Nippold Marilyn A, Sun Lei
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403.
Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 2008 Jul;39(3):365-73. doi: 10.1044/0161-1461(2008/034).
This study examined knowledge of derived nominals (e.g., measurement, prediction) and derived adjectives (e.g., algebraic, molecular) in older children and young adolescents. Little was known about students' comprehension of these morphologically complex words that occur in textbooks that are used in public schools to teach challenging subjects such as science, mathematics, social studies, health, and literature.
The Word Knowledge Task (WKT), designed for the present study, was used to examine participants' comprehension of 15 derived nominals and 15 derived adjectives that were selected from state-adopted textbooks. This written, multiple-choice task was administered to 10-year-old children and 13-year-old adolescents (N = 94) who were attending public schools. All participants spoke English and were typical achievers.
The findings indicated that the adolescents outperformed the children on both types of derived words; the derived nominals were more difficult than the derived adjectives for both groups; and comprehension was associated with frequency of occurrence in print, with easier words generally more common than more difficult ones.
Knowledge of morphologically complex words such as derived nominals and derived adjectives is a late linguistic attainment. Given the importance of these words for academic success, instructional programs are needed to ensure that children and adolescents are able to learn their meanings using appropriate strategies.
本研究考察了年龄稍大的儿童和青少年对派生词（如measurement、prediction）和派生形容词（如algebraic、molecular）的了解情况。对于公立学校用于教授科学、数学、社会研究、健康和文学等具有挑战性学科的教科书中出现的这些形态复杂的单词，学生们的理解情况鲜为人知。
本研究设计了单词知识任务（WKT），用于考察参与者对从州采用的教科书中选出的15个派生词和15个派生形容词的理解。这项书面多项选择题任务施测于94名就读于公立学校的10岁儿童和13岁青少年。所有参与者都说英语，且成绩处于正常水平。
研究结果表明，青少年在这两类派生词上的表现均优于儿童；两类词对两组参与者来说，派生词都比派生形容词更难；理解与印刷品中的出现频率相关，较简单的词通常比较难的词更常见。
对派生词和派生形容词等形态复杂的单词的了解是较晚才获得的语言能力。鉴于这些单词对学业成功的重要性，需要教学计划来确保儿童和青少年能够使用适当的策略学习它们的含义。
