Vocabulary diversity of reading materials at the beginning of primary school

Abstract

Vocabulary represents the most dynamic aspect of language development, continuously changing, expanding, and being acquired throughout life. Lexical diversity serves as a predictor of academic achievement and is a hallmark of competent communication in adulthood. Increasingly, there is concern regarding the limited understanding of word meanings among younger school-aged children, while less attention is given to how vocabulary development and lexical diversity can be systematically monitored. This paper therefore analyses all mandatory reading materials for first- and second-grade primary school students to calculate lexical density and diversity, defined as the ratio of the number of variants to the total number of occurrences. It is hypothesized that unfamiliar and archaic words appear frequently, and that sentence structures may be more complex than expected for this age group. The data gathered yield a frequency dictionary that may be applied in constructing tests for assessing lexical diversity and competence in early school-age children.