Kurland B F, Snow C E
Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA.
J Child Lang. 1997 Oct;24(3):603-25. doi: 10.1017/s0305000997003243.
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.
本研究考察了68名低收入儿童在三到六年时间里定义技能的个体成长率。孩子们在学校每年被要求定义一次单词，从幼儿园（最早在5岁3个月进行测试）到四年级（最晚在10岁10个月进行测试）。在9岁到10岁之间，无论是形式定义的百分比（以包含上位词为特征）还是形式定义的质量都出现了一个平稳期。这个平稳期低于这些指标的理论上限。然而，孩子们似乎已经达到了定义技能的“成人水平”：47名四年级学生（年龄在9岁1个月到10岁10个月之间）在给出定义时，平均表现比他们自己的母亲更好。这些结果支持了这样一种观点，即定义技能与成为学术文化的一部分有关：受正规教育已完成的低收入母亲，通常在给简单名词进行口头定义方面不如她们9到10岁的孩子。
