PARTIAL WORD KNOWLEDGE AND VOCABULARY GROWTH DURING READING-COMPREHENSION

The experiment investigated the development of vocabulary knowledge in elementary school children as a function of story reading for partial ly known and unknown words. Fourth graders participated in a vocabular y checklist in which they provided definitions or sentences for words they knew (known words) and checked off words they did not know the me aning of but were familiar with (partially known words). Children then read stories containing some of these words. The remaining words serv ed as a control. Vocabulary growth was small but even for both partial ly known and unknown words. However, the characteristics of the words being learned themselves (particularly, part of speech and concretenes s) were more important in determining this growth than aspects of the texts.