Measuring the vocabulary development of new entrant children : a pilot study.

Type of content
Theses / Dissertations
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Health Sciences
Degree name
Master of Arts
Publisher
University of Canterbury. Arts
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2015
Authors
Hastie, Brent Andrew
Abstract

For children who are learning to read, it is of the upmost importance that vocabulary knowledge is acquired in a timely fashion. Adequate vocabulary knowledge enables children to comprehend the majority of words in a text and this, in turn, influences reading and overall school success. Children who have delayed vocabulary at the point of school entry may increasingly fall behind their peers as reading demands increase. The identification of these children is necessary, yet despite its importance, vocabulary development is not being assessed in a systematic manner in new entrant classrooms. In this study, five receptive vocabulary tests were piloted with 46 new entrant children from four primary schools in the Christchurch area. The purpose of the study was to determine whether it was possible to develop a procedure that could identify children with delayed vocabulary development in an accurate and economical way. The results suggested that none of the four piloted tests were suitable for screening new entrants. These results highlight the need for a closer look at vocabulary testing at this age level.

Description
Citation
Keywords
vocabulary, development, children, reading, testing, new entrant, primary, assessment
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Rights
Copyright Brent Andrew Hastie