RELATIONSHIPS, INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES, AND CHILDRENS USE OF LITERATE LANGUAGE

Background. Research in children's oral language and early literacy le arning currently stresses the facilitative role of social context. Soc ial context in this literature is typically treated on a macro-level, e.g., mother-child interaction or peer interaction. We present a more differentiated model of peer influences on children's learning one ora l language register, 'literate language'. Literate language, which pre dicts school-based literacy, is defined as talk about language and lit eracy. Aims. We suggest that children's temperament and their close re lationships, in the form of friendships, play important roles in liter ate language learning. We present separate models for friends and nonf riends and posit that literate language is learned more effectively be tween friends because of the emotional tenor of this relationship. Whe n they are with friends children, even those that might be considered 'difficult', disagree, resolve disagreements, then express emotions in dicative of social understanding. Reflection upon emotion states, in t urn, leads to literate language. Sample. The sample comprised 33 males and 23 females attending American kindergarten classes, with a mean a ge of 65 months. Methods. Dyads of same gender and race were observed 12 times across the school year during which time samples of oral lang uage were taken. Measures of children reading and writing were also co llected. Results. The data support our model, and the friendship model accounting for more of the variance in literate language (R-2=.69) th an did the nonfriend model (R-2=.43). Conclusions. Children with frien ds engage in the sort of conceptual conflict and resolutions which max imise use of literate language. This context seems particularly import ant for 'difficult' children. Future research should continue to exami ne the interface between individual and group levels variables.