Characteristics of Competent Conversation

Written by Savanna Richard, University of Lethbridge BSc

 As adults, we engage in dozens of conversations per day with relative ease. When someone approaches us with a question or a comment, we are able to respond with the correct information and in a linguistically appropriate way. This ability might not seem like anything to be impressed by, but when we converse with children, it becomes apparent just how much communicative progress is made from early childhood through to adulthood. Conversational skills and development can be classified in a number of ways, two of which I will discuss further. As parents, caregivers, and community members interacting with children, there are ways that we can promote the conversational development of the children in our lives, beginning by understanding what constitutes competent conversation.

 The criteria for a “good conversation” are exceptionally difficult to define as it depends almost entirely on the context. However, Grice (1957, 1975) defined two basic rules of conversation: turn taking and being cooperative. Taking turns during verbal exchanges can be observed very early on in development as infants babble in response to an adult’s speech. In contrast, the rule of cooperativity takes much more practice and continues to require practice, even into adulthood. Grice splits this rule into four categories: quantity, quality, relation, and manner. Quantity refers to how much information is included in a response. It is often difficult to hold a conversation with a child because they only offer the bare minimum to answer the question that has been asked. Quality refers to the idea that when talking, it is expected that we respond truthfully to the best of our knowledge. A noticeable issue when talking to children is their tendency to respond off-topic, which violates the rule of relation. To hold a continuous conversation, keeping responses relevant to the topic that has been initiated is essential. Kids need time and experience to learn this. In addition to this, manner refers to the rule that information provided in conversation should be clear and avoid ambiguity. As children master these rules, they also learn to violate them in beneficial ways, such as using ambiguity to answer whether or not they have actually completed their homework. When we analyze communication from the perspective of these rules, it’s easy to see why children may struggle with maintaining conversation; there is a lot to think about! As children begin to learn these rules, they work toward sustaining dialogue, and language researchers are presented with another area of investigation.

 An utterance produced by a child can relate to the previous utterance in several ways, all of which vary in their level or category of contingency. (Bloom et al., 1976). At the most competent level, a response will be both contextually and linguistically contingent. For example, if an adult asks, “Why did you take off your shoe?” and the child responds with “Because it’s too hot,” then they have correctly addressed the question (contextual contingency) and used the right word (“because”) to answer a “why” question (linguistic contingency). It takes practice for children to learn which words are used to answer different types of question, such as responding to “where” questions with “it is…” There will likely be a stage when they are able to answer a question, but the sentence is formulated in a way that we wouldn’t consider “correct.” They will also frequently respond off topic but will still be able to start the sentence in the right way.

Adults interacting with children can encourage contingent responding by asking questions, as research has shown that children are more likely to respond correctly to a question than a non-question (Bloom et al., 1976). To maximize engagement with children in conversation, it is useful to employ “turnabouts” where the adult responds to the child’s utterance and also says something that will require another response from the child (Kaye and Charney, 1980). Paying attention to the topics of conversation initiated by children and then continuing that topic with them makes it more likely that they will keep responding and refining their skills (Hoff-Ginsberg, 1987). Although conversational skills will certainly take time to develop, we as adults can provide the framework for children to use as a reference in the construction of their speech.

References

Bloom, L., Rocissano, L., & Hood, L. (1976). Adult child discourse: Developmental interaction between information processing and linguistic knowledge. Cognitive Psychology, 8, 521-     552.

Grice, H.P. (1957). Meaning. Philosophical Review, 66, 377-388.

Grice, H.P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. Morgan (Eds.), Speech acts: Syntax and semantics (pp. 41-58). New York: Academic Press.

Hoff, E. (2014). Language Development 5th Edition. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Hoff-Ginsberg, E. (1987). Topic relations in mother-child conversation. First Language, 7, 145-     158.

Kaye, K. & Charney, R. (1980). How mothers maintain “dialogue” with two-year-olds. In D.R. Olson (Ed.), The social foundations of language and thought (pp. 211-230). New York: Norton.

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