The Role of Adults in Language Development IV
Conforming not the way to go:
That only happens, of course, to the extent that the adult is sensitive and alert to the cues that the child offers. Some well-meaning parents, believing that instruction and correction are necessary for language learning, are so concerned with bringing their child’s language system and internal model of the world into conformity with their own that they fail to pick up and respond to cues from the child and, as a result, they actually make it more difficult for the child to learn. The next example illustrates how this may happen.
Thomas (age 25 months) has seen a plate of biscuits (cookies) on the table. His first utterance consists of three words, but only the third is intelligible.
Thomas: * * biscuits.
Mother: Those were got ‘specially ‘cos we had visitors at the weekend. Who came to see Tommy? Who can in a car?
Thomas: See Grannie Irene uh car.
Mother: Grannie Irene’s coming next weekend. But who came last weekend?
Thomas: Auntie Gail in a train.
Mother: Colin – Colin and Anne came in the car, didn’t they?
Thomas: Colin uh Anne. Colin uh Anne.
Mother: Yes.
Thomas: Colin uh Anne. Colin uh Anne.
Mother: Colin and Anne came in the train.
Thomas: In uh train. Auntie train.
Mother: No, not Auntie train, darling. Auntie Gail and Grannie Irene are coming on the train on Friday.
Thomas: Auntie Gail in uh train.
Mother: That’s right.
Lost original intention:
What was Thomas’ original intention? Was he merely expressing an interest in the presence of the biscuits (as his mother decides to assume), or did he perhaps want to eat one of them? We shall never know. For, instead of negotiating to find out what his intended meaning was, his mother launches into what turns out to be a quiz on the topic of which relatives came by which mode of transport on which weekend – a topic that is considerably beyond the level of complexity that a two-year-old can cope with.
Do not dominate the conversation:
Far from being collaborative, this episode is dominated by the mother, who manages the content of the conversation by means of questions and evaluations. It is almost as if she has to assess each of Thomas’ utterances to make sure that it is factually accurate and grammatically well-formed before she will allow it into the conversation. The result is that she is so concerned to ensure that Thomas should see the world from her own adult perspective that she fails to pick up his cues, and they are ignored. And, when he does volunteer an idea of his own, using the limited resources at his disposal – “Aunty train” (“Aunty cam in the train”) – far from being accepted as the basis for collaboration in the construction of a more extended understanding, his utterance is rejected and his mother’s “correct” version is substituted.
