Measurement of children's judgment regarding the degree of reliability in vague expressions

本研究考察了儿童对模糊表达和元语言表达的理解，特别是两个说话人描述一种真实的但未知的水果的味道的短句（包括模糊表达）的可靠性程度。被试被要求通过三种不同的方法来评价信度：点估计法，区间估计法和多尺度测试。结果表明，小学生只掌握了模糊表达之间的差异，初中生和高中生意识到了元语言表达之间的差异，但不能有效地使用它们。此外，大学生对模糊表达和元语言表达的信度进行了选择。本研究的启示是，学生在语言学习中应该意识到各种模糊表达。

This study examined children's understanding of vague and metalinguistic expressions, especially in regard to their determination of the degree of reliability in short sentences (including vague expressions) by two speakers describing the taste of a real but unknown fruit. The subjects were asked to rate the degree of reliability by three different approaches: the point estimation method, the interval estimation method, and multiple scale tests. The results show that elementary school students only grasped the differences between the vague expressions and the middle school and high school students realized the differences between the metalinguistic expressions, but were unable to use them effectively. In addition, the university students selected the degree of reliability based on the vague and metalinguistic expressions. The implication of this study is that students should be aware of various vague expressions in language learning.