Argumentation, narration and explanation during mealtimes in the homes of Argentinian young children.

STEIN A.; MIGDALEK M. J.; FRANCO ACCINELLI, A.P.; ROSEMBERG C.R.; GONZÁLEZ LYNN, E.

Congreso; International Association for the Study of Child Language; 2021

IASCL

The mastery of argumentation, explanation and narration constitutes a requisite for participating in classroom activities (1). Decontextualized talk in these discourse units predicts vocabulary development, written text production and comprehension (2).● Previous research has revealed that these forms of discourse are learned at around two years of age in situations of everyday interaction (3, 4, 5), which includes mealtimes (6,7).○ Narration: narrative is a conceptual reconstruction of experience (8, 9, 10) and the first form of discourse produced by children. Previous studies with English speaking population that analysed the mothers’ role in conversations on past and future events identified they frequently assume a pragmatic style and an elaborative style (11, 12). However, these styles are not universal and vary across cultures (13, 14, 15). Furthermore, studies did not analyse the children’s participation or the roles played by the children in the conversation.Studies with Spanish speaking population in Argentina (16) identified different prompting relations between conversational narratives with other contextual or discursive entities: narratives were prompted in the conversation between participants or were produced when an object present in the context led a child to remember a past event. A relation was found between the narrative prompt and the use of linguistic resources (causal and temporal connectors).○ Explanation: studies focused on explanations have found evidence that children provide explanations and justifications of their behaviour by the second half of the second year of life (17). Explanatory speech takes place in interactive segments when the participant indicates that she did not understand something or when the speaker assumes that she knows something that the recipient needs to know (18). It was found that explanations within the framework of interactionsbetween parents of children age five mostly referred to the immediate situation and that parent mostly initiated this type of discourse units (7, 19).○ Argumentation: it is considered to occur when one point of view is questioned or rejected, meaning that it somehow has to be defended. Studies on the development of argumentative discourse in children revealed that they defend their viewpoints through some kind of argumentative formulation at around two years of age. The arguments are constructed in the interaction and are prompted by the adults. The children gradually gain autonomy in producing arguments. (20, 21, 22).● Despite these discourse units being interwoven in the natural interactions in which children are embedded, prior research on discourse development has mainly analyzed each form in isolation. Here we study the structure and interactional characteristics of narrative, explanatory and argumentative accounts interwoven in natural interactions during mealtimes at home.Despite these discourse units being interwoven in the natural interactions in which children are embedded, prior research on discourse development has mainly analyzed each form in isolation. Here we study the structure and interactional characteristics of narrative, explanatory and argumentative accounts interwoven in natural interactions during mealtimes at home.