'Wicked' Language Change

The adjective 'Wicked' has been used for many years and has originated from the Old English meaning of 'Wicca' for 'Witch'. Over time, the meaning for 'wicked' has stemmed from the word to describe a witch.

The first meaning for 'Wicked' had a negative connotation. Originally, it meant to be evil, sinful and morally wrong in many respects. For example, you could say "What a wicked thing to say", meaning that what has been said is bad or nasty. Back when this was the main use for the word, it was only seen as a negative description. Since then, the word has been 'broadened' - the old meaning is kept but other meanings are added to it.

As the word has been used over time, it has been ameliorated - it has become more positive in its meaning. It's developed into describing something which is excellent and fantastic - much like a superlative. For example, it could be used in the utterance "that gig was so wicked" meaning that it was awesome. 

So, the word 'wicked' has been broadened and ameliorated over time, however it has still kept the meaning it originated with. However, the negative connotation of the word is not used as much nowadays, the positive one is. 

"Young readers should be corrected whenever they make a mistake"

The question as to whether children should be constantly corrected while reading is one which sparks up many different issues. By analysing a transcript of 7 year old George reading a section of Biff and Chip book, we can look at whether it is more effective to correct children during speech, or let them figure it out for themselves.

By looking at the transcript between George and his mother, it is evident that there are many examples of correction in order to improve George's speech. According to Skinner's operant conditioning theory, language needs to be learnt through positive and negative reinforcement. This way, a child will associate a reward (or no reward) with a response. By referring to the data given, George's mother provides positive reinforcement when he correctly says "they saw a lorry (2.0)" and "in (2.0) the street it was (.) loaded". She says "yeah that's right" and "that's it" in order to encourage George to carry on speaking the way he is. As well as this example of positive reinforcement, George's mum demonstrates negative reinforcement and corrects the verb “made” to become “may” in the middle of George’s utterance. This immediate response shows George that he used the incorrect morpheme because they had similar phonemes e.g. ‘may’ and ‘made’. The quick correction allows George to carry on so it doesn’t disrupt the flow of his utterance. Following the reinforcement, George uses the correct morpheme and says “may get worse”, just like it says in the book he is reading. By referring to Skinner’s theory, it is evident that using correction techniques such as positive/negative reinforcement, causes children’s miscues to be re-worded and improved.

Furthermore, Vygotsky’s theory of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) supports the statement that young readers need to be corrected when they make a mistake. When George makes a mistake in his speech, his mother is there to model and scaffold the language he uses, in order to enhance his development. For example, the mitigated imperative “watch the endings” in response to George missing out the pluralisation of “house”. Not only this, George realises he needs to use the standard term “we need” instead of “we never” after his mother uses a mitigated correction of “nooo” to highlight his error. By softening the harshness of her response, it indicates to George that he needs to self-correct. With reference to Vygotsky’s theory, it is apparent that George’s mum has provided him with the scaffolding he needs to acquire language, and it is effective. Therefore, young readers should be corrected and supported whenever they make a mistake.

Despite the data being supported by certain theorists, the answer is not fully dependable on them. According to Piaget’s 4 Critical Stage Theory, George is beginning the Concrete Operational stage, being 7 years old. Piaget’s theory suggests that children actively explore and make sense of the world around them, mostly without guidance from their caregivers. At this stage, George would be expected to begin to think logically, but sometimes struggle with abstract concepts. For example, it can be said that he still struggles with concepts such as the “endings” of morphemes. He miscues more than once during the transcript by using “never” instead of “need”, and “made” instead of “may”. This suggests that George is at the very early stages of the Concrete Operational stage, but will progress as he gets older.

Overall, it can be said that children need to be corrected when they make mistakes in speech. If they didn’t, then they would never develop and acquire language the way adults do. However, when being corrected all the time, a child would be concentrating too much on saying it right, instead of actually following the narrative of a book like they should be. So, correcting through positive/negative reinforcement and scaffolding is useful as it provides a model for children, however, too much of it can affect their confidence and ability to speak fluently.

CLA

B.M Kroll (1981) 

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.

DOCTOR CATHY BARCLAY (1996)

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.

Deborah Tannen Research

Tannen's Difference Approach

Tannen suggested that there are 6 contrasts between men and women:

Status Vs Support

Independence Vs Intimacy

Advice Vs Understanding

Information Vs Feelings

Order Vs Proposal

Conflict Vs Compromise

Tannen came up with these 6 contrasts, and implied that the words down the left side are all typical male traits. 

• Status - Males see conversation as competitive, they need to be the dominant person in conversation whereas women seek support and guidance
• Independence - Men focus on seeming not reliant on someone else - concerned with status and whether they seem strong whereas women appreciate support from other people, show intimacy
• Advice - Men revolve around wanting to solve an issue instead of a woman's objective of showing understanding and sympathy for an issue
• Information - Men are interested in the facts and figures of an issue, whereas a woman is more concerned about the well being of other people and how they feel
• Order - Men prefer using/hearing direct imperatives to do something whereas women use cloaked imperatives and often positive face to hide the fact they are using a command
• Conflict - Men seem to not be phased of the conflict between people and will happily state their opinion, whereas women are more likely to hide away their opinion to please others

Despite these observations and suggestions that Tannen has made, it is not to say that these apply to all situations. There will be males and females who do not adhere to these expectations and will be the complete opposite to what we would think.

Children's Books, Reading Schemes + Miscues

Popular Books

The most popular authors for children in their early years tend to be:

• Judith Kerr - The Tiger Who Came To Tea
• Janet and Allan Ahlberg - The Jolly Postman or Other People's Letters
• John Burningham - Would You Rather?
• Rod Campbell - Dear Zoo
• Eric Hill - Where's Spot?

The majority of these books have been published for years, and are old time favourites. The fact that they are old means they are classics - they are often passed down generations of families and have sentimental value to them. Typical features of these children's books are visually orientated. With conventions such as images, bright colours and interactive flaps revealing parts of the story. The purpose of these conventions is to match the intellectual capability of the target market. Typically, children aged 5 and lower are more interested in images, and not many words. With reference to Bruner's ideology, we can say that children encode visual based information, because it's the limit to what they can understand at this stage.

The most popular authors for children in their infant years tend to be:

• Michael Bond - A Bear Called Paddington
• Roald Dahl - The BFG
• Francesca Simon and Tony Ross - Horrid Henry
• Charlotte's Web - E B White
• Enid Blyton - The Enchanted Wood

The most successful conventions of these types of books, for infants, are the lighthearted storylines along with the illustrations. Because the audiences are still going to be young, they are interested in words and syntax on a page. However, if it's too complicated they will lose interest in the book. The popular books for this age category are mostly of a fictional style, such as the BFG or Charlotte's Web. The standard narrative with imaginary characters causes the readers to still be creative and imaginative. 

The most popular authors for children in their junior years tend to be:

• Michelle Magorian - Goodnight Mr Tom
• C S Lewis - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
• Eoin Colfer - Artemis Fowl
• J R R Tolkien - The Hobbit
• Louis Sachar - Holes

These books are considerably longer in length than the narratives written for younger audiences (early childhood, infancy). They have no pictures in them, and are specifically for older children because of the development in sophistication. While a lot of them still revolve around a fictional narrative, there is more maturity in these texts. Juniors will be developing their own reading and writing, so using these as templates will help them to do so. 

When I was younger, I remember being very fond of interactive and bright books in my early childhood. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle was one of my favourites. The main reasons for this being that there were bog pictures on every page, each with the caterpillar on. This made the book familiar to me so I kept going back to it. Furthermore, there were a few short sentences throughout the book, this meant that my mum or dad could read me the book before falling asleep at night. I had the hardback version, meaning the pages were nice to handle and durable.

Bibliography:

http://www.booktrust.org.uk/books/children/booklists/241/

Reading + Phonetics Schemes

The most popular scheme in primary schools at the moment is synthetic phonetics. Popular schemes include Jolly Phonics and Floppy's Phonics. This is when, with help from the teacher, children are told to break words down into their individual phonemes. For example, 'dog' would be broken down to form the sounds 'd' 'o' 'g' and spoken aloud to form the full word. By using these steps, it is a process which makes the development of phonetics easier. 

Typically, teachers will begin with single letter sounds (s,a,t,p,i,n) and once developed, will go on to learning more difficult, two letter sounds such as 'ou', 'oi' and 'ai'. 

Eventually, once all of the phonemes are learnt and practised aloud, it will become easier for the children to repeat words without the need for guidance from an adult. However, when new words are introduced, they will follow the same process to learn the word. They will 'decode' the word into their separate phonemes, and build them back up to form the word. 

A negative trait of this approach is that these processes will simply not work for all words. Slightly trickier words which are non-standard and don't comply with usual regular rules will mean that children find them harder to decode. Therefore, they will have to be guided with context on how to apply rules to different sounds. Furthermore, as classes will be going at one pace with each other, certain individuals may progress faster than others. If this is the case, they will be bored in class because they already know the words. To resolve this, parents usually get in touch with the teachers and extra books and tasks are sent home to assure the child is meeting their full potential. 

Advantages of this scheme include the fact that children can interact with teachers face to face. Often, this way of learning means that children can develop skills actively. So, by having the opportunity to communicate with adults, they can ask questions and be corrected any time they need.

The most popular reading scheme in primary schools across the UK is the Oxford Reading Tree, the home of Biff, Chip and Kipper. These are a set of books intended to help children learn how to read, with the option of home learning just from reading the books. Biff, Chip and Kipper are characters in a set of books which all tell the story of adventures that they have been on. These books are supposed to be an enjoyable and fun way of picking up language. There are also books to help children decode sounds and words, all with the comfort of learning in your own home. 

Advantages of these books are that there is an option to pay a set price and know your child will have the full collection of books. This will provide a learning experience that 80% of the UK also use in primary schools. The Oxford Reading Tree provides a fun way of learning how to read, including fiction, non-fiction and poetry books.

However, this learning experience may not provide as much support as other schemes. As the majority of the learning will be done through reading, there will be not so much of an active process involved. Therefore, even though children can ask where appropriate, it's not being given and taught to them in the same way as decoding the words with teachers.

Bibliography:

https://global.oup.com/education/content/primary/series/oxford-reading-tree/?region=uk

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/starting-school/oxford-reading-tree-explained/

Miscues

During the development of a child's speech, they will undoubtedly make mistakes along the way (miscues). By taking on the role of  teacher or parent, it is a duty to correct and notice these miscues in order for the child to advance in their speech. 

Common miscues recorded by adults tend to be:

• Mixing up the word order of a sentence - often happens with high frequency words
• Additions of unnecessary words - often when they are making sense of a text
• Omission - can indicate the child is reading too fast
• Changing tenses mid-sentence - can indicate the child does not understand tenses
• Substitution of a word - can indicate a child does not understand the existing word
• Repetition - can indicate a text is too difficult

Caregivers will often notice these miscues without having to look for them. If they are a regular occurrence, they will correct the child subtly until they say the statement in the right form. They may do this through echoing, modelling or positive/negative reinforcement. Many people record a child reciting a text they've never seen before. This way, when recording the speech, there are miscues made which may not have been noticed if the text had been rehearsed. 

Bibliography:

http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2234&context=reading_horizons

http://specialed.about.com/od/literacy/a/msicue.htm

Imitation & Reinforcement are the most important tools for CLA

Imitation & Reinforcement are the most important tools for CLA [30 marks]

The theory that imitation and reinforcement are important for the development of a child’s language is supported by Skinner, a social philosopher. Skinner’s theory very much revolves around a behaviourist ideology – language is acquired through an environmental influence and is not innate when we are born. So in order for a child to learn language, this must happen through operant conditioning, with guidance from their caregiver. Skinner proposed that positive and negative reinforcement were two features which enhanced a child’s language development the most. Positive reinforcement is when a certain behaviour is encouraged by providing a positive stimulus for the child, causing them to feel like they have been awarded – the action is more likely to be repeated. By referring to transcripts A and B, this could be Tom’s mother ‘echoing’ him when saying ‘it makes noises’. She is supporting him, which will then aid the development of his language to go further.  On the other hand, negative reinforcement is when a certain behaviour is more likely to be repeated in order to avoid an unpleasant stimulus. This could be remembering to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to avoid being punished by the caregiver for not using manners in speech. Skinner’s theory of imitation and reinforcement is one which is supported with reference to the two provided texts, however, it is not necessarily relevant to all utterances included in the sources.

Despite the fact that imitation and reinforcement are crucial tools for CLA. It is debatable whether they are the most crucial. It is evident from texts A and B that other theories and ideologies may be better suited to the language transcribed. In text A, Tom, who is 2 years and 7 months old, is playing in the garden with his bike. Before even reading the utterances, we can tell that Tom is active in his role, not sat inside on the sofa. Bruner’s (1957) theory could underpin the reasoning for Tom’s speech throughout the conversation. Bruner’s ideology suggests that there are 3 innate modes of representation: The enactive stage (0-1 years), Iconic stage (1-6 years) and Symbolic stage (7+ years). It is evident that Tom has already completed the enactive stage, where he encodes action based information and is able to know what ‘sitting on the bike’ entails. Furthermore, the interrogative ‘is these drawing Cartoon Network cup of tea mum’ is an example of being in the Iconic stage. Even though Tom has overextended the proper noun ‘Cartoon Network’ from a term he is less familiar with and there is no grammatical agreement between ‘is these’, it can be said that Tom is grasping the concept and can encode visual based information. However, he is not yet at the Symbolic stage, where language and grammar are more sophisticatedly formed. From analysing the transcript, it is evident that Tom is developing through the 3 modes of representation, where his age of 2 years and 7 months can be referred directly to Bruner’s statement ‘knowing is a process, not a product.’

The Nature vs Nurture debate is one which has never really met a conclusion, even though many theorists have tried. The declarative ‘you’re not on dad’s bike (.) you’re on your bike’ uses personal pronouns directed at Tom and his father, explaining who the concrete noun ‘bike’ belongs to. This is an example of scaffolding, a concept in which Vygotsky (1978) came up with in his social interactionist theory. He suggests that children seek information actively from experienced adults or their caregiver, in order to acquire language. The Zone of Proximal Development is a bridge that needs to be crossed in order to learn what was not known before. So, Tom’s mother is helping him grasp that he is not sat on ‘dad’s bike’, but in fact, his own bike which has the same characteristics as his dad’s. He has overextended the term to something which is familiar to him, but needed the help from his mother so he could explain that he has possession over it. This scaffolding, reformulation and repair is what helps language acquisition, and eventually, Tom will be able to use these terms without the scaffolding from his mother. This can be further supported by Freund’s (1990) dollhouse study. This consisted of the comparison between a child being supported by their mother to place furniture in a dollhouse, and a child left to do it themselves. The observation resulted in the child who was provided with scaffolding from their mother performing better at placing the furniture – proving that nurture is a concept crucial for CLA. It could be said that Vygotsky’s theory supports Skinner’s learning ideology, as the response and guidance from the caregiver is extremely effective.

As much as the debate for Imitation and Reinforcement is strong, there will always be arguments to suggest otherwise. Both of Tom’s caregivers seem to give short responses in the transcript. Despite the fact that there are adjacency pairs and preferred responses throughout, it seems as if the parents are rather vague and provide simple syntax or even one word phrases at times. ‘You’, ‘my bike’, ‘really’ and ‘oops’ are some examples spoken from Tom’s mother and father. The case may be that these are deictic references – the reader will not understand unless they have the context of the conversation. Chomsky (1950) argued that there is a universal language innate in our brains. So, as a child, combining categories of speech (nouns, verbs etc) to create phrases is something we can do instinctively, without the help of our parents. The transcript firstly supports Chomsky’s theory because it is evident that Tom is using utterances of up to 4 words – including conjunctions such as ‘but’ in Text A, as well as personal pronouns such as ‘I killed it’ in Text B. Chomsky implies that by 2 years old, children should be able to acquire all of these language features, much like Tom can. Furthermore, the utterances from Tom’s parents and his elaborative responses suggest that he is developing well in his own mind, despite the rather restricted speech from his mother and father. This implies that imitation and reinforcement are not the most crucial for CLA, as there is evidence to suggest that Tom is able to develop language without full support from his parents at times.

To conclude, there are many arguments for and against whether CLA is most beneficial from imitation & reinforcement, or independent learning with innate instincts. Skinner’s research does hold some reliable evidence, supported by some aspects of the Transcript such as the positive reinforcement in Text A. Tom finds it hard to grasp the possessive pronouns of ‘dad’s bike’ along with the concrete noun ‘bike’. It takes many attempts of positive reinforcement and the echoing of ‘dad’s bike’ in order for Tom to finally say it correctly. This is real life proof that through the nurture of language and support from Tom’s mother and father, he uttered the accurate ‘-s’ inflection in ‘dad’s’, showing he was successful. Reinforcement seems to be the theory with the most background evidence, despite Chomsky’s ‘Universal Language’ argument.

Investigation Methodology

Methodology

In my investigation, I will focus on Language and Gender theory, paying particular focus to Deborah Tannen. She suggests that men and women acquire different traits in language. For example, men are more concerned about Status, Independence, Advice, Information, Order and Conflict. They are more prestigious, always looking to provide logical and hard evidence in a situation. This contrasts against women who possess kind, sympathetic and soft characteristics. 

In order to do so, I am going to gather data from the presidential debates from 2016. By looking at the speeches that both Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump have made in response to the same questions, I will be able to analyse the transcripts which will enable me to evaluate Tannen's theory. I will look at the phonetics of their speech, the specific lexis they use, discourse markers, grammar as well as the pragmatics of their speech. While doing this, I will apply it to Deborah Tannen's theory.

I will also analyse how both male and females cope well under pressure. Because of the nature of the debate, it will be interesting to see what techniques the candidates do to cope with the on-the-spot questions and comments.

Comparability

Because I am looking at two candidates running for the same position of the 2016 election for president, a lot of the factors will be the same. Trump and Clinton would be in the same environment on the same day, with the same questions being asked. This way, the only factors that are different are their beliefs and the fact that Trump is a man and Clinton is a woman. Both are hoping to gain full support of the American people, and will use different techniques to do so. 

Reliability

Because not all sources found on the internet are reliable, I will look at videos on Youtube of the real life debates. Instead of picking a transcript of their speeches online and analysing this, I am going to transcribe certain sections of their speeches myself so that I know all of the utterances were actually spoken by the candidates.

Ethics

In the circumstances of my investigation, considering whether my research is ethical is reasonably easy. Because the candidates already know they are being filmed and broadcasted everywhere, it is not necessary to ask for this permission because they will have already been informed about what will happen.