Japanese mothers' utterances about agents and actions during joint picture-book reading.

Toshiki Murase

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00357

Abstract

This study extended the research on the scaffolding provided by mothers while reading picture books with their children from a focus on conversational styles related to labeling to a focus on those related to agents and actions to clarify the process by which language develops from the one-word to the syntactic stage. We clarified whether mothers decreased the degree of scaffolding in their initiation of conversations, in the responses to their children’s utterances, and in the choice of referential ranges of their utterances. We also investigated whether maternal conversational styles contributed to the development of their children’s vocabularies. Eighteen pairs of Japanese mothers and their children were longitudinally observed when the children were 20 and 27 months of age. The pairs were given a picture book depicting 24 animals engaged in everyday behavior. The mothers shifted their approach in the initiation of conversation from providing to requesting information as a function of their children’s age. The proportion of maternal elaborative information-seeking responses was positively correlated with the size of their children’s productive vocabulary. In terms of referential choices, mothers broadened the range of their references as their children aged. In terms of the contribution of maternal conversational styles to children’s vocabulary development, the use of a maternal elaborative information-seeking style when the children were 20 months of age predicted the size of the children’s productive vocabulary at 27 months. These results indicate that mothers decrease the degree of scaffolding by introducing more complex information into the conversations and transferring the role of actively producing information to their children by requesting information as their children develop. The results also indicate that these conversational styles promote the development of children’s vocabularies during the transition from the one-word to the syntactic stage.

Highlights

During the second year of life, children experience remarkable linguistic development, rapidly increasing their vocabulary and beginning to produce word combinations
This study investigated how Japanese caregivers change their verbal referential choices in utterances directed at their children during joint picture-book reading
Based on the norms of the Japanese MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (JCDI), which show that the median size of the productive vocabulary size of 20-month-old boys is 63 and that that of 20-month-old girls is 95, we studied children of this age because they have a substantial productive vocabulary (Watamaki and Ogura, 2004)

Summary

Introduction

During the second year of life, children experience remarkable linguistic development, rapidly increasing their vocabulary and beginning to produce word combinations. Whitehurst and colleagues demonstrated the effects of dialogic reading on vocabulary development (Arnold and Whitehurst, 1994). Speech by caregivers during joint picture-book reading has been shown to support children’s language development. In this context, caregivers demonstrated greater lexical diversity, syntactical complexity, and more frequent topic-continuing responses (Hoff-Ginsberg, 1991) and focused more on labeling than they did in other situations (Tardif et al, 1999; Choi, 2000). Conversations between caregivers and children were characterized by attempts to attract the attention of the other party, requests for information, labeling, and feedback (Ninio and Bruner, 1978; DeLoache and DeMendoza, 1987)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion