Children's acquisition of science terms: Simple exposure is insufficient

The ability of school children (N = 233) to acquire new scientific vocabulary was examined. Children from two age groups (M = 4.8 and M = 6.5) were introduced to previously unknown words in an educational video. Word knowledge was assessed through accuracy and latency for production and comprehension over a 9-month period. A draw and write task assessed acquisition of domain knowledge. Word learning was poorer than has previously been reported in the literature, and subject to influences of word type (domain specificity) and word class. The results indicate that the acquisition of scientific terms is a complex process moderated by lexical, semantic and pragmatic factors.