Preschool children's conversational skills for explaining game rules: communicative guidance strategies as a function of type of relationship and gender

• Published in: European journal of psychology of education 2013-12, Vol.28 (4), p.1453-1475
• Main Authors: Sorsana, Christine, Guizard, Nathalie, Trognon, Alain
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavior; Binomials; Biological and medical sciences; Boys; Child; Child development; Children; Children & youth; Cognition & reasoning; Collaboration; Communication Strategies; Conversation; Developmental psychology; Dyadic relations; Education; Educational Psychology; Error Patterns; Error rates; Females; Friendship; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Games; Gender; Gender Differences; Girls; Humanities and Social Sciences; Interaction; Interpersonal Communication; Interpersonal Competence; Interpersonal Relationship; Males; Pedagogic Psychology; Peer Relationship; Preschool Children; Problem solving; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Social interaction; Speech acts; Verbal communication; Work Environment; Young Children
• ISSN: 0256-2928; 1878-5174
• DOI: 10.1007/s10212-013-0175-4

Ten trios of children from 4 to 6 years old were observed in a situation where one child (the expert) who had learned the rules of a game explained these rules to two other children at the same time (the novices): one with whom s/he had a positive relationship and the other with whom her/his relationship was negative. Within this asymmetrical situation created artificially, the children functioned on the basis of a complex tutorial contract. The results indicated that, at these young ages, children are capable to strongly manage three dimensions of the explanatory goal: interactional, ideational (management of the object), and linguistic. However, the errors made by the novices were regulated differently, depending on the type of relationship and gender: the experts in boy trios intervened less frequently when errors were made by the novice with whom the relationship was negative (i.e., the not-friend novice) than with the other novice; conversely, the experts in girl trios intervened less frequently when errors were produced by the novice with whom the relationship was positive (i.e., the friend novice) than with the other novice. An analysis of the communicative strategies observed here highlights early sophisticated pragmatic skills in this interactive assigned design.