Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences Eisenberg / Maternal Teaching Talk Maternal Teaching Talk Within Families of Mexican Descent: Influences of Task and Socioeconomic Status

This study examined the influences of socioeconomic status (SES) and task on teaching interactions betweenmothers and children ofMexican descent. Twentymiddle-class and 20working-classmothers and their 4-year-old childrenwere audiotaped during interac-tion in a school-type construction task (block building) and a homelike construction task (baking biscuits). There were significant effects of task and SES for both mothers ’ and children’s behavior. Mothers asked more questions during block building but discussed more complex concepts during baking. Children asked more questions and discussed more complex concepts in baking than in block building.Middle-classmothers discussed more complex concepts than did working-class mothers, but working-class children were more directive and asked more questions than did middle-class children. The results suggest that future studies of parent-child conversation within families of Mexi-can descent should consider children’s contributions to the learning environment and should examine interaction in a greater variety of tasks. How parents talk with their preschool children is widely held to be an important factor in children’s acquisition of cognitive and linguistic abilities. Across a variety of studies, researchers have found relationships between parents ’ use of particular conversational strategies and children’s language development, cognitive abilities, intellectual performance, and academic achievement (e.g., Barnes, Gutfreund, Satterly, & Wells, 1983; Clarke