Open AccessRelationship Between Children’s Lexical Diversity in Written Narratives and Performance on a Standardized Reading Vocabulary Measure
Author(s) -
Carla Wood,
Kristi. Bustamante,
Christopher Schatschneider,
Sara A. Hart
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
assessment for effective intervention
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.663
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 1938-7458
pISSN - 1534-5084
DOI - 10.1177/1534508417749872
Subject(s) - vocabulary , linguistics , psychology , reading (process) , narrative , lexical density , diversity (politics) , standardized test , lexical item , mathematics education , sociology , philosophy , anthropology
The purpose of this study was to examine construct validity of methods of calculating lexical diversity in written narrative samples relative to children's performance on a reading vocabulary measure. For 234 children in 1st-5th grade, written narratives were examined and compared between grades for number of different words (NDW), total words (TNW), NDW in a truncated 50 word sample, and type token ratio (TTR). The relationship between lexical diversity in written narratives and a standardized reading vocabulary measure (GMRT-4) was analyzed by comparing correlations. Grade differences were observed in measures of lexical diversity and productivity. Lexical diversity showed a significant moderate correlation with the GMRT-4. NDW had a stronger relationship to GMRT-4 scores than TTR for participants in first and second grade. Considering length (TNW, NDW constrained to 50 words, or TTR) did not result in a stronger relationship with reading vocabulary. Following additional study establishing probe equivalence, NDW in written narratives may be an efficient, educationally relevant, marker of language maturity and a good predictor of performance on a standardized reading vocabulary measure.