The aim was to identify features of 5-and 6-year-old children's everyday lives which
contribute to their understanding about the requirements of effective verbal
communication. An analysis of naturalistic data comparing talk to children at home
and at school indicated several features of adultchild talk occurring frequently at
school but rarely at home. One such feature was the asking of question sequences
intended to elicit a particular answer. The teacher continued to ask questions until
that answer was supplied. In an intervention study we investigated whether this use
of extended question sequences promoted children's understanding of ambiguity. The
results showed that it did. There was also learning during the training itself. This
feature of teacher-child talk may promote understanding of ambiguity because it
draws children's attention to a distinction they often fail to make: between the
speaker's intended meaning and the verbal message used to convey that meaning to a listener.
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