Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Recent research has shown that children's formal definition skills correlate with school achievement. However, performance on word definition tasks may also relate to children's previous educational and language experiences. Available data are based mostly on monolingual English-speaking children and are not appropriate to identify the needs of children from other language or cultural backgrounds. This study compared the word definition skills of Spanish-speaking children with and without language impairment using a qualitative analysis. The results revealed great individual differences in the use of formal definitions within groups and specific language needs in the children with language impairment. Rather than focusing solely on children's lexical knowledge, which may be sensitive to differences in cultural and educational experience, clinicians should focus on assessing the communicative aspects of the task.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anglin, J. (1970). The growth of word meaning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Davidson, R. , Kline, S. , & Snow, C. (1986). Definitions and definite noun phrases: Indicators of children's decontextualized language skills. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 1 (1),37-48.

DeAvila, E. , & Duncan, S.E. (1977). Language assessment scales. Corte Madero, CA: Linguametrics.

Dickinson, D. , & Snow, C. (1987). Interrelationships among pre-reading and oral language skills in kindergarteners from two social classes. Research on Childhood Education Quarterly, 2, 1-25.

Frontera, L. , & Horowitz, R. (1995). Reading and study behavior of fourth grade Hispanic students: Can teachers assess risk? Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 17(1), 100-120.

Gutierrez-Clellen, V.F. , Restrepo, A. , & Pasechnik, P. (1999). Identification of language impairment in Spanish-speaking school-age children. Manuscript in preparation.

Huisingh, R. , Barrett, M. , Zachman, L. , Blagden, C. , & Orman, J. (1990). The Word Test-R: Elementary. Moline, IL: LinguiSystems.

Kikas, E. (1993). The development of word definitions in children. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 31(2),40-54.

Lewis, K.E. (1995). Do SSI-3 scores adequately reflect observations of stuttering behavior? American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 4(4), 46-48.

10.

Makau, J.M. (1990). Reasoning and communication: Thinking critically about arguments. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth .

11.

Mares, S. (1980). Pruebas de Expresión Oral y de Percepción de la Lengua Espanola (PEOPLE). Downey, CA: Los Angeles County Office.

12.

Marinellie, S.A. , & Johnson, C.J. (1998, June). Definitional skills of children with language impairments. Paper presented at the 19th Annual Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders, Madison, WI.

13.

McGhee-Bidlack, B. (1991). The development of noun definitions: a metalinguistic analysis. Journal of Child Language, 18, 417-434.

14.

McGraw-Hill, I. (1986). Spanish assessment of basic education. Monterey, CA: CTB/McGraw-Hill.

15.

Newcomer, P.L. (1988). Test of Language Development 2: Primary. Austin, TX: PRO-ED.

16.

Nippold, M.A. (1995). School-age children and adolescents: Norms for word definition. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 26(4), 320-325.

17.

Salvesen, K.A. , & Undheim, J.O. (1994) Screening for learning disabilities with teacher rating scales. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 27, 60-66.

18.

Schuster, J.W. , Stevens, K.B. , & Doak, P.K. (1990). Using constant time delay to teach word definitions . The Journal of Special Education, 24, 306-318.

19.

Skwarchuk, S. -L., & Anglin, J.M. (1997). Expression of superordinates in children's word definitions. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 298-308.

20.

Snow, C.E. (1990). The development of definitional skill. Journal of Child Language, 17, 697-710.

21.

Snow, C. , Cancino, H. , González, P. , & Shriberg, E. (1989). Giving formal definitions: An oral language correlate of school literacy. In D. Bloome (Ed.), Classrooms and literacy (pp. 233-249). Norwood, NJ : Ablex.

22.

Velasco, P.M. (1988). The relationship of oral decontextualized language and reading comprehension in bilingual children. Unpublished dissertation , Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

23.

Verhallen, M. , & Schoonen, R. (1993). Lexical knowledge of monolingual and bilingual children. Applied Linguistics, 14, 344-363.

24.

Watson, R. (1985). Towards a theory of definition. Journal of Child Language, 12,181-197.

25.

Watson, R. (1995). Relevance and definition. Journal of Child Language, 22, 211-222.

26.

Wiig, E.H. , & Secord, W. (1992). Test of Word Knowledge. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corp.

27.

Zachman, L. , Huisingh, R. , Barrett, M. , Orman, J. , & Blagden, C. (1989). The Word Test: Adolescent. Moline, IL: LinguiSystem

Word Definition Skills in Spanish-Speaking Children with Language Impairment

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References