Issues in Applied Linguistics

The paper examines parent children interaction in Mexican and Central American familes. The paper focuses on the forms of discourse parents adopt to correct children's speech and non-verbal behavior. The majority of the time parents employ unmodulated corrections and bald imperatives to direct children's behavior. When modulated forms of language are employed, it is done in the context of teasing. The paper also illustrates how children respond to corrections of their speech and behavior. Children exhibit an epistemological stance i.e., a display of knowledge most of the time and do not necessarily model correct forms of behavior in their subsequent turns.