds’ Nonword Repetition

This study investigates the relationship between nonword repetition (NWR) and vocabulary in 2-year-olds. Questions addressed are whether (1) NWR and vocabulary are associated, (2) phonotactic probability affects NWR, and (3) there is an interaction effect between phonotactic probability and vocabulary on NWR performance. The general aim of the study is to investigate whether NWR, as a task of phonological storage, assesses the quality of phonological representations in children as young as 2 years of age. 557 Dutch 2-year-olds performed a NWR task containing items of varying phonotactic probability as well as a receptive vocabulary task. The results showed a moderate, significant correlation between NWR and vocabulary. Phonotactic probability had an effect on NWR performance. Further analyses showed that there was a significant interaction between phonotactic probability and vocabulary for part of the items. These results support previously reported effects of vocabulary and phonotactic probability on NWR in older, English-speaking children for a large sample of Dutch-speaking 2-year-olds, and provide evidence that NWR assesses the quality of phonological representations already in very young children.     

老年期语义理解能力与空间定向能力的交叉滞后分析

来自北京三个社区的144位60~85岁的老年人参加了间隔时间为20个月的词语解释和心理旋转前后测测查,以考察语义理解能力在空间定向能力老化中的作用。运用重复测量方差分析、交叉滞后回归分析考察了两个变量上老年人在20个月期间发生的变化,以及两个变量间的因果关系。结果发现：(1)各年龄组老年人的语义理解能力均有下降,空间定向能力均有提高。(2)前测语义理解能力可预测后测空间定向能力。(3)不同语义理解能力水平的被试空间定向能力在前后测中的提高是相同的。     

Individual differences in emotional expression discrimination are associated with emotion label production in toddlers

It is possible that the visual discrimination of emotion categories and emotion word vocabulary develop via common emotion-specific processes. In contrast, it is possible that they develop with vocabulary development more generally. This study contrasts these two possibilities. Twenty-three 26-month-olds participated in a visual perceptual discrimination task involving emotional facial expressions. After familiarization to a 100% happy face, toddlers were tested for their visual preference for a novel sad face in a side-by-side presentation paired with the familiar happy face. Parental report was used to quantify production of emotion words and vocabulary generally. Visual preference for the novel emotion (sad) in the discrimination task correlated with emotion word vocabulary size but not with overall vocabulary size.     

The relationship between early lexical and grammatical development in Spanish: evidence in children with different linguistic levels

This study analyzes the relationship between lexical and grammatical development in Spanish children. The (European) Spanish version of the MacArthur-Bates CDI was used and administered to 593 Spanish-speaking children between the ages of 16 and 30-months-old. Regression analysis was applied to evaluate the relationship between age, vocabulary (total vocabulary, nouns, and verbs) and grammatical scores on two subsections of the Grammar Part. Total vocabulary explained a significantly greater proportion of variance in grammatical outcomes than age did. However, noun and verb vocabularies did not explain a greater proportion of variance in their respective morphologies than total vocabulary did. Additionally, the predictive relationship between vocabulary and grammar was found to be weaker for children whose scores were below the 10th percentile, although this could be due to the minor variability in this group and to extreme cases. We discuss the implications of these results in relation to the question of continuity between early vocabulary and grammar development in children.     

识字量和词汇知识在儿童阅读发展中的相对重要性

本研究基于简单阅读观理论,以两个样本共计666名大班至四年级的汉语儿童为研究对象,探索了识字量和词汇知识在儿童阅读能力发展中的作用及相对重要性的变化。结果显示,在阅读学习早期,识字量对阅读理解的重要性高于词汇知识。随着年级的升高,识字量的重要性降低,而词汇知识的重要性增加。这一发现证实简单阅读观理论也适用于解释汉语阅读能力的发展,并对今后的语文教学具有重要的启示意义。     

Brandom on Practical Reason

Robert Brandom claims that language expressing pro-attitudes makes explicit proprieties of practical inference. This thesis is untenable, especially given certain premises which Brandom himself endorses. Pro-attitude vocabulary has the wrong grammatical structure; other parts of vocabulary do the job he ascribes to pro-attitude vocabulary; the thesis introduces implausible differences between the inferential consequences of desires and intentions, and distorts the interpretation of conditional statements. Rather, I suggest, logical vocabulary can make proprieties of practical inference explicit, just as the inferentialist says it can for theoretical inference.