A Vocabulary Corpus for Pre-Kindergarten Children

• In Event: Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: Research in Vocabulary

Abstract

Researchers studying vocabulary acquisition have been exploring the degree to which children learn words in a predictable sequence and can be benchmarked to certain ages. Little work has been done in this area with young children, due to challenges of assessing vocabulary with this age group. This study utilizes language samples from over 400 children entering prekindergarten to determine which words are used by the majority of the children and therefore represent the common expressive vocabulary typical of this sample. Further, the research will explore the words known exclusively by those children with stronger vocabulary skills to attempt to identify those words that characterize the most “word-adept” four-year-olds and therefore may be instructional priorities.

Author

• Jill F Grifenhagen, North Carolina State University