The study presents the results of the authors' original research. The
subject of the research were authentic utterances of 5-6-year-old children at
the exit from compulsory pre-primary education. They represented individual
conceptions of the following concepts: interview, question, poem, fairytale,
book, magazine, library, letter, reading, writing, writer. The concepts were
selected from the state curriculum (2016). The aim of the study was to present
selected findings from research on children's conceptions of language and
literary concepts. In the study, we provided answers to the research question.
Which claims from psycholinguistic theories about narrower and broader
conceptions of concepts are most valid in children's authentic utterances? The
research strategy was quantitative. Children's authentic utterances were
obtained through individual interviews. Each child answered four basic
questions: what is it? What is it for? What would it be if it wasn't? How do
you know that? The children's statements were content-analyzed and interpreted.
The children in the research sample were dominated by narrower conceptions of
linguistic and literary concepts (61%). The narrower conceptions of the
concepts contained a pre-scientific concept of knowing their meaning. The
content of their utterances predominantly distorted the objective meanings of
the concepts. Children were less likely to interpret social interactions and
least likely to use explanations of another, familiar concept. When they did
explain concepts in broader terms (34%), they mainly relied on sensory
experiences. Some children did not know or did not answer the questions (5%).
The conducted research is a part of the VEGA 1/0505/24 project - Children's
preconceptions about the phenomena of reading literacy.
