A Study About Conceptual Categories of Secondary School Students (Within the Prototype Theory)

• Main Author: Nilay ÇAĞLAYAN DİLBER
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Ankara University 2017-01-01
• Series: Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi
• Subjects: Kavram; Kavram Oluşumu; Prototip; Prototip Kuramı; Bağlam; Dil Öğretimi; Ulam; Ortaokul Öğrencileri
• Online Access: http://dtcfdergisi.ankara.edu.tr/index.php/dtcf/article/view/439

Various concept formation theories were put forth in order to explain how individuals learn the concepts, how they associate words with their meanings and how they store the conceptual knowledge in their memory. In this study, we examine the Prototype Theory which is developed by Rosch, and introduce Roth and Shoben’s studies, which advocate that the concept changes the prototype. Two different applications are applied in order to test Roth and Shoben’s studies and identify the prototypes withing specific categories of a total of forty elementary school students who are 5th and 8th grade students in the province of Kırşehir. Rosch (1973)’s studies results and similar studies’ which are about Turkish (Seferoğlu, 1999; Gökmen, 2013) results are match up with together. Results of the analysis showed us that the prototypes of those subjects are changing according to the contexts. This situation might guide the teachers on activities related with the language teaching and may play a major role in providing convenience to the students