Young children’s multimodal participation in storytelling
Analysing talk and gesture in Japanese family interaction
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/rcsi.37284Keywords:
conversation analysis, gesture, Japanese children, participation framework, storytellingAbstract
In what ways do young children use talk and gesture to participate in conversational storytelling with family members? This paper addresses this question by examining the interactions between Japanese-speaking children (ages one year and ten months to two years and five months) and their parents at the dining table. In focusing on children’s use of talk and gesture in inhabiting the dynamic and shifting roles of ‘recipient’ and ‘speaker’, the analysis shows how children (1) display their understanding of parents’ tellings and (2) animate the activities, social actions, and stances of characters (self and other). It also shows how parents respond to children’s talk and gesture, through practices such as alignment, assessment and repair. The findings shed light on children’s multimodal participation in conversational storytelling, and their abilities to engage in action and make relevant contributions to interaction.
References
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Aukrust, V.G. & Snow, C.E. (1998). Narratives and explanations during mealtime conversation in Norway and the U.S. Language in Society, 27, 221-246.
Beals, D. & Snow, C.E. (1994). “Thunder is when the angels are upstairs bowling”: Narratives and explanations at the dinner table. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 4(4), 331-352.
Blum-Kulka, S. (1997). Dinner talk: Cultural patterns of sociability and socialization in family discourse. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ.
Brown, P. (2012). The cultural organization of attention. In A. Duranti, E. Ochs & B.B. Schieffelin (eds.), The handbook of language socialization(pp. 29-55). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Burdelski, M. & Mitsuhashi, K. “She thinks you’re kawaii”: Socializing affect, gender, and relationship in a Japanese preschool. Language in Society, 39(1), 65-93.
Burdelski, M. & Morita, E. (2017). Young children’s initial assessment in Japanese. In A. Bateman & A. Church (eds.), Children and knowledge: Studies in conversationanalysis (pp. 231-255). Singapore: Springer.
Filipi, A. (2017a). The emergence of story-telling. In A. Bateman & A. Church (eds.), Children’s knowledge-in-interaction: Studies in conversation analysis(pp. 279-295). Singapore: Springer.
Filipi, A. (2017b). Exploring the reconisability of early story-telling through an interactional lens. Research on Children and Social Interaction, 1(2), 141-163.
Fung, H., Miller P.J. & Lin L-C. (2004). Listening is active: Lessons from the narrative practices of Taiwanese families. In M.W. Pratt & B.H. Fiese (eds.), Family stories and the life course: Across time and generations (pp. 303-323). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Goffman, E. (1975). The presentation of self in everyday life. Harmondsworth:Penguin Books.
Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Goodwin, C. (2000). Action and embodiment within situated human interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 32(10), 1489-1522.
Goodwin, C. (2007). Interactive footing. In E. Holt & R. Clift (eds.), Reporting talk: Reported speech in interaction (pp. 16-46). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goodwin, C. (2018). Co-operative action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goodwin, C. & Goodwin, M.H. (1992). Assessments and the construction of context. In A. Duranti & C. Goodwin (eds.), Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon (pp. 147-190). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goodwin, C. & Goodwin, M.H. (2004). Participation. In A. Duranti (ed.), A companion to linguistic anthropology(pp. 222-243).Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Goodwin, M.H. & Goodwin, C. (1986). Gesture and coparticipation in the activity of searching for a word. Semiotica, 62(1/2), 51-57.
Hayashi, M. (2003a). Language and the body as resources for collaborative action: A study of word searches in Japanese conversation. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 36(2), 109-141.
Hayashi, M. (2003b). Joint utterance construction in Japanese conversation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Heath, C., Hindmarsh, J. & Luff, P. (2010). Video in qualitative research: Analysing social interaction in everyday life. Los Angeles: Sage.
Heath, S.B. (1984). Ways with words: Language, life and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hickmann, M. (1993). The boundaries of reported speech in narrative discourse: Some developmental aspects. In J. A. Lucy (ed.), Reflexive language: Reported speech and metapragmatics (pp. 63-90). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hoey, E. & Kendrick, K.H. (2018). Conversation analysis. In A.M.B De Groot & P. Hagoort (eds.), Research methods in psycholinguistics and the neurobiology of language: A practical guide(pp. 151-173). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Hutchby, I. & O’Reilly, M. (2010). Children’s participation and the familial moral order in family therapy. Discourse Studies, 12(1), 49-64.
Jacoby, S. & Ochs, E. (1995). Co-construction: An introduction. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 28(3), 171-183.
Jefferson, G. (1978). Sequential aspects of storytelling in conversation. In J. Schenkein (ed.), Studies in the organization of conversational interaction(pp. 219-248). New York: Academic Press.
Kendon, A. (2004). Gesture: Visible action as utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lerner, G., Zimmerman, D. & Kidwell, M. (2011). Formal structure of practical tasks: A resource for action in the social life of very young children. In J. Streeck, C. Goodwin & C. LeBaron (eds.), Embodied interaction: Language and the body in the material world(pp. 44-58). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Levy, E.T. & McNeill, D. (2015). Narrative development in young children: Gesture, imagery, and cohesion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mandelbaum, J. (2012). Storytelling in conversation. In J. Sidnell & T. Stivers (eds.), The handbook of conversation analysis (pp. 492-508). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
McNeill, D. (1986). Iconic gestures of children and adults. Semiotica, 62, (1-2), 1-7-128.
McNeill, D. (1992). Hand and mind: What gestures reveal about thought. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Miller, P. (1988). Early talk about the past: The origins of conversational stories of personal experience. Journal of Child Language, 15(2), 293-315.
Miller, P.J., Fung, H. & Mintz, J. (1996). Self-construction through narrative practices: A Chinese and American comparison of early socialization. Ethos, 24(2), 237-280.
Minami, M. (2001). Maternal style of narrative elicitation and the development of children’s narrative skill: A study of parental scaffolding. Narrative Inquiry, 11(1), 55-80.
Mondada, L. (2011). Understanding as an embodied, situated and sequential achievement in interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(2), 542-552.
Mondada, L. (2016). Challenges of multimodality: Language and the body in social interaction. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 20(3), 336-366.
Ninio, A. (1988). The roots of narrative: Discussing recent events with very young children. Language Science, 10, 35 -52.
Ochs, E. & Capps, L. (2001). Living narrative: Creating lives in everyday storytelling. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Ochs, E. & Taylor, C. (1992). Family narrative as political activity. Discourse and Society, 3(3), 301-340.
Özçal??kan,?., Gentner, D. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2014). Do iconic gestures pave the way for children’s early verbs? Applied Psycholinguistics, 35(6), 1143-1162.
Paugh, A. (2012). Speculating about work: Dinnertime narratives among dual-earner American families. Text & Talk, 32(5), 615-636.
Pomerantz, A. (1984). Agreeing and disagreeing with assessment: Some features of preferred/dispreferred turn shapes. In J.M. Atkinson & J. Heritage (eds.), Structures of social action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Radford, J. (2009). Word searches: On the use of verbal and non-verbal resources during classroom talk. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 8, 598-610.
Sacks, H. (1992). Lectures on conversation, G. Jefferson (ed.). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E.A. & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50(4).
Schegloff, E.A., Jefferson, G. & Sacks, H. (1977). The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language, 53(2), 361-382.
Schieffelin, B.B. (1990). The give and take of everyday life: Language socialization of Kaluli children. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Streeck, J, Goodwin, C. & LeBaron, C. (2011). (eds.), Embodied interaction: Language and the body in the material world(pp. 44-58). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Theobald, M. & Reynolds, E. (2015). In pursuit of some appreciation: Assessment and group membership in children’s second stories. Text & Talk, 35(3), 407-430.
Wootton, A. J. (1997). Interaction and the development of mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zampini, L., Zanchi, P., Suttora, C., Spinelli, M. Fasolo, M. & Salerni, N. Gesture production in the narratives of preschool children. Gesture, 15(3), 306-320.
Aukrust, V.G. & Snow, C.E. (1998). Narratives and explanations during mealtime conversation in Norway and the U.S. Language in Society, 27, 221-246.
Beals, D. & Snow, C.E. (1994). “Thunder is when the angels are upstairs bowling”: Narratives and explanations at the dinner table. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 4(4), 331-352.
Blum-Kulka, S. (1997). Dinner talk: Cultural patterns of sociability and socialization in family discourse. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ.
Brown, P. (2012). The cultural organization of attention. In A. Duranti, E. Ochs & B.B. Schieffelin (eds.), The handbook of language socialization(pp. 29-55). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Burdelski, M. & Mitsuhashi, K. “She thinks you’re kawaii”: Socializing affect, gender, and relationship in a Japanese preschool. Language in Society, 39(1), 65-93.
Burdelski, M. & Morita, E. (2017). Young children’s initial assessment in Japanese. In A. Bateman & A. Church (eds.), Children and knowledge: Studies in conversationanalysis (pp. 231-255). Singapore: Springer.
Filipi, A. (2017a). The emergence of story-telling. In A. Bateman & A. Church (eds.), Children’s knowledge-in-interaction: Studies in conversation analysis(pp. 279-295). Singapore: Springer.
Filipi, A. (2017b). Exploring the reconisability of early story-telling through an interactional lens. Research on Children and Social Interaction, 1(2), 141-163.
Fung, H., Miller P.J. & Lin L-C. (2004). Listening is active: Lessons from the narrative practices of Taiwanese families. In M.W. Pratt & B.H. Fiese (eds.), Family stories and the life course: Across time and generations (pp. 303-323). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Goffman, E. (1975). The presentation of self in everyday life. Harmondsworth:Penguin Books.
Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Goodwin, C. (2000). Action and embodiment within situated human interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 32(10), 1489-1522.
Goodwin, C. (2007). Interactive footing. In E. Holt & R. Clift (eds.), Reporting talk: Reported speech in interaction (pp. 16-46). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goodwin, C. (2018). Co-operative action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goodwin, C. & Goodwin, M.H. (1992). Assessments and the construction of context. In A. Duranti & C. Goodwin (eds.), Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon (pp. 147-190). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Goodwin, C. & Goodwin, M.H. (2004). Participation. In A. Duranti (ed.), A companion to linguistic anthropology(pp. 222-243).Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Goodwin, M.H. & Goodwin, C. (1986). Gesture and coparticipation in the activity of searching for a word. Semiotica, 62(1/2), 51-57.
Hayashi, M. (2003a). Language and the body as resources for collaborative action: A study of word searches in Japanese conversation. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 36(2), 109-141.
Hayashi, M. (2003b). Joint utterance construction in Japanese conversation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Heath, C., Hindmarsh, J. & Luff, P. (2010). Video in qualitative research: Analysing social interaction in everyday life. Los Angeles: Sage.
Heath, S.B. (1984). Ways with words: Language, life and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hickmann, M. (1993). The boundaries of reported speech in narrative discourse: Some developmental aspects. In J. A. Lucy (ed.), Reflexive language: Reported speech and metapragmatics (pp. 63-90). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hoey, E. & Kendrick, K.H. (2018). Conversation analysis. In A.M.B De Groot & P. Hagoort (eds.), Research methods in psycholinguistics and the neurobiology of language: A practical guide(pp. 151-173). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Hutchby, I. & O’Reilly, M. (2010). Children’s participation and the familial moral order in family therapy. Discourse Studies, 12(1), 49-64.
Jacoby, S. & Ochs, E. (1995). Co-construction: An introduction. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 28(3), 171-183.
Jefferson, G. (1978). Sequential aspects of storytelling in conversation. In J. Schenkein (ed.), Studies in the organization of conversational interaction(pp. 219-248). New York: Academic Press.
Kendon, A. (2004). Gesture: Visible action as utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lerner, G., Zimmerman, D. & Kidwell, M. (2011). Formal structure of practical tasks: A resource for action in the social life of very young children. In J. Streeck, C. Goodwin & C. LeBaron (eds.), Embodied interaction: Language and the body in the material world(pp. 44-58). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Levy, E.T. & McNeill, D. (2015). Narrative development in young children: Gesture, imagery, and cohesion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mandelbaum, J. (2012). Storytelling in conversation. In J. Sidnell & T. Stivers (eds.), The handbook of conversation analysis (pp. 492-508). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
McNeill, D. (1986). Iconic gestures of children and adults. Semiotica, 62, (1-2), 1-7-128.
McNeill, D. (1992). Hand and mind: What gestures reveal about thought. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Miller, P. (1988). Early talk about the past: The origins of conversational stories of personal experience. Journal of Child Language, 15(2), 293-315.
Miller, P.J., Fung, H. & Mintz, J. (1996). Self-construction through narrative practices: A Chinese and American comparison of early socialization. Ethos, 24(2), 237-280.
Minami, M. (2001). Maternal style of narrative elicitation and the development of children’s narrative skill: A study of parental scaffolding. Narrative Inquiry, 11(1), 55-80.
Mondada, L. (2011). Understanding as an embodied, situated and sequential achievement in interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(2), 542-552.
Mondada, L. (2016). Challenges of multimodality: Language and the body in social interaction. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 20(3), 336-366.
Ninio, A. (1988). The roots of narrative: Discussing recent events with very young children. Language Science, 10, 35 -52.
Ochs, E. & Capps, L. (2001). Living narrative: Creating lives in everyday storytelling. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Ochs, E. & Taylor, C. (1992). Family narrative as political activity. Discourse and Society, 3(3), 301-340.
Özçal??kan,?., Gentner, D. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2014). Do iconic gestures pave the way for children’s early verbs? Applied Psycholinguistics, 35(6), 1143-1162.
Paugh, A. (2012). Speculating about work: Dinnertime narratives among dual-earner American families. Text & Talk, 32(5), 615-636.
Pomerantz, A. (1984). Agreeing and disagreeing with assessment: Some features of preferred/dispreferred turn shapes. In J.M. Atkinson & J. Heritage (eds.), Structures of social action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Radford, J. (2009). Word searches: On the use of verbal and non-verbal resources during classroom talk. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 8, 598-610.
Sacks, H. (1992). Lectures on conversation, G. Jefferson (ed.). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E.A. & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50(4).
Schegloff, E.A., Jefferson, G. & Sacks, H. (1977). The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language, 53(2), 361-382.
Schieffelin, B.B. (1990). The give and take of everyday life: Language socialization of Kaluli children. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Streeck, J, Goodwin, C. & LeBaron, C. (2011). (eds.), Embodied interaction: Language and the body in the material world(pp. 44-58). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Theobald, M. & Reynolds, E. (2015). In pursuit of some appreciation: Assessment and group membership in children’s second stories. Text & Talk, 35(3), 407-430.
Wootton, A. J. (1997). Interaction and the development of mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zampini, L., Zanchi, P., Suttora, C., Spinelli, M. Fasolo, M. & Salerni, N. Gesture production in the narratives of preschool children. Gesture, 15(3), 306-320.
Published
2019-08-29
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Burdelski, M. (2019). Young children’s multimodal participation in storytelling: Analysing talk and gesture in Japanese family interaction. Research on Children and Social Interaction, 3(1-2), 6-35. https://doi.org/10.1558/rcsi.37284
