Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 70.djvu/165

Rh papers and magazines frequently read and of books read since the beginning of the year. It was found that in general those who named the most books and magazines had the larger vocabularies, regardless of their grade.

The individual differences in size of vocabulary were very great, some ninth grade children falling to the rank of second grade children, while some third or fourth grade children ranked with the average of those in the ninth grade or high school.

Sometimes a very small vocabulary was accounted for by the fact that the child was of foreign parentage and did not hear English at home, but the mere fact of being of foreign parentage was no assurance that the vocabulary would be small.

The relation of size of vocabulary to school standing was considered, but owing to the scarcity of data and uncertainty as to its reliability (only a small proportion of the papers were accompanied by the class records or teacher's estimate of ability), no conclusive results were reached. In the grades there was no clear proof of relationship though in one room, where there was reason to think the teacher's estimate had been carefully made, the grading corresponded almost exactly to the size of the vocabularies. In one normal class nearly all of those who had been named by the faculty as belonging to the lower third of the class had small vocabularies. In another class there seemed to be little or no relation between size of vocabulary and estimates of teaching ability. In two colleges, one for women, the other for men, the marks given to the women in English and to men in all subjects were secured for the freshman class and compared with the number of words known. The average number of words known by the men who in general ranked in the various subjects above the average of their class was 5 per cent, greater than for those ranking below the average; while the women who ranked highest in English, averaged nearly 4 per cent, better in vocabularies than those who ranked lowest in English.

In the case of individuals there was often a wide divergence between the marks and the size of the vocabulary. In some instances exceptionally poor definitions indicated a difference in the standard used in marking words as known, but not always. This divergence is not, however, greater than between marks in different subjects, e. g., students have honor marks in some subjects and fail to pass in others.

Is size of vocabulary any indication of attainment or ability? An affirmative answer to this can not readily be proved by experiment, because we have no reliable standard of ability and attainment by which the value of the vocabulary test may be determined. It is well known,