ERIC Number: EJ1048365
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Jan
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-0009
EISSN: N/A
Effects of Age and Language on Co-Speech Gesture Production: An Investigation of French, American, and Italian Children's Narratives
Colletta, Jean-Marc; Guidetti, Michele; Capirci, Olga; Cristilli, Carla; Demir, Ozlem Ece; Kunene-Nicolas, Ramona N.; Levine, Susan
Journal of Child Language, v42 n1 p122-145 Jan 2015
The aim of this paper is to compare speech and co-speech gestures observed during a narrative retelling task in five- and ten-year-old children from three different linguistic groups, French, American, and Italian, in order to better understand the role of age and language in the development of multimodal monologue discourse abilities. We asked 98 five- and ten-year-old children to narrate a short, wordless cartoon. Results showed a common developmental trend as well as linguistic and gesture differences between the three language groups. In all three languages, older children were found to give more detailed narratives, to insert more comments, and to gesture more and use different gestures--specifically gestures that contribute to the narrative structure--than their younger counterparts. Taken together, these findings allow a tentative model of multimodal narrative development in which major changes in later language acquisition occur despite language and culture differences.
Descriptors: Age Differences, Language Role, Young Children, Children, Language Acquisition, Nonverbal Communication, Developmental Stages, Speech Communication, Cultural Differences, Cartoons, Discourse Analysis, Story Telling, Task Analysis, French, English, Italian, Contrastive Linguistics, Cross Cultural Studies, Narration, Skill Development, Language Skills
Cambridge University Press. The Edinburgh Building, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge, CB2 8RU, UK. Tel: 800-872-7423; Tel: 845-353-7500; Tel: +44-1223-326070; Fax: 845-353-4141; Fax: +44-1223-325150; e-mail: subscriptions_newyork@cambridge.org; Web site: http://www.cambridge.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A