The purpose of the study is to discuss culturally moulded socialization for talk by examining the characteristics of the talk about talk in which three-year-old children participate in pre schools in two communities in Norway and the USA. Focus is on the types and subtypes of talk-focused talk that are culturally favoured, as well as on teacher-child interaction within such talk. Fifteen Norwegian and 15 American children were tape-recorded in preschool. Data generation captured three types of talk-focused talk: talk about language per se, discourse management and reported speech. The American school conversations included more talk about discourse management, and Norwegian conversations more reported speech. Teacher-child interaction appeared more asymmetric within talk-focused talk in Cambridge, USA, than in Oslo.
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