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

Interpretation / 147

5.4 Clarification exchanges

5.4.1 Hone Conversations

In hone conversations, adults make three tines nore requests than
children, and their requests are mostly for Infornation, explanation and
action; only 12% of their requests are for clarification. Children's
requests, on the other hand, are nostly for clarification and Infornatlon
<33% and 32% respectively of all children's requests, see Annex 5.4>. If
we consider only children's questions (l.e. children's requests in
interrogative form), we find that 40.6% of all questions posed Ъу children
to adults are Clarification Hequests.

As for the type of clarification exchanges, there is no great difference
between adults and children: for both, the nost connon types are the Ion-
specific Request for Repetition (about half of all clarification requests,
see Annex 5.9) and the Confirmation or legation Reply (about one third of
all clarification replies, see Annex 5.11).

There is a vast literature on clarification exchanges between adults and
children, even if it tends to refer to young children. Generally,
clarification exchanges are treated as a repair mechanism for failed
communication or breakdowns in conversation (Cherry,1979), but Corsaro
(1977) notes that they have other functions, e.g. as markers of
acknowledgment or surprise, or they can be turn-fillers, or devices for
delaying tactics; Garvey (1979) stresses their importance as examples of
'finely engineered and co-operatively achieved production' (Garvey,1979:
372). It is this latter aspect that I will develop. Although it is
impossible to compare the frequency of clarification exchanges in my data
with that of other studies, it is certainly striking to find so often

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