Table 6.1 Overview of Experiment 1 & and Experiment 2
|
Experimentl______________ |
_______________Experiment 2__________________ |
|
A. Learning from context (single exposure) -> Learning from context (repetitive exposure) | |
|
B. Immediate assessment |
-> Over time assessment (representational change) |
|
C. Cognitive factors |
-> Cognitive factors |
|
Existing Vocabulary Phonological Memory |
■4 Prior lexical knowledge |
|
E. New variables |
■4 Characteristics of the target words -4Prior knowledge of the lexical items __________-4 Semantic domain of the lexical items |
Thus, in order to explore the differential impact of the type of exposure to new lexical items,
the children were assigned to different groups that took part in repetitive exposures (three
times) to different interventions. There were five groups: The Control group, the
Phonological control group, the Ostensive definition, the Lexical contrast and the Definition
groups.
The Control group did not take part in any intervention. The Phonological control group was
phonologically sensitized (phonological repetition of the new word) in order to test if is it just
sensitizing the child to the phonological aspect of the lexical item sufficient for word
learning.
The choice of various linguistic contexts such as Ostensive definition, Lexical contrast and
Definition was based on recent findings about their various contributions to word learning.
The Ostensive definition group was based on recent studies about the relevant impact of the
ostensive definition context for the acquisition of novel colour terms. Thus, Gottfried and
Tonks (1996) investigated the effects of the ostensive definition for the acquisition of novel
colour terms in children aged between 3 and 5 year olds. They found that the ostensive
definition was not very helpful for the children since they made the wrong inferences about
the colour term. According to Gottffied and Tonks Ostensive definition statements (“This is
mauve”) provide little information about the semantic domain of the novel word.
Nevertheless, Experiment 2 will extend the previous research by investigating whether
children’s exposure to an ostensive definition context and a story context are more sufficient
conditions for word learning than a single Ostensive definition context.