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Talking to children: the effects of rate, intonation, and length on children's sentence imitation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

John D. Bonvillian ,
Vicki P. Raeburn  and
Elizabeth A. Horan
John D. Bonvillian
Affiliation:
Vassar College
Vicki P. Raeburn
Affiliation:
Vassar College
Elizabeth A. Horan
Affiliation:
Vassar College
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Abstract

Twelve nursery school children (mean age = 3; 9) attempted to imitate sentences which varied systematically in rate of presentation, intonation and length. The children more successfully imitated shorter sentences than longer ones, and sentences spoken at a rate nearer their own than sentences spoken at slower or faster rates. The imitation of long sentences read with normal intonation was superior to the imitation of long sentences read with flat intonation. Since adults frequently address children in short sentences, spoken slowly and with exaggerated intonation, these results indicate that these speech modifications may enhance the children's language comprehension.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , October 1979 , pp. 459 - 467
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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Footnotes

[*]

The authors wish to thank Bella M. DePaulo and Keith E. Nelson for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Order of the first two authors is arbitrary. Address for correspondence: John D. Bonvillian, Department of Psychology, Gilmer Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22901, U.S.A.

References

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