The Acquisition of Word Meaning from Context by Children of High and Low Ability

THE PROCESS of acquiring word meaning from context was investigated for high- and lowability children. Fifth-grade children were given a task that tested their ability to derive the meaning of an unknown word from a sequence of contexts and to use the newly learned word in subsequent contexts. Significant differences were found in favor of the high-ability group. Qualitative comparisons revealed differences in the types of errors made by each group and differential difficulty within certain aspects of the task. Findings demonstrate characteristics of processing that differentiate successful and less successful meaning acquisition and underscore the complexity of the meaning-acquisition process.