Repair in the peer talk of 6-year-old boys

Abstract

This article reports a qualitative analysis of linguistic and interactional aspects of repair in naturalistic play, interaction between three 6-year-olds (C, D and F), one of whom (child D) displays some speech and language difficulties. The methodology draws on conversation analysis together with perceptual phonetic observation. The analysis reveals differences in the use of repair strategies. Although all three boys used self-repair, only C and F initiated other repair. Despite child D’s reduced intelligibility, phonetic issues were never oriented to in repair initiations by C or F, nor were they self-repaired by D. In general, D, the speaker with the fewest linguistic resources, used collaborative interpersonal strategies to rectify sources of breakdown in conversation.

• conversational repair
• interaction
• peers
• intelligibility