Language Acquisition Write Up

Language Acquisition Write Up: Exam Year Unknown What Was Written: Throughout the transcripts Joe displays linguistic skills from a range of different developmental stages, ranging from holophrastic utterances to telegraphic phrases, making his developmental level quite hard to define. For example, Joe goes from utterances like 'he spuzz me', half formed sentences with clear pronunciation errors to 'they need these /ba(glottal stop)riz/', showing an awareness of the world around him and correctly phrasing a sentence despite the glottal stops and mispronunciation. As well as this, Joe frequently corrects his pronunciation and grammar, revealing a high level of linguistic awareness. For example, Joe repeats the incorrectly formen phrase 'he go yee-hah' twice, and then uses the correctly conjugated form of 'to say' to correct his phrasing and say 'he says yee-hah'. This correction displays an understanding of more complex grammatical structures and conforms to Chomsky's view that all children are born with an innate ability to grasp these structures. The inadvertent use of the glottal stop (or the replacement of the 't' with a glottal sound) shows up consistently throughout the transcript, mostly in words like 'batteries' which is pronounced without the 't' sound. While the use of the glottal stop may just be a normal pronunciation error, it may also have been caused by outside influences, such as regional dialect. Despite Joe's caregivers pronouncing the word correctly, he continues to use the glottal stop. Another explanation for this (aside from dialectal influences) ties in with Berko and Brown's theories about early phonological mistakes. Berko and Brown theorised that children believed they were pronouncing words correctly, even if they were not. This meant that when their mistakes were mimicked by adults they could not recognise the words. This may explain Joe's prolonged use of the glottal stop, if it is not caused by outside influences on pronunciation.Throughout the transcripts, the caregivers surrounding Joe position themselves as powerful participants in the conversation. In Text A, Joe's mother leads the conversation by asking Joe questions like 'does he stand up'. These questions direct the conversation in particular ways and are most likely used to prompt Joe into speaking and developing his language acquisition. Similarly in Text B, Joe's Dad uses declarative sentences like 'I don't need that one' and 'I need that one now' to assert control over the situation. However, the bluntness of these phrases is negated by nicknames like 'mister man' and 'mate', making it clear that the balance of power between Joe and his caregivers is not harmful. These endearments allow Joe's caregivers to assert control over situations while not damaging Joe's emotional needs as a young child.In Text B, Joe reveals a capability for understanding quite a complex set of lexis for his age. For example, when the toy says 'we've got an unwanted visitor in town', Joe not only understands the phrase 'unwanted visitor', but understands it to the extent that he can make a humorous addition of 'my dad!' to the "discussion". This shows a high level of understanding for a young child. However, it may be that Joe's understanding stems from his own cultural experiences and his own knowledge of that particular film character. If Joe has an extended knowledge of that character, he may have been able to recognise the meaning of a complicated phrase because he had previously heard it within a context he understands. Joe also uses a lexical field that is almost specialised for children. He uses the phrase 'baddie' when playing, a noun that falls out of use in adults due to its colloquial nature. It is possible that the use of this specialised lexis has come from outside influences