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Recasts, Clarifications, and Other Indirect Negative Evidence
From the moment of their birth, children live in a human environment that uses language. This environment provides the child with samples of correct language form and usage, known as positive evidence, but also with samples of incorrect form and usage, known as negative evidence. These positive or negative samples may involve phonology, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics.
Positive evidence arises from child-directed speech or overheard speech (production directed at someone else, speakers heard on television, on the radio, etc.). Negative evidence appears in situations in which the child produces an erroneous utterance that is immediately corrected by the adult. These corrections take place within daily conversation (at play, at bedtime, at meals, on walks, etc.) and not in the framework of language lessons. Explicit corrections expressed ...
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