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.