An Investigation of the Consequences of One Feature of Teacher-Child Talk for Children's Awareness of Ambiguity in Verbal Messages

Abstract

The aim was to identify features of 5-and 6-year-old children's everyday lives which contribute to their understanding about the requirements of effective verbal communication. An analysis of naturalistic data comparing talk to children at home and at school indicated several features of adultchild talk occurring frequently at school but rarely at home. One such feature was the asking of question sequences intended to elicit a particular answer. The teacher continued to ask questions until that answer was supplied. In an intervention study we investigated whether this use of extended question sequences promoted children's understanding of ambiguity. The results showed that it did. There was also learning during the training itself. This feature of teacher-child talk may promote understanding of ambiguity because it draws children's attention to a distinction they often fail to make: between the speaker's intended meaning and the verbal message used to convey that meaning to a listener.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alvy, K. T. (1968). Relation of age to children's egocentric and cooperative communication . Journal of Genetic Psychology, 112, 275-286 .

Barnes, D. (1969). Language, the learner and the school. Harmondsworth: Penguin .

Beal, C. R. & Flavell, J. H. (1982). The effect of increasing the salience of message ambiguities on kindergartner's evaluations of communicative success and message adequacy . Development Pyschology, 18, 42-48 .

Cosgrove, J. M. & Patterson, C. J. (1977). Plans and the development of listener skills . Developmental Psychology, 13, 557-564 .

Delamont, S. (1976). Interaction in the classroom. London: Methuen .

Donaldson, M. (1978). Children's minds. Glasgow: Collins .

Edwards, A. D. (1976). Language in culture and class. London: Heinemann .

Flavell, J. H. , Speer, J. R. , Green, F. L. , & August, D. L. (1981). The development of comprehension monitoring and knowledge about communication. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, serial no. 192.

Ironsmith, M. & Whitehurst, G. J. (1978). The development of listener abilities in communication: How children deal with ambiguous information . Child Development, 49, 348-352 .

10.

Lefebvre-Pinard, M. , Charbonneau, C. , & Feider, H. (1982). Differential effectiveness of explicit verbal feedback on children's communication skills . Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 34, 174-183 .

11.

Olson, D. R. & Torrance, N. G. (1983). Literacy and cognitive development: A conceptual transformation in the early school years. In S. Meadows (Ed.), Developing thinking. London: Methuen .

12.

Patterson, C. J. & Kister, M. C. (1981). The development of listener skills for referential communication. In W. P. Dickson (Ed.), Children's oral communication skills. New York: Academic Press .

13.

Robinson, E. J. (1981). The child's understanding of inadequate messages and communication failure: A problem of ignorance or egocentrism? In W. P. Dickson (Ed.), Children's oral communication skills. New York: Academic Press .

14.

Robinson, E. J. , Goelman, H. , & Olson, D. (1983). Children's understanding of the relation between expressions (what was said) and intentions (what was meant) . British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 1, 75-86 .

15.

Robinson, E. J. & Robinson, W. P. (1976). The young child's understanding of communication . Developmental Psychology, 12, 328-333 .

16.

Robinson, E. J. & Robinson, W. P. (1977). Development in the understanding of causes of success and failure in verbal communication . Cognition, 5, 363-378 .

17.

Robinson, E. J. & Robinson, W. P. (1981). Ways of reacting to communication failure in relation to the development of children's understanding about verbal communication . European Journal of Social Psychology, 11, 189-208 .

18.

Robinson, E. J. & Robinson, W. P. (1982a). Knowing when you don't know enough: Children's judgments about ambiguous information . Cognition, 12, 267-280 .

19.

Robinson, E. J. & Robinson, W. P. (1982b). The advancement of children's verbal referential communication skills: The role of metacognitive guidance . International Journal of Behavioral Development, 5, 329-355 .

20.

Robinson, E. J. & Robinson, W. P. (1983a). Communication and metacommunication: quality of children's instructions in relation to judgments about the adequacy of instructions and the locus of responsibility for communication failure . Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 36, 305-320 .

21.

Robinson, E. J. & Robinson, W. P. (1983b). Children's uncertainty about the interpretation of ambiguous messages . Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 36, 81-96 .

22.

Robinson, E. J. & Robinson, W. P. (1985). Teaching children about verbal referential communication . International Journal of Behavioral Development, 8, 285-299 .

23.

Robinson, E. J. & Whittaker, S. J. (1985). Children's responses to ambiguous messages and their understanding of ambiguity. Developmental Psychology, 1985.

24.

Robinson, E. J. & Whittaker, S. J. (1986). Learning about verbal referential communication in the early school years. In K. Durkin (Ed.), Language development during the school years. Beckenham, Kent: Croom Helm .

25.

Sonnenschein, S. & Whitehurst, G. J. (1984). Developing referential communication: A hierarchy of skills . Child Development, 55, 1936-1945 .

26.

Stubbs, M. (1976). Language, schools and classrooms. London: Methuen .

27.

Wells, C. G. (1985). Language development in the preschool years. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

28.

Wells, C. G. (in press). The language experience of 5-year-old children at home and at school. In J. Cook-Gumpertz (Ed.), Literacy, language, and schooling. Exeter, New Hampshire: Heinemann .

29.

Whitehurst, G. J. & Sonnenschein, S. (1978). The development of communication: Attribute variation leads to contrast failure . Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 25, 454-490 .

30.

Whitehurst, G. J. & Sonnenschein, S. (1981). The development of informative messages in referential communication: Knowing when vs. knowing how. In W. P. Dickson (Ed.), Children's oral communication skills. New York: Academic Press .