ERIC Number: EJ1466759
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Apr
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0142-7237
EISSN: EISSN-1740-2344
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Semantic and Phonological Associative Norms of 145 French Words for Children Aged 5-9 Years: Free Associations and Forced-Choice Task
First Language, v45 n2 p177-195 2025
This study aimed to establish normative data for 145 words using phonological and semantic association tasks with 242 French schoolchildren, ranging from ages 5 (Grande Section) to 8 (Cours Elémentaire 2), providing a fundamental resource for future research and educational planning. The participants were engaged in two primary tasks: a free association task, entailing image recognition followed by phonological or semantic word association and a forced-choice task, involving choosing semantically or phonologically related images from options. Overall, there were more associations produced for semantic associations than phonological ones; however, there was a greater variety of phonological associations than semantic ones. We found that 5-year-old children performed better in semantic tasks by choosing expected associates compared to phonological tasks. However, this difference was not present in older children. This suggests that phonological networks develop more gradually than semantic ones, with phonological awareness continuing to improve with age while semantic stability is reached earlier. The established norms offer a framework for educators, clinicians, and researchers in understanding and assessing the semantic and phonological associative strategy of children in early educational settings within the French context.
Descriptors: French, Phonology, Semantics, Preschool Children, Task Analysis, Associative Learning, Phonological Awareness, Elementary School Students, Recognition (Psychology), Pictorial Stimuli, Age Differences, Psycholinguistics, Language Acquisition, Databases, Computational Linguistics, Foreign Countries, Textbooks, Word Frequency, Vocabulary Development, Comparative Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: France
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Université de Picardie Jules Verne, France; 2Université Rennes 2, France; 3Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, France