A Developmental Study of Self-repairs in Children's Speech

• Main Authors: Debra Fang-ting Liu, 劉芳婷
• Other Authors: Joseph H. Hsu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/88793325858933334954

碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 語言學研究所 === 89 === This study aims at investigating children’s developmental stages of making self-repairs. Two aspects about self-repairs are examined: first, repair types, and second, repair strategies. These two aspects are all related to the cognitive developments and socialization. We will see how children’s acquisitional orders for these repair types and repair strategies. 36 children with an age range from 4-12 were randomly selected from several institutions in Taipei area. They were divided into three groups: Group I (age 4-6), Group II (7-9) and Group III (10-12). All data I collected were recorded and transcribed for analysis. The purpose of this study concerns whether age and sex factors will affect children’s repair types and repair strategies. So two-way ANOVA was applied to test children’s self-repairs. The results are summarized as follows: (1) Older children’s uses of repair types are more meaning-oriented rather structural forms. Children’s uses of A-repairs increase with age. (2) As for repair strategies, younger children use more Repetition than older children do. (3) As children grow older, they use more repair strategies so that they will be able to keep fluency and make self-repair at the same time. (4) Our finding indicates that the sex is not a significant factor in repair types and repair strategies. Only a sex-based difference in the use of AI-repair is found in this study. The results of the study can enable us to have a better understanding about how children monitor and repair their own errors. It also suggests that parents’ role and social experiences play an important role in children’s acquisition of self-repairs.