Mk. Kertoy et Dk. Vetter, THE EFFECT OF CONVERSATIONAL SETTING ON TOPIC CONTINUATION IN MOTHER-CHILD DYADS, Journal of child language, 22(1), 1995, pp. 73-88
Twelve children (five boys and seven girls, mean age 4;1) interacted w
ith their mothers in two conversational settings: playing with a favou
rite toy and helping to prepare lunch or muffins. The percentage of tw
o topic continuation processes - topic incorporation and collaboration
- used by mothers and children was analysed. It was hypothesized that
the help setting with a predetermined structure would elicit a greate
r percentage of topic incorporation by the dyads than the play setting
. In fact, the play setting elicited a greater percentage of topic inc
orporation from mothers than the help setting. Children did not differ
significantly in the percentage of use of topic incorporation between
the two settings, but appeared to be equally proficient in incorporat
ing topics in settings with and without a predetermined structure. The
play setting also elicited more topic collaboration from the children
than the help setting. While the help setting appeared to support col
laborative action, the play setting permitted the dyads to be informat
ive about the toys as well as related topics. Therefore, the two setti
ngs provided different opportunities for the dyads to continue topics.