Interactions between a deaf child for whom English is an additional language and his specialist teacher in the first year at school: combining words and gestures.
This paper provides a description of the interactions between a nursery-aged prelingually deaf child and his specialist teacher recorded at four consecutive time points during the first year at school. The child comes from a hearing, Somali-speaking family where English is an additional language (EAL). Using Conversation Analysis procedures, findings show how, with the teacher's support, the deaf child accomplishes 'multi-element' turns (that is, turns in which semantic referents are combined using words and gestures--'elements') within and across time points. Gestures remain an essential feature of the child's communication at all times. The teacher's prior and next turns create and support language learning opportunities for the child, and this support is continually adjusted in response to the child's turns. It is suggested that these sequences of talk are an important mechanism driving the child's learning of spoken English.
Mahon
Merle
M
Developmental Science Research Department, University College London, London, UK. merle.mahon@ucl.ac.uk
D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003638:Deafness / Q000523:psychology*; D005868:Gestures; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D012574:Schools; D013060:Speech; D013997:Time Factors