“Why? Because I’m talking to you!” Parental input and cognitive complexity as determinants of children’s connective acquisition
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Rosie van Veen
Abstract
We report a series of longitudinal studies on children’s acquisition of Dutch, English and German causal connectives supporting a model in which children’s cognitive development, parental input and the cognitive complexity of different types of causality are brought into a systematic relationship. The data reveal that less complex connectives are acquired first, and that parental connective input has both short- and long-term effects, although children are not simply parroting their parents. Audience design in connective input is not at stake: parents’ independent connective use is stable over time, but their elicited connective use increases as children grow older and start asking why-questions themselves. Still, parental why-questions are scaffolds of children’s connective use and of their ability to ask why-questions themselves.
Abstract
We report a series of longitudinal studies on children’s acquisition of Dutch, English and German causal connectives supporting a model in which children’s cognitive development, parental input and the cognitive complexity of different types of causality are brought into a systematic relationship. The data reveal that less complex connectives are acquired first, and that parental connective input has both short- and long-term effects, although children are not simply parroting their parents. Audience design in connective input is not at stake: parents’ independent connective use is stable over time, but their elicited connective use increases as children grow older and start asking why-questions themselves. Still, parental why-questions are scaffolds of children’s connective use and of their ability to ask why-questions themselves.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
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Coherence and genre
- Explicit and implicit coherence relations in Dutch texts 23
- Contrastive relations, evaluation, and generic structure in science news 53
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The signalling of coherence relations
- The coding of discourse relations in English and German argumentative discourse 87
- Resolving connective ambiguity 121
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Coherence in multimodal discourse
- Multimodal coherence research and its applications 145
- Coherence in multimodal arts installations 179
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Developmental and educational perspectives
- “Why? Because I’m talking to you!” Parental input and cognitive complexity as determinants of children’s connective acquisition 209
- (Non-)signalling of coherence structures in English learner writing 243
- Signalling coherence in Austrian students‘ seminar papers: macro- and micro-structural cues 267
- Index 293
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
-
Coherence and genre
- Explicit and implicit coherence relations in Dutch texts 23
- Contrastive relations, evaluation, and generic structure in science news 53
-
The signalling of coherence relations
- The coding of discourse relations in English and German argumentative discourse 87
- Resolving connective ambiguity 121
-
Coherence in multimodal discourse
- Multimodal coherence research and its applications 145
- Coherence in multimodal arts installations 179
-
Developmental and educational perspectives
- “Why? Because I’m talking to you!” Parental input and cognitive complexity as determinants of children’s connective acquisition 209
- (Non-)signalling of coherence structures in English learner writing 243
- Signalling coherence in Austrian students‘ seminar papers: macro- and micro-structural cues 267
- Index 293
