"¿What?", ?¿What do you mean?" A longitudinal study of the repair movements in spontaneous conversations between parents and children from Argentina

STEIN, A.; ROSEMBERG, C. R. ALAM, F.; MENTI, A.; ROCHA, G.

Congreso; IASCL 2017; 2017

IASCL

The aim of the study is to longitudinally analyze the conversational breakdowns and repair movements produced in spontaneous conversations between parents and children at home. Previous studies showed the relevance of repair practices for language development and communicative skills. Many of these studies were carried out in experimental settings with English speaking population (Corrin, 2010).The data of the present study consists of 36 spontaneous conversations during mealtime situations that were audio-recorded without the presence of an observer in the homes of 12 middle-income children from Argentina when they were 2;6, 3 and 3;6 years old. 152 repair movements were identified. The analysis combined qualitative procedures -Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) and conversation analysis (Schegloff, Jefferson & Sacks, 1977)- with quantitative longitudinal comparisons that took into account the following aspects: the origin of the breakdown, who initiated the repair movement, type of repair (simple or open class repair vs. extended and specific repair), form of the repair movement (question, assertion) and response to the repair (provide more information, affirm/deny, repeat, no response).Preliminary results showed that in the three moments considered there prevailed extended and specific repair movements that adopted the form of questions and that the children responded providing more information that contributed to restoring mutual comprehension. The analysis also showed an association between age and who initiated the repair movement (2;6 years: mother 37%, 3 years: father 48%, 3;6 years: child 37%, Chi-squared(1, N= 152) = 50, p < .001). Conceivably, repair practices observed in this population -extended and specific repair movements that adopt the form of questions- facilitate the children identifying the source of the breakdown, provide more information to solve it and, later on in development, initiate repair movements themselves.References - Corrin, J. (2010). Hm? What? Maternal repair and early child talk. In H. Gardner & M. Forrester (Eds.), Analyzing interactions in childhood. Insights from conversation analysis (pp. 23-42). Sussex: Wiley Blackwell.- Schegloff, E. A.; Jefferson, G. & Sacks, H. (1977). The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language, 53(2), 361-382.- Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.