The Evolution of the Young Child's Concept of "Word" as a Unit of Spoken and Written Language

T he recent shift from the readiness paradigm to description of the emergent literacy process has led to new appreciation of the important language knowledge that young children bring to formal reading instruction. The relationship between oral and written language is one of the critical concepts of emerging literacy. An important element of both spoken and written language is the unit word. Previous researchers have established that there is a relationship between aspects of understanding the term word and beginning reading ability (Bowey, Tunmer, & Pratt, 1984; Ehri, 1979; Henderson, 1980; Lomax & McGee, 1987; Morris, 1980). Word is a particularly difficult construct to define. There is no consensus about its definition, even among linguists (Sulzby, 1986). But word is one of the terms in the reading instruction register (Downing, 1976) and is used frequently from the very beginning of formal reading instruction. Many children come to school without knowing what a word is (Adams, 1990), even at the level used in beginning reading instruction. Understanding how knowledge of the concept of word evolves, the focus of this study, can offer useful insights into the developmental nature of children's thinking, though significant linguistic questions will likely remain unanswered. The purposes of this study were twofold: (a) to describe the development of some aspects of the concept of word which are related to beginning reading, and (b) to investigate the relationship between cognitive development and acquisition of the concept of word. The design of the study allowed for examination of the evolution of children's concept of word over time. Dimensions of the concept of word