Systematicity and Variation in the Nonynative Child's Acquisition of Conversational Skills1
Year: 1979
Type: article
Abstract: This research examines the development of one conversational subsystem, turn‐allocation, in children acquiring English as a second language The purpose of the study was two‐fold to describe the devices used for turn‐allocation and to explore the role of prior experience with language in learning a second language under naturalistic conditions. Three female children, native speakers of Japanese, Finnish and Swiss German respectively; served as subjects for this month longitudinal study. The children were found to be similar in several ways including the presence of a limited number of turn‐allocation devices from the start and a general increase the use of such devices over the time period examined Some of the significant differences between them seemed due to their identifying second language properties that were congruent with features of their respective native languages. The child's use of syntactic and prosodic contrasts from her‐first language in learning a second language in discussed.
Source: Language Learning
Author: Deborah Keller‐Cohen
Institution: University of Michigan
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2040074806