Investigating pragmatic abilities in young Finnish adults using the Assessment Battery for Communication

Abstract

Abstract Pragmatic communication refers to the ability to use language and other expressive means, i.e. non-verbal/extralinguistic means such as gestures and facial expressions, in order to convey and interpret meaning in a specific context. Pragmatic abilities are important in everyday life in interpersonal interactions as they affect the way people communicate and behave in social situations. Providing a comprehensive and accurate assessment of pragmatic abilities can be challenging, partially due to the scarcity of valid assessment tools in this area. Culture-related aspects of communication need to be taken into consideration, and the assessment tools need to be specific and sensitive for specific cultural contexts. In this paper, we present the results concerning the administration of the first preliminary translation and adaptation into the Finnish language of the equivalent form A of the Italian Assessment Battery for Communication (ABaCo) to a sample of neurotypical Finnish adults (n=36); we discuss the results, highlighting cultural features and the consequent adaptation requirements. Data regarding performance on each subscale and on each item of the ABaCo are provided, together with a qualitative analysis of the answers. These data indicate good performance on the majority of the subscales used, thus indicating good properties of the preliminary Finnish version of the ABaCo. Compared to the paralinguistic and context scales, where the participants exhibited good performance, slightly lower scores were obtained on the extralinguistic scale. Such results shed light on a number of differences in the way Finnish people interpret pragmatically challenging communicative situations. The present study represents an interesting starting point for further steps in the specific ABaCo adaptation process, as well as for future studies in terms of cross-cultural investigation.