Content area
Abstract
This study combines both descriptive, qualitative analyses of caregiver-child interaction and fine-grained, quantitative analyses of the communicative intentions expressed in conversations between caregivers and their children in two cultural settings. Participants in the study were 10 James Bay Cree families from the northern Quebec communities of Eastmain and Wemindji and 10 Mainstream families from the greater Montreal area. Data were derived from several sources including two-hour videotaped samples of naturalistic caregiver-child interaction, interviews of the caregivers, and informal observation notes. The data from all sources were compared and contrasted to produce qualitative descriptions of the normative structure of caregiving, caregiving activities, and communicative interaction in the two cultural settings. Transcripts of the videotaped data were coded for communicative intention using the Inventory of Communicative Acts - Abridged (Ninio et al., 1994) and were analyzed quantitatively to permit direct cross-cultural comparison of the communicative interaction in the Cree and Mainstream cultures. Three continua of variation between the two cultures in the style of communicative interaction emerged from the qualitative analyses: reactive vs. interactive, comprehension vs. elicitation, and directive vs. child-centred. Comparisons of the communicative intentions expressed in caregiver-child interactions revealed both similarities and differences between the two cultures. The patterns of communicative interaction and the distribution of communicative intentions reflected differences in the structure of caregiving and the stated beliefs and values of the caregivers in the two cultural groups. The implications of the findings for the social interaction theory of language acquisition are discussed.
