Table 7.2 Design OfExperiment 2

Exp. = Type of exposure, Ass.= Assessments - = no assessment took place, / = assessment took place

Children were pre-tested on two different measurements: (a) naming task (identifying their
baseline expressive vocabulary knowledge and (b) multiple choice task (identifying their
baseline receptive vocabulary knowledge).The four target words were also pretested during
that screening procedure. To be included in the study children needed to meet the criteria
presented in Table 7.3.

Table 7.3 Criteria met by all the children who took part in Experiment 2

This allowed the pattern of acquisition for unknown (low frequency words) and for partially
represented lexical items (high frequency words) to be monitored. The operational definition
in this Experiment of “partially represented” words is evidence of comprehension but not
production, while the operational definition of “unknown words” is no evidence of
comprehension or production.

The children were randomly allocated to one of the five following groups: (a) Control
group, (b) Phonological control group, (c ) Ostensive definition group, (d) Lexical contrast
group and (e) Definition group. For the purposes of the present Experiment, the first two
groups are called the Control groups, while the last three are called the Experimental groups.

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