A comparative study on the development of explanatory abilities in South African Bantu languages

Abstract

The ability to generate explanations is not exclusive to adults and scientists. From as young as 3 years of age, children not only seek explanations by asking questions, but also construct their own explanations (Legare, 2012). Their explanations provide an insight into what they know and enhance their learning. Since their ability to generate explanations aids in learning new information, children are often able to focus on events that trigger causal, hypothesis formulation, procedural, and theory of mind knowledge, eliciting explanations from them based on the triggered knowledge. The present study focuses on the effects of language on explanatory skills. This aims to examine how explanations are produced by speakers of isiZulu, Sesotho, and Tshivenda, (South African Bantu languages), who are between the ages of 5– 6 years and 9–10 years. It is an intra comparative study that investigates if explanatory abilities in children are language specific or universal. Participants watched a short wordless Tom and Jerry cartoon and were asked questions related to it (Colletta et al 2015, Kunene Nicolas 2015, Alamillo et al., 2013). These questions aimed at eliciting four different types of explanations i.e., hypothesis-formulation explanation, theory of mind explanation, procedural explanation, and causal explanation. The results of the study demonstrate that the type of explanation has a hierarchical developmental stage as not all types are developed at the same time. The Causal explanation type shows an early stage of development and other types such as Hypothesis Formulation explanation show a more complex trajectory. Furthermore, the results show that gesture develops in tandem with speech. There is a developmental trajectory in the ability to generate gestures that represent and those that structure speech and highlight linguistic units. The results demonstrate that as children mature, they become more adept as being able to clarify encoded linguistic information through gestures.