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Kindergarten children can be taught to detect lexical ambiguities*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2015

MARGARET T. KAMOWSKI-SHAKIBAI  and
HELEN SMITH CAIRNS
MARGARET T. KAMOWSKI-SHAKIBAI*
Affiliation:
Marymount Manhattan College and City University of New York, Graduate Center
HELEN SMITH CAIRNS*
Affiliation:
City University of New York, Queens College and Graduate Center
*
*Address for correspondence: Margaret T. Kamowski-Shakibai, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Marymount Manhattan College, 221 East 71st Street, 7th Floor Main, New York, New York 10021. e-mail: mshakibai@mmm.edu. Helen S. Cairns e-mail: helencairns@roadrunner.com
*Address for correspondence: Margaret T. Kamowski-Shakibai, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Marymount Manhattan College, 221 East 71st Street, 7th Floor Main, New York, New York 10021. e-mail: mshakibai@mmm.edu. Helen S. Cairns e-mail: helencairns@roadrunner.com
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Abstract

This study investigates the development of metalinguistic skills, particularly ambiguity detection, and whether training accelerates this development for prereaders in kindergarten (5;5–6;6). It is the first to compare homophone detection with lexically ambiguous sentence detection in which the same homophones appear. The experimental group received ambiguity detection training; the control group received vocabulary training. Results showed that there is a spontaneous development of homophone detection abilities at the end of kindergarten, and training may accelerate this trajectory. The development of lexical ambiguity detection is not apparent in kindergarteners. However, explicit training improves this trajectory significantly. The knowledge of both meanings of a homophone is not sufficient to report both meanings of a sentence that contains that homophone. We propose that detecting the dual meanings of an ambiguous sentence involves sentence processing operations and an ability to think flexibly about language that may be enhanced with training.

Type
Brief Research Reports
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , March 2016 , pp. 442 - 456
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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