Monday 22 November 2010

Antonyms, Synonyms and Other Lexical Relations - Oh My!

Hi y'all, My research focuses on children's understanding of opposites (antonyms) and synonyms - and because of a post by Amy about her Zoomboy I have a question.

At what age and/or grade did your child start being taught these and other word relations in school/preschool/daycare? And if you don't mind, what country are you in?

I'd like to get a feel for what is going on out there in the 'real world' and how similar (or different) practices are in different countries.

Thanks so much! I'm interested in what I hear back. When I eventually finish a set of research to form a coherent publication, and it is published I'll let you know. On the off chance that any of you are also academics, I'll be presenting some of my stuff at the Society for Research in Child Development next April in Montreal. I was at another conference this past spring in Ottawa and bought souvenir  yarn - which I never showed you - bad blogger! I'll save it for next post perhaps - posting has, yet again, become a welcome distraction from work I should be doing (last time this occurred was when I was writing my Masters thesis in the summer of 2008 - fun times that was)

2 comments:

Louiz said...

erm. Not sure my 5 1/2 yo has been taught this yet. She knows opposites, but I don't think her school has taught anything about this in a structured way. I will ask her in the morning when she wakes up!

In England by the way:)

Louiz said...

OK, I talked to Kathryn and her teacher this morning. Kathryn knows opposites, but not in a formal way. She has not yet been taught synonyms in any formal way and although when I explained what I was asking she came up with "frosty" and "icy", both of which described the weather this morning. Her teacher (who is not always very helpful) said just that she doesn't teach it. I do know a junior school teacher who is somewhat more helpful and I shall ask her for you.