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Word definition skills in elementary school children - The contribution of bilingualism, cognitive factors, and social factors

Rosqvist, Ida LU orcid ; Andersson, Ketty LU orcid ; Sandgren, Olof LU orcid ; Lyberg-Åhlander, Viveka LU ; Hansson, Kristina LU orcid and SahlÉn, Birgitta LU (2022) In International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 24(6). p.596-606
Abstract

Purpose: Vocabulary relates to overall language proficiency and is important for academic success. Word definition (WD) tasks can be used to assess vocabulary depth and definition skills. We investigate monolingual and bilingual children's performances on a WD task, and how bilingualism, level of parental education, school characteristics (proportion of students with Swedish as second language and proportion of parents with tertiary education), CELF-4 Core Language Score, and non-verbal IQ contribute to their performance. We also evaluate the level of difficulty of the test items and the test's internal consistency.Method: Two hundred and eight children (mean age 7:8, range 6:8-9:0) were assessed with a 10-item WD task. Amount of... (More)

Purpose: Vocabulary relates to overall language proficiency and is important for academic success. Word definition (WD) tasks can be used to assess vocabulary depth and definition skills. We investigate monolingual and bilingual children's performances on a WD task, and how bilingualism, level of parental education, school characteristics (proportion of students with Swedish as second language and proportion of parents with tertiary education), CELF-4 Core Language Score, and non-verbal IQ contribute to their performance. We also evaluate the level of difficulty of the test items and the test's internal consistency.Method: Two hundred and eight children (mean age 7:8, range 6:8-9:0) were assessed with a 10-item WD task. Amount of information included in the definitions gave the WD score and number of words with at least partially correct information gave a Word knowledge score.Result: The bilingual group had lower scores on both measures. In isolation bilingualism explained 15% of the variance of the WD score. With all background factors included, the only significant predictor was CELF-4 Core Language Score, uniquely explaining 24.3% of the variance. Response patterns on the WD score were similar between groups. Internal consistency was > α = 0.7 for both measurements.Conclusion: Bilingual children performed lower than monolingual children on a WD task, but bilingualism alone cannot explain poor results.

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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
volume
24
issue
6
pages
596 - 606
publisher
Taylor & Francis
external identifiers
  • pmid:34802353
  • scopus:85119517279
ISSN
1754-9515
DOI
10.1080/17549507.2021.2000027
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
db06a544-f5ae-4ffe-ba2d-d1c7842c5d49
date added to LUP
2021-11-24 13:32:46
date last changed
2024-04-20 16:36:34
@article{db06a544-f5ae-4ffe-ba2d-d1c7842c5d49,
  abstract     = {{<p>Purpose: Vocabulary relates to overall language proficiency and is important for academic success. Word definition (WD) tasks can be used to assess vocabulary depth and definition skills. We investigate monolingual and bilingual children's performances on a WD task, and how bilingualism, level of parental education, school characteristics (proportion of students with Swedish as second language and proportion of parents with tertiary education), CELF-4 Core Language Score, and non-verbal IQ contribute to their performance. We also evaluate the level of difficulty of the test items and the test's internal consistency.Method: Two hundred and eight children (mean age 7:8, range 6:8-9:0) were assessed with a 10-item WD task. Amount of information included in the definitions gave the WD score and number of words with at least partially correct information gave a Word knowledge score.Result: The bilingual group had lower scores on both measures. In isolation bilingualism explained 15% of the variance of the WD score. With all background factors included, the only significant predictor was CELF-4 Core Language Score, uniquely explaining 24.3% of the variance. Response patterns on the WD score were similar between groups. Internal consistency was &gt; α = 0.7 for both measurements.Conclusion: Bilingual children performed lower than monolingual children on a WD task, but bilingualism alone cannot explain poor results.</p>}},
  author       = {{Rosqvist, Ida and Andersson, Ketty and Sandgren, Olof and Lyberg-Åhlander, Viveka and Hansson, Kristina and SahlÉn, Birgitta}},
  issn         = {{1754-9515}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{6}},
  pages        = {{596--606}},
  publisher    = {{Taylor & Francis}},
  series       = {{International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology}},
  title        = {{Word definition skills in elementary school children - The contribution of bilingualism, cognitive factors, and social factors}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2021.2000027}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/17549507.2021.2000027}},
  volume       = {{24}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}