Early Talk Research Articles

Language and children's understanding of knowledge: Epistemic talk in early childhood

Research on children's theory of mind often restricts conceptually meaningful talk about knowledge to instances where know references a corresponding mental state. This article offers a reappraisal of that view. From a social‐pragmatic perspective, even nonreferential talk is meaningful when appropriately embedded in social routines. A synthesis of corpus data suggests children's early talk about knowledge routinely occurs in question–answer contexts. It is argued that the influence of interrogative contexts is evident in children's over‐attributions of knowledge when someone is only guessing. This influence is taken as evidence for the role of linguistic practices in shaping the concept of knowledge.

Nikos Kazantzakis’ Unshot Adaptations of Don Quixote and Decameron

This article examines two of Nikos Kazantzakis’ unshot screenplays of the early 1930s: his adaptations of Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Boccaccio’s Decameron, kept in typed manuscripts at the Nikos Kazantzakis Museum Foundation in Iraklion, Crete. The article analyses Kazantzakis’ Don Quixote and Decameron in the contexts of early talking cinema and his ideas of the image-language relationship. Written at a time when the artistic value of talking cinema was still debated, Kazantzakis’ adaptations demonstrate that he sought to express ideas with images rather than dialogue (Don Quixote) and use sound as a creative element (Decameron) in ways alluding to Eisenstein’s 1928-1929 writings, with which, as evidence suggests, the Greek author was familiar. Thus, Kazantzakis’ Don Quixote and Decameron show how a technological development in film history – the coming of sound – and the Soviet film theory influenced this author’s adaptation techniques, while also enhancing our understanding of his creative career as well as the worldwide resonance of Cervantes’ and Boccaccio’s literary milestones.

Cross-Linguistic Investigation of Projection in Overlapping Agreements to Assertions: Stance-Taking as a Resource for Projection

The human ability to anticipate upcoming behavior not only enables smooth turn transitions but also makes early responses possible, as respondents use a variety of cues that provide for early projection of the type of action that is being performed. This article examines resources for projection in interaction in three unrelated languages—Finnish, Japanese, and Mandarin—in sequences where speakers make evaluative assertions on a topic. The focus is on independently agreeing responses initiated in early overlap. Our cross-linguistic analysis reveals that while projection based on the ongoing turn-constructional unit relies on language-specific grammatical constructions, projection based on the larger context seems to be less language-dependent. A crucial finding is that in the target sequences, stances taken toward the topic already during earlier talk, as well as other structural patterns, are among the resources that recipients use for projecting how and when the ongoing turn will end.

The origins of higher-order thinking lie in children's spontaneous talk across the pre-school years

Higher-order thinking is relational reasoning in which multiple representations are linked together, through inferences, comparisons, abstractions, and hierarchies. We examine the development of higher-order thinking in 64 preschool-aged children, observed from 14 to 58 months in naturalistic situations at home. We used children's spontaneous talk about and with relations (i.e., higher-order thinking talk, or HOTT) as a window onto their higher-order thinking skills. We find that surface HOTT, in which relations between representations are more immediate and easily perceptible, appears before—and is far more frequent than—structure HOTT, in which relations between representations are more abstract and less easy to perceive. Child-specific factors (including early vocabulary and gesture use, first-born status, and family income) predict differences in children's onset (i.e., age of acquisition) of HOTT and its trajectory of use across development. Although HOTT utterances tend to be longer and more syntactically complex than non-HOTT utterances, HOTT frequently appears in non-complex utterances, and a substantial proportion of children achieve complex utterance onset prior to the onset of HOTT. This finding suggests that complex language is neither necessary nor sufficient for HOTT to occur; other factors above and beyond complex linguistic skills are involved in the onset and use of higher-order thinking. Finally, we found that the trajectory of HOTT, particularly structure HOTT—but not complex utterances—during the preschool period predicts standardized outcome measures of inference and analogy skills in grade school, which underscores the crucial role that this kind of early talk plays for later outcomes.

Reading and Analyzing Ottoman Manuscripts: 3–8 September 2018, Ankara

Reading and Analyzing Ottoman Manuscripts 3–8 September 2018, Ankara Matthew Ghazarian Archives are powerful but seductive; they inform and misinform. These were ideas broached at the “Reading and Analyzing Ottoman Manuscripts,” workshop hosted in Ankara in September 2018. The program aimed to show participants the pleasures and pitfalls of Ottoman archives. It follows two similar programs in Amman (2016) and Beirut (2017). At the 2018 edition, participants compared experiences, learned about dozens of manuscript collections, and critically contemplated their contents. The bulk of the program was comprised of talks, reading groups, and tours of archives and libraries. The program opened with panels and talks, which were also peppered throughout the following days. Speakers addressed two major questions—“Where do I start?” and “How can we trust archives, anyway?” Yonca Köksal talked about the contents of the Presidential State Archives (Cumhurbaşkanlık Devlet Arşivleri, formerly the Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi), especially collections pertaining to nineteenth-century Ottoman reforms and their ramifications in the provinces. Mark Aymes, Norig Neveu, and Metin Atmaca, meanwhile, formed a panel to discuss the collections available to researchers in Greece and Cyprus, Jordan, and Iraq, respectively. Other speakers also offered their takes on how to use specific collections. Mustafa Alkan described sources available in the archives of the General Directorate of Pious Foundations (Vakıflar Müdürlüğü), and Evgeni Rad-shev presented on tahrir and other sources from the early modern Ottoman Balkans and Bulgaria. Others focused on method. Özer Ergenç presented on approaches for using Ottoman primary sources, and Oktay Özel gave a broad overview of the kinds of archives available in Turkey and how to utilize them. He discussed at length the trap of collections that appear open but are in fact redacted. All of the speakers offered anecdotes, tips, and basic information about researching in, traveling to, and accessing collections relevant to Ottoman and Middle Eastern history. [End Page 245] Although they also questioned the archive’s constitution and authority, earlier talks were geared more toward describing where and how to conduct research. Later talks dwelled more on questions than answers. Füat Dündar, Christine Jungen, and Abdul-Hameed Al-Kayyali, for example, raised issues of power, memory, and identity when dealing with state collections. What makes Arab archives Arab, and what kinds of Ottoman pasts can we find within them? What Armenian or Palestinian histories can emerge from archives constructed and policed by Turkish or Israeli officials? How does the presence of such archives continue to shape the possibility of writing histories of Turkey, Israel, and the Middle East? They also raised questions about the kinds of knowledge production—oral, for instance—that are rarely captured and preserved in the archive. The reading groups formed the bread and butter of the program, meeting for six separate hour-long sessions spread across three days. Split into ten-person sections with a few instructors, they provided a space for participants to compare experiences reading, translating, and analyzing Ottoman documents. Discussions touched on everything from paleography to poetics. These reading groups offered a chance for participants to glance at and discuss, even briefly, a broad sampling of documents from former Ottoman realms. Participants looked at fifteenth-century letters, sixteenth-century poetry, and seventeenth-century pious foundation registers (vakıf defterleri), in addition to eighteenth and nineteenth-century state papers. Unfortunately, these were brief encounters, not committed engagements: the summer school was five days, not five weeks. Holding the program in Ankara offered the chief advantage of the city’s many archival collections, which include a digital copy of Ottoman collections held in Istanbul’s Presidential State Archives. With over forty million sorted documents, and over forty-five million unsorted documents, it is by far the largest collection of Ottoman materials in this country and likely anywhere in the world. Still, the summer school made a convincing case for all researchers—not just those of the Turkish Republic—to take a trip to Ankara for the collections held only there. Some of these were run by state-funded institutions including: • State Archive General Directorate (Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü) • General Directorate of Pious Foundations (Vakıflar Genel...

Mechanical Speech Synthesis in Early Talking Automata

Mechanical Speech Synthesis in Early Talking Automata

Adopting an unknowing stance in teacher–child interactions through ‘I wonder…’ formulations

ABSTRACTTeachers’ interactional practices shape children’s displays of knowledge. Teachers often rely on direct interactional devices, such as questions, to call for knowledge displays from children. However, case examples suggest that interactional strategies that downgrade teachers’ expert status, such as ‘I wonder…’ formulations may enhance child agentic participation. From 170 h of video-recorded classroom interactions across nine sites, 81 h were of teachers interacting with children (aged 3.5–5 years). This corpus of interactions was examined to explicate how teachers use ‘I wonder…’ formulations in their interactions with children. Drawing on the analytic resources of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, we found that this formulation worked to disrupt teachers’ institutionally ascribed expert status and provided children with interactional spaces to display their own knowledge.The ‘I wonder…’ strategy is presented as an interactional tool for teachers to draw upon to (i) elicit children’s displays of knowledge and (ii) follow-up when children have stayed silent or shown hesitancy during earlier talk. Fine-grained investigations of teacher-child talk enable the explication of interactional strategies that enrich communication and learning strategies in classrooms.

Language Experience in the Second Year of Life and Language Outcomes in Late Childhood.

Quantity of talk and interaction in the home during early childhood is correlated with socioeconomic status (SES) and can be used to predict early language and cognitive outcomes. We tested the effectiveness of automated early language environment estimates for children 2 to 36 months old to predict cognitive and language skills 10 years later and examined effects for specific developmental age periods. Daylong audio recordings for 146 infants and toddlers were completed monthly for 6 months, and the total number of daily adult words and adult-child conversational turnswere automatically estimated with Language Environment Analysis software. Follow-up evaluations at 9 to 14 years of age included language and cognitive testing. Language exposure for 3 age groups was assessed: 2 to 17 months, 18 to 24 months, and ≥25 months. Pearson correlations and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted. Conversational turn counts at 18 to 24 months of age accounted for 14% to 27% of the variance in IQ, verbal comprehension, and receptive and/or expressive vocabulary scores 10 years later after controlling for SES. Adult word counts between 18 and 24 months were correlated with language outcomes but were considerably weakened after controlling for SES. These data support the hypothesis that early talk and interaction, particularly during the relatively narrow developmental window of 18 to 24 months of age, can be used to predict school-age language and cognitive outcomes. With these findings, we underscore the need for effective early intervention programs that support parents in creating an optimal early language learning environment in the home.

The impact of the Promoting Early Number Talk project on the development of abstract representation in mathematics

ABSTRACTIt is widely acknowledged that the transition from informal, everyday knowledge to formal, school-taught knowledge is a critically important stage in children's mathematical development. Research highlights the importance of making connections between the different representations of mathematics and the value of children's own mathematical graphics in bridging the gap between the concrete and the abstract. The Promoting Early Number Talk project explored the effect of ‘Number Talk’ – a resource book to support the development of early number – on teaching and learning in five Year 1 primary school classes in Northern Ireland. This article investigates the impact of the project on the development of abstract representation in mathematics. Findings demonstrate an increased appreciation of the importance of social interaction and the potential value of children's own mathematical graphics. It is recommended that greater prominence is given to the development of children's own mathematical graphics both within curriculum policy and classroom practice.

Early talk boost: A targeted intervention for three year old children with delayed language development

Pre-school education has been greatly expanded in the United Kingdom in the last two decades and further expansion is planned. Its provision allows parents to take up employment thus increasing family incomes and it is expected to narrow the gap between socially disadvantaged children and their peers. The latter is important as studies have shown that many children start school with poor language skills which threaten their attainment. Studies of the effects of pre-school education on the progress of disadvantaged children have shown inconsistent results and nurseries have been criticised by Ofsted for failing to prepare children for school entry. Nurseries and their staff have been found to vary in quality and in the level of qualifications they have. The provision of evidence based programmes which nursery staff may be trained to use may represent one means of improving their ability and improving the outcomes for pre-school children. We report an effectiveness study of Early Talk Boost a programme for use by nursery staff to improve language skills in three year olds. Nurseries were randomly assigned to use the programme or to act as waiting controls (who received the intervention in the following term). Children were assessed before and three months later after the completion of the programme. The progress of treated and control children differed significantly. Age equivalent scores showed treated children had gained 4.93 months, control children had gained only 2.33 months. We conclude that Early Talk Boost can be effective in advancing the language skills of socially disadvantaged children and improve their school readiness.

‘I Don't Know’: Children's Early Talk About Knowledge

AbstractChildren's utterances from late infancy to 3 years of age were examined to infer their conception of knowledge. In Study 1, the utterances of two English‐speaking children were analysed and in Study 2, the utterances of a Mandarin‐speaking child were analysed – in both studies, for their use of the verb know. Both studies confirmed that know and not know were used to affirm, query or deny knowledge, especially concerning an ongoing topic of conversation. References to a third party were rare. By implication, 2‐year‐olds have a conception of knowledge that underpins their exchange of information in conversation. Implications for the child's developing theory of mind are discussed.

America and Europe: The Two Worlds of Józef Wittlin

Abstract Józef Wittlin was born near Lvov, and then from the 1920s stayed in Łódź and Warsaw, as well as various locations in Italy, France, and Yugoslavia. In 1939 he left Poland and in 1941 settled in the United States. After this, his life and work were marked by a clear tension between Europe and America. He definitively assessed the achievements of European culture positively, especially when it came to such countries as France, Italy, and Spain. In his published essays on the United States he appreciated the democratic achievements of this country, the freedom of speech, and its prosperity. At the same time, in his private letters and notebooks he wrote very critically about life in America. There is no doubt, however, that with the prolonged period of emigration, and finally the decision to stay overseas, the attitude of the writer to the country in which he settled evolved. While his essays published in the early 1940s talk about his unquenchable longing for Europe, those from the 1950s show the invigorating impact of its culture on the shape of America and the importance of the American gains for Europeans. Europe and America are, therefore, two cultural areas between which Wittlin remained torn, but which he also wanted to creatively reconcile in himself as well as in his writings, and was looking for the possibilities for their mutual enrichment.

The ‘moral duty’ of public covenanting in the ante-bellum United States: New-World exigencies, Old-World response

Two small traditionally Calvinist denominations which united in 1858 to create the United Presbyterian Church of North America failed to merge in the early 1820s. In the earlier talks, significant doctrinal similarities highlighted irreconcilable points of difference among these American churches built largely by Irish immigrants. Negotiators especially differed over covenanting. Sharply differing doctrinal emphases helped define denominational distinctions in appealing to immigrants and their children as they considered competing strategies of assimilation into American life.

The challenges of evaluation: assessing Early Talk's impact on speech language and communication practice in children's centres

This paper describes the findings of a qualitative evaluation of an early years' intervention, I Can's Early Talk (ET) programme. ET was designed to improve speech, language and communication outcomes for children aged 0–5 by focusing on enhancing practitioners' knowledge and skills. The research focused on children aged 3–4 years and was conducted in 14 Sure Start Children's Centres across England, using a combination of observations and interviews with practitioners, centre managers and local authority staff, along with a questionnaire survey of parents. Findings revealed improvements in practitioners' confidence and practice as a result of participating in the programme. The results also suggest that participating practitioners felt their capacity to understand and reflect on how to support children's speech, language and communication improved, particularly in the children's centres which had been accredited for over six months. ET was also found to offer a balance of support and challenge which consolidated and extended good practice and identified areas for development where practice was less effective. In addition, some of the challenges, which characterised and ultimately enhanced the research process, are described.

Earlier Talks Deter Aggressive Care of Terminal Patients

Earlier Talks Deter Aggressive Care of Terminal Patients

Developing European Library Services in Changing Times

The purpose of this article is to explain what academic and national libraries can do to continue to offer services and facilities at a time of economic difficulties. It identifies a number of methodologies and opportunities that are open to libraries and takes the view that it is never wise to waste a good crisis, because all threats are really opportunities in disguise. The kernel of this paper was delivered at the 10th Anniversary special EISZ Consortium Members’ Meeting on 2 December 2011, in Budapest, Hungary. It builds on an earlier talk delivered in Thessaloniki, Greece, on 14–15 November 2011 at the 20th Pan-Hellenic Academic Libraries Conference, entitled ‘Academic Libraries and Financial Crisis: Strategies for Survival’. Both these presentations are available in UCL Discovery. This article draws on themes used in both presentations, and introduces a new one on the topic of copyright reform. The article looks at the initial economic context for European research libraries and then examines ways in which libraries can tackle the threats which the current financial crisis poses. Joint procurement is one way in which libraries can achieve value for money, and the paper examines the role of JISC Collections in the UK. Innovation through collaboration and shared services are also ways in which libraries can innovate/make savings in a cost-effective way by sharing the burden of costs around the partnership. The paper gives two examples: one which is now well established, the DART-Europe portal for Open Access e-theses; and one which is in the early stages of being discussed — a cloud-based solution for true collaborative cataloguing amongst the UK’s research and national libraries. The European Research Area (ERA) and the contributions that libraries can make to this infrastructure through innovative EU project funding are analysed in some detail by looking at LIBER’s EU project portfolio. Finally, change and growth can come through changes to legal frameworks, and the paper looks at the Hargreaves review of copyright frameworks in the UK and the launch of the new library-based EU lobbying group for copyright reform, Information Sans Frontières (ISF).

Communication Between Early Educators and Parents who Speak English as a Second Language A Semantic and Pragmatic Perspective

In this article, we discuss communication between early educators speaking their native language and parents who speak English as a second language. Parents who may have a limited proficiency in the second language face challenges to understanding semantic and pragmatic aspects of English. Actual early childhood conference talk in which parents were speaking English as a second language will illustrate potential difficulties to listening comprehension and communication. Additionally, semantics and pragmatics will be used as a framework for recommending strategies to facilitate these parents’ ability to comprehend and communicate during discussions with early educators.

A linguistic perspective on communication with parents who speak English as a second language: phonology, morphology and syntax

In this article, we take a linguistic perspective to support effective communication between early educators and parents who speak English as a second language and may have limited English proficiency. Positive communication and partnerships are recognised as important for the education of young children. Because early educators may be unaware of the challenges faced by parents who speak English as a second language, we first delineate complexities of second language processing. Next, we draw on actual parent–early educator talk to highlight potential difficulties in understanding English phonology, morphology and syntax for parents who speak English as a second language. Subsequently, we provide research‐based recommendations for early educators to facilitate communication with parents who speak English as a second language.

Supporting Early Talk

Most practitioners will need specialist training if they are to help children develop communication skills, whether verbal, visual or written, which is why programmes, such as Early Talk are so important.

Containing Dialogue: The British Government and Early Talks in the Northern Ireland Peace Process

This article examines the role of the British government in talks with republicans and loyalists during the early stages of the Northern Ireland peace process. Since the priority of both the British and Irish governments was to draw paramilitary groups away from violence towards the political process, it was necessary to engage representatives of those groups in dialogue and demonstrate that political goals were more likely to be achieved through debate than violence. Drawing from interviews with key British government figures involved in talks at that time, this study identifies how the British sought to draw republicans and loyalists into the political process and how dialogue was used to assist the development of political representation within paramilitarism.