Assessing Children's Understanding of Complex Syntax: A Comparison of Two Methods

Autor/inn/en	Frizelle, Pauline; Thompson, Paul; Duta, Mihaela; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.
Titel	Assessing Children's Understanding of Complex Syntax: A Comparison of Two Methods
Quelle	In: Language Learning, 69 (2019) 2, S.255-291 (37 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Frizelle, Pauline)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0023-8333
DOI	10.1111/lang.12332
Schlagwörter	Preschool Children; Testing; Syntax; Comparative Analysis; Multiple Choice Tests; Sentences; Language Processing; Comprehension; Pictorial Stimuli; Animation + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Pre-school age; Preschool age; Child; Children; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Kind; Kinder; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Testdurchführung; Testen; Multiple choice examinations; Multiple-choice tests, Multiple-choice examinations; Multiple-Choice-Verfahren; Sentence analysis; Satzanalyse; Sprachverarbeitung; Verstehen; Verständnis; Fantasieanregung
Abstract	We examined the effect of two methods of assessment--multiple-choice sentence-picture matching and an animated sentence-verification task--on typically developing children's understanding of relative clauses. A sample of children between the ages of 3 years 6 months and 4 years 11 months took part in the study (N = 103). Results indicated that (a) participants performed better on the sentence-verification than on the multiple-choice task independently of age, (b) each testing method revealed a different hierarchy of constructions, and (c) the impact of testing method on participants' performance was greater for some constructions than others. Our results suggest that young children can understand complex sentences when they are presented in a manner that better reflects how people process language in natural discourse. These results have implications for the study of language comprehension in suggesting that results from multiple-choice tasks may not generalize to other methods. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01