Active foreign-language lexicon of preschool children in a learning game situation

Basing on the analysis of English and mixed speech of preschool children, which was recorded in the situation of a learning game, the authors of the article describe children''s active foreign-language vocabulary. It is reconstructed from speech utterances to active vocabulary units that mostly correlate with the English language educational dictionary for children of this age. Active foreign-language lexicon of preschool children is characterized on the basis of several features: the volume, the composition of units, and their probabilistic structure. The volume of the lexicon includes 344 units. Its composition covers words, compound names (phrasal verbs), language cliches, constructions, precedent statements. Some of these units convey information about children''s image of the world; others refer to speech segments of English texts from speech experience. Probabilistic structure of the lexicon under consideration includes 2 poles: factual and informational. Linguistic units that are organized around each pole have the ability to move and interact with each other, therefore one can observe the following trend in linguistic units frequency distribution: from pragmatic communication-oriented units (such as imperative, address, formulae of speech etiquette) to constructions; further to informative lexical units and compound names and finally to precedent statements.