How children block learning from ignorant speakers.

Preschoolers mistrust ignorant and inaccurate speakers.

Being able to evaluate the accuracy of an informant is essential to communication. Three experiments explored preschoolers' (N=119) understanding that, in cases of conflict, information from reliable informants is preferable to information from unreliable informants. In Experiment 1, children were presented with previously accurate and inaccurate informants who presented conflicting names for n...

How to Teach The Suprasegmentals of English To Farsi-speakers Learning English as a Foreign Language

Learning words from knowledgeable versus ignorant speakers: links between preschoolers' theory of mind and semantic development.

Two studies addressed whether children consider speakers' knowledge states when establishing initial word-referent links. In Study 1, forty-eight 3- and 4-year-olds were taught two novel words by a speaker who expressed either knowledge or ignorance about the words' referents. Children showed better word learning when the speaker was knowledgeable. In Study 2, forty-eight 3- and 4-year-olds wer...

Conventional source - 1 Running Head: Conventional source Children's sensitivity to the conventionality of sources

Four studies examined the extent to which preschoolers are sensitive to how knowledgeable an agent is about conventional forms, when interpreting the agent's referential intent. In Study 1, children were familiarized with a speaker who either consistently used conventional or wrong labels to refer to familiar objects. Children were then shown another familiar and an unfamiliar object, and the s...

How Iranian EFL Learners, Persian Native Speakers, and English Native Speakers Attempt to Manage Rapport in Service Encounters

This study aims to examine the cross-cultural similarities and differences in the use of rapport management strategies (rapport enhancement, rapport maintenance, rapport neglect, and rapport challenge) in the complaints during service encounters based on Spencer Oatey’s (2008) model. To this end, 90 participants (30 Persian native speakers, 30 Iranian EFL (English as a foreign language) learner...