Psychological Development and Education ›› 2005, Vol. 21 ›› Issue (1): 15-20.

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The Influence of the Understanding of Speakers’ Knowledge State on Young Children's Word Learning

ZHANG Xu, WANG Ting-zhao, FANG Jun-ming   

  1. Institute of Special Education East Normal University Shanghai 200062
  • Online:2005-01-15 Published:2005-01-15

Abstract: The two experiments addressed whether 89 monolingual Chinese-speaking children with different language ability between 3 and 4 years old will consider speaker s knowledge states when establishing initial word-referent links.The result of experiment Ⅰ indicated that children with high language ability showed better word learning when the speaker was knowledgeable.Children with normal language ability,however,showed no difference in word learning in both conditions.In experiment Ⅱ,the speaker expressed hesitancy in both conditions.The finding further confirmed the results of the experiment Ⅰ.These findings suggested that theory-of-mind developments drives word learning.

Key words: theory of mind, knowledge state, language ability, word learning

CLC Number: 

  • B844.1
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