Toy talk: A simple strategy to promote richer grammatical input

Walsh, Kathleen M.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/16862 Copy

Description

Title

Toy talk: A simple strategy to promote richer grammatical input

Author(s)

Walsh, Kathleen M.

Issue Date

2010-08-20T18:00:13Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Hadley, Pamela A.

Department of Study

Speech & Hearing Science

Discipline

Speech & Hearing Science

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.A.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• morphosyntax
• late talking toddlers
• Grammar
• input
• acquisition

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the current study was to determine whether brief instruction on toy talk, a language facilitation technique designed to increase the use of 3rd person subjects, would change properties of adult language input that could potentially promote syntactic analysis and grammatical growth in children. Method: Eighteen adults participated. All adults worked with or were interested in working with young children. The use of 3rd person subjects was examined before and after instruction on two simple strategies (i.e. talk about the toys and give the item its name). Change in input informativeness for tense marking and the association of subject types (pronominal vs. lexical noun phrase) and contractible versus uncontractible uses of copula/auxiliary is and auxiliary has in contractible contexts was also examined. In contractible contexts, it is possible to contract, but it is not required. These characteristics of the adult input were not taught as part of the instruction. Results: Statistically significant increases were observed following instruction for (a) use of 3rd person subjects [t(17) = -5.959, p < .001], (b) input informativeness for tense [t(17) = -3.960, p = .001], and (c) use of lexical noun phrases in contractible copula/auxiliary contexts [t(17) = -5.077, p = .001]. However, only 8 out the 18 participants demonstrated a significant association between subject type and use of contractible/uncontractible forms. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that adults can learn simple strategies and implement them with relatively brief instruction. The strategies can be incorporated into general language enrichment programs as well as family-focused early intervention. In addition, adult use of these simple strategies (i.e., talk about the toys and give the item its name) results in more informative grammatical input that may support children’s morphosyntactic learning without any additional instruction.

Graduation Semester

2010-08

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/16862

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2010 Kathleen M. Walsh

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