Input, output, interaction and pragmatics: A study of the effects of adult-child interaction on Singaporean children’s acquisition of speech acts

Abstract

The current project aims to explore the nature of parent-child interaction and its effects on Singaporean bilingual preschool children’s acquisition of the various speech acts normally occurring in the family setting, for example thanking, apologizing, requesting, refusal, and disagreeing. Another aim of the study is to describe the developmental paths for the various speech acts described above by Singaporean bilingual pre-school children.