Attention to language: Lessons learned at the dinner table

The ordinary discourse of parents, and to a lesser degree young children, i ncludes a surprising amount of attention to language. The dinner table conv ersations of 22 middle class families, each with a child between 2 and 51/2 years of age, were recorded. Transcripts of these conversations were analy zed for the presence and function of language focused terms, words such as say; ask, tell, and speak. More than 11% of mothers', 7% of fathers; and 4% of children's utterances contained a language-focused term. Metalinguistic uses (e.g., reporting and commenting on speech) exceeded pragmatic uses (e .g., controlling when and how speech occurs). Mothers more than fathers, an d fathers more than children, talked about language. Mothers', but not fath ers, use of language focused terms was positively correlated with children' s use of language focused terms. The findings suggest that in the course of routine social interactions, parents provide children with potentially imp ortant information about the communicative functions of language.