A Clinical Taxonomy for the Categorization of Language Functions Used By School-Age Children in a Structured Setting

Abstract

The present study was designed to examine the pragmatic language functions used by school-age children during a structured dialogue. The structured dialogue consisted of a question-answer paradigm. Seven different questions were asked of each subject. A taxonomy consisting of ten categories was developed for the purpose of classifying the subjects' responses to the questions. The taxonomy was found to be effective in two ways: 1) the number of categories was sufficient to handle the subjects' responses to questions and 2) the interscorer reliability of the independent judges using the taxonomy was high. Results indicate the existence of both similarities and differences in the way school-age children answer questions during a structured dialogue.

Speech Act Responses of Language Impaired Children

“…For five of the questions, LI children produced the expected response at least 67% of the time. The lowest frequency of expected responses was for the question designed to evoke revisions, a result similar to that found by Klecan-Aker et al (1983). As a group the LI children produced the expected responses more often than did the normal children studied by Klecan-Aker et al (1983).…”

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The present study was designed to replicate a study of normal children in grades one through three by Klecan-Aker et al (1983), using a group of 12 language impaired (LI) children, aged 7;3 to 11;9 years. Seven questions designed to evoke specific speech acts were asked during structured dialogue, as children looked at four black-and-white pictures.

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“…Many classification systems, or taxonomies, have been developed to describe and analyze the pragmatic abilities in normal children (see reviews by Klecan-Aker, Domico, & Bothwell, 1983;and Prutting & Kirchner, 1987). These taxonomies have looked at different pragmatic functions and at different levels of language development.…”

A Study of the Language Choices of Middle School Children

“…The categories within the taxonomy were derived, in part, from Dore (1977) and Klecan-Aker, Domico & Bothwell (1983). When responses were judged to belong appropriately in more than one response category, double coding was used.…”

“…These taxonomies, although providing a way to classifying language functions, cannot be applied to all age groups since they have emerged from studies with pre-school children. The emphasis on this particular age group, although understandable, is unfortunate because we are left with a paucity of information on the expressive language abilities of the school-age child: The research that is available in this area has usually been conducted with small samples or has emphasized other.,areas of language use, such as syntactic structure (Ervin-Tripp, 1977;Keenan, 1977; Klecan-Aker, Domico & Bothwell, 1983;O'Donnell, Griffin & Norris, 1967). This research, although providing valuable information, is limited in that at present there is no systematic way to identify a variety of language functions used by school-age children.…”