Mental state language in Chinese educator-infant conversational interactions during structured and free play

ABSTRACT

Mental State Language (MSL) is language that refers to individuals’ inner states, including terms relating to emotion, desire-&-preference, perception and cognition. This study explores the nature of eight Chinese educators’ MSL in their interactions with infants during structured and free play. In total, 3169 language messages (one message includes a subject and a verb) were analyzed and it was revealed that MSL messages make up 7.7% of the educators’ language. In conversational interactions, educators’ MSL appeared more frequently in structured than in free play. The desire-&-preference terms were used most frequently and tended to trigger short conversational interactions (3–4 turns). Combining the analysis of communicative functions (question, statement, command, offer), MSL of cognition and perception presented in question facilitated long conversational interactions (5 turns or above). These findings inform educators about how to use MSL effectively. It raises the consideration of balancing structured and free play in nursery routines that could vary in different cultures.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental state language
• educator-infant interaction
• context
• Chinese educators
• systemic functional linguistic theory

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the educators and infants who participated in this study and generously allowed the research assistants to film them.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded collaboratively by Zhejiang Normal University and Macquarie University Australia-China mobilisation grant.