Nippold Marilyn A
Communication Disorders and Sciences, College of Education, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2009 Aug;52(4):856-71. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2009/08-0094). Epub 2009 Apr 29.
This study examined language productivity and syntactic complexity in school-age children in relation to their knowledge of the topic of discussion-the game of chess.
Children (N = 32; mean age = 10;11 [years;months]) who played chess volunteered to be interviewed by an adult examiner who had little or no experience playing chess. Children's chess knowledge and experience was assessed, and each child was classified as a novice or an expert player. Each child participated in 3 speaking tasks: General Conversation, Chess Conversation, and Chess Explanation. Interviews were audiorecorded, transcribed into Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (J. F. Miller & R. Chapman, 2003), segmented into T-units, and coded for finite clauses. Each speaking task was analyzed for total T-units; mean length of T-unit; clausal density; and nominal, relative, and adverbial clause use.
Total T-units, mean length of T-unit, clausal density, and the use of each type of subordinate clause was substantially higher in the Chess Explanation task compared with the Chess Conversation task or the General Conversation task. Compared with the novices, the experts knew more about chess, had played longer, and were stronger players. Nevertheless, the novices and experts did not differ on any of the language factors for any of the speaking tasks.
Language productivity and syntactic complexity in school-age children are strongly influenced by the speaking task. When children are presented with a motivating and challenging topic, they rise to the occasion to explain the finer details of it to a naïve adult.
本研究考察了学龄儿童的语言产出能力和句法复杂性，以及他们对讨论主题——国际象棋的了解程度。
会下国际象棋的儿童（N = 32；平均年龄 = 10岁11个月）自愿接受一名几乎没有或完全没有国际象棋经验的成人考官的访谈。评估儿童的国际象棋知识和经验，并将每个儿童分为新手或专家棋手。每个儿童参与3项口语任务：一般对话、国际象棋对话和国际象棋解释。访谈进行录音，转录成《语言转录系统分析》（J. F. 米勒和R. 查普曼，2003年），分割成T单位，并对限定从句进行编码。分析每项口语任务的总T单位、T单位平均长度、从句密度以及名词性从句、关系从句和状语从句的使用情况。
与国际象棋对话任务或一般对话任务相比，国际象棋解释任务中的总T单位、T单位平均长度、从句密度以及各类从属从句的使用都显著更高。与新手相比，专家对国际象棋了解更多，下棋时间更长，棋力更强。然而，新手和专家在任何口语任务的任何语言因素上均无差异。
学龄儿童的语言产出能力和句法复杂性受口语任务的影响很大。当向儿童呈现一个有激励性和挑战性的主题时，他们会应景地向一个外行的成年人解释该主题的更细微之处。
