The pear story project: Comparing speech to children with speech to adults
In many Western cultures, speech directed to children has been shown to differ consistently from speech to adults. These differences may have an impact on the way a child learns the language. So what is the situation like for Qaqet? We have used the pear story experiment to answer this question.
Experiment
We asked adults in Raunsepna to watch the pear film and to then retell it either to another adult or to one of their children. These sessions were videotaped, transcribed and translated into Tok Pisin with people from the community. Watch and listen to two examples of recordings we obtained:
Analysing the data
Watching the two videos above, it is obvious that something is different: E.g., the speaker needs a lot more time to tell the “fruit picking” and “putting fruits into baskets” scenes to her son than to her husband.
For more details, see the highlighted parts in the transcript (click to unfold):
You can observe here:
a) Using attention-getting techniques
b) Motivating her son to listen
c) Repeating herself
d) Participating in a question/answer routine
Mother: Look here! First you listen!
Mother: Later you’ll tell [your brother] S. about it!
Mother: Look here! L.!
Mother: L.! Before I looked on Savaki’s laptop… and I saw a man who climbed in order to pick fruits.
Child: Eeh… me!
Mother: Hmm?
Child: Me!
Mother: Aah, first you?
Child: Hmm.
Mother: Hmm.
Mother: He climbed to pick fruits… he climbed to pick big fruits!
Child: Really?
Mother: Hmm.
Mother: And he climbed, then he descended with the fruits. And he fills two baskets.
Child: Really?
Mother: Hmm.
All of this is typical for conversation with young children and very different from talking to adults.
Attention getting and motivation (click to unfold):
First, she needs to get his attention by calling him and motivating him: if he listens now, he can tell everything to his big brother later. Obviously, this is not necessary when talking to an adult like her husband, who knows the task and what is expected from him.
Repetition (click to unfold):
Then, while she tells her husband only once about the climbing and fruit-picking event, with her son she repeats the reference to this event three times. This is said to be typical for speech to children: more repetitions are used and much effort is made in order to get the attention of the listener and keep it on the subject of interest.
Question-Answer-Routine (click to unfold):
The question da? ‘true?’ is a typical reaction shown by many children in Raunsepna when they are attentive to adults’ talk. Also, the mother's mumbled affirmative answer is part of that exchange. Such routines are frequent in caregiver-child exchanges. They are one way of teaching children how to use the right words in the right situation, for example to make clear to an adult that they are actually listening.
Future
In the pear story project, 10 video pairs like the one above have been collected, annotated and are currently being analysed. Soon, the outcomes will tell us more about Qaqet child-directed speech and its differences from speech directed at adults.