Uppeldi og menntun - 01.01.2011, Page 98

Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 20 (1) 201198
textagerÐ Barna, Unglinga og fUllorÐinna:
three-way analysis of variance (MODALITY x GENRE x AGE) confirmed most of our
hypotheses. As predicted, the different processing constraints of written compared
to spoken text construction were reflected in all vocabulary scores: Written texts con-
tained a significantly more diverse vocabulary, longer words, and they were lexically
denser than oral texts in all age-groups. A significant AGE x MODALITY interaction
on lexical diversity and word length reflects the fact that the difference between writ-
ten and spoken texts increased with age and was by far greatest in the adult texts. The
hypothesized greater cognitive load of expository GENRE as compared to narratives
was also supported by the findings. Thus, expositories were shorter and lexically more
dense than narratives. Finally, AGE had a significant main effect on all the vocabulary
measures. Contrary to expectations, however, and to results from parallel studies in
a few other languages participating in the same seven-language project (Berman og
Verhoeven, 2004), there was no indication on this level of analysis of a developmental
spurt in vocabulary use in complex text construction in the Icelandic sample, until
late adolescence or even in adulthood. In fact, with the exception of density, post hoc
tests showed no difference between the three children and adolescent groups on the
vocabulary measures, while there was a significant spurt between the adolescents
and the adults on all measures. Our findings thus clearly reflect the truly long-term
nature of vocabulary development, and support the view that written texts constitute a
privileged arena for long-term vocabulary growth. Furthermore, the present analyses
of vocabulary, confirm earlier results from this same sample (Hrafnhildur Ragnars-
dóttir, 2007) indicating that Icelandic adolescents have a long way to go to reach adult
proficiency in text construction – longer than their peers in a few other countries
participating in the same project. One possible explanation for this unexpected finding
is that there may have been a different curricular emphasis in the final years of
obligatory education in Iceland. In fact, there is some indication that the national tests
administered to children in 10th grade may have induced teachers to overemphasize
grammar, orthography and other lower-level aspects of writing and composition in
their teaching in the final grades at the expense of higher-order text construction skills.
Keywords: Vocabulary, text construction, genre, spoken/written modality, narrative,
expository
aboUt thE aUthor
Dr. Hrafnhildur Ragnarsdóttir (hragnars@hi.is) is a professor of developmental psychol-
ogy and psycholinguistics at the University of Iceland. Her research areas include
long-term language development, oral and written, and the relationships between
language development, cognition, socio-emotional and literacy development. Hrafn-
hildur combines naturalistic, semi-experimental and experimental methods and
focuses on cross-disciplinary and cross-linguistic research.