Topic Performance: A Cross-Cultural Study of Korean and American 3-Year-Old Children

한국과 미국 유아의 의사소통에서 주제 수행에 대한 비교문화 연구

This study investigated differences in the topic performance of 3-year-old Korean and American children. Sixteen mother and child dyads (8 Americans and 8 Koreans) were tape-recorded during naturally occurring conversations. The cape-recorded data were transcribed on the observational chechlist by Kertoy Vetter(1995). Korean children engaged in topic performance nearly twice as often as American children. Korean children engaged in topic termination/initiation and continuation more often than American children. Also, Korean children engaged in topic collaboration and incorporation more often than American children, but there was no difference in off-topic.