PUB TYPE Reports Research/Technical (143) Speeches /Conference Papers (150)

Language used in situations in which speakers cannot rely on shared social, physical, or historical contexts has been referred to as "decontextualized. " Many researchers believe that the use of decontextualized language is at the core of literacy--that reading and writing are consummate acts of decontextualization. Somewhat intermediate between face-to-face oral communication and writing is the challenge of talking on the telephone. Children's telephone talk offers an ecologically valid context to ascertain developmental components of metacommunicative awareness of the need to be clear for one's communicative partners and of how to compensate for their physical absence. The purpose of this study was to examine children's story narratives over the telephone versus face-to-face interaction to explore the effects of telephone use on children's discourse. Sixty 4-, 6-, and 8-year-old children told stories base