ASSESSING REFERENTIAL COMMUNICATION-SKILLS IN THE PRIMARY-SCHOOL YEARS - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY

Despite more than 25 years of research there is still dispute about th e growth curve of referential communication. It is usually maintained that this capacity is in place by 7 years of age but a few studies hav e uncovered deficits in the later stages of primary school. The issue is important given the role played by verbal information processing in education. This study examined referential communication in Italian a nd English children at 6 and 9 years, tested individually. Sex and soc io-economic status (SES) were also main variables. A sensitive scoring system allowed the effects of feedback to be examined. The group data showed that 9-year-olds were significantly better speakers than 6-yea r-olds and that Italian children produced considerably more redundancy in their descriptions. As listeners, all children handled adequate me ssages well but with ambiguous message age, sex and SES were significa nt main effects. Subject-by-subject analysis showed that less than 10 per cent of 6-year-olds and only 20 per cent of 9-year-olds were consi stently able to detect ambiguity in messages, unaided. Cultural differ ences in the ability to profit from feedback were also revealed. The i mplications of the results for theoretical positions in referential co mmunication and for the processing of verbal information in the classr oom are discussed. It is concluded that there is a strong case for dev eloping a standardized test of speaker and listener skills.