Developmental Trends in the Quality of Conversation Achieved by Small Groups of Acquainted Peers

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The quality of conversation generated by small groups of 2nd graders, 5th graders, 9th graders, 12th graders, and young adults was examined. At each age, five groups of acquainted peers were constructed, and each group met with a nondirective adult leader twice a week for 12 meetings. Each group was composed of 3 females and 3 males. Members were allowed to use the time as they wished. All meetings were tape recorded, and the data for this study consisted of transcripts of the 8th meeting of each group. Each turn of talk was coded first for its relation to the topic (unrelated, tangential, minimally related, factually related and perspective related) and second as a focused turn, if applicable (agreement, disagreement, question, answer and directive). Second graders'' conversation contained the highest proportion of unrelated turns (14%) and tangential turns (23%). Fifth graders'' conversation contained the highest proportion of minimally related turns (72%). Unlike the conversation of 2nd and 5th graders, 9th graders'' conversation contained a substantial proportion of factually related turns (36%). Twelfth graders'' conversation contained a noticeable proportion of perspective-related turns (10%), and the conversation of adults contained a greater proportion (23%). The proportion of focused turns in conversation was found to be substantial and to increase as a function of age (2nd grade, 34%; adults, 52%). The proportions of agreements, questions, and answers increased with age, and questions and answers accounted for the majority of focused turns. Though support was obtained for the sequence that Piaget proposed for the development of conversation, from collective monologue to repetitive interaction sequences to factually related talk, little support was found for his hypothesis that topical coherency emerges in association with focused turns and that focused turns, especially disagreement, foster the emergence of factually related talk. Topical coherency appears to emerge as a generalization of the normative constraints applying to the rounds of talk of which repetitive sequences are composed. Factually related talk appears to emerge as evaluations fitted among rounds. Focused turns are implicated in the refinement of factually related and perspective-related talk, but not on their emergence. These results are consistent with recent research on children''s conversation, which suggests that round structure provides basic topical formats that are elaborated during development.