homework- 15/10/2013

Basil Bernstein

Basil Bernstein thought that there were two types of language. They were the restricted code and the elaborated code. Restricted code is suitable for insiders who share assumptions and understanding on the topic. Within the restricted code speakers draw on background knowledge and shared understanding. It creates a feeling of belonging to a certain group. Elaborated code the speaker will select from a relatively extensive range of alternatives. The elaborated code “spells everything out” so that it is much easier for everyone to understand.

Vygotsky

The zone of proximal development is the difference between what a leaner can do without help and what he or she can do with help. Vygotsky stated that children often follow an adult’s example. They will then develop the skills to continue the task without any help. 

Pragmatic Development: Homework Task

Task: Write an entertaining piece building on what the baby might be thinking if she had full adult abilities. For example imagine what the adult thinks the baby intends is greatly from the truth. 

Original transcript:

Jess: Book.

Dad: Yes, it's your book. Do you like that one?

Jess: Book

Dad: You want me to read it?

Jess: Yes. Read

Dad: Come and sit here then. 'Oh look, here are some horses.' 

Jess: Horses

Dad: And who is this?

Jess: Dog

Dad: Yes a dog. A big brown dog. 

Jess: Shop

Dad: Shop?

Jess: Yea. Shop. Dog 

Dad: Oh yes, we saw Jim's dog in the shop.

Jess: Jim.

Dad: Is this like Jim's dog? 

Jess: Yes.

Dad: A bit. And what's this?

Jess: Baa

Dad: that's right - a sheep. It says baa. 

My adult abilities version: 

Anything in brackets is the information that I have added that Jess would be thinking if she had adult abilities.

Jess: Book. (Dad, read this book for me please, you said you would two days ago)

Dad: Yes, it's your book. Do you like that one?

Jess: Book (yes Dad, I know it's mine, it's old MacDonald had a farm, it's not yours is it? now can you just read it please) 

Dad: You want me to read it?

Jess: Yes. Read (No, just sit and point out what it is, of course I want you to read it)

Dad: Come and sit here then. 'Oh look, here are some horses.' 

Jess: Horses (yes it's a horse, they generally live on farms)

Dad: And who is this?

Jess: Dog (a dog, living on a farm, isn't that funny...)

Dad: Yes a dog. A big brown dog. 

Jess: Shop (can we go to the shop after this?)

Dad: Shop?

Jess: Yea. Shop. Dog (yeah dad, the shop with the dog) 

Dad: Oh yes, we saw Jim's dog in the shop.

Jess: Jim. (how many times, I want to go to Jim's shop, yes) 

Dad: Is this like Jim's dog? 

Jess: Yes.(Yes, now let's go see him)

Dad: A bit. And what's this?

Jess: Baa (what has a sheep got to do with the shop dad?)

Dad: that's right - a sheep. It says baa. 

Difficulties in a childs acquisition of vocabulary- Updated.

Explain some of the difficulties a child might encounter in its acquisition of vocabulary from the time it speaks to the age of seven. You can also refer to some phonological features, as well as considering ideas such as the use of concrete and abstract nouns, overextension, acquisition of grammar words etc.

There are many different difficulties a child might face in their acquisition of vocabulary from their first words to the age of seven. One feature noticeable is that children of a young age tend to use monosyllabic words, for example wow, moo, quack etc. These are sound words and will be known as representation words for the animal. By taking part in the activity ‘a child’s first 50 words’ it is evident that children mainly use naming words, and objects they are surrounded with are very commonly used, a common example of a child’s first word is often ball, this is then used to compare most round objects this is known as analogical overextension. This supports Skinner’s imitation and behaviour theory, which children learn from what is around them. It also supports Bruner’s social Interactionists theory, which if modes are witnessed in social interactions children will use them, an example of this is ‘allgone’ a parent or caregiver may use this phrase when interacting with their child, when they’ve finished their dinner they may say ‘allgone’ in which the child will copy the word and tell their caregiver that their dinner is ‘allgone’. 

Other difficulties a child might face are the different concepts of words. Some families use different words for certain things than others and this can cause confusion for the child. If an adult holds a toy and calls it a teddy bear, but the child’s parent calls it a cuddly bear, the aspect of the same object having two different names but meaning the same can confuse the child. This fits in with overextension. Overextension is when a child will have the same word for objects or things of similar likeness. For example, every four legged animal might be referred to as a doggie. This occurs because although a child understands what the animal is and notices differences, the infant only has one word for animals with for legs, this word being dog. 

 The younger the children the more they sound phonemes out loud, helping them hear how a sound is produced. Many children often forget the final constant of a word, this is known as deletion. A child will say ‘do’ or ‘cu’ instead of dog and cup. As well as deletion children often use addition, this is when they add an extra vowel to the end of words, an example of this is when children say ‘doggie’. Many children use phonemes for example making the noise of an m, or d, this can be taken to mean mummy or daddy, children will also progress this to ma or da, and will then repeat the whole syllable to produce ‘mama or dada’. This also refers to the first stage that Jean Aitchison identified, the labelling stage, this involves making links between the sounds of particular words and the objects they refer to, for example ‘mummy’ or ‘mama’ is referring to the child’s mother. Children learn from past experience, if they see a bug which they are told is an ant, the next bug they see might be a cockroach but they are going to think it is an ant, because they do not yet understand there are differences.

A2 English Language- Child Language Acquisition

15 months:

• Bye Mummy
• Isee
• Allgone

At this age the child is in the holophrastic stage. This is when children use single words to take the place of a grammatical construction or use a single word as a phrase. At a young age children use mainly nouns and naming words, this child knows the word Mummy as their mother is likely to be in direct contact with them. They merge two words into one, Isee is describing what they can see and allgone, they understand the concept but do not know that it is two words; they are also phrases that they are likely to have heard around them.

20 months:

• All fall down
• Teddy tired
• Gone, where Mummy gone?
• More juice

At this age a child is in the two-word stage. In this stage children become aware of and action and an effect. Bloom observed that two word utterances can have different meanings. This is shown with these examples the phrase more juice could mean ‘I want more juice’, ‘there is more juice’ or ‘no more juice’. Because they child saying this is in the two-word stage they cannot yet produce the whole phrase but hopes that by saying something like it, it will be interpreted properly.

28 months

• Teddy's hat came off – preposition
• Harry's got a big, big green truck – use of more than one adjective.

This child is in the early telegraphic stage. At this stage the child is now able to for more of a sentence. The child is beginning to understand some aspects of grammar. The child is showing signs of logic, and problem solving, shown in the example of ‘teddy’s hat came off’ they can see that this is a problem. Some children do not get out of this stage.  

36 months

• Little Luke hit me, he did
• I am going to see Harriet another day tomorrow
• I don't like faces, I want to see children's ITV

This child is in the late telegraphic stage. The child’s knowledge of grammar has now started to develop even more, they are now aware of time and form ‘I am going to see Harriet another day tomorrow’ the arrangement and concept of the sentences and phrases are still not perfect but a child has a better understanding.

40 months

• Look at my knee. I felled over in the playground- inflections, irregular verb.
• Once upon a time there was a little girl and she got beautiful hair and then the monster killed her and then she got dead and then and then the beautiful fairy came and made them better again

This child is in the post-telegraphic stage. This child has reached the formal operational stage and they now know the mental distinction between themselves and others and an idea. 

Difficulties in a childs acquisition of vocabulary.

Explain some of the difficulties a child might encounter in its acquisition of vocabulary from the time it speaks to the age of seven. You can also refer to some phonological features, as well as considering ideas such as the use of concrete and abstract nouns, overextension, acquisition of grammar words etc.

There are many different difficulties a child might face in their acquisition of vocabulary from their first words to the age of seven. One feature noticeable is that children of a young age tend to use monosyllabic words, for example wow, moo, quack etc. By taking part in the activity ‘a child’s first 50 words’ it is evident that children mainly use naming words, and objects they are surrounded with are very commonly used. This supports Skinner’s imitation and behaviour theory, which children learn from what is around them. It also supports Bruner’s social Interactionists theory, which if modes are witnessed in social interactions children will use them. 

Other difficulties a child might face are the different concepts of words. Some families use different words for certain things than others and this can cause confusion for the child. If an adult holds a toy and calls it a teddy bear, but the child’s parent calls it a cuddly bear, the aspect of the same object having two different names but meaning the same can confuse the child. This fits in with overextension. Overextension is when a child will have the same word for objects or things of similar likeness. For example, every four legged animal might be referred to as a doggie. This occurs because although a child understands what the animal is and notices differences, the infant only has one word for animals with for legs, this word being dog.

Theorists

Child Language Acquisition

Noam Chomsky (Innateness Theory)

Chomsky believes that language acquisition is an innate structure, or function within the brain. The theory states that there is a learning age, between the ages of 3 and 10 children are most likely to learn a language. Another factor that Chomsky uses to support his theory is that children do not need a trigger to learn a language; a child will try to learn language on their own e.g. cooing or babbling. A caregiver may encourage the use of language faster, but the child will often try to do it themselves.

B.F Skinner (Imitation and Behaviourist Theory)

Skinner came up with the operant conditioning theory and the use of reinforcement when learning. Positive reinforcement is the strengthening of the correct S-R bond, causing the behaviour to be repeated when it is enforced and negative reinforcement weakens the incorrect S-R bond, causing the behaviour to die out when it is not reinforced. The operant conditioning theory also included the element of punishment, which was the response from the environment that decreases the likelihood of behaviour to be repeated and punishment weakens behaviour. Skinner also stated that children learn through nurture, they imitate what they hear around them and this is how they learn language.

Jerome Bruner (Social Interactionists Theory)

Bruner believed that a child’s social environment and interaction paid a huge part in how they learn language. Bruner summarised that the world had three modes, they were:

·        

        Enactive (actions)

·        Iconic (pictures

·         Symbolic (words and numbers) 

Bruner believed that because children will see these modes because it is what they witness in social interactions and used when they perform tasks. Bruner considered language the most important tool in a child’s cognitive development. 

Jean Piaget (Cognitive Development Theory)

Piaget believed that all children are born with a mental structure that they inherit which all their knowledge is developed on and based on. Piaget believed that cognitive development was the organisation of mental processes of biological maturation and environmental experience.

Possible investigations

Possible investigations

Task: Read the 'possible investigations' on one of my blog posts and discuss with a partner which would be problematic and why - what better suggestions could you come up with? What are two or three suitable ideas for you to investigate? 

      Observations of young children learning to speak read or write:

      I think this would be a good topic to use as it is an interesting subject. However with this investigation there could be some problems, it would be difficult to ethically produce the data as permission will be needed to study the development of the children, however it would be effective data to use regarding reliability, this is because I could get enough data from a plentiful amount of children to investigate. For this reason there would also be enough to consider in comparability there would only be one variable which could be the age or the gender of the children. Other suggestions I came up with are the observations of young children, teenagers, and adults and how they read and write, I could investigate the development and how the techniques they use differs from their ages.