Abstract
This study aimed to elucidate changes in the dialogues among 2-3-year-old children during lunch at a nursery school. A 2-year-old class was participatory observed for 6 months. The episodes of "confirmation" were analyzed in terms of the addresses of utterances, subjects, and evaluative contents. As the study progressed, the number of episodes in which children received approving reactions from a specific child decreased and the number of episodes in which children received confirmatory reactions to explanations of how to hold a fork increased. The topics under discussion became more concrete, and more focused on the objects in sight. Despite the differences among subjects, sequential dyadic dialogues generally expanded to sequential triadic dialogues in terms of the addresses of utterances. Children were also more likely to share and respond to evaluation regarding other children over the course of the study.
