A Study On The Correlation Between Vocabulary Level And Narrative Ability In 4-5 Years Old Children

Vocabulary is "the important building materials" of language, narrative is a complex cognitive activity, they play important roles in promoting children’s development in other areas. Research on the relationship between vocabulary level and narrative ability are more concentrated in the field of vocabulary level and writing ability in second language acquisition, while the research on the relation between vocabulary level and oral narrative is relatively lack. Nowdays, the relationship between the vocabulary level and writing ability has been generally recognized, but the conclusion about the vocabulary breadth and vocabulary depth which is more related to written ability has not yet come to an agreement. This research pays more attention to the relationship between the vocabulary level and oral narrative, on the basis of the existing research.604-5years old kids who have the similar family educational background and intelligence level from N-City, Q-City made up the object of this research. The vocabulary test tools involve Picture Identification test, the Picture Naming test, Vocabulary Create test and vocabulary Association test. They were used to investigate kids’vocabulary breadth and vocabulary depth. The oral narrative ability test is Mercer Mayer’s wordless picture book "Frog, where are you?",which was widely used and recognized in the study of children’s narrative ability. Then using Miles and Chapman’s narrative analysis framework and assessment criteria about the frog story to investigate kids’ narrative skills. Using the SPSS17.0statistical software to analysis4-5years old kids’ vocabulary level and narrative ability. Draw the following conclusions:(1)Most4-5years old kids have mastered two-thirds of the test vocabulary,which Intermediate that their vocabulary level is generally high; their vocabulary breadth level is higher than their vocabulary depth level; There are large individual differences in vocabulary level.(2) Most4-5years old kids are at a relatively low narrative ability, most of them are week on narrating the theme of the story, their narrative ability should be improved.(3)4-5years old kids’ vocabulary level has a significant positive correlation with their oral narrative ability.(4) The vocabulary breadth has a significant positive correlation with narrative ability,but there is week correlation between the vocabulary depth and narrative ability.(5)4-5years old kids’ vocabulary breadth scores can predict their narrative ability scores. According to the above research conclusion, suggestions that preschool education workers and parents can take to improve children’s vocabulary level and narrative ability in the practice are as follows:(1) creating rich vocabulary learning environment for young kids;(2) assisting kids on processing the vocabulary depth;(3) guiding kids on the theme of the story;(4) guiding kids’narrative content from the perspective of narrative structure;(5) supporting the individual needs with kids’language learning.