Deriving word meaning from written context: a multicomponential skill

Investigated the ability of 30 Dutch 1st-language learners from grades 2, 4, and 6 to derive word meaning from context. A multicomponent measure was used that assessed the percentage of correct attributes, inclusion of a false attribute, and contextualization. Students' definitions were either wrong, fully correct, only partially correct, or both wrong and (partially) correct. Results show that on average, students' definitions contained 38% of the correct attributes. Learning occurred for both concrete and abstract words, with 42% and 34% of correct attributes, respectively. A false attribute was included in two-thirds of answers. About one third of the definitions were contextualized. These findings suggest that the incremental nature of vocabulary growth involves adding correct attributes, deleting false attributes, and decontextualizing word definitions. The ability to derive word meaning from context depended on grade and concreteness of concepts. Translated target words and examples of texts are appended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2000 APA, all rights reserved)