Have You Ever Heard of the Wug Test?
It can be turned into a fun game to play with kids!
Today, I’d like to tell you about a curious and entertaining test used to assess children's morphological skills, such as their ability to form plurals. I discussed it with Chiara Melloni, Associate Professor of Glottology and Linguistics in the Department of Cultures and Civilizations at the University of Verona (North of Italy). She has researched this linguistic ability in monolingual and bilingual children, with or without dyslexia.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Professor Melloni as part of the voluntary project “Multilingualism Expert Interviews” for my YouTube Channel.
Multilingualism Expert Interviews
During the pandemic, I had the incredible opportunity to lead a brilliant project with over 30 researchers and experts on multilingualism, with the invaluable support of Dott.ssa Jessica Paolillo.
We interviewed these specialists, exploring various aspects and research areas of multilingualism—all in Italian! Yes, in my native language, to make research-based information accessible to more people in my home country.
But don’t worry, you can still watch them! Just be sure to select the English subtitles, and if you notice any mistakes in the translation, please let me know.
But let’s get back to the test.
The Wug Test is a linguistic experiment created by Jean Berko Gleason in 1958 to investigate the acquisition of plurals and other inflectional morphemes in English-speaking children.
Here’s how it works: the child is shown a made-up creature (the blue one in the picture) and is told, “This is a wug.”
Then, another wug is shown, and the researcher says, “See, now there are two. There are two…?”
At this point, the child should respond with the plural form “wugs” if they have already acquired the rule.
I won’t go into detail about forming plurals in English, which, as you know, includes other forms as well, but I think the test is clear.
Don’t you find it fun? I do!
So, why am I telling you about this? For two reasons:
If you are raising your children with multiple languages or work with multilingual children, this can become not only a way to assess their linguistic skills as they grow but also a fun game to play together, making up lots of new wugs.
When I worked at an international school many years ago, we used to play with “pandolini” (a made-up word in Italian). Yes, because while doing research on the pangolin, which is a real animal, someone said it would be fun to have a “pandolino” because it sounds cute. 😉
As you will see in the video interview with Professor Melloni, using made-up words or non-words is a very effective way to enhance children's morphological skills, which in turn can improve their reading abilities. It allows us to work on the structure of words without focusing on meanings.
By doing this, we can level the playing field for all children: those with a weaker vocabulary in the school language (because they are still learning or are at the beginning of their linguistic development) and those with a strong vocabulary.
To me, this is a big step toward a more inclusive education!
And I care deeply about this!
I hope the Wug Test has piqued your interest, and let me know what imaginary animals or objects you’ve come up within your family or at school!
Want to know more about how children acquire one, two, or even more languages simultaneously?
My book “Watch You Language, Mom!” is full of simple, engaging metaphors to help you understand the fascinating process of language development.
Grab your copy today!
Further reading: