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Discourse Development pp 37–76Cite as

Structure and Process in Children’s Conversational Development

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Part of the book series: Springer Series in Cognitive Development ((SSCOG))

Abstract

Although conversation is a universal human activity performed routinely in the course of everyday interaction with our fellow beings, the nature of conversational talk and the means by which children learn to participate in conversations are still poorly understood. Manuals abound on the “art of skilled conversation.” It is a simple matter to recognize those who use talk skillfully as a means to achieve their own ends, whether in the transaction of business, as a way of creating a favorable impression, or as a device for lubricating smooth social interaction. It is also easy to recognize cases of the lack of this skill, whether in young infants who have yet to learn the art or in pathological cases such as the mentally disturbed or those suffering from some language disorder. In other words, we have some intuitions about what constitutes a well-formed and well-performed conversation, although there is little in the way of formal theoretical models of conversation. It is true that conversation has been widely studied in recent years by researchers from a variety of disciplines. Sociologists working within the ethnomethodological tradition have developed the school of conversational analysis, which has shed interesting light on many aspects of the structure and processes of conversation. The nature and rationale for this work has been outlined recently by Wootton (1981).

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Authors
  1. Michael F. McTear
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, 75275, USA

    Stan A. Kuczaj II

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McTear, M.F. (1984). Structure and Process in Children’s Conversational Development. In: Kuczaj, S.A. (eds) Discourse Development. Springer Series in Cognitive Development. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9508-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9508-9_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

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