Word searches: on the use of verbal and non‐verbal resources during classroom talk

Abstract

Word finding difficulties in children are typically characterized by search behaviours such as silence, circumlocution, repetition, and empty words. Yet, how children's word searches are constructed (including gesture, gaze, and prosody) and the actions accomplished during interaction have not yet been researched. In this study, 8‐year‐old Ciara is interacting with her teacher in the classroom. Thirty‐seven segments containing word searches were analysed according to the procedures used by conversation analysts. Ciara's interactional resources include co‐ordinated deployment of syntax, pitch height, and downward gaze during solitary searching that assist the enterprise of self‐repair. Gaze shift towards the teacher signals a transition relevance place, thus constituting a direct invitation for her to participate in the search. Ciara's interactional resources include semantic category labelling, phonological self‐cuing, and pronominal substitution that supply valuable linguistic information to the teacher and trigger production of the searched‐for item. Recommendations for language teaching and therapy are presented.

• Word search
• word finding difficulties
• conversation analysis
• classroom interaction
• specific language impairment