Abstract
This "Monograph" reports three studies of the 4-year-old's ability to adjust to a listener. In the first study (Study A) 16 Ss were pretested on modified versions of standard tests of "egocentrism." Following these, the children were asked first to tell an adult about a toy and then tell a 2-year-old about that toy. The eight Ss who had 2-year-old siblings were run on the toy task twice: once in an adult-sibling session, and once in an adult-non-sibling session. Finally, tapes were made of spontaneous conversations between the Ss and their mothers. As expected, the Ss performed poorly on the tests of "egocentrism." In contrast, Ss adjusted their speech production to their different listeners. Speech to 2-year-olds contained more short, simple utterances and more attentional utterances. The younger the 2-year-old, the greater was the observed speech adjustment. All children adjusted their speech whether or not they had younger siblings. In Study B tapes of uncontrolled conversations of five 4-year-olds each talking to a 2-year-old and an adult were obtained. Analyses of speech adjustments revealed a pattern of results like those of Study A. In Study C tapes of eight 4-year-olds talking to peers were collected and compared with the taped conversations with their mothers obtained in the first study. Analyses of the peer-directed versus adult-directed speech showed that, with respect to utterance length, the use of various constructions, and attentional utterances, peers were treated like adults. These results, combined with those of Study A, indicate that the 4-year-old adjusts his speech with regard to the changing capacities of different-aged listeners. The results of these studies are discussed with regard to previous work on the preschooler's communication skills and the variety of listener-produced cues that may influence the 4-year-old's tendency to "talk down." The implications of speaker-listener interaction for the process of language acquisition are considered.
Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development © 1973 Society for Research in Child Development
บทคัดย่อThis "Monograph" reports three studies of the 4-year-old's ability to adjust to a listener. In the first study (Study A) 16 Ss were pretested on modified versions of standard tests of "egocentrism." Following these, the children were asked first to tell an adult about a toy and then tell a 2-year-old about that toy. The eight Ss who had 2-year-old siblings were run on the toy task twice: once in an adult-sibling session, and once in an adult-non-sibling session. Finally, tapes were made of spontaneous conversations between the Ss and their mothers. As expected, the Ss performed poorly on the tests of "egocentrism." In contrast, Ss adjusted their speech production to their different listeners. Speech to 2-year-olds contained more short, simple utterances and more attentional utterances. The younger the 2-year-old, the greater was the observed speech adjustment. All children adjusted their speech whether or not they had younger siblings. In Study B tapes of uncontrolled conversations of five 4-year-olds each talking to a 2-year-old and an adult were obtained. Analyses of speech adjustments revealed a pattern of results like those of Study A. In Study C tapes of eight 4-year-olds talking to peers were collected and compared with the taped conversations with their mothers obtained in the first study. Analyses of the peer-directed versus adult-directed speech showed that, with respect to utterance length, the use of various constructions, and attentional utterances, peers were treated like adults. These results, combined with those of Study A, indicate that the 4-year-old adjusts his speech with regard to the changing capacities of different-aged listeners. The results of these studies are discussed with regard to previous work on the preschooler's communication skills and the variety of listener-produced cues that may influence the 4-year-old's tendency to "talk down." The implications of speaker-listener interaction for the process of language acquisition are considered.Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development © 1973 Society for Research in Child Development
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