This study investigated receptive vocabulary ability of multicultural family children compared with Korean cultural family children, and found out the significant variables that related their language development.The subjects were 28 multicultural fam...
This study investigated receptive vocabulary ability of multicultural family children compared with Korean cultural family children, and found out the significant variables that related their language development.The subjects were 28 multicultural family children aged 3, 28 Korean cultural family children aged 3, and their mothers living in Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi-do. This study examined children’s receptive vocabulary ability by using the Korean version of Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) and related variables by using questionnaires.The results were as follows.First, the PPVT-R mean of the multicultural family children was significantly lower than that of the Korean cultural family children(p<.01).Second, the PPVT-R score of the multicultural family children was correlated with the monthly family income, the ratio of using Korean to children in family, the ratio of mother's using Korean, mother’s K-BNT score, mother’s academic background, and the ratio of using Korean in family. However, the PPVT-R score of the Korean cultural family children has something to do with the number of children’s Korean friends, the interaction time with their mother, mother’s academic background, and the monthly family income. The significant variables on receptive vocabulary ability of the multicultural family children were the ratio of using Korean to children in family and mother’s academic background. Moreover, the number of children’s Korean friends and mother’s academic background played an important role to determined the receptive vocabulary ability of the Korean cultural family children.Based on these results, the receptive vocabulary ability of the multicultural family children was lower than that of the Korean cultural family children. In addition, the more multicultural families used Korean and the higher mother’s academic background was, the higher children’s receptive vocabulary ability was.These results are useful because the ratio of using Korean in family is the external factor that can be changed by efforts, while mother’s academic background can not be changed in the present condition. Further studies need to be conducted on the receptive vocabulary ability of children from multicultural families and related variables in various age groups and areas.