Background
Vocabulary is a key component of language that can impact on children's future literacy and communication. The gap between Australian Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal children's reading and ...academic outcomes is well reported and similar to Indigenous/non‐Indigenous gaps in other nations. Determining factors that influence vocabulary acquisition over time and may be responsive to treatment is important for improving Aboriginal children's communication and academic outcomes.
Aim
To determine what factors influence Australian urban Aboriginal children's receptive vocabulary acquisition and whether any of these are risks or protective for vocabulary development.
Method
One hundred thirteen Aboriginal children in South Western Sydney from the longitudinal birth cohort Gudaga study were assessed on The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test multiple times: 3 years, just prior to school entry, at the end of the first and second years of formal schooling. Multilevel models were used to determine the effects of 13 fixed and manipulable maternal, child, and family variables drawn from previous research.
Results
Higher maternal education was found to be protective at 3 years and over time. The number of children in urban Australian Aboriginal households made an impact on vocabulary development and this varied over time. From 3 to 6 years, those with early poor non‐verbal cognitive skills had vocabulary skills that remained below those with stronger non‐verbal skills at 3 years. Girls exhibit an earlier advantage in vocabulary acquisition, but this difference is not sustained after 4 years of age.
Conclusions
The risk and protective factors for vocabulary development in Australian Aboriginal children are similar to those identified in other studies with some variation related to the number of children in the home. In this limited set of predictors, maternal education, gender, non‐verbal cognitive skills, and the number of children in households were all shown to impact on the acquisition of vocabulary to 3 years and or the developmental trajectory over time.
Many bidialectal children grow up speaking a variety (e.g., a regional dialect) that differs from the variety in which they subsequently acquire literacy. Previous computational simulations and ...artificial literacy learning experiments with adults have demonstrated lower accuracy in reading contrastive words for which dialect variants exist compared with noncontrastive words without dialect variants. At the same time, exposure to multiple varieties did not affect learners' ability to phonologically decode untrained words; in fact, longer literacy training resulted in a benefit from dialect exposure as competing variants in the input may have increased reliance on grapheme-phoneme conversion. However, these previous experiments interleaved word learning and reading/spelling training, yet children typically acquire substantial oral language knowledge prior to literacy training. Here we used artificial literacy learning with adults to examine whether the previous findings replicate in an ecologically more valid procedure where word learning precedes literacy training. We also manipulated training conditions to explore interventions thought to be beneficial for literacy acquisition, such as providing explicit social cues for variety use and literacy training in both varieties. Our findings replicated the reduced accuracy for reading contrastive words in those learners who had successfully acquired the dialect variants prior to literacy training. This effect was exacerbated when literacy training also included dialect variation. Crucially, although no benefits from the interventions were found, dialect exposure did not affect reading and spelling of untrained words suggesting that phonological decoding skills can remain unaffected by the existence of multiple word form variants in a learner's lexicon.
Purpose: Measuring the growth of young children's vocabulary is important for researchers seeking to understand language learning as well as for clinicians aiming to identify early deficits. The ...MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) are parent report instruments that offer a reliable and valid method for measuring early productive and receptive vocabulary across a number of languages. CDI forms typically include hundreds of words, however, and so the burden of completion is significant. We address this limitation by building on previous work using item response theory (IRT) models to create computer adaptive test (CAT) versions of the CDIs. We created CDI-CATs for both comprehension and production vocabulary, for both American English and Mexican Spanish. Method: Using a data set of 7,633 English-speaking children ages 12-36 months and 1,692 Spanish-speaking children ages 12-30 months, across three CDI forms (Words & Gestures, Words & Sentences, and CDI-III), we found that a 2-parameter logistic IRT model fits well for a majority of the 680 pooled vocabulary items. We conducted CAT simulations on this data set, assessing simulated tests of varying length (25-400 items). Results: Even very short CATs recovered participant abilities very well with little bias across ages. An empirical validation study with N = 204 children ages 15-36 months showed a correlation of r = 0.92 between language ability estimated from full CDI versus CDI-CAT forms. Conclusion: We provide our item bank along with fitted parameters and other details, offer recommendations for how to construct CDI-CATs in new languages, and suggest when this type of assessment may or may not be appropriate.
The present meta‐analysis aimed to summarize the extent to which second language vocabulary is learned from the most frequently researched word‐focused activities: flashcards, word lists, writing, ...and fill‐in‐the‐blanks. One hundred effect sizes from 22 studies were included in meta‐regression analyses and administered separately for the observations measured with meaning‐recall and form‐recall tests. The results revealed that the average percentage learning gains were 60.1% and 58.5% on meaning‐recall and form‐recall immediate posttests. These gains dropped to 39.4% and 25.1% on delayed meaning‐ and form‐recall tests, respectively. These results suggest that learning through word‐focused tasks is far from guaranteed. Moreover, the percentage learning gains among the different activities ranged from 18.4% to 77.0% on immediate posttests and from 23.9% to 73.4% on delayed posttests indicating that there is much variation in efficacy among the activities. Moderator analyses revealed that learners’ place of study and direction of learning affected learning.
Sixty English as a foreign language learners were divided into high-, intermediate-, and low-level groups based on their scores on pretests of target vocabulary and Vocabulary Levels Test scores. The ...participants read 10 Level 1 and 10 Level 2 graded readers over 37 weeks during two terms. Two sets of 100 target words were chosen from each set of graded readers and were tested on three occasions. The results showed that the relative gains from pretest to immediate posttest were 63.18%, 44.64%, and 28.12% for the high-, intermediate-, and low-level groups, respectively. There was little decay in knowledge on the Term 1 three-month delayed posttest; relative gains ranged from 21.05% for the low-level group to 59.01% for the high-level group. The learning gains in Term 2 were consistent with those from Term 1. The results indicate that prior vocabulary knowledge may have a large impact on the amount of vocabulary learning made through extensive reading.
The unique relation of language use (i.e., output) to language growth was investigated for forty-seven 30-month-old Spanish-English bilingual children (27 girls, 20 boys) whose choices of which ...language to speak resulted in their levels of English output differing from their levels of English input. English expressive vocabularies and receptive language skills were assessed at 30, 36, and 42 months. Longitudinal multilevel modeling indicated an effect of output on expressive vocabulary growth only. The finding that output specifically benefits the development of expressive language skill has implications for understanding effects of language use on language skill in monolingual and bilingual development, and potentially, for understanding consequences of cultural differences in how much children are expected to talk in conversation with adults.
Drawing on Mayer's (2014) cognitive theory of multimedia learning, the purpose of this study was to examine which modes of gloss presentation (i.e., L2 definition, aural, and video animation) are ...effective for learners' vocabulary learning and delayed word recollection. One control group and three experimental groups were formed by 132 intermediate language learners. Pre- and post-tests of productive recall and multiple-choice productive recognition were administered, and learners' perceptions toward glossing were examined through a questionnaire and interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using ANCOVA, and themes that emerged from the qualitative data were identified. The quantitative findings revealed that dual glossing modes were more effective than single glossing modes for many test sessions. However, single glossing was also effective for a few test sessions. The questionnaire and interview data showed that learners preferred the dual glossing mode of L2 definition and video animation. The findings provide insights for vocabulary learning and teaching.
Background. This study compared two tests of second language (L2) depth of vocabulary knowledge, namely the word association test (WAT) and vocabulary knowledge scale (VKS), with respect to their ...associations with vocabulary size. The same relationships were further examined separately for the five word-frequency bands of the vocabulary size test.
Method. 115 Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners who were native speakers of Persian took the WAT, VKS, and Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT). The selected participants were undergraduates who ranged from freshmen to junior and were both male (n=47) and female (n=68) students.
Results. The outcomes of multiple linear regression analyses indicated that: (a) while both measures of vocabulary depth were predictive of the VLT, the WAT had a higher association with the dependent variable; (b) both the WAT and VKS were predictive of the high-frequency vocabulary, with the relationships being more significant for the WAT; (c) the WAT could significantly predict the mid-frequency vocabulary, whereas the VKS had no significant contribution; and (d) while the VKS was significantly associated with the low-frequency vocabulary, the WAT had no significant contribution to the prediction of this level.
Implications. The implications of the findings are interpreted with reference to the suitability of both the WAT and VKS depending on the type of input, expected response, and desired frequency of the target words.
Purpose: The aims of this study were (a) to assess the efficacy of the Vocabulary Acquisition and Usage for Late Talkers (VAULT) treatment and (b) to compare treatment outcomes for expressive ...vocabulary acquisition in late talkers in 2 conditions: 3 target words/90 doses per word per session versus 6 target words/45 doses per word per session. Method: We ran the treatment protocol for 16 sessions with 24 primarily monolingual English-speaking late talkers. We calculated a d score for each child, compared treatment to control effect sizes, and assessed the number of words per week children acquired outside treatment. We compared treatment effect sizes of children in the condition of 3 target words/90 doses per word to those in the condition of 6 target words/45 doses per word. We used Bayesian repeated-measures analysis of variance and Bayesian t tests to answer our condition-level questions. Results: With an average treatment effect size of almost 1.0, VAULT was effective relative to the no-treatment condition. There were no differences between the different dose conditions. Discussion: The VAULT protocol was an efficacious treatment that has the potential to increase the spoken vocabulary of late-talking toddlers and provides clinicians some flexibility in terms of number of words targeted and dose number, keeping in mind the interconnectedness of treatment parameters.
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