Recently, the number of children raised in multicultural families is expanding rapidly, but reference materials in language intervention and treatment are quite insufficient. This study attempted to examine and compare expressive vocabulary ability of...
Recently, the number of children raised in multicultural families is expanding rapidly, but reference materials in language intervention and treatment are quite insufficient. This study attempted to examine and compare expressive vocabulary ability of multicultural family children to normally developing children using the Korean-Boston Naming Test for Children(K-BNT-C). The subjects of this study were 26 multicultural family children and 105 normally developing children aged between 3 years, 6 months and 3 years, 11 months. Through this, we aimed to identify variables related to multicultural family children’s expressive vocabulary ability and to find the variable that has the highest effect on their expressive vocabulary ability.The results were as follows.First, the multicultural family children’s K-BNT-C mean score was significantly lower than that of the normally developing children.Second, the multicultural family children’s K-BNT-C scores were in a significantly positive correlation with the mothers’ Korean-Boston Naming Test(K-BNT) scores, the children’s time spent at preschool education institutions, and the family’s income. From the results of regression analysis, the effect on multicultural family children’s expressive vocabulary ability was the highest for the mothers’ K-BNT scores with the number of children’s hours at preschool education institutions coming in second, but the effect of family income was insignificant. That is, multicultural family children’s expressive vocabulary ability was higher when the mother’s expressive vocabulary ability was high and when the children’s time spent at a preschool education institution was long.Summing up the results of this study, it was found that the multicultural family children’s expressive vocabulary development was affected negatively by the limited Korean language skills of the mothers, the main rearer, and accordingly, multicultural family children have the risk of expressive vocabulary developmental delay. Furthermore, we found that multicultural family children compensate for the lack of language stimulation at home in both quantitative and qualitative aspects by regular verbal interactions with their teacher and friends at a preschool education institution.This study is meaningful in that it provided basic information on expressive vocabulary ability in multicultural family children. Furthermore, this study is believed to give specific implications for creating an environment to promote multicultural family children’s language development by identifying variables affecting multicultural family children’s expressive vocabulary development. To enhance understanding of overall expressive vocabulary development in multicultural family children, we propose further research with multicultural family children from various groups of age and areas.