Pol and Pax in the Salty Red Sea
Nelson ‘New Way’ Series, Orange Level
How The Text Teaches
Syntax
LINEATION
The sentences are in extended paragraphs on separate pages. There is not one line to a single page, this indicates that the children reading this type of text are at a higher reading level and place less dependence on the amount of visual contextualisation through pictures to understanding the meaning of the text.
SENTENCE TYPES
There is a mixture of long and short sentences with varying complexity. As a child would now be familiar with short simple sentences there are examples of both compound and complex syntax.
There is a mixture of both present and past sentences to familiarise children with grammatical structures and to introduce them to more complicated verbs.
Future: We’ll have to look in our sea and river atlas.”
Past: “He had caught a small shark.”
Compound: “They eat a slice of brain food every day and this makes them as clever as they need to be”
Complex: “They wanted to see which of them could catch the strangest fish”
There are interrogatives: “Can you please tell me how I can get to the salty red seas”
Declaratives: “We only east brain food.”
and Imperatives: “Please go and get it.”
SUBJECT/VERB POSITION
“They wanted to see which of them could catch the strangest fish”
In the sentence above the phrase ‘which of them’ is the object of the first clause and the subject of the second. This is a far more complicated order than younger texts and so develops their understanding.
The text however still avoids passive sentences, as this ellipsis can confuse children at this age. (orange level is ages 5-6).
Showing posts with label Language Acquisition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Language Acquisition. Show all posts
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Monday, 24 May 2010
George Reading Transcript
George is being helped to learn reading but an array of techniques, including the mother’s use of feedback, correction and positive reinforcement. There is also evidence of the synthetics phonics teaching method which has bee used to teach the child. There has been much recent debate regarding the correct methods to teach young children to read. This is mainly due to a strong emphasis on synthetic phonics and there is evidence supporting this style of teaching showing children’ reading ability to be far greater than children taught reading by other methods.
Within the text it appears the child uses phonics. The method is also taught to George by his mother who, when he is unsure of a word, tells him to “sound it out” which George does based on the individual phonemes of the word “sandbag” (). George omits the phoneme (de) which is correct by his mother. This error, which is clearly virtuous as it will later aid his learning, occurs later in the text in which he reads “sandbags”. With his mother’s emphasis (through her intonation) on 2sand”, George corrects his error. However, it is arguable that through the use of “look and say” method this mistake may not have been made as he would have seen the letter “d”.
Another virtuous error occurs in line 17 in which George omits the plural for “houses” and merely says “house”. This is corrected by the mother saying “watch the endings”. This error could have been caused by two things, either that George is trying to read on from one line to the next too quickly and therefore misses the plural or that he is not yet fully aware pluralisation and needs to learn the rule. The speed he is reading seems likely as he make three further errors in this way such as “never” instead of “need”, “upstairs” rather than “upset” and “made” rather than “may”. This errors made by George are from seeing the first two letters of the word and pronouncing words he knows which begin with the same letters and fit into the sentence. This basis for predicting the words is shown by his mother’s statement “it looks like upstairs, doesn’t it”. However, this may be a reference to the look and say method in which George has registered that the word resembles “upstairs”. George’s error with “upstairs” may also suggest that George is reading for readings sake, rather than for meaning.
The mother’s role in the process is vital in aiding her child’s development. This is not just in form of correcting any mistakes but in the form of positive and negative reinforcement, a behaviourist approach from B. F. Skinner. George’s mother uses positive reinforcement in abundance through the use of praise word: “well done” and “good boy”. These statements encourage George to keep reading and to do so using the techniques he is already employing. Even corrections are done in a positive way shown by the elongated vowel cluster in “noooo”. It is likely her intonation would rise at this cluster, making it friendly and aiding development. Any corrections are followed by more positive reinforcement such as “that’s it” to avoid discouraging him. The mother also invites George to interact with the book by the use of interrogatives: “what do you think is happening?”. This enables her to check he understands the plot and what he has read.
Within the text it appears the child uses phonics. The method is also taught to George by his mother who, when he is unsure of a word, tells him to “sound it out” which George does based on the individual phonemes of the word “sandbag” (). George omits the phoneme (de) which is correct by his mother. This error, which is clearly virtuous as it will later aid his learning, occurs later in the text in which he reads “sandbags”. With his mother’s emphasis (through her intonation) on 2sand”, George corrects his error. However, it is arguable that through the use of “look and say” method this mistake may not have been made as he would have seen the letter “d”.
Another virtuous error occurs in line 17 in which George omits the plural for “houses” and merely says “house”. This is corrected by the mother saying “watch the endings”. This error could have been caused by two things, either that George is trying to read on from one line to the next too quickly and therefore misses the plural or that he is not yet fully aware pluralisation and needs to learn the rule. The speed he is reading seems likely as he make three further errors in this way such as “never” instead of “need”, “upstairs” rather than “upset” and “made” rather than “may”. This errors made by George are from seeing the first two letters of the word and pronouncing words he knows which begin with the same letters and fit into the sentence. This basis for predicting the words is shown by his mother’s statement “it looks like upstairs, doesn’t it”. However, this may be a reference to the look and say method in which George has registered that the word resembles “upstairs”. George’s error with “upstairs” may also suggest that George is reading for readings sake, rather than for meaning.
The mother’s role in the process is vital in aiding her child’s development. This is not just in form of correcting any mistakes but in the form of positive and negative reinforcement, a behaviourist approach from B. F. Skinner. George’s mother uses positive reinforcement in abundance through the use of praise word: “well done” and “good boy”. These statements encourage George to keep reading and to do so using the techniques he is already employing. Even corrections are done in a positive way shown by the elongated vowel cluster in “noooo”. It is likely her intonation would rise at this cluster, making it friendly and aiding development. Any corrections are followed by more positive reinforcement such as “that’s it” to avoid discouraging him. The mother also invites George to interact with the book by the use of interrogatives: “what do you think is happening?”. This enables her to check he understands the plot and what he has read.
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Reading Stages and Guide
Background information
* Most people read by sounding out graphemes and forming phonemes.
* Yacht – strange words
* Dual method – 2 processes when reading
1. Direct access – pronounce each word e.g. det, cat, bat
2. Grapheme, phoneme conversion
* Use previous experience to help with new words.
* Look at the words more sophisticatedly
* The frequency of the word and the neighbouring words affect the way we pronounce each word.
Theory 1: FRITH 1985
3 Stages to a child’s development of reading.
Stage 1: LOGOGRAPHIC STAGE
* Pronounce individual letters
* Letters are connected with sounds
* Child can only link words to one phoneme
Stage 2: ALPHABETIC STAGE
* Child is more comfortable with the alphabet
* Can combine graphemes to make longer phonemes. E.g. ‘th’
Stage 3: ORTHOGRAPHIC STAGE
* Recognise a string of graphemes without having to decode them
* Greater phonological awareness – recognise more sound patterns
* Analogy – compare and apply patterns and rules.
Theory 2: CHALL 1983
6 stages to child’s development of reading.
Stage 0: PRE READING (birth to 6 years old)
* Children pretend to read, turn pages of books and repeat what they have previously had read to them.
* Rely on images to determine what the text is saying.
* Use logographic info to guess the words.
* Realise words are made up of sounds
* Recognise rhyme and alliteration
Stage 1: INITIAL READING/ DECODING STAGE (6-7 years old)
* Able to read simple texts.
* Relies heavily on text and focuses on visual images.
* Realise letter combinations represent sounds.
* Become aware of vowels and vowel sounds.
Stage 2: CONFIRMATION & GLUING STAGE (7-8 years old)
* A child can automatically decode words.
* High levels of comprehension and reading
* Ability to become more fluent
* Can control pace and are comfortable with reading situations
Stage 3: READING TO LEARN (8-14 years old)
* Reading to learn and acquire new knowledge
* Before this child relied on environment and speech
* Words mean a lot more to them
* Able to bring previous experiences and knowledge to the reading.
* Learn facts from a singular view point
* They need direct reconstruction
* Learn to read narrative texts.
Stage 4: MULTIPLE VIEW POINTS (14-18 years old)
* Begin reading and dealing with multiple view points
* Analyse and react critically to different view points
* Able to deal with layers of facts and able to edit them
* Able to deal with complex texts.
Stage 5: CONSTRUCTION & RECONSTRUCTION (18+)
* Read in detail and completeness to fulfil purpose (education)
* Aware of relevant and irrelevant information
* Can form their own opinions and ideas from what they read
* More interest shown = more info that is remembered
* Ability to criticise and question texts.
* Most people read by sounding out graphemes and forming phonemes.
* Yacht – strange words
* Dual method – 2 processes when reading
1. Direct access – pronounce each word e.g. det, cat, bat
2. Grapheme, phoneme conversion
* Use previous experience to help with new words.
* Look at the words more sophisticatedly
* The frequency of the word and the neighbouring words affect the way we pronounce each word.
Theory 1: FRITH 1985
3 Stages to a child’s development of reading.
Stage 1: LOGOGRAPHIC STAGE
* Pronounce individual letters
* Letters are connected with sounds
* Child can only link words to one phoneme
Stage 2: ALPHABETIC STAGE
* Child is more comfortable with the alphabet
* Can combine graphemes to make longer phonemes. E.g. ‘th’
Stage 3: ORTHOGRAPHIC STAGE
* Recognise a string of graphemes without having to decode them
* Greater phonological awareness – recognise more sound patterns
* Analogy – compare and apply patterns and rules.
Theory 2: CHALL 1983
6 stages to child’s development of reading.
Stage 0: PRE READING (birth to 6 years old)
* Children pretend to read, turn pages of books and repeat what they have previously had read to them.
* Rely on images to determine what the text is saying.
* Use logographic info to guess the words.
* Realise words are made up of sounds
* Recognise rhyme and alliteration
Stage 1: INITIAL READING/ DECODING STAGE (6-7 years old)
* Able to read simple texts.
* Relies heavily on text and focuses on visual images.
* Realise letter combinations represent sounds.
* Become aware of vowels and vowel sounds.
Stage 2: CONFIRMATION & GLUING STAGE (7-8 years old)
* A child can automatically decode words.
* High levels of comprehension and reading
* Ability to become more fluent
* Can control pace and are comfortable with reading situations
Stage 3: READING TO LEARN (8-14 years old)
* Reading to learn and acquire new knowledge
* Before this child relied on environment and speech
* Words mean a lot more to them
* Able to bring previous experiences and knowledge to the reading.
* Learn facts from a singular view point
* They need direct reconstruction
* Learn to read narrative texts.
Stage 4: MULTIPLE VIEW POINTS (14-18 years old)
* Begin reading and dealing with multiple view points
* Analyse and react critically to different view points
* Able to deal with layers of facts and able to edit them
* Able to deal with complex texts.
Stage 5: CONSTRUCTION & RECONSTRUCTION (18+)
* Read in detail and completeness to fulfil purpose (education)
* Aware of relevant and irrelevant information
* Can form their own opinions and ideas from what they read
* More interest shown = more info that is remembered
* Ability to criticise and question texts.
Exam Essay January 2004 AQA Spec B - Model Answer
A model answer taken from
*Caveat - Please be aware this is a MODEL answer*
.
The transcript has been set in both a domestic and a child’s play context, and the fact that the speakers involved are of a completely different linguistic capability due to age, makes the interactions all the more interesting. Although the playgroup assistant tries to address the children at the same level, using the same register, there are pragmatic connotations of patronisation because he/she is involved at a much deeper intellectual level. The way in which the caregivers interact with the children says a lot about their preferred methods of language acquisition, and there is clear evidence of Piaget’s theory of egocentric speech. The children, particularly Victoria are clearly using language to explore the environment around them, and attempt to include the adults in their own imaginary world. This also links in with Michael Halliday’s taxonomy which states that labelling is one of the fundamental aspects of language. The children feel a need to use declaratives and exclamations to state what is happening around them and what they are doing to try and help others understand them and try to understand themselves.
In terms of initiation of conversation, the caregivers are usually responsible, because although they are clearly looking down on them in terms of register and cannot really address them at their same level, they are trying to develop the topic, encourage socialisation and get the children into the habit of giving reasons for their actions, and appreciating the larger picture. For example, when Sophie is talking about how she is making her cake with playdoh, the Playground Assistant cleverly responds with two cleverly placed interrogatives: “you rolled it out did you Sophie? (2.0) who helps mummy bake?”. Here, she is re-capping what has happened and encouraging Sophie to think at a deeper level by making the connection between her child’s play and real baking at home. At an even deeper pragmatic level, the assistant is hinting at Sophie’s capability as a cook and suggesting that she should help her elders. Sophie plays along, and the conversation develops as she gives a piece of her “cake” to the playgroup assistant, perhaps because it gives her a feeling of superiority and motherliness. The assistant rewards this development by rewarding her with positive reinforcement.
In fact, the behaviourist theories of Skinner are clearly evident in this transcript, as the caregivers constantly reward the children for good behaviour and speech, by thanking them and using deictic declaratives such as “that’s there” and “like that” to guide them. However, I found the techniques fairly unusual compared to research that I have carried out myself. I filmed a session at a playgroup party which my cousin of 20 months attended, and found that the language used by the carers there also used negative reinforcement and correction, and that many of the statements had an interrogative tagged on the end, such as “wow that’s very pretty, isn’t it?”, in order to constantly demand interaction and response from the children themselves.
The lexis and grammar used by the children is often non-standard as would be expected at such a crucial learning and language development stage. Perhaps the most obvious grammatical variation is the use of overgeneralization by Sophie, Victoria and Jordan (who imitates the others) when they say: “it’s ate” and “you’ve been eaten again”. Here, the children have attempted to be adventurous and use the past tense, though they clearly unaware of the fact that the past participle of the verb “to eat” is irregular, and is therefore “eaten” not “ate”. This backs up Chomsky’s idea that we have a built-in LAD (language acquisition device). This is because it is obvious that the children have been made aware of a grammatical rule and have attempted to use it, but still do not know of the contexts where the rule does not apply or where there are irregularities. Also in this example, there is some confusion as to whether to use the active or the passive voice. Perhaps they are trying to say that the cake has been eaten, and then carried the rule forward when they meant to use the possessive pronoun “yours” to say “your cake has been eaten again”. Although these key auxiliary verbs have been omitted, it is still fairly easy to understand the semantic meanings the children are trying to display. One could deduct that although the children are being minimalistic in their grammatical approach, they are able to express themselves fairly well.
In cases where the child does not know the semantic label for an object, instead of guessing (which would result in a mismatch), they tend to use an adjective to try and interpret what they mean, e.g. “look at the blue”. Although it is unclear to us as the reader what object Victoria is referring to, the other people in the situation are likely to know what she means, particularly as it is likely that this exclamation was accompanied by paralinguistic features.
The caregivers themselves sometimes use non standard grammar, which is evidence against Skinner’s ideas on imitation; because it could be argued that this non-standard grammar will have an effect on the grammar development of the impressionable children. The main example of this is when the playgroup assistant asks “Sophie gave it you?” The removal of the preposition ‘to’ is common in informal speech and many dialects but may cause confusion if the children think that indirect verbs such ‘give’ and ‘speak’ do not require the construction ‘to’ after them.
The lexis is mostly monosyllabic for simplicity reasons, and more emphasis is placed on the content of speech rather than on the lexical capacity of the children, because the transcript was written in a context of child’s play and social interaction is more important than linguistic education. There are lots of concrete nouns within the text such as ‘cake; and ‘playdoh’, and although there is a lack of abstract concepts within the lexis, there are distinct pragmatics of friendship, duty and helping one another. There are lots of verbs, as there is an emphasis on actions, and some of them are particularly dynamic such as ‘scream’, ‘break it in two’, and ‘cutting up’. This is because the environment is very active, and there is an impression that the caregivers are struggling to keep the children under control.
Phonologically speaking, there are some examples of reduplication, and although theories suggest that this is outgrown at a much younger age, it is evidence that children still like to play around with sounds and explore language by babbling. As Vygotski says, egocentric speech is something we never outgrow and we actually rely on it. Timmy takes the word ‘do’ and then experiments by making a rhythm/song by repeating this syllable.
The language of the playground assistant is not particularly lexically diverse, though he/she clearly has a greater lexical capacity than the children. Instead of using this however, he/she tends to make the instructions more visual by giving demonstrations, pointing at things and handing out objects. The caregivers use simple sentences, easily accessible syntax and lots of demonstrative pronouns to keep the children’s interest whilst also encouraging them to learn new words such as ‘floury’ and ‘elephant’.
The negotiations and interactions of the parent is noticeably different to the methods used by the playground assistants, possibly because they have a closer and more informal relationship with their child, and they feel a lesser responsibility towards their social development at playtime. After all, the playgroup assistant is paid for this purpose and will have received relevant training. The parent prefers to use negative reinforcement: “oh my goodness me (1.0) scream the house down”, and there are heavy connotations which suggest that noise is bad, and that the child is notorious for being overly noisy and therefore an annoyance to the parent.
The playground assistant however, is constantly provoking a personal response from the children by using direct imperatives and interrogatives, never letting her attention wander, and allowing herself to be involved with the conversation at all times whilst almost distancing herself and encouraging the children to play amongst each other. He/she acts as a mediator and is clearly trying to keep the peace and do what is fair and unbiased. The caregivers try to get involved by developing the ideas of the children and trying to join them in their imaginary world, however the language they use is more phatic and realistic rather than heuristic, suggesting that they are unable to connect with the children at their level. For example, the playgroup assistant asks the children: “is it frying in the pan”. Some crying and laughter follows this suggestion, meaning that the children did not accept or follow on from this idea. The children are clearly absorbed in their play and do not appreciate such interruptions because they do not conform to their agendas.
The playground assistant is highly successful in displaying power whilst also being friendly and approachable. She makes suggestions and gives justification for most of her imperatives so she does not give an impression of being extremely strict, e.g. “you’ve got to roll it like this Jordan (2.0) so that it’s really thin”. The register is mainly very informal, but it is still obvious that the playground assistant has the most power in the room, perhaps even more than the parents, because he/she is the only one who uses imperatives and really engages with the children. He/she is the one who asks the questions and gives the children options such as “does anyone want to do an elephant shape?” In fact, one could deduce that the assistant has actually earned the power in the situation by listening in on the game and trying to involve herself with the imaginary world, whereas the parent struggles to do this and thinks only of the behaviour of his/her children. The overlapping and interruptions of the text only occur to the caregivers’ expense, suggesting that the children have the underlying power because they can create more havoc and easily outnumber the adults.
*Caveat - Please be aware this is a MODEL answer*
.
The transcript has been set in both a domestic and a child’s play context, and the fact that the speakers involved are of a completely different linguistic capability due to age, makes the interactions all the more interesting. Although the playgroup assistant tries to address the children at the same level, using the same register, there are pragmatic connotations of patronisation because he/she is involved at a much deeper intellectual level. The way in which the caregivers interact with the children says a lot about their preferred methods of language acquisition, and there is clear evidence of Piaget’s theory of egocentric speech. The children, particularly Victoria are clearly using language to explore the environment around them, and attempt to include the adults in their own imaginary world. This also links in with Michael Halliday’s taxonomy which states that labelling is one of the fundamental aspects of language. The children feel a need to use declaratives and exclamations to state what is happening around them and what they are doing to try and help others understand them and try to understand themselves.
In terms of initiation of conversation, the caregivers are usually responsible, because although they are clearly looking down on them in terms of register and cannot really address them at their same level, they are trying to develop the topic, encourage socialisation and get the children into the habit of giving reasons for their actions, and appreciating the larger picture. For example, when Sophie is talking about how she is making her cake with playdoh, the Playground Assistant cleverly responds with two cleverly placed interrogatives: “you rolled it out did you Sophie? (2.0) who helps mummy bake?”. Here, she is re-capping what has happened and encouraging Sophie to think at a deeper level by making the connection between her child’s play and real baking at home. At an even deeper pragmatic level, the assistant is hinting at Sophie’s capability as a cook and suggesting that she should help her elders. Sophie plays along, and the conversation develops as she gives a piece of her “cake” to the playgroup assistant, perhaps because it gives her a feeling of superiority and motherliness. The assistant rewards this development by rewarding her with positive reinforcement.
In fact, the behaviourist theories of Skinner are clearly evident in this transcript, as the caregivers constantly reward the children for good behaviour and speech, by thanking them and using deictic declaratives such as “that’s there” and “like that” to guide them. However, I found the techniques fairly unusual compared to research that I have carried out myself. I filmed a session at a playgroup party which my cousin of 20 months attended, and found that the language used by the carers there also used negative reinforcement and correction, and that many of the statements had an interrogative tagged on the end, such as “wow that’s very pretty, isn’t it?”, in order to constantly demand interaction and response from the children themselves.
The lexis and grammar used by the children is often non-standard as would be expected at such a crucial learning and language development stage. Perhaps the most obvious grammatical variation is the use of overgeneralization by Sophie, Victoria and Jordan (who imitates the others) when they say: “it’s ate” and “you’ve been eaten again”. Here, the children have attempted to be adventurous and use the past tense, though they clearly unaware of the fact that the past participle of the verb “to eat” is irregular, and is therefore “eaten” not “ate”. This backs up Chomsky’s idea that we have a built-in LAD (language acquisition device). This is because it is obvious that the children have been made aware of a grammatical rule and have attempted to use it, but still do not know of the contexts where the rule does not apply or where there are irregularities. Also in this example, there is some confusion as to whether to use the active or the passive voice. Perhaps they are trying to say that the cake has been eaten, and then carried the rule forward when they meant to use the possessive pronoun “yours” to say “your cake has been eaten again”. Although these key auxiliary verbs have been omitted, it is still fairly easy to understand the semantic meanings the children are trying to display. One could deduct that although the children are being minimalistic in their grammatical approach, they are able to express themselves fairly well.
In cases where the child does not know the semantic label for an object, instead of guessing (which would result in a mismatch), they tend to use an adjective to try and interpret what they mean, e.g. “look at the blue”. Although it is unclear to us as the reader what object Victoria is referring to, the other people in the situation are likely to know what she means, particularly as it is likely that this exclamation was accompanied by paralinguistic features.
The caregivers themselves sometimes use non standard grammar, which is evidence against Skinner’s ideas on imitation; because it could be argued that this non-standard grammar will have an effect on the grammar development of the impressionable children. The main example of this is when the playgroup assistant asks “Sophie gave it you?” The removal of the preposition ‘to’ is common in informal speech and many dialects but may cause confusion if the children think that indirect verbs such ‘give’ and ‘speak’ do not require the construction ‘to’ after them.
The lexis is mostly monosyllabic for simplicity reasons, and more emphasis is placed on the content of speech rather than on the lexical capacity of the children, because the transcript was written in a context of child’s play and social interaction is more important than linguistic education. There are lots of concrete nouns within the text such as ‘cake; and ‘playdoh’, and although there is a lack of abstract concepts within the lexis, there are distinct pragmatics of friendship, duty and helping one another. There are lots of verbs, as there is an emphasis on actions, and some of them are particularly dynamic such as ‘scream’, ‘break it in two’, and ‘cutting up’. This is because the environment is very active, and there is an impression that the caregivers are struggling to keep the children under control.
Phonologically speaking, there are some examples of reduplication, and although theories suggest that this is outgrown at a much younger age, it is evidence that children still like to play around with sounds and explore language by babbling. As Vygotski says, egocentric speech is something we never outgrow and we actually rely on it. Timmy takes the word ‘do’ and then experiments by making a rhythm/song by repeating this syllable.
The language of the playground assistant is not particularly lexically diverse, though he/she clearly has a greater lexical capacity than the children. Instead of using this however, he/she tends to make the instructions more visual by giving demonstrations, pointing at things and handing out objects. The caregivers use simple sentences, easily accessible syntax and lots of demonstrative pronouns to keep the children’s interest whilst also encouraging them to learn new words such as ‘floury’ and ‘elephant’.
The negotiations and interactions of the parent is noticeably different to the methods used by the playground assistants, possibly because they have a closer and more informal relationship with their child, and they feel a lesser responsibility towards their social development at playtime. After all, the playgroup assistant is paid for this purpose and will have received relevant training. The parent prefers to use negative reinforcement: “oh my goodness me (1.0) scream the house down”, and there are heavy connotations which suggest that noise is bad, and that the child is notorious for being overly noisy and therefore an annoyance to the parent.
The playground assistant however, is constantly provoking a personal response from the children by using direct imperatives and interrogatives, never letting her attention wander, and allowing herself to be involved with the conversation at all times whilst almost distancing herself and encouraging the children to play amongst each other. He/she acts as a mediator and is clearly trying to keep the peace and do what is fair and unbiased. The caregivers try to get involved by developing the ideas of the children and trying to join them in their imaginary world, however the language they use is more phatic and realistic rather than heuristic, suggesting that they are unable to connect with the children at their level. For example, the playgroup assistant asks the children: “is it frying in the pan”. Some crying and laughter follows this suggestion, meaning that the children did not accept or follow on from this idea. The children are clearly absorbed in their play and do not appreciate such interruptions because they do not conform to their agendas.
The playground assistant is highly successful in displaying power whilst also being friendly and approachable. She makes suggestions and gives justification for most of her imperatives so she does not give an impression of being extremely strict, e.g. “you’ve got to roll it like this Jordan (2.0) so that it’s really thin”. The register is mainly very informal, but it is still obvious that the playground assistant has the most power in the room, perhaps even more than the parents, because he/she is the only one who uses imperatives and really engages with the children. He/she is the one who asks the questions and gives the children options such as “does anyone want to do an elephant shape?” In fact, one could deduce that the assistant has actually earned the power in the situation by listening in on the game and trying to involve herself with the imaginary world, whereas the parent struggles to do this and thinks only of the behaviour of his/her children. The overlapping and interruptions of the text only occur to the caregivers’ expense, suggesting that the children have the underlying power because they can create more havoc and easily outnumber the adults.
Selection of Sample Paragraphs from a Student
* It appears that Ewan becomes a bit worried that he will cause Holly to drop out of their role play game, due to his aggressive tone. He repeats the proper noun ‘Holly’ in order to grab her attention and says the verb ‘playing’ once again using a declarative where he should be using an interrogative, although this could be drawing attention to what he is doing in order to encourage Holly
* Ewan senses Holly’s disinterest in the game by his imperative “don’t go home yet Holly”. As soon as his is reassured of her interest in the game, he immediately reverts to his bossy nature again. We can see this when Holly says “that’s my money” to which he replies “no that’s my money”. He is already aware of the idea that the person with the money carries the power.
* Both children have awareness of shop role play and the structure of a transaction the structure e.g. turn taking, of the conversation used in a shop between a customer and shopkeeper; for example line 11 of text B;
Holly: How much is that
Ewan: Ten p please
Although despite Ewan’s imperatives, he still uses politeness strategies, such as “please” which is indicative of Macnamara’s theory of children being able to innately read into social situations. This is also true of Holly’s awareness of the structure of playing shop in that she uses the negative “not yet”.
* The discourse structure, is about negotiating how the game will be played. Therefore there are questions asked about what should be done and who should play what roles. Also, both children make suggestions as to what they should do in the game, however, it appears to be Holly who is setting the tone, giving the ideas and a clear grasp of the conversational structure in this context. For example, she makes a number of suggestions: "come and buy something (2) come and buy anything"
* Holly is making a helpful suggestion by saying "come and buy something (2)", but as the pause implies, she gets no response from Ewan, and hence, alters the noun "something" to "anything" in her choice of lexis. This also highlights her interest in the game compared to Ewan’s lack of at this stage; however, later on the roles appear to switch, when Ewan becomes more interested:
Holly: would you like cashback
Ewan: Do you like cashback
Holly: Yes please
* Holly is the more advanced of the two as she is using the conditional verb form in "would you" , which is quite advanced for a girl of this age. Ewan, however, does not know how to use the conditional as he uses the ungrammatical question “do you like cashback”, when he really means “would you like cashback”. Holly accepts the role of the customer without protest, despite the fact that it’s clear that they both want to be the shopkeeper.
* Holly is clearly trying to bring further imaginative dimensions to the play. The sentence ‘now you say, would you like cashback’ shows her further knowledge and attempt to apply it to play to give herself more power – also seeming to understand the connotations and actions behind the noun “cashback”. However Ewan does not comply with her instructions, saying instead, ‘do you like cashback?’ and also says this out of turn, which could be seen as imitating Holly’s knowledge of “cashback” and adjusting it to his own statement.
* When they discuss holiday destinations it becomes a competition over who’s been on the most prestigious holiday. Ewan encourages Holly to ‘go Blackpool’ with the train ticket to which Holly replies, ‘Blackpool is a horrible place’, and ‘Magalluf is a much nicer place’, using declarative to draw attention to herself and make a judgment. Ewan insists but ‘but my Blackpool is nice’ using the possessive pronoun of “my” either to emphasise his preferment or to defend the place to Holly. It is obvious that Holly’s holiday sounds more exotic and expensive, thus she wins in the battle of prestige.
* Clearly the conversation opens with Ewan protesting that he wants to take the role of being the shopkeeper. He clearly feels that the role of being the shopkeeper is of greater prestige and importance than being the customer, and hence, assigns the role to himself. This is a imperative statement in the guise of a declarative, but comes across in this form due to his lack of grammatical knowledge. He telegraphs the phrase “I want to be the shopkeeper” into “me shopkeeper”. This is a phase of language development that all children go through, however, on occasions he does have more carefully structured statements.
* Ewan senses Holly’s disinterest in the game by his imperative “don’t go home yet Holly”. As soon as his is reassured of her interest in the game, he immediately reverts to his bossy nature again. We can see this when Holly says “that’s my money” to which he replies “no that’s my money”. He is already aware of the idea that the person with the money carries the power.
* Both children have awareness of shop role play and the structure of a transaction the structure e.g. turn taking, of the conversation used in a shop between a customer and shopkeeper; for example line 11 of text B;
Holly: How much is that
Ewan: Ten p please
Although despite Ewan’s imperatives, he still uses politeness strategies, such as “please” which is indicative of Macnamara’s theory of children being able to innately read into social situations. This is also true of Holly’s awareness of the structure of playing shop in that she uses the negative “not yet”.
* The discourse structure, is about negotiating how the game will be played. Therefore there are questions asked about what should be done and who should play what roles. Also, both children make suggestions as to what they should do in the game, however, it appears to be Holly who is setting the tone, giving the ideas and a clear grasp of the conversational structure in this context. For example, she makes a number of suggestions: "come and buy something (2) come and buy anything"
* Holly is making a helpful suggestion by saying "come and buy something (2)", but as the pause implies, she gets no response from Ewan, and hence, alters the noun "something" to "anything" in her choice of lexis. This also highlights her interest in the game compared to Ewan’s lack of at this stage; however, later on the roles appear to switch, when Ewan becomes more interested:
Holly: would you like cashback
Ewan: Do you like cashback
Holly: Yes please
* Holly is the more advanced of the two as she is using the conditional verb form in "would you" , which is quite advanced for a girl of this age. Ewan, however, does not know how to use the conditional as he uses the ungrammatical question “do you like cashback”, when he really means “would you like cashback”. Holly accepts the role of the customer without protest, despite the fact that it’s clear that they both want to be the shopkeeper.
* Holly is clearly trying to bring further imaginative dimensions to the play. The sentence ‘now you say, would you like cashback’ shows her further knowledge and attempt to apply it to play to give herself more power – also seeming to understand the connotations and actions behind the noun “cashback”. However Ewan does not comply with her instructions, saying instead, ‘do you like cashback?’ and also says this out of turn, which could be seen as imitating Holly’s knowledge of “cashback” and adjusting it to his own statement.
* When they discuss holiday destinations it becomes a competition over who’s been on the most prestigious holiday. Ewan encourages Holly to ‘go Blackpool’ with the train ticket to which Holly replies, ‘Blackpool is a horrible place’, and ‘Magalluf is a much nicer place’, using declarative to draw attention to herself and make a judgment. Ewan insists but ‘but my Blackpool is nice’ using the possessive pronoun of “my” either to emphasise his preferment or to defend the place to Holly. It is obvious that Holly’s holiday sounds more exotic and expensive, thus she wins in the battle of prestige.
* Clearly the conversation opens with Ewan protesting that he wants to take the role of being the shopkeeper. He clearly feels that the role of being the shopkeeper is of greater prestige and importance than being the customer, and hence, assigns the role to himself. This is a imperative statement in the guise of a declarative, but comes across in this form due to his lack of grammatical knowledge. He telegraphs the phrase “I want to be the shopkeeper” into “me shopkeeper”. This is a phase of language development that all children go through, however, on occasions he does have more carefully structured statements.
Monday, 10 May 2010
Virtuous Error
A virtuous error is:
• When children make a mistake by over-generalising or over-applying a rule to words.
• This usually appears in spelling, speaking word endings and phonetic errors.
• When children make a mistake by over-generalising or over-applying a rule to words.
• This usually appears in spelling, speaking word endings and phonetic errors.
BARCLAY 1996 – Seven Stages
BARCLAY 1996 – Seven Stages
• Stage 1: SCRIBBLING STAGE
Random marks on a page
Writing and scribbles are accompanied by speaking
• Stage 2: MOCK HANDWRITING STAGE
Writing + drawings
Produce wavy lines which is their understanding of lineation
Cursive writing
• Stage 3: MOCK LETTERS
Letters are separate things.
• Stage 4: CONVENTIONAL LETTERS
Usually involves writing the name as the first word.
Child usually puts letters on a page but is able to read it as words.
• Stage 5: INVENTED SPELLING STAGE
Child spells in the way they understand the word should be spelt- own way.
• Stage 6: APPROPRIATE/ PHOENTIC SPELLING STAGE
Attach spelling with sounds.
• Stage 7: CORRECT SPELLING STAGE
Are able to spell most words.
• Stage 1: SCRIBBLING STAGE
Random marks on a page
Writing and scribbles are accompanied by speaking
• Stage 2: MOCK HANDWRITING STAGE
Writing + drawings
Produce wavy lines which is their understanding of lineation
Cursive writing
• Stage 3: MOCK LETTERS
Letters are separate things.
• Stage 4: CONVENTIONAL LETTERS
Usually involves writing the name as the first word.
Child usually puts letters on a page but is able to read it as words.
• Stage 5: INVENTED SPELLING STAGE
Child spells in the way they understand the word should be spelt- own way.
• Stage 6: APPROPRIATE/ PHOENTIC SPELLING STAGE
Attach spelling with sounds.
• Stage 7: CORRECT SPELLING STAGE
Are able to spell most words.
Children's Writing
The ways in which a child spells
Doubling consonants – e.g. breezzy, dissappeared
Spell phonetically – e.g. ment, brite
Stressed and unstressed letters – knife = nife, stomach = tomach
Vowel combinations – i.e. ‘I comes before e’ e.g. coulourful
Suffixing and prefixing – e.g. living = liveing
Initial letter – e.g. England = Ingland
Mixing homoephones – Sail and sale etc
Official Titles
Insertion
Adding extra letters
Omission
Leaving out letters
Substitution
Substituting one letter for another
Transposition
Reversing correct order of letters in a word
Phonetic Spelling
Using sound awareness to guess combinations of letters
Over/under-generalisation
Applying a rule to all similar words, one applying rule to one word
Salient Sounds
Writing only the key sounds.
Doubling consonants – e.g. breezzy, dissappeared
Spell phonetically – e.g. ment, brite
Stressed and unstressed letters – knife = nife, stomach = tomach
Vowel combinations – i.e. ‘I comes before e’ e.g. coulourful
Suffixing and prefixing – e.g. living = liveing
Initial letter – e.g. England = Ingland
Mixing homoephones – Sail and sale etc
Official Titles
Insertion
Adding extra letters
Omission
Leaving out letters
Substitution
Substituting one letter for another
Transposition
Reversing correct order of letters in a word
Phonetic Spelling
Using sound awareness to guess combinations of letters
Over/under-generalisation
Applying a rule to all similar words, one applying rule to one word
Salient Sounds
Writing only the key sounds.
Monday, 16 November 2009
Rothery's Categories
Rothery's Categories
Observation/Comment
Writer makes observations and follows with an evaluative comment, or mixes with an observation.
Recount
Usually chronological sequence of events, written subjectively. Set pattern of orientation-event-reorientation.
Report
A factual and objective description of events or things – usually not chronological
Narrative
Story genre – set pattern of orientation-complication-resolution-coda. The coda which identifies the point of the story is not always included. Few children complete this early on
Observation/Comment
Writer makes observations and follows with an evaluative comment, or mixes with an observation.
Recount
Usually chronological sequence of events, written subjectively. Set pattern of orientation-event-reorientation.
Report
A factual and objective description of events or things – usually not chronological
Narrative
Story genre – set pattern of orientation-complication-resolution-coda. The coda which identifies the point of the story is not always included. Few children complete this early on
Analysing Texts
Look at the texts. Think about how the child has used the following feature of language:
Graphology – how is the writing laid out on the page?
Lexis and semantics – how wide is the child’s vocabulary? Are any specific semantic fields used?
Grammar – which sentence types are used?
Orthography (Spelling) – are there any patterns in the ways the words are spelled?
Graphology – how is the writing laid out on the page?
Lexis and semantics – how wide is the child’s vocabulary? Are any specific semantic fields used?
Grammar – which sentence types are used?
Orthography (Spelling) – are there any patterns in the ways the words are spelled?
Friday, 6 November 2009
Parents and CDS
Mummy and Daddy
CDS – Child Directed Speech
What features are there of CDS?
Bruner and his LASS
- What do parents provide a child with?
- How does this stimulate Language Acquisition?
- Which theorists do we know include the role of the parents?
CDS – Child Directed Speech
- Reduplication
- Deletion and Substitution
- Addition
- Simple features
- Exaggerated prosodic features
What features are there of CDS?
- Repetition or repeated sentence frames
- Higher pitch
- The child’s name rather than pronouns
- Present tense
- One word utterances or ellipsis
- Few verbs or modifiers
- Concrete nouns
- Expansions (the expanding of a child’s utterances)
- Recasts – the extending of and rephrasing of an utterance.
- Yes/no questions
- Exaggerated pauses with turn-taking cues.
Bruner and his LASS
- Ritualised activities help parents make rules and meanings predictable and explicit.
- What does peek-a-boo teach children?
- What about hickory-dickory-clock
- One, two, three, four, five?
Children's Reading
What do young readers need to know?
• Relationship between written symbols and sounds.
• The cohesion of written texts with different interconnections
• Memory for the words – shapes and sounds
• Are organised in certain ways.
• Differ in organisation according to genre.
• Represent the culture of origin (narratives, left to right etc)
How are Children taught to read?
• “Look and Say”/whole word approach
• Phonics
Analytic
Synthetic
• What are the benefits/drawbacks of each?
• Relationship between written symbols and sounds.
• The cohesion of written texts with different interconnections
• Memory for the words – shapes and sounds
• Are organised in certain ways.
• Differ in organisation according to genre.
• Represent the culture of origin (narratives, left to right etc)
How are Children taught to read?
• “Look and Say”/whole word approach
• Phonics
Analytic
Synthetic
• What are the benefits/drawbacks of each?
Children's Books
Feature of Children's Books
- Emphasis on multi-modal and interactivity
- Significance of characters
- Use of direct speech
- Phonological Devices
- Pictures and Layout
- Illustrations relating to actions
- Consistent tense
- Poetic devices
- Repetition
- Use of synonyms and hypernyms.
Children's Writing Stages
– What are the purposes and functions of writing?
– How do our writing skills develop?
– How do we personalise these?
– How do we adapt our writing for different registers?
What do children need to know to be able to write?
• Controlling a writing implement
• Combining words and sentences together
• Controlling register and discourse structure
• Manipulating language
• Recognising audience
To be able to write, you must be able to:
• Vocabulary and associated meanings of words and phrases.
• Sentences to create meaning.
• Graphemes that relate to phonemes and other devices to create prosodic effects (punctuation choices).
• Social conventions within texts.
• Cohesive structures
• Layout of texts and use of graphology
• Variations in language to suit Purpose, Audience and Register.
Writing Stages
• How do children progress in writing?
Writing stages
• Drawing
• Letter-like forms (emergent writing)
• Copied letters
• Name and strings of letters
• Words
• Sentences
• Text
Kroll’s Four Phases
Stage 1 - Preparatory
• Up to 6 years old
• When the child learns the physical skills required to write and the basics principles of the spelling system
Stage 2 - Consolidation
• Ages 6-8
• When children write as they speak
• They use short DECLARATIVE SENTENCES
• Sentences are grammatically incomplete
• They use simple CONJUNCTIONS e.g. and, then, so
Stage 3 - Differentiation
• Age 8 – mid teens
• They become more aware of differences between speech and writing
• More confident use of grammatical structures
• More complex sentences including SUBORDINATE CLAUSES and more sophisticated connectives
• Begin to adapt writing to audience and purpose
Stage 4 - Integration
• Age – mid teens and upwards
• Personal style is more developed
• Writing adapted confidently to different situations
– How do our writing skills develop?
– How do we personalise these?
– How do we adapt our writing for different registers?
What do children need to know to be able to write?
• Controlling a writing implement
• Combining words and sentences together
• Controlling register and discourse structure
• Manipulating language
• Recognising audience
To be able to write, you must be able to:
• Vocabulary and associated meanings of words and phrases.
• Sentences to create meaning.
• Graphemes that relate to phonemes and other devices to create prosodic effects (punctuation choices).
• Social conventions within texts.
• Cohesive structures
• Layout of texts and use of graphology
• Variations in language to suit Purpose, Audience and Register.
Writing Stages
• How do children progress in writing?
Writing stages
• Drawing
• Letter-like forms (emergent writing)
• Copied letters
• Name and strings of letters
• Words
• Sentences
• Text
Kroll’s Four Phases
Stage 1 - Preparatory
• Up to 6 years old
• When the child learns the physical skills required to write and the basics principles of the spelling system
Stage 2 - Consolidation
• Ages 6-8
• When children write as they speak
• They use short DECLARATIVE SENTENCES
• Sentences are grammatically incomplete
• They use simple CONJUNCTIONS e.g. and, then, so
Stage 3 - Differentiation
• Age 8 – mid teens
• They become more aware of differences between speech and writing
• More confident use of grammatical structures
• More complex sentences including SUBORDINATE CLAUSES and more sophisticated connectives
• Begin to adapt writing to audience and purpose
Stage 4 - Integration
• Age – mid teens and upwards
• Personal style is more developed
• Writing adapted confidently to different situations
Monday, 28 September 2009
Theorists List
The BIG FOUR
Chomsky
Noam Chomsky stated that children are born with an innate knowledge of language when they are born and learning of their native language is at high speed when hearing it from others (Plato believed it too).
This links to children over regularising and putting grammar into utterances when they are not needed. Chomsky is one of the most famous theorists on child language acquisition and his theories were based on his own intuitions about English and not actually studied on real children.
Chomsky created the LAD - Language Acquisition Device
1. Baby already knows about linguistic rules, as they are born with an innate knowledge of language.
2. Baby hears examples of his/ her native language
3. The linguistic rules help Baby make estimations and presumptions about the language it is hearing.
4. From these estimations and presumption Baby works out grammatical sets of rules. As more language is heard the grammar becomes more and more like adults.
Skinner
B.F. Skinner bases his theory of children acquiring language through behaviourism. Skinner states that all behaviour is conditioned through:
Positive Reinforcement – Rewards, repetitions, following through of requests and demands
Negative Reinforcement – Punishment, ignoring, denial of wants
This happens again and again until the behaviour is learned and becomes natural and automatic. So, babies imitate their parents/carers and are either reprimanded or praised according to their accuracy. Skinner believes that biology plays almost no part in the way children learn language.
Piaget
Piaget's theory on children learning language is mainly focused around “cognitive development,” meaning language is controlled by the development of thinking. If a baby can use sentences involving phrases such as, "more than", "less than" it is obvious that the concepts of "more than" must have been grasped, before the child uses the phrase in an utterance.
Put simply, until the child thinks of a concept, they cannot vocalise it and the higher their thinking the more they vocalise.
Bruner
Bruner created and argued for the Language Acquisition Support System (LASS). Bruner states through LASS that parents often use books and images to develop their child’s naming abilities and their ability to get involved in conversation.
1- Gaining attention- drawing the babies attention to a picture
2- Query- asking the baby to identify the picture
3- Label- telling the baby what the object is
4- Feedback- responding to the babies utterances
This is also called SCAFFOLDING, where the child is supported in their learning of language by carers and once they have learnt it, the support is taken away.
Other Theorists
• John Macnamara - said that rather than having an in-built language device, children have an innate capacity to read meaning into social situations. It is this capacity that makes them capable of understanding and learning language, not the LAD.
• Bard and Sachs Studied a boy called 'Jim', who was son of two deaf parents. Although he was exposed to TV and radio, his speech development was severely retarded until he attended sessions with a speech therapist, implying that human interaction is necessary to develop speech.
• Berko and Brown found that a child who referred to a plastic inflatable fish as a ‘fis’ substituting the ‘s’ sound for the ‘sh’ sound, couldn’t link an adult saying ‘fis’ as the same object (only responded to adult saying ‘fish’).
• Cruttenden had adults and children to predict football results from the intonation used by the announcers. Children found it more difficult.
• Jean Aitchison came up with stages of lexical development
1- Labelling – Linking words to objects to which they refer, understanding labels
2- Packaging – Exploring labels and where they can apply, over/underextension occurs in order to gain meanings.
3- Network-building – Making connections between words, understanding similarities and opposites in meaning. They start with a HYPERNYM (a general word that can have more specific words under it) and explore HYPONYMS (words that fall under a hypernym’s category)
• Katherine Nelson - found that 60% of children's early word phrases contained nouns, then verbs, pre-modifiers and phatic. She also said that the nouns were more commonly things that surrounded the children i.e ball, mum, cat. Nelson also said that in Re-casts (e.g. Ben: "me ball" Mum: "pass me the ball") children whose sentences were re-cast performed better at imitating sentences.
• Bellugi explored negatives and negation and identified three stages:
(1) Uses ‘no’ or ‘not’ at the beginning of end of the sentence – “No shoes!”
(2) Puts ‘no’ or ‘not’ inside the sentence –“I no wear shoes!”
(3) Attaches negatives to auxiliary verbs and to the copula verb “be” - “I won’t wear shoes!”
• Bellugi also explored children’s pronoun use and found three stages
(1) Uses their own name – “Katherine play.”
(2) Recognises I/me pronouns – “I play”, “Me up”
(3) Uses pronouns according to whether they are the subject or object position – “I play with the toy.”/ “Give it to me.”
• Brown found that morphemes were acquired in an order: -ing, in/on, -s, past tense irregular, possessive ‘s, is/was, the/a, past tense regular, 3rd person regular, 3rd person irregular, uncontractible auxiliary verb (were), contractibles (she’s), contractible auxiliary (she’s running).
• Berko found that children gradually developed pluralisations through the “wug” test
• Brown and Levinson suggested that politeness in children centred around two aspects of ‘face’
o Positive – where the individual desires social approval and being included.
o Negative – where the individual asserts their need to be independent and make their own decisions
• Catherine Garvey found that in play, children adopt roles and identities, acting out storylines and inventing objects and settings.
• Halliday is just the functions of child language. The most commonly used is instrumental and regulatory, which are learnt, along with interactional and personal, at a young age. Representational is used by 6-8+ year olds.
o Representational - "I've got something to show you" - language showing how they feel, declarative
o Regulatory - "Do as I tell you" - requesting/asking for things
o Instrumental - "I want"- expressing needs/wants
o Interactional - "Me and you" - speaking to other, establishing personal contact
o Imaginative - "Let's pretend" - imaginative language, used with play, to create imaginary world. Crystal talks of 'phonological' function as playing with sound.
o Personal - "Here I come"- child expresses their feelings/expressing personal preferences
o Heuristic - "Tell me why"- uses language to explore environment/ seeking information
• John Dore also describes language functions that focuses more on individual utterances
o Labelling – Naming a person, object or thing.
o Repeating – Repeating an adult word or utterance
o Answering – Responding to an utterance of another speaker
o Requesting Action – Asking for something to be done for them
o Calling – Getting someone’s attention
o Greeting – Greeting someone
o Protesting – Objecting to requests from others
o Practising – Using language when no adult is present.
Chomsky
Noam Chomsky stated that children are born with an innate knowledge of language when they are born and learning of their native language is at high speed when hearing it from others (Plato believed it too).
This links to children over regularising and putting grammar into utterances when they are not needed. Chomsky is one of the most famous theorists on child language acquisition and his theories were based on his own intuitions about English and not actually studied on real children.
Chomsky created the LAD - Language Acquisition Device
1. Baby already knows about linguistic rules, as they are born with an innate knowledge of language.
2. Baby hears examples of his/ her native language
3. The linguistic rules help Baby make estimations and presumptions about the language it is hearing.
4. From these estimations and presumption Baby works out grammatical sets of rules. As more language is heard the grammar becomes more and more like adults.
Skinner
B.F. Skinner bases his theory of children acquiring language through behaviourism. Skinner states that all behaviour is conditioned through:
Positive Reinforcement – Rewards, repetitions, following through of requests and demands
Negative Reinforcement – Punishment, ignoring, denial of wants
This happens again and again until the behaviour is learned and becomes natural and automatic. So, babies imitate their parents/carers and are either reprimanded or praised according to their accuracy. Skinner believes that biology plays almost no part in the way children learn language.
Piaget
Piaget's theory on children learning language is mainly focused around “cognitive development,” meaning language is controlled by the development of thinking. If a baby can use sentences involving phrases such as, "more than", "less than" it is obvious that the concepts of "more than" must have been grasped, before the child uses the phrase in an utterance.
Put simply, until the child thinks of a concept, they cannot vocalise it and the higher their thinking the more they vocalise.
Bruner
Bruner created and argued for the Language Acquisition Support System (LASS). Bruner states through LASS that parents often use books and images to develop their child’s naming abilities and their ability to get involved in conversation.
1- Gaining attention- drawing the babies attention to a picture
2- Query- asking the baby to identify the picture
3- Label- telling the baby what the object is
4- Feedback- responding to the babies utterances
This is also called SCAFFOLDING, where the child is supported in their learning of language by carers and once they have learnt it, the support is taken away.
Other Theorists
• John Macnamara - said that rather than having an in-built language device, children have an innate capacity to read meaning into social situations. It is this capacity that makes them capable of understanding and learning language, not the LAD.
• Bard and Sachs Studied a boy called 'Jim', who was son of two deaf parents. Although he was exposed to TV and radio, his speech development was severely retarded until he attended sessions with a speech therapist, implying that human interaction is necessary to develop speech.
• Berko and Brown found that a child who referred to a plastic inflatable fish as a ‘fis’ substituting the ‘s’ sound for the ‘sh’ sound, couldn’t link an adult saying ‘fis’ as the same object (only responded to adult saying ‘fish’).
• Cruttenden had adults and children to predict football results from the intonation used by the announcers. Children found it more difficult.
• Jean Aitchison came up with stages of lexical development
1- Labelling – Linking words to objects to which they refer, understanding labels
2- Packaging – Exploring labels and where they can apply, over/underextension occurs in order to gain meanings.
3- Network-building – Making connections between words, understanding similarities and opposites in meaning. They start with a HYPERNYM (a general word that can have more specific words under it) and explore HYPONYMS (words that fall under a hypernym’s category)
• Katherine Nelson - found that 60% of children's early word phrases contained nouns, then verbs, pre-modifiers and phatic. She also said that the nouns were more commonly things that surrounded the children i.e ball, mum, cat. Nelson also said that in Re-casts (e.g. Ben: "me ball" Mum: "pass me the ball") children whose sentences were re-cast performed better at imitating sentences.
• Bellugi explored negatives and negation and identified three stages:
(1) Uses ‘no’ or ‘not’ at the beginning of end of the sentence – “No shoes!”
(2) Puts ‘no’ or ‘not’ inside the sentence –“I no wear shoes!”
(3) Attaches negatives to auxiliary verbs and to the copula verb “be” - “I won’t wear shoes!”
• Bellugi also explored children’s pronoun use and found three stages
(1) Uses their own name – “Katherine play.”
(2) Recognises I/me pronouns – “I play”, “Me up”
(3) Uses pronouns according to whether they are the subject or object position – “I play with the toy.”/ “Give it to me.”
• Brown found that morphemes were acquired in an order: -ing, in/on, -s, past tense irregular, possessive ‘s, is/was, the/a, past tense regular, 3rd person regular, 3rd person irregular, uncontractible auxiliary verb (were), contractibles (she’s), contractible auxiliary (she’s running).
• Berko found that children gradually developed pluralisations through the “wug” test
• Brown and Levinson suggested that politeness in children centred around two aspects of ‘face’
o Positive – where the individual desires social approval and being included.
o Negative – where the individual asserts their need to be independent and make their own decisions
• Catherine Garvey found that in play, children adopt roles and identities, acting out storylines and inventing objects and settings.
• Halliday is just the functions of child language. The most commonly used is instrumental and regulatory, which are learnt, along with interactional and personal, at a young age. Representational is used by 6-8+ year olds.
o Representational - "I've got something to show you" - language showing how they feel, declarative
o Regulatory - "Do as I tell you" - requesting/asking for things
o Instrumental - "I want"- expressing needs/wants
o Interactional - "Me and you" - speaking to other, establishing personal contact
o Imaginative - "Let's pretend" - imaginative language, used with play, to create imaginary world. Crystal talks of 'phonological' function as playing with sound.
o Personal - "Here I come"- child expresses their feelings/expressing personal preferences
o Heuristic - "Tell me why"- uses language to explore environment/ seeking information
• John Dore also describes language functions that focuses more on individual utterances
o Labelling – Naming a person, object or thing.
o Repeating – Repeating an adult word or utterance
o Answering – Responding to an utterance of another speaker
o Requesting Action – Asking for something to be done for them
o Calling – Getting someone’s attention
o Greeting – Greeting someone
o Protesting – Objecting to requests from others
o Practising – Using language when no adult is present.
Children Learning Words
* For children, a new word usually refers to a whole object, not part of it or a quality the object possesses.
* This corroborates Katherine Nelsons theory that most of a child's first words are nouns.
* There is some logic to this as most concrete nouns fit into the four categories that Spelke noted: cohesion, continuity, solidity, contact. Basically, children like objects that are clearly defined in shape, that don’t disappear, which are solid, and which don’t have a life of their own (unless they’re animate – animals or people).
* Children also apply a couple of other strategies: the type assumption and the basic level assumption.
* The type assumption prevents children from underextending most new words. In other words, if they are told that the new thing they have seen is a dog, they don’t assume that only that particular dog is a dog and every other dog isn’t.
* The basic level assumption prevents the child from overextending meanings too far. So, once a child has recognised what the noun ‘dog’ refers to, they seem to understand that it also refers to things with similar properties (appearance, behaviour, size).
* So a dog shouldn’t be a horse, a cat or a meerkat… But it doesn’t always work that way, and the mistakes children make seem to shed some light on the processes they’re using to distinguish these differences.
* This is where network-building comes in, when a child learns about the hierarchical nature of words (E.g Dog - Collie/Labrador)
* This corroborates Katherine Nelsons theory that most of a child's first words are nouns.
* There is some logic to this as most concrete nouns fit into the four categories that Spelke noted: cohesion, continuity, solidity, contact. Basically, children like objects that are clearly defined in shape, that don’t disappear, which are solid, and which don’t have a life of their own (unless they’re animate – animals or people).
* Children also apply a couple of other strategies: the type assumption and the basic level assumption.
* The type assumption prevents children from underextending most new words. In other words, if they are told that the new thing they have seen is a dog, they don’t assume that only that particular dog is a dog and every other dog isn’t.
* The basic level assumption prevents the child from overextending meanings too far. So, once a child has recognised what the noun ‘dog’ refers to, they seem to understand that it also refers to things with similar properties (appearance, behaviour, size).
* So a dog shouldn’t be a horse, a cat or a meerkat… But it doesn’t always work that way, and the mistakes children make seem to shed some light on the processes they’re using to distinguish these differences.
* This is where network-building comes in, when a child learns about the hierarchical nature of words (E.g Dog - Collie/Labrador)
Halliday’s Functions of Language in the Child Language Acquisition Debate
(by Nick Christodoulou)
Several attempts have been made to catalogue the different functions of language, and to chart child language development in terms of the increasing range of these functions to be found in the growing child’s repertoire. Michael Halliday’s taxonomy is documented below:- Instrumental: Language used to fulfil a need on the part of the speaker. Directly concerned with obtaining food, drink and comfort.
- Regulatory: Language used to influence the behaviour of others. Concerned with persuading / commanding / requesting other people to do things you want.
- Interactional: Language used to develop social relationships and ease the process of interaction. Concerned with the phatic dimension of talk.
- Personal: Language used to express the personal preferences and identity of the speaker. Sometimes referred to as the ‘Here I am!’ function – announcing oneself to the world.
- Representational: Language used to exchange information. Concerned with relaying or requesting information.
- Heuristic: Language used to learn and explore the environment. Child uses language to learn; this may be questions and answers, or the kind of running commentary that frequently accompanies children’s play.
- Imaginative: Language used to explore the imagination. May also accompany play as children create imaginary worlds, or may arise from storytelling.
Should you want further reading on language acquisition, these websites are very helpful and explain all the relevant hypotheses and theories:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition
http://home.cogeco.ca/~monicafitz/theories.htm
http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/ling001.html
Several attempts have been made to catalogue the different functions of language, and to chart child language development in terms of the increasing range of these functions to be found in the growing child’s repertoire. Michael Halliday’s taxonomy is documented below:- Instrumental: Language used to fulfil a need on the part of the speaker. Directly concerned with obtaining food, drink and comfort.
- Regulatory: Language used to influence the behaviour of others. Concerned with persuading / commanding / requesting other people to do things you want.
- Interactional: Language used to develop social relationships and ease the process of interaction. Concerned with the phatic dimension of talk.
- Personal: Language used to express the personal preferences and identity of the speaker. Sometimes referred to as the ‘Here I am!’ function – announcing oneself to the world.
- Representational: Language used to exchange information. Concerned with relaying or requesting information.
- Heuristic: Language used to learn and explore the environment. Child uses language to learn; this may be questions and answers, or the kind of running commentary that frequently accompanies children’s play.
- Imaginative: Language used to explore the imagination. May also accompany play as children create imaginary worlds, or may arise from storytelling.
Should you want further reading on language acquisition, these websites are very helpful and explain all the relevant hypotheses and theories:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition
http://home.cogeco.ca/~monicafitz/theories.htm
http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/ling001.html
Saturday, 26 September 2009
Phonological Mistakes
Phonological Mistakes
| Deletion | Omitting the final consonant | |
| Substitution | Substituting one sound for another | |
| Addition | Adding an extra vowel sound to the ends of words, creating a CVCV pattern | |
| Assimilation | Changing one consonant or vowel for another | |
| Reduplication | Repeating a whole syllable | |
| Consonant Cluster Reductions | Reducing groups of consonants into one | |
| Deletion of unstressed syllables | Omitting the opening syllable in polysyllabic words | |
Questions and Negatives
Bellugi and McNeil (1960s-1970s)
They theorised that there are distinct stages to how children develop and apply rules to negatives and questions.
The basic syntax of a question: Where (question word) is (auxiliary verb) Daddy (object) going (main verb)
Stages of Question Formation
1. Use of intonation to signal a a question is being asked (remember Cruttenden with his children recognising intonation) .
2. The use of question words. (What, where, why)
3. Manipulating syntax to create more detailed questions?
Stages of Negative Formation
1. The use of the negative alone (such as the infamous NO! or NOT! Stage)
2. Combining a negative with others in the 2-word and telegraphic stages, usually at the beginning. (Not me, no want, no beddy)
3. Using the negative in the middle of the utterance (I not want that, Me no like that)
4. Increasing accuracy of negative words and the use of contractions with auxiliary (She isn't going, I don't want to)
5. Increased complexity and range of negative words. (I haven't got any. There isn't anything. I have not got my juice.)
6. Saying no without using negatives (inflection and adjusting intonation).
They theorised that there are distinct stages to how children develop and apply rules to negatives and questions.
The basic syntax of a question: Where (question word) is (auxiliary verb) Daddy (object) going (main verb)
Stages of Question Formation
1. Use of intonation to signal a a question is being asked (remember Cruttenden with his children recognising intonation) .
2. The use of question words. (What, where, why)
3. Manipulating syntax to create more detailed questions?
Stages of Negative Formation
1. The use of the negative alone (such as the infamous NO! or NOT! Stage)
2. Combining a negative with others in the 2-word and telegraphic stages, usually at the beginning. (Not me, no want, no beddy)
3. Using the negative in the middle of the utterance (I not want that, Me no like that)
4. Increasing accuracy of negative words and the use of contractions with auxiliary (She isn't going, I don't want to)
5. Increased complexity and range of negative words. (I haven't got any. There isn't anything. I have not got my juice.)
6. Saying no without using negatives (inflection and adjusting intonation).
Parents and CDS
Mummy and Daddy
* What do parents/carers provide a child with?
- Food
- Emotional support
- Models
- Guidance
* How does this stimulate Language Acquisition?
- Correct syntax
- Heed demands
- Provide network-building opportunities
-
* Which theorists do we know include the role of the parents?
- Skinner
- Chomsky (to realise the correct rules)
- Bruner (LASS)
- Nelson (Recasts)
Lexemes in CDS
* Reduplication - Bye-Bye
* Deletion and Substitution - Jim-Jams
* Addition - Doggie
How is baby talk (CDS) pronounced?
* Simple features
* Exaggerated prosodic features
* Exaggerated pauses with turn-taking cues.
* Higher pitch
What features are there of CDS
* Repetition or repeated sentence frames
* The child’s name rather than pronouns
* Present tense
* One word utterances or ellipsis
* Slower speech
* Few verbs or modifiers
* Concrete nouns
* Emphasised phonemes
* Expansions (the expanding of a child’s utterances)
* Recasts – the extending of and rephrasing of an utterance.
* Yes/no questions
Theorists
- Bruner and his LASS
- Bruner said that ritualised activities help parents make rules and meanings predictable and explicit.
- What does peek-a-boo teach children? (Piagets Object Permanence)
- What about hickory-dickory-clock?
- One, two, three, four, five?
* What do parents/carers provide a child with?
- Food
- Emotional support
- Models
- Guidance
* How does this stimulate Language Acquisition?
- Correct syntax
- Heed demands
- Provide network-building opportunities
-
* Which theorists do we know include the role of the parents?
- Skinner
- Chomsky (to realise the correct rules)
- Bruner (LASS)
- Nelson (Recasts)
Lexemes in CDS
* Reduplication - Bye-Bye
* Deletion and Substitution - Jim-Jams
* Addition - Doggie
How is baby talk (CDS) pronounced?
* Simple features
* Exaggerated prosodic features
* Exaggerated pauses with turn-taking cues.
* Higher pitch
What features are there of CDS
* Repetition or repeated sentence frames
* The child’s name rather than pronouns
* Present tense
* One word utterances or ellipsis
* Slower speech
* Few verbs or modifiers
* Concrete nouns
* Emphasised phonemes
* Expansions (the expanding of a child’s utterances)
* Recasts – the extending of and rephrasing of an utterance.
* Yes/no questions
Theorists
- Bruner and his LASS
- Bruner said that ritualised activities help parents make rules and meanings predictable and explicit.
- What does peek-a-boo teach children? (Piagets Object Permanence)
- What about hickory-dickory-clock?
- One, two, three, four, five?
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