A Comparative Study of Young and Older Adults' Spontaneous Speech

In an analysis of the spontaneous oral discourse of native French speakers, Ss were divided into two groups: young adults (N = 30 undergraduates, mean age 24) & older adults (N = 30, mean age 70). Through a series of tests, it was established that all Ss had comparable levels of cognitive abilities. Spontaneous expression was studied by asking Ss to describe one or more pictures & to report an event from their life. Expository language was elicited by asking Ss to talk about the TV programs they watch. It was found that the older adults had a slightly higher lexical diversity & a more extensive syntactic development than younger adults. Older Ss were found to produce, on average, longer utterances & more relative clauses, particularly right-branching ones. It was also found that the spoken terms of young adults are more often limited to a principal proposition. A high degree of interpersonal variability was noted & it is concluded that 70-year-old Ss may have the same spontaneous verbal expression as young university adults. 5 Tables, 32 References. J. Repath