Author:
KURLAND BRENDA F.,SNOW CATHERINE E.
Abstract
This study examines individual growth rates in
definitional skill over a
period of three to six years, for 68 low-income children.
Children were
asked to define words once a year at school, from kindergarten
(youngest administration at 5;3) through fourth grade (oldest
administration at
10;10). A plateau was observed between age nine and ten both
for percent formal definitions (characterized by presence
of a superordinate)
and for the quality of formal definitions. The plateau was
lower than the
theoretical ceiling for these measures. However, the
children appear to
have attained ‘adult levels’ of definitional skill:
forty-seven fourth-graders (aged 9;1 to 10;10) performed higher,
on average, than their
own mothers when giving definitions. These results support
the notion that definitional skill is related to being part of an
academic culture: low-income mothers, whose formal schooling
is complete, generally do not
give oral definitions to simple nouns as well as do their
nine- to ten-year-old children.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
General Psychology,Linguistics and Language,Developmental and Educational Psychology,Experimental and Cognitive Psychology,Language and Linguistics
Cited by
32 articles.
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