Discourse Patterns in First Language Use at Hcme and Second Language Learning at School: an Ethnographic Approach

Interpretation / 140

initiated by adults; only 38% of conversations and and 27% of units
within conversations are initiated by children addressing an adult (see
Annex 5.10). Conversations are also mainly sustained by adults: about two
third of adults' utterances perform a sustaining r□le_l while less than
one third of children's utterances do (see table 5.8). Sustaining
utterances are considered those in Initiating, Bequest and Confirnation
Moves, while utterances in Reply Moves are non-sustaining ones;
utterances concluding a unit or a CS were not included (see Definitions,
page 104).

see also Annex 5.5

Sustaining and Mon-sustaining Utterances by Speaker in CSs

Adult to Child              Child to Adult

as Percentage of the Total Mo. of Utterances

This classification, however, is insufficient to give the whole picture,
and one has to consider Moves as well as utterances. There are Reply
Moves which consist of requests, i.e. when the addressee responds with a
request (10% of all utterances, with no difference in absolute number of
occurrences between adults and children, see Annexes 5.6 and 5.7). This
type of Move shifts the addressee from the role of responder to that of
questioner for that particular exchange. It is interesting to note here
again how the function of the utterance relates to dominance: requests in
Reply Moves are mostly Bequests for Clarification and Acknowledgment, and
as such they do not question dominance, prompting the other speaker to
respond with a Clarification Beply and resume his sustaining role. This
happens for both adults and children, and it is quite common for a child

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