Attention to Language: Lessons Learned at the Dinner Table

Abstract

The ordinary discourse of parents, and to a lesser degree young children, includes a surprising amount of attention to language. The dinner table conversations of 22 middle class families, each with a child between 2 and 5 1 / 2 years of age, were recorded. Transcripts of these conversations were analyzed for the presence and function of language‐focused terms, words such as say, ask, tell, and speak. More than 11% of mothers’, 7% of fathers’, and 4% of children’s utterances contained a language‐focused term. Metalinguistic uses (e.g., reporting and commenting on speech) exceeded pragmatic uses (e.g., controlling when and how speech occurs). Mothers more than fathers, and fathers more than children, talked about language. Mothers’, but not fathers, use of language‐focused terms was positively correlated with children’s use of language‐focused terms. The findings suggest that in the course of routine social interactions, parents provide children with potentially important information about the communicative functions of language.