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Capital Gains: Effects of Word Class and Sentence Position on Capitalization Use across Age

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Capital Gains: Effects of Word Class and Sentence Position on Capitalization Use across Age
Language: English
Authors: Emilia Hawkey (ORCID 0000-0003-2135-9306), Matthew A. Palmer, Nenagh Kemp
Source: Child Development. 2025 96(6):2233-2246.
Availability: Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 14
Publication Date: 2025
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: High Schools
Secondary Education
Higher Education
Postsecondary Education
Elementary Education
Descriptors: High School Students, College Students, Elementary School Students, Writing Skills, English, Cloze Procedure, Foreign Countries, Spelling, Nouns, Cues, Accuracy, Grammar
Geographic Terms: Australia
DOI: 10.1111/cdev.70035
ISSN: 0009-3920
1467-8624
Abstract: Learning to capitalize in English requires identifying a word's type and sentence position. In two cloze studies (2021-2022), Australian students of all genders (95% White, monolingual) spelled words with one and two capitalization cues (proper nouns, sentence-initial words) and no-cue control words. High school (12-18 years, n = 59) and university students (18-63 years, n = 78) exhibited near-perfect capitalization. Primary school students (8-12 years) writing single words (n = 99) used proper-noun cues more than sentence-initial cues (ds > 0.49), but when writing consecutive words (n = 101), capitalized more accurately with two cues than one (ds > 0.32). Early capitalization appears better with more cues, but task format influences children's use of grammatical context.
Abstractor: As Provided
Notes: https://osf.io/j2mdw
Entry Date: 2025
Accession Number: EJ1488480
Database: ERIC
Description
Abstract:Learning to capitalize in English requires identifying a word's type and sentence position. In two cloze studies (2021-2022), Australian students of all genders (95% White, monolingual) spelled words with one and two capitalization cues (proper nouns, sentence-initial words) and no-cue control words. High school (12-18 years, n = 59) and university students (18-63 years, n = 78) exhibited near-perfect capitalization. Primary school students (8-12 years) writing single words (n = 99) used proper-noun cues more than sentence-initial cues (ds > 0.49), but when writing consecutive words (n = 101), capitalized more accurately with two cues than one (ds > 0.32). Early capitalization appears better with more cues, but task format influences children's use of grammatical context.
ISSN:0009-3920
1467-8624
DOI:10.1111/cdev.70035