Chinese Language and Discourse An International and Interdisciplinary Journal· 2026Q1
A longitudinal study of conversational repairs in Mandarin mother–child interaction
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- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Mandarin-speaking children aged 2-3 years increasingly self-initiated repairs in conversations with their mothers, while relying less on maternal initiation for repairs, indicating developing self-monitoring skills.
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Key points
- Self-initiated self-repair (SISR) in Mandarin mother-child conversations increased longitudinally.
- Other-initiated repairs (OISR, OIOR) decreased over the study period.
- Repair strategies aligned with linguistic levels: SISR for morpho-syntax, OISR for pragmatics, OIOR for lexico-semantics.
- Mothers adjusted scaffolding based on children's repair needs and development.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Abstract Research on conversational repairs in adult–child interaction focuses mainly on repairs as conversational skills or as part of a scaffolding process. This study integrated both through a longitudinal investigation of Mandarin mother–child interaction between four mother–child (2–3 years old) dyads, studying the repair types, linguistic levels, and maternal scaffolding strategies. The results showed that self-initiated self-repair (SISR) increased over time, whereas other-initiated self-repair (OISR) and other-initiated other-repair (OIOR) decreased. Moreover, a close relationship was observed between repair strategy and the linguistic level of the trouble source: morpho-syntactic, pragmatic, and lexico-semantic repairs were most frequent in SISR, OISR, and OIOR, respectively. Furthermore, the mothers adjusted their level of support through the strategic use of repair initiations and corrections. The findings suggest that children gradually develop the ability to monitor both their own speech and that of others and that mothers actively facilitate this through adaptive scaffolding strategies.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Chinese Language and Discourse An International and Interdisciplinary Journal, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Developmental and Educational PsychologyPsychology