Moving Beyond Size: Word Meanings Underlying Children's Productive Vocabulary

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

Language acquisition largely occurs during the first few years of life. A common measurement of children’s language development is their productive vocabulary size, which is highly predictive of later academic achievement, social-emotional functioning, economic prosperity, and more. However, why vocabulary size predicts life outcomes remains unclear. The proposed research advances science and understanding of children’s long-term health, prosperity and welfare by examining whether use of children’s word meanings predicts vocabulary growth. The investigators predict that vocabulary size is simply a coarse measurement of children’s word meanings, and that word meanings shape how children learn; that is, using one word meaning can help children to acquire new meanings for the same word, which in turn helps children learn more words and word meanings. The investigators create a database by collecting data from a large sample of parents, which report children’s use of word meanings over a 9-month period. This database is likely to lead to new insights into developmental trajectories of vocabulary use and growth, and thus afford myriad secondary data analyses and research opportunities for the field. The diverse group of student researchers working on this project receives interdisciplinary training on how to study children’s language development. Why children’s early vocabulary size predicts late life outcomes remains unclear. The investigators’ primary hypothesis is that word knowledge serves as the basis for inferences about words and word meanings (i.e., word knowledge serves as categorical inductive priors). That is, using one word meaning can help children to acquire new meanings for the same word, which in turn helps children learn more words and word meanings. To directly test their hypothesis, the investigators develop a new measure of vocabulary development that goes beyond productive vocabulary size, and measures factors including the meaning(s), activities, social partner(s), spatial location(s), and timing/frequency of children’s word production. In collaboration with other researchers in the field, the investigators have selected variables to measure children’s general language, cognitive, motor, social-emotional, and adaptive behavior, to provide a holistic assessment of children’s development in relation to their word meaning use. After refining and validating the measure, the PI and team create a database by collecting data from a large sample of parents, which report children’s use of word meanings over a 9-month period. The data are analyzed to determine whether the quantity and/or diversity of word meanings measured at Time 1 (a) predict later learning of words and word meanings at Time 2 and (b) predict developmental outcomes beyond language (measured during study and at Time 2) to a greater degree than vocabulary size. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.