ERIC Number: EJ1018605
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Sep
Pages: 38
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-0009
EISSN: N/A
Communicative Abilities in Children: An Assessment through Different Phenomena and Expressive Means
Bosco, Francesca M.; Angeleri, Romina; Colle, Livia; Sacco, Katiuscia; Bara, Bruno G.
Journal of Child Language, v40 n4 p741-778 Sep 2013
Previous studies on children's pragmatic abilities have tended to focus on just one pragmatic phenomenon and one expressive means at a time, mainly concentrating on comprehension, and overlooking the production side. We assessed both comprehension and production in relation to several pragmatic phenomena (simple and complex standard communication acts, irony, and deceit) and several expressive means (linguistic, extralinguistic, paralinguistic). Our study involved 390 Italian-speaking children divided into three age groups: 5;0-5;6, 6;6-7;0, and 8;0-8;6. Children's performance on all tasks improved with their age. Within each age group, children responded more accurately to tasks involving standard communication than to those involving deceit and irony, across all expressive means and for both comprehension and production. Within each pragmatic phenomenon, children responded more accurately to simple acts than to complex ones, regardless of age group and expressive means, i.e., linguistic or extralinguistic. Overall results fit well with the Cognitive Pragmatics theory (Bara, 2010).
Descriptors: Child Language, Language Acquisition, Pragmatics, Task Analysis, Age Differences, Communication Skills, Italian, Figurative Language, Deception, Expressive Language, Linguistic Theory, Children, Young Children
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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