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.

Commenting on my own analysis

Commenting on my own analysis

Task: Comment on your own analysis about whether the data you suggested you would collect would be suitable and why/why not. 

This is what I said I would change or replace my analysis with:

If I was to choose other data to go with this is that I would transcribe another conversation with an older child to see how the child’s language and the adult’s language and techniques differ. I could also use a child of the same age but from a different place or someone who may be at a different stage of learning, they could be more advanced or less advanced as the child included in this data. Depending on their age I would call this investigation ‘a conversation with an almost ….. year old’.

After studying the reliable/comparable and ethical data factors I now know that this type of investigation would not be suitable. This is because it would not be reliable data as I only have one form of data, I do not have a transcript of data from another child of the same age as the one included in my analysis. Also, not everything in the transcript is clear there are many indistinct factors of the child’s language which may not be the case for all children of similar or different ages. If I was to complete this investigation it would not work as there is more than one variable in the data. The comparison would be much broader than one of a difference in gender. There would be a difference in age, therefore a difference in language development. This is a huge variable and would not work very well when investigating the data. The ethical issues with the choice of data I used is that the children are under 16 and I would therefore need their parents’ permission to use this data in my investigation.

Ethicality Task

Ethicality

Task: look back at what you decided you could collect to investigate further after looking at the sample data. How could you make what you collect more comparable/ethical/reliable? Write a list of all the factors you consider including problems.

In order to make the data I collected and my investigations as a whole ethical I would need to consider the fact of data being published or unpublished. If something is published I can use it without any doubts about confidentiality. I would be able to use the editor’s letters in women’s and men’s magazines and Michael Gove’s comments on education as an investigation as they are both examples of data that have been published. Using the Argos catalogue and analysing ‘live’ broadcasts would also be fine. If I want to use unpublished data I would need personal permission to do so. However, one problem that might occur is the use of Brian Cox’s tweets, when analysing his tweets I would need to make sure that the tweets were actually posted by Brian and not someone who works with him, making sure the tweets are of his own beliefs and not those of his employers.

The factors I considered when worrying about ethicality were:

·         -Whether the data was published or unpublished

·         -The choice of language used and whether the data includes any taboo language which some people may find offensive

·        - The data itself and whether it can offend people 

Comparability task

Comparability

Task:

1) How far does the language of advertising vary according to the gender of the target audience?

2) How does a ‘live’ commentary on radio differ from one on television?

If I was too investigate how far the language of advertising varies according to the gender of the target audience I would use the data of the top ten boy’s toys in and Argos book and the top ten girl’s toys. I would discuss the fact that they both use the same techniques and features apart from the ‘one variable’ of gender. For example, the catalogue is likely to use colours associated with the gender of the target audience, it will have a pink background for girls toys such as doll’s houses and dolls whereas there will likely to be a blue or black background advertising the top ten boys toys. Also the type of lexis used will vary as the advertisement will involve more lexis that is appealing to the audience.

If I was too investigate the difference in a ‘live’ radio commentary and one on television the one variable would be that you can see the television broadcast whereas you can only hear the radio broadcast. The radio broadcaster will be use many adjectives in order to describe to the listeners what exactly is going on, they will talk constantly to inform the listeners of what they need to know and what they are listening too, however, on a television broadcast you can visual see what is happening so the commentator will not have to describe every single aspect of the viewing. If the data was a football match on both of the live handsets a radio broadcaster would say ‘Rooney’s just ran 40 yards and he’s passed to Gerrard’ whereas on the television the commentator would just say ‘Rooney passes to Gerrard’. 

Reliability Task

Reliability:

Task: how could you collect reliable data on the following topics:

• Editor’s letter in women’s and men’s magazines
• Brian Cox’s tweets
• Michael Gove’s comments on education

If I was looking at an Editor’s letter in women’s and men’s magazines I would collect the same amount of each data, for example two men’s magazines and two women’s magazines. I would compare the two men’s editors’ letters from the magazine and then compare the two women’s magazines. In my comparison I would pick out the lexis used and how it is similar or different in the magazines, depending on the gender it is aimed at. 

While looking at Brian Cox’s tweet I would choose a few tweets, maybe every five from the past week. This would be not too much data and there would be a fair selection of tweets, they would range from different days, meaning different moods or behaviour over the period of time. This would be better as you can analyse what you need to. 

If I had to find reliable data about Michael Gove’s comments on education, I would find a number of interviews or transcripts of his comments and then I would try and apply the way he talks to any theories.

Analysis of my data.

Which data you chose and why? 

I chose to transcribe the data in the video called ‘a conversation with an almost 2 year old’. I chose to use this data as I find the way children speak interesting and I would like to broaden my knowledge on the subject by looking at theories etc. The study of children’s language also links to my health and social care course. 

What you found and what theory you linked it to

When looking at this data I found that it included a lot of child directed speech from the      adult, this is seen when the adult in included uses a higher pitch and exaggerated intonation. A: Nooooo^ (.) you don’t want that to be your name^ (3) you’re being silly [giggles] this is an example of how the parent in this video uses child directed speech as the ^ indicate a rise in pitch of her voice. Also the adjective of ‘silly’ is a very childlike word, it is unusual that an adult would use that word in conversation when directing at another adult. The theories that this links to are Jean Piaget (1896-1980) cognitive development theory which he stated that children cannot learn unless they are interacting with others and their environment and by making mistakes they learn from them. Another theory this links to is Jerome Bruner (1964) Bruner believes that the child has to learn for itself by making sense of their own environment.

A: can you say your name

C: name

A: that’s^ not your name

C: Daddy^

A: say Caroline

C: Daddy ^

A: Caroline/

This is another way that the parent uses child directed speech in order to get the child to say their name. However the choice of phrasing and wording that the parent uses is unusual is in a normal conversation a child would be asked what’s your name? Rather than ‘can you say your name’. The parent in this situation also asks her child questions in order to get the child used to knowing how to reply and also help the child in knowing how to reply. A: /do you want this^/ is an example of this, the child will reply with either yes or know which gives them the knowledge of knowing what reply is suitable to how they feel or what they want.

               

What other data you could choose to go with it or replace it with to make an investigation

If I was to choose other data to go with this is that I would transcribe another conversation with an older child to see how the child’s language and the adult’s language and techniques differ. I could also use a child of the same age but from a different place or someone who may be at a different stage of learning, they could be more advanced or less advanced as the child included in this data. 

           

What you would call that investigation

Depending on their age I would call this investigation ‘a conversation with an almost ….. year old’.

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