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.
Some perceptive contextual comments. Try and link context to techniques used and explore them in the light of multiple theories per paragraph. Check a couple of terms: "dose" is an immature pronunciation not a grammatical mistake and the use of "but" (one of the FANBOYS conjunctions) shows that the sentence you quote is compound not complex. Try and explore fewer points in more depth.
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