CHILD-ADULT LANGUAGE INTERACTION

Child-Adult Language Interaction

Child-Adult Language Interaction

Introduction

In development of child, his/her interaction with adults, such as child's teacher, parents and other poses importance. Such interactions of child with adults play an important role in development of their personality and language. Therefore, it is critical to develop an effective interaction with child which makes him understand values such as respect and love, guidance which a child can develop throughout their development as an individual. As such, the purpose of this paper is to analyze a specific conversation among an adult and a child, which is believed to be important in child's language interaction. This analysis focuses on the language used by the child and the contribution of adults during whole conversation, with a focus centred towards the meanings of conversation which a child tries to develop, the development in language of child, the purpose for using such language, effectiveness and exchange of information, and the process of scaffolding used in the conversation (Sylva, 2010, pp. 157-170).

Context of Interaction

The conversation recorded is focused on the analysis of situation faced by a child in pre-schools: me and mother of children asking from child (Sarah) on frequently repeated incident at her school, of being bullied by her two class mates at her pre-schools. There are some parts taken from conversation in which Sarah's mother encourages her to freely speak the situation which she faces. In the second part of this conversation I confirm the incident from Sarah by asking various questions and providing her with solution over this concern. Therefore, this outline drawn from the conversation can be helpful in understanding the Sarah situation, and it also indicates that how Sarah's mother and I are able to relate to her by use of language (See appendix).

Meanings the child is trying to develop

From the selected part of conversation with the parent, child and me, it can be analysed that the objective of Sarah's mom and me was to confirm that she is being bullied by two of her classmates at pre-school. The information gained from the whole conversation neither confirms directly that Sarah is being bullied by her mates at pre-school nor it denies the fact. The other side of not telling directly to the bullying of Sarah to her mother or me may mean to fear of her due to scolding of her classmates, or the fear that they might be punished for this act, or she might have a fear that they might get revenge on this action. Sarah confirms the bullying of her classmates on her in the conversation, also at a point when she told me about the bad behaviour of her classmates and she also confirmed that sometimes they pick fight with her. In addition to this the statement given by Sarah does not confirms that Sarah is the only one in her class that is being bullied by her bullying classmates. I also analyzed that Sarah in reaction to her friends do not want to fight back with ...