One Word, Two Definitions: A Comparison of Word Definitional Skills between Monolingual and Bilingual Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to expand the current literature on word definitions, to empirically investigate (a) the definitional skills, (b) the effect of grammatical category of the word and (c) the preferred definition types produced by Greek monolingual students and Turkish-Greek bilingual students of different levels of education. Previous research has shown that bilinguals produce better definitions than their monolingual peers due to their enhanced metalinguistic abilities. To date, no studies have compared the definitional skills considering word grammatical categories in bilingual students of different levels of education. To this end, 158 students –79 monolingual speakers of Greek and 79 bilingual speakers (L1 Turkish, L2 Greek) – were tested and were asked to define 16 words (8 nouns, 4 verbs, and 4 adjectives), orally. Definitions were scored on a five-point scale along a continuum that reflects the developmental path of the definitions. The findings indicated that monolinguals outperformed bilinguals in respect to the content of definitions in all grammatical categories, regardless of their level of education. Nevertheless, in form, the differences between the groups disappeared in senior high school. Bilingual students catch up their monolingual peers, conceivably, due to their enhanced metalinguistic abilities. The finding further supports that content of definitions is a more sensitive indicator. Within group comparisons have shown that the production of formal definitions exhibits in junior high school, while it takes more time for this pattern to emerge in bilinguals (i.e. in senior high school). Nouns were better defined than verbs and adjectives. Verbs and adjectives did not differ in upper elementary school students; however, a difference arose in junior high school, i.e. more formal definitions were used in adjectives compared to verbs, proving that verbs are more abstract and, thus, difficult to be defined. All in all, the present study offers useful insights about the development of word definitional skills considering word grammatical categories in bilingual and monolingual students of different levels of education and discusses the outcomes in the light of educational practices. Keywords: definitional skills, monolingual students, bilingual students, grammatical categories DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-8-01 Publication date: March 31 st 2021