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Characteristics of adult speech which predict children's language development*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Sally Barnes ,
Mary Gutfreund ,
David Satterly  and
Gordon Wells
Sally Barnes
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Mary Gutfreund
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
David Satterly
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Gordon Wells
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
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Abstract

Samples of the speech addressed by adults to a socially representative sample of 2-year-olds in naturally occurring contexts of interaction were analysed with respect to syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and discourse features to determine which features were most strongly associated with gain by the children on a variety of measures of language development over the ensuing 9 months. Following a principal components analysis of the adult speech variables, the most highly loading variables on the first six components were correlated with children's gain scores. Polar interrogatives, directives and extending utterances were all found to be associated with at least one measure of development. The results are if interpreted as evidence of reciprocal, rather than one-way facilitation.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , February 1983 , pp. 65 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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Footnotes

[*]

Address for correspondence: Centre for the Study of Language and Communication, University of Bristol, School of Education, 19 Berkeley Square, Bristol BS8 1HF, U.K.

References

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