Abstract

Based on the responses of 742 children, from 1st to 6th grade and from large-size city, medium-size city, and agricultural area, on the basic vocabulary synonym tests composed of 1000 items, their vocabulary comprehension was analyzed in terms of a series of variables: grade, sex, region, and part of speech. When it comes to grade variable, discontinuous developmental pattern was found: vocabulary comprehension was continually increased up to 4th grade, decreased at 5th grade, and increase again at 6th grade. It seems that 4th graders show spurt in vocabulary comprehension, excelling 5th graders and showing not much difference from 6th graders. Sex difference in vocabulary comprehension was found in general level in favor of girls over boys. Regional difference was also found in favor of children inhabiting in large-size city over children inhabiting in medium-size city and agricultural area, and children in the latter two regions showed no difference in vocabulary comprehension. With regard to the variable of part of speech, children's comprehension of noun was superior to that of verb and adjective, and those of verb and adjective were not different.