Religious vocabulary in children’s prayer language: a small-scale case study in three UK schools

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper describes a study into the quantity and style of religious language used by children in UK primary schools. Children’s unguided prayers were analysed for religious themes and language, and these were correlated against age and faith stance of their schools. The study found that the children in faith schools, who are regularly exposed to religious language, used that learned vocabulary in their prayers. However, there was no direct correlation between the possession of religious vocabulary and use. Older children, from all the schools, used significantly fewer religious words than younger, despite having a larger vocabulary. In addition, children of all ages and in all settings frequently expressed spiritual concepts without using religious language.