Vocabulary and narrative discourse in preschoolers. A study with children from urban-marginalized communities in Argentina

STEIN, A.; ROSEMBERG, C. R.; MIGDALEK, M. J.; ALAM, F.; BATIUK, V.

Congreso; EARLI 2016; 2016

This study analyses the vocabulary and narrative abilities of preschool children living in urban-marginalized communities in Argentina. It is relevant to examine these abilities jointly, as the development of vocabulary occurs early in the processes of discursive production in contexts of social interaction (Nelson, 2007). Previous research was focused on English speaking children (Dickinson & Tabors, 2001; among others) or middle-income children (Carmiol et al., 2013, among others). Given that differences in development can be expected due to disparities in social context, this study analyses the vocabulary and narrative discourse in 300 children between 3 to 5 years old of urban-marginalized communities, where adults have 7 years or less of schooling. Children were tested in: 1) receptive vocabulary (PPVT); 2) productive vocabulary (production of conceptual categories; test adapted from Lucariello et al., 1992); 3) narrative production of personal experience; we analyze the quantity and diversity of words, the temporal and causal terms, the syntactic complexity and the narrative structure. The ANOVA test showed differences according to age in: 1) receptive vocabulary: 3 years old: 11,9; 4 years old: 21,9; 5 years old: 33,9 (F(2,301)=76,9 MSE=150 p