Zach and the healing robot

As this conversation is taking place at his home, Zach doesn't have to adapt and change his language to a more formal level compared to if he was at preschool or in a different situation. Also as Zach is having a general conversation with his mother he doesn't really need to think and plan what he is saying, he can just come out with it no matter what it is. This could explain why his speech in less fluent in places and somewhat out of sync. The fact that Zach is making a robot could in theory affect the way he speaks and the language he is using as he is currently focusing directly on his robot. For example when he says "I had to just put the thing in" could suggest that cant think of the correct and appropriate word for 'thing' because he is multitasking and there is to much going on involving his robot that he is making mistakes in his language and getting confused and muddled. This could also explain why his language is less fluent at times.


In both of the conversations in this transcript Zach's mother is the one who sets the agenda by asking him the questions. In the first conversation for example, she asks Zach, "what did you have to do?" with his response being, "I had to (.) just put the thing in (.) and then i had to put the deep buttons on, and then i had to go in". This allows Zach to think about how he made his robot and then explain it to his mother. This is a prime example of scaffolding which is the support that the main care givers provide to help children to learn language. In the second conversation in this transcript his mother sets the agenda again when she asks the interrogative,"ok, how about we have some breakfast (.) while the robot heals". This is an example of his mother trying to encourage and persuade Zach to follow her instructions and to do something else. Zach's response is quite unexpected and unusual as he doesn't want to follow his mothers instructions and therefore doesn't agree with her question, with him saying, "we cant (.) we'll just have to wait an wait an wait". 

In the first transcript we look at "Zachy 2;4 drawing a banana" we seen his language being very simple and minimal with him only using simple sentences where he would repeatedly made grammatical errors such as using "dose" instead of the correct term being "those". Where as in the second transcript he doesn't make these errors and his sentence structures are beginning to develop and expand. An example of Zach using a complex sentence is when he says, "yeah (.) it's gonna be a long time though (.) but we're not gonna have breakfast still". Although he's started to get to grips with sentence structures he often gets his words in the wrong order and end up muddled. This may be because he still yet doesn't understand the tenses and the way things flow, for example when Zach says "is gone right" he's getting confused with using the past tense verb "has" meaning "has gone right" instead of "is gone right".  In this first transcript I also noticed that Zach frequently used overextention by category which is when a word is being used to label a closely related term/thing that falls under the same category. For example Zach uses "lasagna" instead of "bolognaise" as he cant tell the difference and only sees them as the same thing and that they both share similarities. However in the second transcript he doesn't seem to use overextention as part of his language use. I think this is because comparing his age in the first transcript of 2 years 4 months to him being 3 years 5 months in the second transcript its clear to see that his vocabulary has widely developed and he has learnt a vast range of more words.

Throughout this transcript I've picked up on the use of several of the Halliday's and Dore's child language functions. When Zach's mother says "ok, how about we have some breakfast (.) while the robot heals" his response is "we cant (.) we'll just have to wait an wait an wait". This is an example of Dore's function of protesting which is when a child objects a request just like Zach as done and is disagreeing with his mothers question. Also, when he says "Its got lots of hurt all the way down (.) so i put lots of (0.5) sellotape on it (.) so it could feel better" is an example of Halliday's function imaginative which means to explore the imagination. Zach also uses answering and requesting action in this transcript. 

To some extent this date is quite reliable as you have the ability to compare this transcript where he is 3 years 5 months old to the first transcript where he was 2 years 4 months old as it enables you to explore the language that Zach had developed over time and how it has also changed. Although, it could be made more reliable if conversations were to be recording in different environments instead of just at home and perhaps with other people rather than his mother to see how Zach's language possibly changes in those different contextual factors.

Lenneberg's critical period hypothesis

Lenneberg's critical period hypothesis

•      Born September 19, 1921, Düsseldorf, Germany
•      Died May 31, 1975
•      Linguist and Neurologist
•      He believed that children only had a certain about of time to acquire a language and after a certain age the ability to lean language decreases or disappears
•     “Lenneberg's critical period hypothesis states that there are maturational constraints on the time a first language can be acquired”

Genie

•     “Genie the wild child” grown up in severe isolation with virtually no human contact.
•      In Los Angeles November 4^th 1970 Genie’s case was discovered by social workers
•      She was undeveloped physically and emotionally and she would only communicate like an infant and unable to use sentences or words
•      Could hardly walk, she spat, sniffed and clawed
•      Her case was to be used as a way to study the development of human language and behaviour
•      Genie’s case challenges Lenneberg’s theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_period_hypothesis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ5Vrc4lJmQ

Child Language Acquisition

Stages of CLA

1. Cooing 2 – 4 months; start making comfort sounds to interact with their care givers. Comfort sounds may be grunts or sighs. 

2. Babbling 6 –8 months; begin to use a full range of possible speech sounds even if it hasn’t been heard in their immediate environment. 

3. Holophrastic 12 – 14 months; the words used within this stage aren’t just any words; they will start to use “yes”/”no”, “go” or “bad. But you will never hear them using the words “in”, “the” or “bad”. 

4. Two-word stage 18 – 24 months; use “mini sentence”,  start to use “me” and “you” and some pronouns. 

5. Telegraphic stage 24 – 30 months 

6. Later multiword stage 30+ months
 

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

http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2015/ling001/acquisition.html

Halliday's functions of speech and Dore's categories

Halliday's and Dore

There are 6 Halliday's functions of speech which are all a part of the child  language acquisition. The 6 functions are; regulatory, interactional, personal, representational, heuristic, imaginative 

They are all listed below and explained:

– Regulatory: to influence the behavior of others

– Interactional: to develop social relationships and ease the process of interaction

– Personal: to express the personal preferences and identity of the speaker

– Representational: to exchange information

– Heuristic: to learn and explore the environment

– Imaginative: to explore the imagination 

John Dore created an alternative to Hallidays theory of language functions. He focused more on each individuals utterances.

– Labelling: naming a person, object or place

– Repeating: repeating an adult word or utterance

– Answering: responding to an utterance of another speaker

– Requesting action: asking for something to be done for them

– Calling: greeting someones attention

– Greeting: greeting someone

– Protesting: objecting to request from others

– Practising: using language when no adult is present

I started to look at the transcript of Zachy 2;4 and began to analyse and pick out features from the Halliday and Dore research. Zach uses 'labeling' in this transcript and an example of this is when he says "some biscuits" as he is picking out and naming that particular piece of food that he has eaten. When Zach responds to a question that his mum has just asked him about what happened earlier with his food and says "I got food on the floor" is an example of him 'answering'. An example of when Zach is 'requesting action' is when he asks "where's my little pad gone?" and this is because Zach is requesting assistance from his mum and is wanting help. Zach also uses the function of 'protesting' when he says "I don't like bolognay".



http://www.francisgilbert.co.uk/2009/06/hallidays-functions-of-language-in-the-child-language-acquisition-debate-by-nick-christodoulou/

https://quizlet.com/1014569/language-acquisition-flash-cards/