Adult Communicative Styles

8/8/2019 Adult Communicative Styles

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Adult Communicative StylesAdult Communicative Styles

and childrens languageand childrens language

Caroline Bowen PhD

Speech-Language Pathologist


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these slides are aboutthese slides are about

Language teachers communicative styles

The terms teaching and teacher are

used here in their broadest senses.For a child learning language, parents,

pre-school teachers, speech-language

pathologists and other adults (and evenolder children) are all teachers.


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communicative stylecommunicative style

The term communicative style

refers to the way adults (orlanguage teachers) engage

children in conversation

the language they use and theway they ask questions.


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reticent childrenreticent children

Children with communication impairmentsare often quite talkative at home andwith their speech-language pathologists.

These same children may say very little,or nothing at all, at daycare, pre-schoolschool, when out, etc.

Think about the points raised in thispresentation in relation to helpingreticent children to be more

forthcoming conversationally.


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intended audienceintended audience

These slides are for parents and

caregivers of children with speechsound disorders including:

functional speech disorders

developmental phonological disorders developmental apraxia of speech


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language learninglanguage learning

All children are language learners.

Part of their speech and language

development is innate.

Part of it is learned through the

modelling of people around them.

Parents are young childrens mainspeech and language teachers.


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researchers have investigatedresearchers have investigated

teachers communicative styleteachers communicative style

looking at:

1.The way adults talk to children,or, in other words, the adultscommunicative styles.

2. The immediate effect of thevarious styles on childrenscommunication.


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the adult communicative stylesthe adult communicative styles

investigated were:investigated were:

1) Enforced repetitions

2) Two-choice questions3) Wh type questions

4) Personal contributions

5) Phatics


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1. enforced repetitions1. enforced repetitions

In this style:

The adult asks the child to repeatwhat the adult says.


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enforced repetitionsenforced repetitions

A = Adult C = ChildA = Adult C = Child

A: What are you doing?

C: Painting.A: Say Painting a house.

C: Painting a house.

A: Good girl. Good talking.


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bad news!bad news!the researchers foundthe researchers found


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the effect of enforced repetitions onthe effect of enforced repetitions on

communicationcommunication

1. Enforced repetitions do not

increase the childs mean lengthof conversational turn.

2. Children are not able to imitate

structures more complex thantheir spontaneous utterances.


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2. two2. two--choice questionschoice questions

In this style:

The adult asks a child a question thatoffers two choices:

To say yes / no

To say a word or phrase


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twotwo--choice questionschoice questions


A: Is that a red pen?

C: No.A: Thats right, its a blue pen.


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A: Is that a red pen or a blue pen?

C: A blue pen.A: Yes, thats right, it is a blue pen.


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bad news and not such bad news:bad news and not such bad news:

the researchers foundthe researchers found


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the effect on communication of twothe effect on communication of two--

choice questionschoice questions

1. Childrens verbal responses are

shorter than with any of the other

styles.

2. Children tend to give single-word

responses or non-verbalresponses.


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It is difficult for a teacher to know ifthe child understands 2-choice

questions.

After all, there is a 50% chance ofthe child answering correctly.

Children can become very passive,leaving all of the responsibility forcommunication with the adult.


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Can be useful to help a child

expand a theme.


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WhWh type questions type questions


A: Wheres the truck?

C: [POINTS] A: Andwhos on the truck?

C: Spot.

S: Whats Spot doing?

C: Driving it.


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not suchnot such bad news and good news:bad news and good news:



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the effect on communication ofthe effect on communication of

WhWh type questions type questions

1. In excess, Wh questions arelikely to inhibit children from

playing an active role inconversation.

2. Wh questions are only likely to

receive an appropriate response ifthe child understands thequestion.


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4. personal contributions4. personal contributions

In this style:

The adult avoids asking questionsand chooses topics of interest to

the particular child.

The topic choice is child-led ifpossible.


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personal contributionspersonal contributions


A: I went to the Great Australian

Muster in the holidays

C: Me too!

A: I though it was great.

C: But too noisy. Dad said it was toonoisy.


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A: Your dad though it was noisy?

I think hes right!

C: Mummy said it was noisy too.

Not me. I like it.

A: Noise doesnt bother you?C: No, not never!


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good news!good news!



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the effect on communication ofthe effect on communication of


Children initiate more conversational

turns.

Children initiate more conversational

topics.

Children are more talkative. Some children say more in this style

than in the phatic style.


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Children are afforded more time to

think about what they want to

communicate, and to plan how to

do it, with this style.


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5. phatics5. phatics

In this style:

The adult tries to say nothing withany content apart fromacknowledging the childscontribution

Questions are avoided. Topics are initiated by the child.


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phaticsphatics


A: That looks good.

C: Its going up high.

A: True. C: High up to the sky.

A: Uh-huh

C: Maybe it might fall down. Crash!

A: It might! Its very high!


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very good news!very good news!



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the effect on communication of phaticsthe effect on communication of phatics

1. The increase in MLUm can bedramatic with this style.

2. Children may begin to tell stories.

MLUm = the childs mean lengthof utterance measured inmorphemes (units of meaning)


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referencesreferences

Dillon, J.T. (1982). Themultidisciplinary study of

questioning. Journal of Educational

Psychology 74, 2, 147-165

Wood, D., Wood, H., Griffiths, A. and

Howarth, I. (1986). Teaching and

talking with deaf children.

Chichester: Wiley


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summarysummary

Enforced repetitions

Two-choice questions

Wh type questions

Personal contributions Phatics


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Caroline Bowen PhDCaroline Bowen PhDSpeech Pathology PracticeSpeech Pathology Practice

9 Hillcrest Rd9 Hillcrest Rd,, Wentworth Falls, 2782Wentworth Falls, 2782

Phone 61 2 4757 1136

Internet www.speech-language-therapy.com

e-mail [email protected]


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Adult Communicative Styles