A new study reported that children and adolescents find intrinsic joy in learning new words. It is hoped that the motivational aspects of learning new words could be used to improve educational strategies. The corresponding study was published in Developmental Science.
Acquiring new vocabulary is one of the building blocks of language learning. Babies can learn new words and their meanings with few incidental exposures. Meanwhile, children learn more than 3000 words per year. Multiple theories exist to explain how humans assign meaning to words; however, relatively little work has investigated why we are motivated to learn new words.
Recent experiments have shown that learning new vocabulary in a written context without explicit feedback carries intrinsic reward for adults. In the current study, researchers investigated whether the same intrinsic reward mechanisms underlie vocabulary acquisition from written context among 10 -18-year-olds.
To do so, they recruited 345 children and adolescents aged between 10 and 18 years old. They gave the young particpants 40 self-paced trials in which they were tasked with working out the meaning of a new word from its context in two sentences. The particpants were then asked to rate their emotions, such as confidence, happiness, and excitement, after every question. The researchers tested the participants a day later to see if they still recognized the words.
Ultimately, the researchers reported that both children and adolescents found learning new words from written context intrinsically enjoyable.
“Our findings conclusively demonstrate children find such learning intrinsically rewarding- and don’t need external rewards like validation. I think the experience of enjoyment is an important signal to seek out new knowledge and build our vocabulary,” said study author, Professor Saloni Krishnan, from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway in a press release.
“This helps us identify the aspects of learning that children find rewarding, and in the future, could help us to design more engaging programs. For example, in my lab, we’re now assessing if neurodivergent children, such as children with dyslexia, experience reward in the same way,” she added.
Sources: Neuroscience News, Developmental Science
