Real-Word Repetition as a Predictor of Grammatical Competence in Italian Children with Typical Language Development

Autor/inn/en	Dispaldro, Marco; Benelli, Beatrice; Marcolini, Stefania; Stella, Giacomo
Titel	Real-Word Repetition as a Predictor of Grammatical Competence in Italian Children with Typical Language Development
Quelle	In: International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 44 (2009) 6, S.941-961 (21 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1368-2822
Schlagwörter	Repetition; Grammar; Language Skills; Young Children; Italian; Language Acquisition; Prediction; Word Lists; Comparative Analysis; Phonology; Short Term Memory; Foreign Countries; Italy + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Wiederholung; Grammatik; Language skill; Sprachkompetenz; Frühe Kindheit; Italienisch; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Vorhersage; Wortliste; Fonologie; Kurzzeitgedächtnis; Ausland; Italien
Abstract	Background: Non-word repetition in children is a skill related to, but separable from grammatical ability. Lexical skill may bridge the gap between these two abilities. Aims: The main aim was to determine whether real-word-repetition tasks could be better as predictors of grammatical ability than non-word-repetition tasks in children with typical language. This proposal was pursued because lexical knowledge was assumed to make performance in repetition tasks more representative of other language abilities, whereas non-word-repetition tasks are heavily influenced by phonological short-term memory. Methods & Procedures: In order to investigate this possibility, three repetition tasks (two real-word lists characterized by different lexical knowledge and one non-word list), were compared in three groups of three- to four-year-olds with typical language (42 children). Grammatical ability was tested through probes for third-person plural inflection and direct-object clitic use. Outcomes & Results: Real words were repeated more accurately than non-words and the non-words were more sensitive to Syllable length than real words. Performance on all repetition tasks was correlated with grammatical ability, but real words predicted variance in grammatical ability to a greater extent than non-words. Conclusions & Implications: Given the lexical information contained in real words, repetition of such words was a better predictor of grammatical ability than non-word repetition. Future research should replicate and extend these results. Tasks using real words may also have considerable clinical potential; for this reason, these tasks might also be included in studies of children with language impairment. (Contains 4 tables and 3 figures.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10