Definitional Skills as a Bridge towards School Achievement

Abstract

The general aim of the current study was to investigate the role of definitional skills in promoting primary school achievement (third- to fifth graders) and how school learning may shape definitional skills. Marks from four school subjects, linguistic (Italian and English) and scientific (Math and Science) were collected as well as scores in a Definitional Task. These two domains were chosen as they clearly entail the two different definition types, that is, lexicographic and scientific. Results indicated that scientific school subject marks are more predictive of definitional skills than linguistic school marks are. The opposite direction (i.e., how definitional skills are predictive of school achievement) appears less clear. In sum, the results, although preliminary, suggest that definitional skills represent a bridge towards school achievement as they promote good marks in all disciplines. Moreover, definitional skills are predicted from levels of competence acquired especially in scientific school subjects that request a higher degree of formal/organized learning. It is then of primary importance to promote interaction–integration between these two kinds of concepts via formal schooling.

Changes of Meta-Representational Skills in Ageing: First Empirical Evidence on the Relation between Metalinguistic Competence and Attributions of Mental States

“…In particular, mental and chronological age are predictors of Definitional Competence in children with intellectual disabilities (Belacchi & Benelli, 1999;. Moreover, definitional skills, as a measure of de-contextualised language abilities, are closely related to school success and literacy (Artuso, Palladino, Valentini & Belacchi, 2022;Gini, Benelli & Belacchi, 2004;Gutierrez-Clellen & DeCurtis, 1999;Sinclair, 1986;Snow, 1990).…”

The Interaction of Variables Affecting Definitional Skills: Extending Previous Research on Word Definitions

“…Definitions are combinations of informative contents and appropriate forms (Benelli, Belacchi, Gini & Lucangeli, 2006). More precisely, the canonical definitions should accomplish four formal (paraphrase, periphrastic form, phrasal autonomy and correct morpho-syntactic structure, and one content-related (semantic equivalence) requirements (Artuso et al, 2021).…”

“…It also guarantees depth in word knowledge and is a strong predictor of literacy skills, such as reading and writing, using books or the internet as a source of information, being familiar, producing and being able to find information in different genres and text types (descriptions, narrations, etc.) (Artuso, Palladino, Valentini & Belacchi, 2021, Snow et al, 1989. It may also play an active role in reading aloud (Nation & Cocksey, 2009).…”

“…The definitional skills have been investigated so far in the fields of education, psycholinguistics, and speech-language pathology. Previous research focused on the impact of literacy and school achievement (Artuso et al, 2021;Marinellie, 2010;Snow et al, 1989;Thorndike, Hagen, & Sattler, 1986;Watson, 1985), the effect of developmental characteristics or language impairment (Dosi & Gavriilidou, 2020;Dosi, Gavriilidou & Dourou, 2021;Gutierrez-Clellen & DeCurtis, 1999;Marinellie & Johnson, 2002) and finally the effect of first and second language (El Euch, 2007) on definitional skills.…”