Children's Writing - Theory

Theory 1: B.M. KROLL 1981

4 stages in the development of writing.  

Stage 1: PREPAROTARY STAGE

• Masters the basic motor skills needed to write
• Learns the basic principles of the spelling system.

Stage 2: CONSOLIDATION STAGE (age up to 6)

• Child writes in the same way it speaks.
• Uses short declarative sentences which include mainly ‘and’ conjunctions.
• Incomplete sentences as they don’t know how to finish the sentence off.

Stage 3: DIFFERENTIATION STAGE (age up to 9)

• Child becomes aware of the difference between speaking and writing.
• Recognises the different writing styles available e.g. letter, essay.
• Lots of mistakes.
• Use writing guides and frameworks to structure work.
• Write to reflect thoughts and feelings.

Stage 4: INTEGRATION STAGE (12+)

• Child develops a personal style.
• Child understands that you can change your style according to audience and purpose.

Theory 2: DOCTOR CATHY BARCLAY 1996

7 stages to a child's developing its writing skills.  

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/ PHONETIC SPELLING STAGE

• Attach spelling with sounds.

Stage 7: CORRECT SPELLING STAGE

• Are able to spell most words.

Zachy Transcript Analysis

By looking at two comparable and reliable transcripts, we can depict certain factors and features that will tell us something about child language acquisition (CLA). First of all, the first transcript called "Drawing a banana" features Zachy as a 2 and 4 month year, talking to his mother about his day and what he was currently doing at the time. Immediately we notice that the conversation features mainly local topics, focusing more on the things that Zach is more likely to know and have an interest in talking about. This is clearly due to the fact that he is of such a young age and will not have the wider knowledge to talk about such unfamiliar and complex topics. Also, it is worth noting that H uses a lot more interrogatives than Z, and the opposite goes for declaratives. Looking further into the content of the two sentence moods, it appears that most of Halla's interrogatives double as an echoing interrogative. This means that H is repeating what Z has said to reassure and prompt him to go on. This encourages Zachy to talk more during the conversation, perhaps explaining why his utterances are slightly more advanced than his age suggests. His age of 28 months at the time of the transcript puts him in the telegraphic stage (three and more words combined), however his speech shows signs of a more post telegraphic development (more complex combinations). For example Zach says "I don't know (0.5) where's my little pad gone?". The use of the pronoun "I" and the adjective "little" show that Zach is already beyond the point of using simple 2/3 words to express himself by adding this more mature sense of detail.

Lenneberg's Critical Period Hypothesis

Lenneberg's Critical Period Hypothesis

The critical period hypothesis is the subject of a long-standing debate in linguistics and language acquisition over the extent to which the ability to acquire language is biologically linked to age.
In 1967 Eric Lenneberg released a widely influential book based on his research popularizing the notion that if language is not learned before an early age – usually estimated at 4 to 6 years – a child’s ability to learn any language becomes greatly compromised, or disappears altogether.  Though this research has been advocated for and debated against by linguistic giants such as Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker, the evidence from Lenneberg and others is flimsy, draws extensively from widely divergent examples of feral children, and is largely theoretical.
This hypothesis was originally proposed by Penfield and Roberts (1959) and followed up by Lenneberg (1967) who suggested that it could be extended to the second language acquisition. Subsequent studies all found the same result that second language learning performance correlates negatively with the age at which the learning begins prior to puberty.

Key Points

• Lenneberg theorized that the acquisition of language is an innate process determined by biological factors which limit the critical period for acquisition of a language from roughly two years of age to puberty.

• Lenneberg believed that after lateralization (a process by which the two sides of the brain develop specialized functions), the brain loses plasticity.

• Lenneberg claimed that lateralization of the language function is normally completed at puberty, making post adolescent language acquisition difficult.

Child Language Acquisition Stages

Language acquisition for small children occur in stages...

• Babbling (apx 6 months) - Child produces the full range of possible speech sounds, even those which do not occur in speech heard in immediate environment, (the target language) and which s/he may later find "impossible" to reproduce when learning a foreign language.
• Holophrastic/One word stage (apx 12-14 months) - the words produced in holophrastic speech are not just any words. For example you get: cookie drink bad fast go yes/no But never: *in *the *and
• Two word stage (apx 24 months) - Still virtually no closed class words: some pronouns, especially me/you.
• Telegraphic Speech - no 3-word stage -basically English sentences, but still without closed class items. -some affixes (past tense marker, plural) -SVO word order (almost invariable) -constant changing/adding of rules

Sources: http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_1998/ling001/acq.html

Paper 2 - Language and Gender Resources

Theorists flashcards

https://quizlet.com/9012037/language-and-gender-theorists-flash-cards/alphabetical

Language and gender in detail

https://sites.google.com/site/englishatknutsford/home/english-language-as-a2/language-and-gender/language-and-gender-the-theorists

Our Teenagers Need Social Skills, Not Social Networks

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/22/teenagers-social-skills-not-social-networks-work-ncs

Language and Gender

Men	Women
Dominate a conversation by topic initiation, topic shifts, holding the floor, lack of turn-yielding clues, interrupting and generally speaking more.	More submissive in a conversation and likely to speak less. Unlikely to interrupt, initiate or change topics or attempt to hold the floor.
Use a more informal register through their use of accent, taboo, slang, dialect, sociolect and grammatical variations. Likely to use covert prestige to sustain a masculine identity.	More likely to use overt prestige to help create a feminine identity and succumb to stereotypes on how a ‘lady-like’ woman should talk (more formal lexis and less phonological variations).
More likely to be factual, competitive, direct and detached when speaking while maintaining a need for status.	More likely to be supportive, cooperative, polite, apologetic and emotional when speaking.

1. Robin Lakoff (1975)

1. 1Hedges: Phrases like ‘sort of’, ‘kind of’, ‘it seems like’
2. 2Empty adjectives: ‘divine’, ‘adorable’, ‘gorgeous’
3. 3Super-polite forms: ‘Would you mind …’, ‘Is it Ok if …?’
4. 4Apologise more: ‘I'm sorry, but I think that …’
5. 5Speak less frequently
6. 6Avoid coarse language or expletives
7. 7Tag questions: ‘You don't mind eating this, do you?’
8. 8Hyper-correct grammar and pronunciation: Use of prestige grammar and clear articulation
9. 9Indirect requests: ‘I'm so thirsty.’ – really asking for a drink
10. 10Speak in italics: Use tone to emphasis certain words, e.g., ‘so’, ‘very’, ‘quite’.
11. 
    

      Deborah Tannen (1990)

• Status vs Support: Men use language to show power and dominance in conversations; women are more likely to use language choices that support and agree with others.
• Independence vs Intimacy: Men will use language to show they do not need to rely on others; women will prefer to use language as a way of connecting with others and maintaining closeness.
• Advice vs Understanding: Men are more likely to offer solutions to a problem through their language choices; women will show empathy and understanding to a given situation.
• Information vs Feelings: Similar to Tannen's Advice vs Understanding concept, men are far more likely to be factual in their language choices; women, in contrast, will use language choices that are less factual and stem from a more emotional viewpoint.
• Orders vs Proposals: In conversations, men are far more likely to be direct in their language using imperatives to command others; women will avoid such a commanding tone and be more suggestive in their language choices (for example, a man may say ‘Close that window it's cold’ whereas the woman is more likely to say ‘Isn't it cold in here?’ suggesting the window needs to be closed).
• Conflict vs Compromise: Men are more likely to use language to argue a point; women will use language to avoid such conflict and are far more likely to negotiate with others to try and find a solution or compromise.

Eight Words That Reveal The Sexism at the Heart of the English Language

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/27/eight-words-sexism-heart-english-language

This article explores a list of words that come under fire for sexist definitions, showing the history of terms that refer to women and how deep the negative attitudes go. In particular, the author focuses on eight specific words that represent how women were addressed and represented during older times.

A-Level English Language Blog

http://englishlangsfx.blogspot.co.uk/
This blog features posts that are applicable to both students and teachers studying A-level English language. This blog posts mainly past papers and useful teaching/studying resources.

The Sexist Surcharge - How women get ripped off on the highstreet

http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2016/jan/19/the-sexist-surcharge-how-women-get-ripped-off-on-the-high-street

3D's: Difference Model

"There are gender differences in ways of speaking, and we need to identify and understand them" - Deborah Tannen

The difference theory is one of the aspect of linguistics that specialists in examining the effect that gender has on language.