Categorical knowledge tasks
A final group of vocabulary measures are those which assess categorical knowledge. Keil
(1983) used novel words and the inferences made about them to assess categorical
knowledge. The kindergarten, second-grade and fourth-grade children heard three
sentences about an unfamiliar word (i.e., “ The hyrax is asleep”). The children were then
queried about the word’s meaning (i.e., “Could a hyrax be hungry ?”). The children made
fewer inferences due to their limited ontological knowledge.
Nevertheless, although there has been some work on varying approaches to assessing
vocabulary knowledge, the use of alternative assessment measures has been limited to
small scale tests of their effectiveness and experimental learning studies (e.g., Jenkins et.
al. 1984; McKeown et. al. 1985; Nagy et. al. 1985). Furthermore, very few, if any
experimental studies up to date have investigated word learning in younger ages using a
range of methods.
Therefore, large scale studies that characterize the configurations of words in various
states of knowledge within individuals and across individuals of different ages and
abilities should be employed. Only with such information we can better understand how
words are learned, the processes involved in learning and using the words, and the extent
ofbenefits from contextual exposures.
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