Children’s word knowledge

Abstract In regard to language learning, whether it be in listening, speaking, reading or writing, children appear to be genuinely interested In meaning in their world. When it comes to a knowledge of words to be used in any of the processes mentioned, children are interested in their use, their meaning and in connecting new words with old words or ideas. Numerous studies have investigated the development of children’s word knowledge up to year 4 or approximately age 10 (e.g. Read, 1971; Beers and Henderson, 1977; Zutell, 1979; Gentry, 1981). There are, however, only a few studies involving upper primary and secondary students. This paper looks at literature on children’s word knowledge (including spelling) development up to year 4 and beyond, and includes a table of researched and hypothesized stages in children’s development in orthographic awareness and in word knowledge. An outline of the author’s theory of children’s development in word knowledge is given.

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Secondary School Students’ Understanding of and Strategies for Vocabulary Acquisition: A Phenomenographic Approach to Language Learning

Journal of Language Teaching and Research ◽

10.17507/jltr.0905.02 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. 895 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Cathrine Norberg ◽

Anna Vikström ◽

Emma Palola Kirby

Keyword(s):

Secondary School ◽

Language Learning ◽

Secondary School Students ◽

Vocabulary Acquisition ◽

Vocabulary Learning ◽

Word Knowledge ◽

Learning Context ◽

School Students ◽

New Words ◽

How People Learn

Studies on vocabulary learning have provided valuable knowledge of what it means to know a word and how people learn. Few studies have focused on what students’ understanding of word knowledge and vocabulary acquisition can contribute with in a language-learning context. Considering the vital importance of vocabulary in language learning, this study explores students’ experiences of word knowledge and vocabulary learning with a point of departure in phenomenographic research. By interviewing a group of Swedish secondary school students about their understanding of word knowledge and what strategies they employ to learn new words in English, categories of description emerged showing that although the majority of the students reported that they perceive word knowledge as contextual, they primarily employ decontextualised strategies when studying vocabulary. This discrepancy seems to be closely connected to how vocabulary is tested and assessed in school.

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‘What does the fox say?’

Language Teaching for Young Learners ◽

10.1075/ltyl.20006.hon ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Seongeun Hong ◽

David Kellogg

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Classroom Discourse ◽

Conscious Awareness ◽

Wh Questions ◽

Young Learner ◽

Learning Language ◽

Children's Development ◽

Proximal Zone ◽

Children’S Development

Abstract The late M. A. K. Halliday sketched a language-based theory of learning which posited three overlapping functions of learning language, learning through language, and finally learning about language as the young learner struggles to direct his or her own learning from language. Here we focus on one aspect of this struggle for what Vygotsky called conscious awareness and mastery of learning, namely questions. First we examine Hasan’s case that learning particular kinds of questions enable participation in classroom discourse while others disable it. Next, we look at Vygotsky’s case that self-directed questions (rhetorical and narrativized questions) have a key role to play in learning through questions. Finally, we consider what path the child has to take in learning about questions in English as a foreign language. Using ordinary classroom tasks under ordinary classroom conditions, we trace changes in children’s questions over six months, and we find statistically significant changes, particularly remarkable in retelling dialogues containing questions as narratives. But we also find very few new wh-questions, and we suggest that this is because mastery and conscious awareness of the structure of wh-questions still lie in the next, or proximal, zone of the children’s development.

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"A Mountain of Words"

Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques ◽

10.3167/hrrh.2019.450303 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 45 (3) ◽

pp. 42-78

Author(s):

Elizabeth C. Macknight

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Language Use ◽

Interdisciplinary Approach ◽

Educational Programs ◽

Archival Research ◽

Linguistic Competency ◽

Aims Of Education ◽

Children's Development ◽

Children’S Development

This article presents an interdisciplinary approach to archival research on records produced by children that survive in family archives. It corresponds with the aims of education specialists who investigate patterns in language learning to understand how young minds absorb influences concurrently from familial, religious, and social circles across disparate cultural settings. Drawing upon the concept of syncretic literacy, the article interprets French archival evidence of children’s development of linguistic competency and sensitivity to language use in context. It argues for the need to advocate both the conservation of children’s archives and the design of educational programs that enable children to discover the role of archivists and the purposes of recordkeeping in society.

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Language-Specific Effects in Response to Spelling Intervention in Italian and in English as an Additional Language

Journal of Learning Disabilities ◽

10.1177/00222194211001757 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 002221942110017

Author(s):

Barbara Arfé ◽

Tamara Zancato

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Cluster Randomized Trial ◽

English Word ◽

Spelling Development ◽

New Words ◽

Specific Effects ◽

Word Lists ◽

Specific Factors ◽

Cluster Randomized ◽

Italian Children

According to a language-integrated view of spelling development, learning to spell involves the same language-learning skills across alphabetic systems. A prediction based on this view is that the same spelling training should be equally effective for learning to spell in a shallow (Italian, native language) or an opaque (English, additional language) orthography. We tested this prediction by teaching 6- to 9-year-old Italian children to use multiletter spelling units to spell words in Italian and English. The children were trained on the spelling of Italian words containing orthographic difficulties that required switching from phoneme–grapheme spelling correspondences to larger grain size (multiletter) spelling units. In a stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial, 108 Italian children (ages 6–9 years) were assigned to the experimental spelling training or a waiting list condition. Their ability to spell the trained (Italian and English) word lists and to generalize the acquired knowledge to new (untrained) words was assessed. Similar learning effects were found in the two languages for the trained word lists. However, generalization of the acquired spelling knowledge to new words occurred only in English. The influence of language-specific factors on learning to spell could account for these findings.

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