Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-dfsvx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T11:55:59.545Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Self-repair of speech by four-year-old Finnish children*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2008

TUULI SALONEN  and
MINNA LAAKSO
TUULI SALONEN
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
MINNA LAAKSO*
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
*
Address for correspondence: Miwnna Laakso, Dept of Speech Sciences, P.O. Box 9, FI-00014University of Helsinki, Finland. e-mail: minna.s.laakso@helsinki.fi
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine what four-year-old children repair in their speech. For this purpose, conversational self-repairs (N=316) made by two typically developing Finnish-speaking children (aged 4 ; 8 and 4 ; 11) were examined. The data comprised eight hours of natural interactions videotaped at the children's homes. The tapes were analyzed using conversation analysis. The children made phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical and non-linguistic self-repairs, and also inserted additional material into their utterances. Finnish-speaking children made more syntactic and fewer morphological self-repairs than the previous research on English-speaking children suggests. Furthermore, most self-repairs were found in talk during pretend play. In designing and engaging in such play, the children skilfully used self-repair to match their talk to meet the requirements of different interactive activities and co-participants. Finally, contextual analysis of children's self-repairs showed that these were also socially motivated, and not just related to slips or errors in speech.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , September 2009 , pp. 855 - 882
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[*]

This study was supported by the Academy of Finland, grant 206607, and Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. We want to thank Tuula Savinainen-Makkonen and Jyrki Tuomainen for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

References

REFERENCES

Atkinson, J. M. & Heritage, J. (1984). Structures of social action: studies in conversation analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1982). Language change during language acquisition. In Lamb, M. & Brown, A. (eds) Advances in developmental psychology Vol. 2, 171–97. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Edwards, S., Fletcher, P., Garman, M., Hughes, A., Letts, C. & Sinka, I. (1997) [2001]. Reynell developmental language scales. Windsor: NFER-Nelson. Finnish version: Kortesmaa, M., Heimonen, K., Merikoski, H., Warma, M.-L. & Varpela, V. Helsinki: Psykologien Kustannus.Google Scholar
Evans, M. A. (1985). Self-initiated speech repairs: a reflection of communicative monitoring in young children. Developmental Psychology 21, 365–71.Google Scholar
Forrester, M. A. (2008). The emergence of self-repair: a case study of one child during the early preschool years. Research on Language and Social Interaction 41, 99–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, B., Hayashi, M. & Jasperson, R. (1996). Resources and repair: a cross-linguistic study of syntax and repair. In Ochs, E., Schegloff, E. & Thompson, S. (eds) Interaction and grammar, 185–237. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, C. & Heritage, J. (1990). Conversation analysis. Annual Reviews of Anthropology 19, 283–307.Google Scholar
Heritage, J. (1984). Garfinkel and ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Iivonen, A. (1998). Aspects of phonotactical acquisition in children. In Heinänen, K. & Lehtihalmes, M. (eds) Proceedings of the Seventh Nordic Child Language Symposium, 82–84. Publications of the department of Finnish, Saami, and Logopedics 13. Oulu: University of Oulu.Google Scholar
Jefferson, G. (1974). Error correction as an interactional resource. Language in Society 2, 181–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kärkkäinen, E., Sorjonen, M.-L. & Helasvuo, M.-L. (2007). Discourse structure. In Shopen, T. (ed.) Language typology and syntactic description, 301–371. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirk, S. A., McCarthy, J. J. & Kirk, W. D. (1968) [1974]. Illinois test of Psycholinguistic Abilities. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Finnish version: Kuusinen, J. & Blåfield, L., Psykolingvististen kykyjen testi ITPA. Reports from the Institute of Educational Research. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä.Google Scholar
Kunnari, S. & Savinainen-Makkonen, T. (2007). Finnish speech acquisition. In Mcleod, S. (ed.) The international guide to speech acquisition, 351–63. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning.Google Scholar
Laakso, M. (1997). Self-initiated repair by fluent aphasic speakers in conversation. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.Google Scholar
Laakso, M. (2006). Kaksivuotiaiden lasten oman puheen korjaukset keskustelussa [Self-repair of speech by two-year-old children in conversation]. Puhe ja kieli 26, 123–36.Google Scholar
Laakso, M., Pelkonen, O. & Renvall, K. (2003). Oman puheen korjaukset afasiasta kuntoutumisen mittarina [Self-repair as a measure of recovery from aphasia]. In Lehtihalmes, M. (ed.) Kuntoutuksen vaikuttavuus [Efficacy of intervention], 22–24. Helsinki: Publications of The Finnish Association of Speech and Language Research 35.Google Scholar
Laakso, M. & Sorjonen, M.-L. (2003). Cut-off or a particle – ways of initiating self-repair in Finnish conversation. Paper presented at Workshop on Repair, University of Helsinki, Finland.Google Scholar
Levelt, W. (1983). Monitoring and self-repair in speech. Cognition 14, 41–104.Google Scholar
Levelt, W. (1989). Speaking: from intention to articulation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
McTear, M. (1985). Children's conversation. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
McTear, M. & Conti-Ramsden, G. (1992). Pragmatic disability in children. Studies in disorders of communication. London: Whurr.Google Scholar
Rogers, R. (1978). Self-initiated corrections in the speech of infant-school children. Journal of Child Language 5, 365–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmenlinna, I. (2005). Korjauskäytänteet puheterapiakeskustelussa seitsemänvuotiaalla lapsella, jolla on kielen kehityksen erityisvaikeus [Repair practices in speech therapy conversation of a seven-year-old child with a specific language disorder]. Puhe ja kieli 25, 87–101.Google Scholar
Savinainen-Makkonen, T. (1996). Lapsen kielen fonologia systemaattisen fonologisen kehityksen kaudella [Phonology of child language in the stage of systematic phonological development]. Unpublished licentiate thesis, University of Helsinki.Google Scholar
Savolainen, T.-M. (2005). Lasten keskustelupuheessa tekemät itsekorjaukset viiden vuoden iässä [Self-repairs in the conversational speech of five-year-old children]. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Helsinki.Google Scholar
Schegloff, E. A. (1992). Repair after next turn: the last structurally provided defence of intersubjectivity in conversation. American Journal of Sociology 97, 1295–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, E. A. (1997). Third turn repair. In Guy, G. R., Feagin, C., Schiffrin, D. & Baugh, J. (eds) Towards a social science of language: papers in honor of William Labov, 31–40. Amsterdam: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, E. A., Jefferson, G. & Sacks, H. (1977). The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language 53, 361–82.Google Scholar
Scollon, R. (1979). A real early stage: an unzippered condensation of a dissertation on child language. In Ochs, E. & Schieffelin, B. (eds) Developmental pragmatics, 215–27. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Sorjonen, M.-L. (2001). Responding in conversation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sorjonen, M.-L. & Laakso, M. (2005). Katko vai eiku? Itsekorjauksen aloitustavat ja vuorovaikutustehtävät. [Cut-off or particle eiku? Ways of initiating self-repair and its functions in interaction]. Virittäjä 2, 244–70.Google Scholar
Toivainen, J. (1997). Acquisition of Finnish. In Slobin, D. I. (ed.) The crosslinguistic study of language acquisition, 87–182. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a language: a usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M., Farrar, M. J. & Dines, J. (1984). Children's speech revisions for a familiar and an unfamiliar adult. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 27, 359–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turunen, P. (2003). Production of word structures. A constraint-based study of 2 ; 6 year old Finnish children at-risk for dyslexia and their controls. Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä.Google Scholar
van Lier, L. (1998). The relationship between consciousness, interaction and language learning. Language Awareness 7, 128–45.Google Scholar
Wootton, A. (1994). Object transfer, intersubjectivity and third position repair: early developmental observations of one child. Journal of Child Language 21, 543–64.Google Scholar
Wootton, A. (1997). Interaction and the development of mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wootton, A. (2007). A puzzle about please: repair, increments and related matters in the speech of a young child. Research on Language and Social Interaction 40, 171–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar