TY - JOUR A1 - Lohse, Karoline A1 - Hildebrandt, Andrea A1 - Hildebrandt, Frauke T1 - Hypotheses in adult-child interactions stimulate children's reasoning and verbalizations JF - Early childhood research quarterly N2 - Adult-child interactions can support children's development and are established as predictors of program quality in early childhood settings. However, the linguistic components that constitute positive interactions have not yet been studied in detail. This study investigates the effects of hypotheses proposed by adults on children's responses in a dyadic picture-book viewing situation. In 2 experiments, adults' use of hypotheses (e.g., "Maybe this is a dwarf's door") was tested against the use of instructive statements ("This is a dwarf's door") and in combination with open questions ("What do you think, why is the door so small?"). In Experiment 1, hypotheses differed from instructions only by the modal marker "maybe". Children's responses to hypotheses were longer and contained more self-generated explanations as compared to responses to instructions. The use of hypotheses also seemed to encourage children to attach more importance to their own explanations. In Experiment 2, combining hypotheses with open-ended why questions elicited longer responses but no more self-generated explanations in children than openended questions alone. Results indicate that subtle differences in adults' utterances can directly influence children's reasoning and children's contributions to dialogues. KW - adult-child interactions KW - sustained shared thinking KW - hypotheses KW - open KW - questions Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2021.09.014 SN - 0885-2006 VL - 58 SP - 254 EP - 263 PB - Elsevier CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Küttner, Uwe-Alexander T1 - Tying sequences together with the [that’s + wh-clause] format BT - on (retro-)sequential junctures in conversation JF - Research on language and social interaction N2 - This article explores a sequence organizational phenomenon that results from the use of a loosely specifiable turn format (viz., That's + wh-clause) for launching (next) sequences while at the same time connecting back to a prior turn. Using this practice creates a sequential juncture, i.e., a pivot-like nexus between one sequence and a next. In third position, such junctures serve to accomplish seamless sequential transitions from one sequence into a next by presenting the latter as locally occasioned. The practice may, however, also be deployed in second position to launch actions that have not been made relevant or provided for by the preceding action and exhibit response relevance themselves. The sequential junctures then become retro-sequential in character: They transform the projected trajectory of the sequence in progress and create interlocking sequential structures. These findings highlight that sequence is practice, while pointing to understudied interconnections between tying and sequentiality. Data are in English. KW - answers KW - organization KW - questions KW - responses Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2020.1739422 SN - 0835-1813 SN - 1532-7973 VL - 53 IS - 2 SP - 247 EP - 270 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Behzadnia, Ali A1 - Rad, Mehdi Mehrani T1 - Young children’s activity involvement and responses to yes/no questions JF - Journal of psycholinguistic research N2 - In the present study, we investigated younger and older Persian preschoolers' response tendency and accuracy toward yes/no questions about a coloring activity. Overall, 107 three- to four-year-olds and five- to six-year-old children were asked positive and negative yes/no questions about a picture coloring activity. The questions focused on three question contents namely, actions, environment and person. As for children's response tendency, they showed a compliance tendency. That is, they provided yes and no responses to positively and negatively formed questions respectively. Children especially younger ones were more compliant toward positive questions and their tendency decreased by age. In addition, the results revealed children's highest rate of compliance tendency toward environment inquiries. Concerning response accuracy, the effects of age and question content were significant. Specifically, older children provided more accurate responses than their younger counterparts, especially to yes/no questions asked about the actions performed during the activity. The findings suggest that depending on the format and the content of yes/no questions younger and older children's response accuracy and tendency differ. KW - compliance tendency KW - response accuracy KW - suggestibility KW - yes KW - no KW - questions KW - young children Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-019-09685-4 SN - 0090-6905 SN - 1573-6555 VL - 49 IS - 3 SP - 401 EP - 414 PB - Springer CY - New York ER -