Lenhart Michelle H, Timler Geralyn R, Pavelko Stacey L, Bronaugh Dannette A, Dudding Carol C
Radford University, VA.
James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.
Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 2022 Oct 6;53(4):1168-1176. doi: 10.1044/2022_LSHSS-21-00187. Epub 2022 Aug 19.
Syntax has been called the structural foundation of language, as its development allows for more efficient and effective communication. Complex syntax production is known to lag in children and adolescents with language impairment. Conversation, narrative, and expository language sampling contexts are recommended tools for the comprehensive assessment of school-age children, including syntactic abilities. Despite these recommendations, few studies have examined syntactic differences obtained from these three sampling contexts in a within group sample of school-age children, (i.e., ages 8-11 years). Information about similarities and differences in syntactic measures obtained from these three sampling contexts is needed to identify the optimal sampling context(s) for eliciting complex syntax.
Conversational, narrative, and expository language samples were elicited from 85 children with typically developing language ages 8;0-11;11 (years;months). Samples were transcribed and analyzed for the mean length of utterance in words and clausal density, or the number of clauses per communication unit as measured by the subordination index.
Syntactic measures differed significantly across the three sampling contexts. Namely, narrative and expository language samples elicited longer utterances and more syntactically complex language than conversation samples. Age-related differences in the syntactic measures were not detected.
Differences in syntactic measures between conversation and narrative samples and conversation and expository samples within children ages 8-11 years support use of narrative and expository contexts as the most appropriate language sampling contexts for elicitation of complex syntax in school-age children ages 8-11 years. Conversation sampling is unlikely to elicit children's capacities for complex sentence production.
句法被称为语言的结构基础，因为它的发展有助于实现更高效、更有效的交流。已知语言障碍儿童和青少年的复杂句法生成能力滞后。对话、叙事和说明性语言抽样情境是全面评估学龄儿童（包括句法能力）的推荐工具。尽管有这些建议，但很少有研究在学龄儿童（即8至11岁）的组内样本中考察从这三种抽样情境中获得的句法差异。需要了解从这三种抽样情境中获得的句法测量的异同，以确定引出复杂句法的最佳抽样情境。
从85名语言发育正常、年龄在8;0至11;11（岁;月）的儿童中获取对话、叙事和说明性语言样本。对样本进行转录，并分析其话语平均词长和从句密度，或通过从属指数测量的每个交流单位的从句数量。
三种抽样情境下的句法测量结果存在显著差异。具体而言，叙事和说明性语言样本比对话样本引出的话语更长，句法更复杂。未检测到句法测量中的年龄相关差异。
8至11岁儿童的对话样本与叙事样本以及对话样本与说明性样本之间的句法测量差异，支持将叙事和说明性情境作为引出8至11岁学龄儿童复杂句法的最合适语言抽样情境。对话抽样不太可能引出儿童的复杂句子生成能力。
