NVESTIGATING LEXICAL ACQUISITION PATTERNS: CONTEXT AND COGNITION

(3) All the definitions used in the definition condition were taken from the Collins dictionary.

To allow for controlled manipulation of linguistic conditions 16 original stories were
designed particularly for Experiment 1 - four for each of the linguistic conditions (Inference,
Definition, Analogy, Lexical contrast). In the Inference condition, the new word was
introduced implicitly through various cues about the meaning of the word. In the Definition
condition definition from a dictionary was included in the story context. In the Analogy
condition, an implicit introduction of the novel word was made by providing children with
an analogy of one aspect of the word with another already known. Finally, in the Lexical
contrast condition, the unknown word was implicitly contrasted with two already known
words. The original stories are presented in the Appendix 4.1.

4.3.2.3 Materials

The materials used were 16 illustrated stories and 12 coloured pictures.

4.2.3.4 Procedure

The children received a number of tasks in the following sequence:

Stage 1: Pretest: Each child was withdrawn singly from the class and asked to name four
pictures that were placed on the table in front of him/her. These included a saxophone, a
teepee, a tricycle, sandals, a car, a bicycle, a piano, a guitar, a doll’s house and a mobile
home. The purpose of this pretest was to ascertain that the children could correctly name
the objects that would be used in the lexical contrast condition as known and that they had
no correct or consistent lexical entry for the lexical items to be chosen as unknown.

Stage 2: Introducing Task & Post Test 1: The children were again withdrawn singly from the
class. Upon entering the testing room the children found four story books on the table. The
child sat opposite the Experimenter and was asked to play a guessing game. The
experimenter said: “ Let ^,s play a guessing game. I am going to read you a story and then I
will ask you some questions about if'. Once the story was completed the story book was
removed from the table and children’s learning of the new words was measured by the
following tasks:

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