Explanations in naturally occurring peer talk: Conversational emergence and function, thematic scope, and contribution to the development of discursive skills

This study examines explanations in children’s natural peer talk, as they emerge in collaborative interaction among children, in two cohorts: preschoolers (aged 4—5) and preadolescents (aged 9—10). The study examined 322 explanations for the diversity of their content-components, their modes of emergence, and social functions. Quantitative analysis revealed a wide range of explanation topics in both cohorts, with a shift with age from the immediate to the more distant. Discourse analysis of explanatory sequences demonstrated a high sensitivity to conversational notions of expectedness and an effective use of explanations for a rich array of pragmatic and social functions, as well as the affordances of peer talk explanations as a potential site for learning and developing the discursive skills of decontextualized discourse.