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The development of definitional skill.

C E Snow1

  • 1Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.

Journal of Child Language
|October 1, 1990
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Children

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Linguistics
  • Education

Background:

  • Effective definition writing involves mastering both word meaning and structural form.
  • Children's ability to provide definitions develops throughout primary school years.
  • Bilingualism and language exposure can influence definitional skills.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the factors influencing definition quality in children.
  • To examine the relationship between language exposure and definitional skills.
  • To compare performance in a native language versus a foreign language.

Main Methods:

  • 137 children (aged 7-11) provided definitions, scored for Aristotelian form and information quality.
  • Children's exposure to English (school) and French (home) was recorded.

Related Experiment Videos

  • 63 children were also tested on their French definition abilities.

    • Main Results:

    • School exposure to English positively correlated with formal definition use and quality.
    • French exposure at home was linked to more information in informal definitions, not formal quality.
    • Children performed lower on definitions in French compared to English.

    Conclusions:

    • Opportunities to practice specific linguistic forms significantly impact definition performance.
    • Language acquisition and use in educational settings are crucial for developing formal definitional skills.
    • Exposure to a language, whether native or foreign, shapes different aspects of definitional competence.