Children
acquire language embedded within the rich social context of interaction. This
paper reports on a longitudinal study investigating the developmental
relationship between conversational turn-taking and vocabulary growth in
English-acquiring children (N = 122) followed between 9 and 24 months.
Daylong audio recordings obtained every 3 months provided several indices of
the language environment, including the number of adult words children heard
in their environment and their number of conversational turns. Vocabulary was
measured independently via parental report. Growth curve analyses revealed a
bidirectional relationship between conversational turns and vocabulary
growth, controlling for the amount of words in children’s environments. The
results are consistent with theoretical approaches that identify social
interaction as a core component of early language acquisition.
