Motherese. According to Sara Thornes mastering advanced English language. Motherese means: the altered interaction of adults towards children.

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Jonathan H 12MK                                                                                   15/01/2003

Motherese

‘Motherese’ is known as ‘Caretaker speech’ or ‘Parentese’; this is an important part of language acquisition.

According to Sara Thorne’s mastering advanced English language. Motherese means: the ‘altered interaction of adults towards children’.

Motherese is an important part of bringing up children. Because it gives children specific opportunities to take part in the discourse of speaking. In Motherese utterances are simplified; notation patterns are distinctive; extra information is given for clarification and questions invite direct participation. Adults will often expand on a child’s speech and correct what they have said, For example: A child says “where my toys gone” and the parent corrects the child saying “where have my toys gone.”

Motherese differs quite markedly from speech between two adults. In Motherese these key features are apparent:

*Vocabulary is simplified so that concrete objects are named in broad categories, for example: dog rather than spaniel or Labrador. Ball rather than football, cricket ball or tennis ball.

‘Baby words’ like doggie or moocow do not help raise, or bring up a child to learn academic English.

*Conversations are generally based on concrete things that relate directly to the childs environment.

*Sentence structures make use of pauses to stress the end of grammatical units.Certain sentence patterns occour regularly: Where is ----------?,do you want a------------?That’s plainly a-----------.

*Commands occur frequently and young children assimilate(take in information fully) and use them in their own speech.

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*Tag questions are questions added at the end of a statement inviting a response from the listener:’ Isn’t it, aren’t we? ‘-are used to invite direct participation and to encourage a child to ask for clarification if necessary. This high percentage of questions makes ‘caretaker speech distinctive.

*Repetition reinforces new words or structures and clarifies meaning.

*Parents often use a higher and wider pitch range when talking to small children, possibly because it keeps the child’s attention. The sing along sing song intervention and exaggerated stress on key words also make caretaker speech distinctive.

*The pace is often slower than ...

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