Article published in:
ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 119/120 (1998) ► pp. 79–89

Linguistic Minority Children's Knowledge of multiple Word Meanings; Polysemy and the Testing of lexical Skills

| Institute for General Linguistics University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
It is often observed that minority children's lexical proficiency in the majority language lags behind that of majority children. This observations is substantiated by scores on vocabulary tests. However, in these (traditional) tests words are generally treated as having one meaning, while most words are polysemous, i.e. they have multiple meanings. A new test was designed to measure the knowledge of multiple word meanings of minority and majority children. Results pointed to a rather high correlation between the scores on a traditional vocabulary test and the newly developed test for the minority children. Furthermore, the minority children scored lower on the new test than the majority children, which suggests that they not only have a lexical deficit in their second language with respect to the number of words known, but also with respect to the number of meanings attached to each word.
Published online: 01 January 1998
https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.119-120.06app
References

References

APPEL, R.
(1988) : The language education of immigrant workers’ children in The Netherlands. In and T. and Skutnabb-Kangas & J. and Cummins (Eds.), Minority Education. Clevedon : Multilingual Matters, 57–78.Google Scholar
BOOGAARD, M., DAMHUIS, R., DE GLOPPER, K. & VAN DEN BERGH, H.
(1990) : De Nederlandse taalvaardigheid van allochtone en Nederlandse kleuters. Amsterdam/Liss : Swets & Zeitlinger.Google Scholar
CARAMAZZA, A. & GROBER, E.
(1976) : Polysemy and the structure of the subjective lexicon. In C. and Rameh (Ed.), Semantics : Theory and application. Washington DC : Georgetown University Press (GURT 1976), 181–206.Google Scholar
CRONBACH, L.J.
(1942) : An analysis of techniques for diagnostic vocabulary testing. Journal of Educational Research, 36, 206–217. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
CURTIS, M.E.
(1987) : Vocabulary testing and vocabulary instruction. In M.G. McKeown & M.E. Curtis (Eds.), The nature of vocabulary acquisition. Hillsdale NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum, 37–51.Google Scholar
DOLCH, E.W. & LEEDS, D.
(1953) : Vocabulary tests and depth of meaning. Journal of Educational Research, 47, 179–189. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
DROMI, E.
(1987) : Early lexical development. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
DURKIN, K., CROWTHER, R., SHIRE, B., RIEM, R. & NASH, P.R.G.
(1985) : Polysemy in mathematical and musical education. Applied Linguistics, 6, 147–161. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
LYONS, J.
(1981) : Language and linguistics. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
MASON, J.M., KNISELEY, E. & KENDALL, J.
(1979) : Effects of polysemous words on sentence comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 15, 49–65. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
MCCARTHY, M.
(1990) : Vocabulary. Oxford : Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
ULLMANN, S.
(1962) : Semantics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
VERHALLEN, M.
(1994) : Lexicale vaardigheid van Turkse en Nederlandse kinderen. PhD Thesis University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
VERHOEVEN, L. & VERMEER, A.
(1985) : Ethnic group differences in children’s oral proficiency of Dutch. In G. Extra & T. Vallen (Eds.). Ethnic minorities and Dutch as a second language. Dordrecht : Foris Publ., 105–132. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1993): Taaltoets Allochtone Kinderen Bovenbouw. Tilburg: Zwijsen.Google Scholar