Abstract
Current research on adult-child interaction has stressed the importance of some conversational tactics for the development of communicative competence in children.
The conversational device used in the presence of ambiguity and incomprehension is the clarification request (CR), an interrogative utterance by which the speaker asks for explanation, confirmation or repetition of an utterance previously produced by the listener, but which has not been perfectly understood.
In this research we analyzed several aspects of nursery school teachers use of the clarification request with children of three different age groups (10–17 months; 21–26 months and 28–37 months).
Using audio-recordings of naturally occurring teacher-child interactions, the following features were analyzed: 1) the quantitative distribution of CRs in teacher’s language according to the children’s age; 2) the form of the CRs; 3) their function; 4) the conversational sequences containing CRs.
The results suggest that the teacher’s use of CRs is guided by their knowledge and evaluation of the children’s developing communicative competence. The distribution of CRs in the various forms and function that we indentified seem to follow the same general path isolated in the previous studies, collected in a different language and culture, suggesting that the CRs may be a constant feature of adult-child interaction.
Résumé
La littérature sur l’interaction adulte-enfant a souligné l’importance de certaines stratégies de conversation pour le développement de la compétence communicative de l’enfant.
Le dispositif conversationnel utilisé en présence d’ambiguité et d’incompréhension est la demande de clarification (DC), une phrase interrogative que l’emetteur produit pour expliquer, confirmer ou répéter une phrase émise par le récepteur, mais pas bien entendue. Dans cette recherche nous avons analysé des aspects de la DC que les enseignants des crêches utilisent avec des enfants de 3 groupes d’âge différents (10–17 mois; 21–26 mois et 28–37 mois).
On a filmé des interactions entre enseignants et enfants dans des situations naturelles et on a analysé: 1) la distribution quantitative des DC dans le langage des enseignants selon l’âge des enfants; 2) la forme des DC; 3) leur fonction; 4) les séquences conversationnelles avec DC.
Les resultats montrent que les enseignants utilisent les DC en tenant compte de leur connaissance et de leur évaluation de la compétence communicative des enfants. La distribution des DC dans les formes et les fonctions que nous avons identifiées semble suivre le pattern décrit dans les recherches précedentes: comme cette recherche porte sur un langage et une culture différente (de l’anglaise), elle semble suggérer que les DC peuvent être un aspect constant de l’interaction adulte-enfant.
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Cicognani, E., Zani, B. The clarification request in teacher-child conversation. Eur J Psychol Educ 3, 303–315 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172736
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172736