Children’s Talk About Future Events. A Study In Marginalized Urban Communities Of Buenos Aires, Argentina

ROSEMBERG, C. R. STEIN A.; SILVAVA, M. L.

San Antonio, Texas

Congreso; Cognitive Development Society Sixth Biennial Meeting; 2009

Cognitive Development Society

The study is part of a research that focuses in the linguistic and cognitive development of children from marginalized urban neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The present study analyzes the interactional situations in which 4-year-old children spontaneously talk about future events with others. The data consists of 120 narratives of future events produced by 15 children (ages 4:2 to 4:11) in interactions with members of their families or their communities. Each child was observed during 12 hours and their interactions were audio-recorded. The units of analysis are interactive episodes that include a child contribution referring to a future event that consists of at least 2 utterances that are temporally and causally related. The analysis focuses on the way in which the child contribution fits functionally into the context of social interaction. It takes into account the strategies and the linguistic resources used by the children to plan the future event.