On Children's Comprehension Of Requests-A Comparative Study

The acquisition and development of children's language are rapid and possess distinct regularities.These qualities of children's language make studies in this field especially intriguing for linguists and psychologists abroad and at home.Domestic studies on children's language have mostly focused on the features of children's language as well as its acquisition through case studies.Few investigations have been carried out to study children's language in relation to one or several kinds of speech acts.Based on Searle's(1965,1969,1979)Speech Act Theory and Blum-KulkaandOlshtain's(1984)classification of request strategies,the current study probes into 3-and 5-year-old Chinese children's comprehension of requestsand aims toanswerthe following two questions:1.What similaritiesanddifferences are there between 3-and 5-year-old Chinese childrenin comprehending direct,conventionally indirect and non-conventionally indirect requests?2.How does the non-satisfaction of the preparatory/sincerity condition influence 3-and 5-year-old Chinese children's comprehension of requests?A modified story completion task(SCT)method has been adopted to design the experiments of the present study.Two experiments have been carried out.The first experiment takes the preparatory condition,subject age and request strategies as the independent variables;while the second takes the sincerity condition,subject age and request strategies as the independent variables.A group of 20 subjects who were divided into two age groups(3-year-old group and 5-year-old group)participated in the experiments.And each experiment involves altogether 18 stories.After interpreting and comparing the experimental results,two conclusions have been drawn:(1)In terms of similarities shared by the two age groups in comprehending requests,(1)children at both ages can better comprehend direct and conventionally indirect requests than non-conventionally indirect ones.When differences are concerned,(2)one notable difference is that 5-year-oldscan better comprehend requests than 3-year-olds in general.The other conspicuous difference lies in that conventionally indirect requestsare relatively easier for 3-year-olds to comprehend than the direct ones,while 5-year-olds can easily comprehend direct as well as conventionally indirect requests.(2)From the perspective of the felicity conditions,the non-satisfaction of the sincerity conditionhas a greater negative influence on children's comprehension of requests than the non-satisfaction of the preparatory condition,which suggests that Chinese children can interpret the preparatory condition earlier and better than the sincerity condition.(1)The non-satisfaction of the preparatory condition greatly reduces 3-year-olds' appropriate responses to requestsbut has little negativeeffect on 5-year-olds' comprehension,which indicates that Chinese children start to be able to interpret the preparatory condition at 3 years old and have fully mastered this condition at the age of 5 when comprehending requests.(2)The non-satisfaction of the sincerity condition significantly reduces both age groups' appropriate responsesto requests,which makes clear that thesincerity condition can be interpreted but not be fully masteredby childrenat 5 years old or earlier.It is hoped that the findings of the present study can contribute some data to researches on children's requests and enrichthe existing studies.Meanwhile,the regularities of children's language development revealedin the present study mayhelpto facilitate communication with children and better understand children's language development.