PDF《Title children in Hong Kong》

Title Developing an expressive vocabulary test for three-year-old children in Hong Kong Other Contributor(s) University of Hong Kong Author(s) Lam, Tse-kam;

林子琴 Citation Lam, T.

[林子琴]. (2008). Developing an expressive vocabulary test for three-year-old children in Hong Kong. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Issued Date

2008 URL http://hdl.handle.net/10722/123900 Rights This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.;

The author retains all proprietary rights, such as patent rights and the right to use in future works. Developing an Expressive Vocabulary Test Developing an Expressive Vocabulary Test for Three-year-old Children in Hong Kong Lam Tsz Kam A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, June 30, 2008. Developing an Expressive Vocabulary Test

2 Abstract The study aimed to identify appropriate words for developing a standardized expressive vocabulary test for 3-year-old Cantonese-speaking children in Hong Kong. In phase 1,

269 words were selected from language sample archives, expressive vocabulary tests for English-speaking children and the preschool curriculum. In phase 2,

20 preschool teachers were asked to rate the difficulty level of these words. Based on the teachers'

ratings,

108 words were chosen and tested on

35 children in the last phase of this study. It was found that

57 of these words, including

40 nouns,

5 verbs and

12 descriptors, met the required item statistics for inclusion in the list for future construction of a standardized expressive vocabulary test. Comparisons of teachers'

ratings and children'

s performance of these

57 words suggested that preschool teachers could provide valuable information on what words are of medium and high difficulty for average 3-year-old children. Suggestions for plausible inclusion of verbs in expressive vocabulary test were discussed. Developing an Expressive Vocabulary Test

3 Normally developing children produce their first words by

12 months of age (Barrett, 1995). And at around age two, they typically can use

50 words or more (Clark, 1995). By that time, young children also start to combine words into phrases, which marks the onset of syntax (Bates, Dale &

Thal, 1995). From then on, they spend much effort in developing competence in the construction of grammatical phrases and clauses;

but even so, they still continue to pick up new words. For instance, English-speaking children generally show a substantial increase of a few thousand words in their productive vocabulary between two and five years of age (Miller &

Paul, 1995). Vocabulary has therefore long been recognized as an important area to be examined for understanding language development in the preschool years. Development of Expressive Vocabulary in Cantonese-speaking preschoolers There are two major studies on the development of language in preschool Cantonese-speaking children, and for the purpose of this study, only those findings that are related to vocabulary development will be reported here. In Fletcher, Leung, Stokes and Weizman'

s (2000) unpublished project,

70 Cantonese-speaking preschoolers aged two, three, four and five, were engaged in a conversation with an adult using a toyset involving the bathing routine. All the words that appeared in the children'

s utterances were counted and then analyzed. With reference to the performance of the median child in the four age groups, the proportional distribution of word types in each of the word classes, including nouns, verbs, Developing an Expressive Vocabulary Test