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The development of young children's speech act comprehension: How much language is necessary?1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Kenneth Reeder and
Jane Wakefield
Kenneth Reeder*
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
Jane Wakefield
Affiliation:
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
*
Kenneth Reeder, Department of Language Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1W5Canada
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Abstract

Two experimental studies investigate the extent of 3- and 4-year-olds' relative dependence upon contextual and linguistic information as they discriminate between presentations of Requests from Offers, and Requests from Questions presented in contexts. Contexts are manipulated systematically, and quantity of linguistic information in the presentations is progressively reduced. While younger subjects' discrimination of each speech act appeared relatively unaffected by reduction of linguistic information, the older subjects' performance was relatively adversely affected. We consider a developmental shift in speech act comprehension strategy from an early more context-based approach to a later, more heavily text-dependent approach, perhaps linked to continuing development of linguistic awareness.

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Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , March 1987, pp. 1 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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Footnotes

1

Early versions of this paper were presented at the Ninth Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, 1984, and at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research on Child Development, Toronto, 1985. The research reported was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to Kenneth Reeder. We are grateful to Gordon Wells, Hillel Goelman, and Helen List for comments on earlier drafts of the present report and to the children and staff of the Child Study Centre, University of British Columbia, for their participation and cooperation.

References

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