Rendle-Short2015

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Rendle-Short2015
BibType ARTICLE
Key Rendle-Short2015
Author(s) Johanna Rendle-Short, Louise Skelt, Nicolette Bramley
Title Speaking to twin children: evidence against the “impoverishment” thesis
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Twins, Child development, Parent-child interactions
Publisher
Year 2015
Language English
City
Month
Journal Research on Language and Social Interaction
Volume 48
Number 1
Pages 79–99
URL Link
DOI 10.1080/08351813.2015.993846
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

It is often claimed that parents’ talk to twins is less rich than talk to singletons and that this delays their language development. This case study suggests that talk to twins need not be impoverished. We identify highly sophisticated ways in which a mother responds to her 4-year-old twin children, both individually and jointly, as a way of ensuring an inclusive interactional environment. She uses gaze to demonstrate concurrent recipiency in response to simultaneous competition for attention from both children, and we see how the twins constantly monitor the ongoing interaction in order to appropriately position their own contributions to talk. In conclusion, we argue for the need to take twins’ interactional abilities into account when drawing linguistic comparisons between twins and singletons. Data are in Australian English.

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