Cover not available
Part of
The Acquisition of Referring Expressions: A dialogical approach
Edited by Anne Salazar-Orvig, Geneviève de Weck, Rouba Hassan and Annie Rialland
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 28] 2021
► pp. 234–260

Chapter 8
Variations in adult use of referring expressions during storytelling in different interactional settings

ORCID logo | Université de Lille
ORCID logo | Université de Neuchâtel
ORCID logo | Université de Montréal
ORCID logo | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3
ORCID logo | Université Paris 8

During the language acquisition process children experience language in different interactional settings. In terms of child-directed speech, we argue that children are exposed to different models that vary according to different factors. This chapter aims at grasping some aspects of these models, with a focus on referring expressions. Data consists of narratives in three interactional settings: mother-child interactions (Mother-to-Child context), kindergarten sessions (School context), and adults telling a story to an experimenter (Adult-to-Experimenter context). Children were aged from 3 to 7. We compared the participants’ uses of referring expressions in these three contexts and, in the Mother-to-Child context, mothers interacting with a language impaired child or not. Results show that adults’ uses of nouns and clitic pronouns vary according to the interactional setting, and that the uses of mothers and teachers when interacting with children at home or in school do not correspond to those of adults in an experimental setting.

Keywords: child-directed speech, interactional settings, joint storytelling, mothers, nouns, developmental language disorders, teachers, third-person pronouns
Article outline
  • 1.Why study the uses of referring expressions among adults?
  • 2.The diversity of models in child-directed speech
  • 3.Uses of referring expressions by mothers and teachers during joint storytelling
  • 4.Aim of the studies
  • 5.Method
    • 5.1Corpora
    • 5.2Situations and materials
    • 5.3Referents and axes of analysis
    • 5.4Statistical processing
  • 6.Variations according to the interactional setting and the status of the adult
    • 6.1Comparison of Mother-to-Child context to Adult-to-Experimenter context
    • 6.2Comparison of Home context to School context
    • 6.3Comparison of mothers of children with and without developmental language disorder
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 June 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.28.08has
References
Allen, S. E. M., Hughes, M. E., & Skarabela, B.
(2015) The role of cognitive accessibility in children’s referential choice. In L. Serratrice & S. Allen (Eds.), The acquisition of reference (pp. 123–153). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Aukrust, V. G.
(2007) Young children acquiring second language vocabulary in preschool group-time: Does amount, diversity, and discourse complexity of teacher talk matter? Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 22(1), 17–37. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bakhtin, M.
(1979/1986) Speech genres and other late essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Bamberg, M.
(1986) A functional approach to the acquisition of anaphoric relationships, Linguistics, 24, 227–284. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blanche-Benveniste, C.
(2006) Detachment constructions. In K. Brown (Ed.), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (2e ed., Vol 3, pp. 477–485). Oxford: Elsevier. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blewitt, P., Rump, K. M., Shealy, S. E., & Cook, S. A.
(2009) Shared book reading: When and how questions affect young children’s word learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101, 294–304. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bruner, J. S.
(1983) Child’s talk; learning to use language. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
(1990) Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, A. L., Brooks, P., & Tomasello, M.
(2000) Factors affecting young children’s use of pronouns as referring expressions. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 43, 1337–1349. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Canut, E. & Vertalier, M.
(2012) Lire des albums: Quelle compréhension et quelle appropriation par les élèves de maternelle? Le Français Aujourd’hui, 179, 51–66. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chevrie-Muller, C., & Plaza, M.
(2001) Nouvelles épreuves pour l’examen du langage. Montreuil: ECPA.Google Scholar
Clancy, P. M.
(1996) Referential strategies and the co-construction of argument structure in Korean acquisition. In Barbara A. Fox (Ed.), Studies in Anaphora (pp. 33–68). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. V.
(2009) First language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. V., & Bernicot, J.
(2008) Repetition as ratification: How parents and children place information in common ground. Journal of Child Language, 35(2), 349–371. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clark, H. H.
(1977) Bridging. In P. N. Johnson Laird & P. C. Wason (Eds.), Thinking: Readings in cognitive science (pp. 411–420). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Conti-Ramsden, G., & Friel-Patti, S.
(1983) Mother’s discourse adjustments to language impaired and non-language-impaired children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 48, 360–367. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Cat, C.
(2007) French dislocation: Interpretation, syntax, acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
de Temple, J. M., & Tabors, P. O.
(1994) Styles of interaction during a book reading task: Implications for literacy intervention with low-income families. Annual meeting of the National Reading Conference, San Diego, CA 30 November–3 December 1994 [URL]
de Weck, G.
(2010) Interactions adulte-enfant et troubles du développement du langage: Bilan des recherches et questions ouvertes. In J. Bernicot, E. Veneziano, M. Musiol, & A. Bert-Erboul (Eds.), Interactions verbales et acquisition du langage (pp. 151–170). Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar
de Weck, G., Hassan, R., Heurdier, J., Klein, J., & Salagnac, N.
(2021) Activities and social settings: Their roles in the use of referring expressions. In A. Salazar Orvig, G. de Weck, R. Hassan, & A. Rialland (Eds.), The acquisition of referring expressions: A dialogical approach (pp. 261–286). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (This volume). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Weck, G., & Salazar Orvig, A.
(2014) Comment des mères racontent une histoire à leur enfant? Usage des expressions référentielles dans le dialogue mère-enfant. In M. Fossard & M.-J. Béguelin (Eds.), Nouvelles perspectives sur l’anaphore: Points de vue linguistique, psycholinguistique et acquisitionnel (pp. 307–356). Berne: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
de Weck, G., Salazar Orvig, A., Rezzonico, S., Bernasconi, M., & Vinel, E.
(2019) The impact of the interactional setting on the choice of referring expressions in narratives. First Language, 39(3), 298–318. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dickinson, D. K., & Kleeber, R.
(1989) Variation in preschool teachers’ styles of reading books. Discourse Processes, 12(3), 353–375. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dickinson, D. K., & Smith, M. W.
(1994) Long-term effects of preschool teachers’ book readings on low-income children’s vocabulary and story comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 29(2), 104–122. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Florin, A.
(1991) Pratiques du langage à l’école maternelle et prédiction de la réussite scolaire. Paris: Presses universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Fossard, M., Achim, A. l. M., Rousier-Vercruyssen, L., Gonzalez, S., Bureau, A., & Champagne-Lavau, M.
(2018) Referential choices in a collaborative storytelling task: Discourse stages and referential complexity matter. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
François, F.
(1993) Pratiques de l’oral. Paris: Nathan.Google Scholar
François, F., Hudelot, C. & Sabeau-Jouannet, E.
(1984) Conduites linguistiques chez le jeune enfant. Paris: Presses universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Frier, C., Grossmann, F., & Pons, M.
(2005) Littératie familiale et lectures partagées. In C. Barré de Miniac, C. Brissaud, & M. Rispail (Eds.), La littératie: Conceptions théoriques et pratiques d’enseignement de la lecture-écriture (pp. 247–261). Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar
Gallaway, C., & Richards, B. J.
(Eds.) (1994) Input and interaction in language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Geekie, P., & Raban, B.
(1994) Language learning at home and school. In C. Gallaway & B. Richards (Eds), Input and interaction in language acquisition (pp.153–180). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grosjean, F., & Dommergues, J.-Y.
(2011) La statistique en clair. Paris: Ellipses.Google Scholar
Grossmann, F.
(1996) Enfances de la lecture: Manières de faire, manières de lire à l’école maternelle. Berne: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Hassan, R., Salagnac, N., & Vinel, E.
(2012) Formes et usages des expressions référentielles dans des séances de lecture à la maison et à l’école. 80e congrès de l’ACFAS, Montréal 7–11 mai.Google Scholar
Hickmann, M.
(2003) Children’s discourse: Person, time and space across languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hickmann, M., Schimke, S., & Colonna, S.
(2015) From early to late mastery of reference: Multifunctionality and linguistic diversity. In L. Serratrice & S. E. M. Allen (Eds.), The acquisition of reference (pp. 181–211). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, R.
(1993) Reading aloud in classroom. The Reading Teacher, 46(6), 496–503.Google Scholar
Hudelot, C.
(1999) Étayage langagier de l’enseignant dans le dialogue maître-élève. In M. Gilly, J.-P. Roux, & A. Trognon (Eds.), Apprendre dans l’interaction: Analyse des médiations sémiotiques (pp. 219–240). Nancy & Aix-en-Provence: Presses Universitaires de Nancy, Publication de l’Université de Provence.Google Scholar
(2007) The use of a functional dialogic model of verbal interaction to compare how daycare workers and teachers scaffold 3-year-old children. In L. N. Berlin (Ed.), Theoretical approaches to dialogue analysis (pp. 215–227). Tübingen: Max Niemeyer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jisa, H.
(2000) Increasing cohesion in narratives: A developmental study of maintaining and reintroducing subjects in French. Linguistics, 38(3), 591–620. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Justice, L. M., & Kaderavek, J. N.
(2003) Topic control during shared storybook reading: Mothers and their children with language impairments. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 23(3), 137–150. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A.
(1985) Language and cognitive processes from a developmental perspective. Language and Cognitive Processes, 1(1), 61–85. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kern, S., & Raffara, A.
(2012) Effet du type de support imagé sur la production du récit chez l’enfant. In R. Delamotte-Legrand & M.-A. Akinci (Eds.), Récits d’enfants: Développement, genre, contexte (pp. 97–115). Rouen: Publications des universités de Rouen et du Havre.Google Scholar
Khomsi, A.
(1982) Langue maternelle et langage adressé à l’enfant. Langue Française, 54, 93–107. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Klein, J., Jullien, S., & Fox, G.
(2021) Explorations in the relations between reference, syntactic constructions and prosody. In A. Salazar Orvig, G. de Weck, R. Hassan, & A. Rialland (Eds.), The acquisition of referring expressions: A dialogical approach (pp. xxx–xxx). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (This volume). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Makdissi, H., Boisclair, A., & Sirois, P.
(2010) La littératie au préscolaire. Une fenêtre ouverte vers la scolarisation. Québec, PQ: Presses de l’Université du Québec.Google Scholar
Marcos, H., Salazar Orvig, A., Bernicot, J., Guidetti, M., Hudelot, C., & Preneron, C.
(2004) Apprendre à parler: Influence du mode de garde. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar
Marcos, H., Salazar Orvig, da Silva-Genest, C., & Heurdier, J.
(2021) The influence of dialogue in young Children’s uses of referring expressions. In A. Salazar Orvig, G. de Weck, R. Hassan, & A. Rialland (Eds.), The acquisition of referring expressions: A dialogical approach (pp. 203–232). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (This volume). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Massey, S. L.
(2004) Teacher-child conversation in the preschool classroom. Early Childhood Education Journal, 31, 227–231. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Morrow, L. M.
(1985) Reading and retelling stories: Strategies for emergent readers. The Reading Teacher, 38(9), 870–875.Google Scholar
Nelson, K.
(2007) Young minds in social worlds: Experience, meaning, and memory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peterson, C., & McCabe, A.
(1992) Parental styles of narrative elicitation: Effect on children’s narrative structure and content, First Language, 12, 299–321. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rezzonico, S., de Weck, G., Salazar Orvig, A., da Silva-Genest, C., & Rahmati, S.
(2014) Maternal recasts and activity variations: A comparison of mother-child dyads involving children with and without SLI. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 28(4), 223–240. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rondal, J.-A.
(1978) Langage et éducation. Bruxelles: Mardaga.Google Scholar
(1983) L’interaction adulte-enfant et la construction du langage. Bruxelles: Mardaga.Google Scholar
Roser, N., & Martinez, M.
(1985) Roles adults play in preschoolers’ response to literature. Language Arts, 62(5), 485–490.Google Scholar
Salazar Orvig, A., & de Weck, G.
(2013) Profils de mères et implication des enfants dans la co-construction d’un récit. A.N.A.E., Vol. 25,(tome III, no 124), 269–278.Google Scholar
Salazar Orvig, A., de Weck, G., Hassan, R., & Rialland, A.
(2021) A dialogical approach of the acquisition and usage of referring expressions: Theoretical challenges and methodological issues. In A. Salazar Orvig, G. de Weck, R. Hassan, & A. Rialland (Eds.), The acquisition of referring expressions: A dialogical approach (pp. 1–38). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (This volume). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Salazar Orvig, A., Marcos, H., Morgenstern, A., Hassan, R., Leber-Marin, J., & Parès, J.
(2010) Dialogical beginnings of anaphora: The use of third-person pronouns before the age of 3. Journal of Pragmatics, 42(7), 1842–1865. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Salazar Orvig, A., Marcos, H., Heurdier, J., & da Silva, C.
(2018) Referential features, speech genres and activity types. In M. Hickmann, H. Jisa, & E. Veneziano (Eds.), Sources of variation in first language acquisition: Languages, contexts, and learners (pp. 219–242). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Serratrice, L.
(2005) The role of discourse pragmatics in the acquisition of subjects in Italian. Applied Psycholinguistics, 26(3), 437–462. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2008) The role of discourse and perceptual cues in the choice of referential expressions in english preschoolers, school-Age children, and adults. Language Learning and Development, 4(4), 309–332. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Skarabela, B.
(2007) Signs of early social cognition in children’s syntax: The case of joint attention in argument realization in child Inuktitut. Lingua, 117, 1837–1857. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Skibbe, L. E., Moody, A. J., Justice, L. M., & McGinty, A. S.
(2010) Socio-emotional climate of storybook reading interactions for mothers and preschoolers with language impairment. Reading and Writing, 23(1), 53–71. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Snow, C. E.
(1972) Mother’s speech to children learning language. Child Development, 43(2), 549–565. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1983) Literacy and language: Relationships during the preschool years. Harvard Educational Review, 53(2), 165–189. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sulzby, E., & Teale, W. H.
(1991) The development of the young child and the emergence of literacy. In J. Flood, J. Jensen, D. Lapp, & J. R. Squire (Eds.), The handbook of research in the teaching of the English language arts (pp. 273–285). New York, NY: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M.
(1999) The cultural origins of human cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Vander Woude, J., & Barton, E.
(2003) Interactional sequences in shared book-reading between parents and children with histories of language delay. Early Childhood Literacy, 3(3), 249–273. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vinel, E.
(2014) Comment des adultes et des enfants, âgés de 3 à 6 ans, racontent ensemble des histoires en situations familiales et scolaires (PhD dissertation). Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, Paris, France.) [URL]
Vinel, E., Salagnac, N., & Hassan, R.
(2013) Construction de la référence dans des séances de lecture dialoguée à l’école et à la maison. Paper presented at the Colloque international. L’acquisition des expressions référentielles: perspectives croisées . Paris, 25–26 October, 2013.
(2014) Expressions référentielles et reprises d’énoncés dans des dialogues adulte-enfant à l’école et en famille: une étude exploratoire. TRANEL, 60, 33–45.Google Scholar
Wood, D., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G.
(1976) The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17(2), 89–100. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zucker, T. A., Justice, L. M., Piasta, S. B., & Kaderavek, J. N.
(2010) Preschool teachers’ literal and inferential questions and children’s responses during whole-class shared reading. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25, 65–83. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 7 other publications

da Silva-Genest, Christine, Haydée Marcos, Anne Salazar-Orvig, Stéphanie Caët & Julien Heurdier
2021. Chapter 3. Young children’s uses of referring expressions. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], ► pp. 82 ff. DOI logo
Rezzonico, Stefano, Elise Vinel, Geneviève de Weck, Rouba Hassan & Nathalie Salagnac
2021. Chapter 4. Referring in dialogical narratives. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], ► pp. 116 ff. DOI logo
Salazar-Orvig, Anne & Geneviève de Weck
2021. Chapter 11. The acquisition of referring expressions. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], DOI logo
Salazar-Orvig, Anne, Geneviève de Weck, Rouba Hassan & Annie Rialland
2021. Chapter 1. A dialogical approach to the acquisition and usage of referring expressions. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], DOI logo
Salazar-Orvig, Anne, Geneviève de Weck, Rouba Hassan & Annie Rialland
2021. Chapter 1. A dialogical approach to the acquisition and usage of referring expressions. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], ► pp. 2 ff. DOI logo
Vinel, Elise, Anne Salazar-Orvig, Geneviève de Weck, Salma Nashawati & Somayeh Rahmati
2021. Chapter 10. The impact of speech genres on the use of referring expressions. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], ► pp. 288 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. Chapter 11. The acquisition of referring expressions: From formal factors to communicative experience. In The Acquisition of Referring Expressions [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 28], ► pp. 320 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.