Nature book - Year 4 / age 7-8
The garden
The garden has got a pond with lilly pads and a fish.
Round it has got flowers and a tree.
there is a patio.
It has got lotf of grass
Page 9
In are yard ther is a big tree
I see bloutit in it my dad put a Bold box on the tree.
We have a swing the stains came the robns we put bred and seeds.
The star of Wathapd
One day i whet to intanmost
I sow a lagtayttit & a {unclear}
it was good i whet to the capays & I got some keyl mit cake.
Then i whet {unclear}
The end.
Wild animals - Year 5 / age 9-10
Jungle animals
The tiger has strips all over his coat.
The lepord has spots here and there.
The poor hippotamas has a probics.
Th gorilla is covered with hair.
The giraffe has, by heack a very long neck.
The elephant has a large trunk.
The lion is king of the jungle,
but they all run away from the skunk.
The African Jungle {extract}
One sunny morning leo the lion was thinking. He was thinking of the jungle to make it nicer. Hello leo! replied Hisser, 'what are you doing today?' Well I want to change the jungle, to make it nicer. I don't want you to "said Hisser. I like it as it is she said. I am the king said leo arngreyley. Nila, leos wife came back from the jungles in north Africa. The pack of monkeys up a tree from leo, were very happy to see Nila.
Friday, 9 December 2016
Children's writing
Children's spelling
- Doubling consonants – e.g. breezzy, dissappeared
- Spell phonetically – e.g. ment, brite
- Stressed and unstressed letters – knife = nife, stomach = tomach
- Vowel combinations – i.e. ‘I comes before e’ e.g. coulourful
- Suffixing and prefixing – e.g. living = liveing
- Initial letter – e.g. England = Ingland
- Insertion - adding extra letters
- Omission - leaving out letters
- Substitution - substituting one letter for another
- Transposition - reversing the order of letters in words
- Phonetic spelling - spelling words according to the standard phonemes that graphemes make
- Over/undergeneralising of spelling rules - applying or not applying rules in inappropriate contexts or one specific context
- Salient (key) sounds - only including the key sounds
Cohesive features
- Connectives
- Punctuation – full stop, colon
- Order of the text
- Tenses used
- Paragraphs
- Headings, sub headings
- Consistency of audience
- Anaphoric references – referring to the past - last week
- Cataphoric references – referring to future – later on
- Continuity of style
- Conventions followed
- Structure
- Illustrations
- Layout
- Consistency of sentence lengths
Stages in the development of writing - DOCTOR CATHY BARCLAY 1996
Stage 1: SCRIBBLING STAGE
- Random marks on a page
- Writing and scribbles are accompanied by speaking
- Writing + drawings
- Produce wavy lines which is their understanding of lineation
- Cursive writing
- Letters are separate things.
- Usually involves writing the name as the first word.
- Child usually puts letters on a page but is able to read it as words.
- Child spells in the way they understand the word should be spelt- own way.
- Attach spelling with sounds.
- Are able to spell most words.
Stages in the development of writing - B.M. KROLL 1981
Stage 1 - Preparatory Stage
Stage 4: INTEGRATION STAGE (12+)
- The child learns the basic principles of spelling.
- Learns the basic motor skills needed to write.
- The child writes in the way they would speak.
- Uses mainly short declarative sentences including mainly 'and' conjunctions.
- Incomplete sentences as they don’t know how to finish the sentence off.
- 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.
- Child develops a personal style.
- Child understands that you can change your style according to audience and purpose.
Tuesday, 29 November 2016
Children's authors
It is clear that the most popular children's authors are those such as J.K Rowling, Roald Dahl, C.S Lewis and Beatrix Potter. I believe that these authors have been successful because they use tools such as imagery and humor in their novels to keep children engaged. The use of drawings and images in the novels make reading more fun for children who may not want to read, and humor and rhyme are other tools that these authors use frequently to make their stories more entertaining, so that the children really want to read them. One book I remember from my childhood is “Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s dairy” by Lynley Dodd. I believe that this book was particularly memorable to me due to the use of engaging illustrations and rhyme throughout the whole story. The rhyme and layout of the novel allowed it to be read almost as a song either to or by the child, this means that it would be more fun for the child and would encourage them to read more often.
Teaching children to read
The most popular method of teaching children to read is through the use of synthetic phonics. This is where the teacher breaks words down into the sounds they make – for example, ‘dog’ would be broken down into ‘d’, ‘o’ and ‘g’ and then the sounds are blended to make ‘dog’. This technique can then be transferred to learning to read and write as the sounds in words can be converted into letters onto paper. However, there are some arguments against this method which suggest that synthetic phonics cannot be used to teach children to read everything, for example words such as ‘friend’ are more difficult to decode and cannot be broken down into sounds. This could mean that another method of teaching would have to be suggested in order for the child to fully develop their reading. Although there are some criticisms, it could be said that the method of using sounds to teach children could be more simple for children to understand and it has been found that children who are taught to learn with phonics are up to 2 years ahead of those who used other methods,
Another method of teaching would be using reading schemes. The most popular reading schemes are Oxford Reading Tree, Collins Big Cat and Rigby Star. These reading schemes are developed in conjunction with literacy experts. The Oxford Reading Tree for example, is supported by Debbie Hepplewhite, who developed the synthetic phonics method. Most schemes begin in the Foundation Stage and progressively become more difficult. For example, Key Stage 1 books are written with a mix of high-frequency and decodable words to develop a range of reading strategies in the children, while Key Stage 2 books cover a wide range of genres and subjects, linking to the curriculum. This would develop their reading further and expand their vocabulary. When a child is ready to progress to ‘normal’ reading, most discover their own books they would like to read and do this freely. However, some critics believe that the books that are used in reading schemes have bland content and a uniform appearance, which could even delay children's access to the real world.
The Miscues
Correction:
A common sign of a competent reader, a correction is a miscue that the student corrects in order to make sense of the word in the sentence.
Insertion:
An insertion is a word or words added by the child that are not in the text.
Omission:
During oral reading, the student omits a word that changes the meaning of the sentence.
Repetition:
The student repeats a word or portion of the text.
Reversal:
A child will reverse the order of the print or the word. (from instead of form, etc.)
Substitution:
Instead of reading the word in the text, a child substitutes a word which may or may not make sense of the passage.
It is clear that the most popular children's authors are those such as J.K Rowling, Roald Dahl, C.S Lewis and Beatrix Potter. I believe that these authors have been successful because they use tools such as imagery and humor in their novels to keep children engaged. The use of drawings and images in the novels make reading more fun for children who may not want to read, and humor and rhyme are other tools that these authors use frequently to make their stories more entertaining, so that the children really want to read them. One book I remember from my childhood is “Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s dairy” by Lynley Dodd. I believe that this book was particularly memorable to me due to the use of engaging illustrations and rhyme throughout the whole story. The rhyme and layout of the novel allowed it to be read almost as a song either to or by the child, this means that it would be more fun for the child and would encourage them to read more often.
Teaching children to read
The most popular method of teaching children to read is through the use of synthetic phonics. This is where the teacher breaks words down into the sounds they make – for example, ‘dog’ would be broken down into ‘d’, ‘o’ and ‘g’ and then the sounds are blended to make ‘dog’. This technique can then be transferred to learning to read and write as the sounds in words can be converted into letters onto paper. However, there are some arguments against this method which suggest that synthetic phonics cannot be used to teach children to read everything, for example words such as ‘friend’ are more difficult to decode and cannot be broken down into sounds. This could mean that another method of teaching would have to be suggested in order for the child to fully develop their reading. Although there are some criticisms, it could be said that the method of using sounds to teach children could be more simple for children to understand and it has been found that children who are taught to learn with phonics are up to 2 years ahead of those who used other methods,
Another method of teaching would be using reading schemes. The most popular reading schemes are Oxford Reading Tree, Collins Big Cat and Rigby Star. These reading schemes are developed in conjunction with literacy experts. The Oxford Reading Tree for example, is supported by Debbie Hepplewhite, who developed the synthetic phonics method. Most schemes begin in the Foundation Stage and progressively become more difficult. For example, Key Stage 1 books are written with a mix of high-frequency and decodable words to develop a range of reading strategies in the children, while Key Stage 2 books cover a wide range of genres and subjects, linking to the curriculum. This would develop their reading further and expand their vocabulary. When a child is ready to progress to ‘normal’ reading, most discover their own books they would like to read and do this freely. However, some critics believe that the books that are used in reading schemes have bland content and a uniform appearance, which could even delay children's access to the real world.
The Miscues
Correction:
A common sign of a competent reader, a correction is a miscue that the student corrects in order to make sense of the word in the sentence.
Insertion:
An insertion is a word or words added by the child that are not in the text.
Omission:
During oral reading, the student omits a word that changes the meaning of the sentence.
Repetition:
The student repeats a word or portion of the text.
Reversal:
A child will reverse the order of the print or the word. (from instead of form, etc.)
Substitution:
Instead of reading the word in the text, a child substitutes a word which may or may not make sense of the passage.
Friday, 18 November 2016
Transcript analysis
Imitation and reinforcement are the most crucial tools for children's language acquisition. Evaluate this idea using the theories.
There are a number of theorists who believe in imitation and reinforcement when children are learning language. This includes Skinner, who’s theory relies on positive and negative reinforcement. To define these ideas, positive reinforcement is where a child receives a positive response to their speech which includes; praise, echoing, responding and reformulation. Negative reinforcement contrasts this teaching process, as it is when a child receives negative feedback to their speech including; negatives, ‘telling off’ and in some contexts, reformulation. The following transcripts (A and B) include Tom, aged 2 years and 7 months, and his parents.
In Text A, Tom is fixing bikes with his mother and in one instance says “I sitting on the bike (.) it make noises”. Tom makes an elision of the adjective “make”, where the standard form would be “makes”. The idea that imitation is crucial to language development is enforced when his mother responds “it makes noises”. Echoing not only correlates with Skinner’s idea of positive reinforcement, but it could also be said that Vygotsky’s theory of the Zone of Proximal Development comes into play here. This repetition of the phrase will act as scaffolding to his language, and help Tom to learn. In the two texts, Tom is said to be in the telegraphic stage of language as he is beginning to form utterances, but his grammar is not yet standard. However, it is shown that Tom may be progressing to the post-telegraphic stage when he uses the pronoun “it”. The fact that Tom is using anaphoric referencing in his language shows that his thoughts and ideas could possibly be more complex than he is able to communicate, and therefore could be gradually developing his language. This could also be due to the constant positive reinforcement he is receiving from his mother.
Again in Text A, when discussing his fathers bike Tom shows again that his language is not fully developed in the utterance “the dad bike”. His mother follows this with reformulating his speech with “dad’s bike”, which is again giving him positive reinforcement. The idea of scaffolding from Vygotsky’s theory is supported once again as it is shown that Tom has learnt from his mother when he says “yeah (.) the dad (.) dad’s bike (.) dad’s bike mum (.) dad’s bike”. Tim first corrects himself after repeating the non-standard form “the dad”, and recasts his language to the standard, possessive form “dad’s bike”. This evidence may show that children do, in fact learn from both positive reinforcement and ‘scaffolding’, and would refute Chomsky’s universal grammar theory that children are born with the ability to use and understand language. However, although Tom uses “dad’s bike” correctly further on in the interaction it could be said that he may not have actually retained this information. If we were to accept Piaget’s theory that children learn in stages, it would be likely that Tom would return to using the non-standard form.
In Text B, Tom is shown to be seeking positive reinforcement from his mother when he says “is these drawing Cartoon Network cup of tea mum”. The interrogative followed by the vocative “mum” for clarification shows that he is seeking a positive response, and could also show that he is himself unsure of how to phrase the interrogative and is possibly looking to learn from his mother. Although the utterance is non-standard, the use of the determiner “these” acts as a deictic reference and could suggest that his language is more complex than displayed in this example. However, this could also be Tom expecting his mother to understand his question within their context. Although Tom is in the telegraphic stage at this age, the fact that he uses the vocative “mum” rather than the diminutive “mummy” we would expect from a child of 2 years, this could suggest that his language is developing more quickly than the average child. This could refute Piaget’s theory of the stages of language, if Tom really is learning more rapidly than Piaget’s stages suggest.
When Tom uses the interrogative “did I kill you” in Text B, he is overextending from when his mother said “what you squashed it”. When his mother reformulated his utterance earlier in the interaction, this could act as an example of Vygotsky’s idea of scaffolding his learning. However, we could accept Piaget’s theory of stages here as Tom does not learn from this and continues to use the verb “kill”. This could be because Tom may be in a state of panic after thinking he “killed” the sheep after “squashing” it, and then overextended this panic to his mother after he “stood” on her fingers. However, it is unusual that a 2 year old child would be using the verb “kill”, and this could possibly suggest that his background with his parents is unlike the average background a child would have – as he may be exposed to more mature ideas at a younger age by his parents. Although his mother does respond “um (.) did you kill me”, in this context it could be said that this is negative reinforcement as the filler “um” could suggest that she may not have been paying attention to Tom, and she did not answer his question or offer any helpful response.
To conclude, there are a number of theorists that believe that imitation and reinforcement are crucial for children's language development are highly supported in these transcripts. The parents both use positive reinforcement regularly and it is shown in Tom’s language throughout that he is benefitting from this. In particular, his mother uses imitation as a form of positive reinforcement and it has seemed to encourage Tom to improve his language independently. So, with many respected theorists such as Skinner and Vygotsky supporting this idea, it could be easy to accept the idea that imitation and reinforcement are the most important tools. However, theorists such as Piaget and Chomsky contradict this idea. Although these theories do refute the statement, when analyzing the two transcripts Piaget and Chomsky’s ideas were not heavily supported, which makes it easy to accept the statement.
There are a number of theorists who believe in imitation and reinforcement when children are learning language. This includes Skinner, who’s theory relies on positive and negative reinforcement. To define these ideas, positive reinforcement is where a child receives a positive response to their speech which includes; praise, echoing, responding and reformulation. Negative reinforcement contrasts this teaching process, as it is when a child receives negative feedback to their speech including; negatives, ‘telling off’ and in some contexts, reformulation. The following transcripts (A and B) include Tom, aged 2 years and 7 months, and his parents.
In Text A, Tom is fixing bikes with his mother and in one instance says “I sitting on the bike (.) it make noises”. Tom makes an elision of the adjective “make”, where the standard form would be “makes”. The idea that imitation is crucial to language development is enforced when his mother responds “it makes noises”. Echoing not only correlates with Skinner’s idea of positive reinforcement, but it could also be said that Vygotsky’s theory of the Zone of Proximal Development comes into play here. This repetition of the phrase will act as scaffolding to his language, and help Tom to learn. In the two texts, Tom is said to be in the telegraphic stage of language as he is beginning to form utterances, but his grammar is not yet standard. However, it is shown that Tom may be progressing to the post-telegraphic stage when he uses the pronoun “it”. The fact that Tom is using anaphoric referencing in his language shows that his thoughts and ideas could possibly be more complex than he is able to communicate, and therefore could be gradually developing his language. This could also be due to the constant positive reinforcement he is receiving from his mother.
Again in Text A, when discussing his fathers bike Tom shows again that his language is not fully developed in the utterance “the dad bike”. His mother follows this with reformulating his speech with “dad’s bike”, which is again giving him positive reinforcement. The idea of scaffolding from Vygotsky’s theory is supported once again as it is shown that Tom has learnt from his mother when he says “yeah (.) the dad (.) dad’s bike (.) dad’s bike mum (.) dad’s bike”. Tim first corrects himself after repeating the non-standard form “the dad”, and recasts his language to the standard, possessive form “dad’s bike”. This evidence may show that children do, in fact learn from both positive reinforcement and ‘scaffolding’, and would refute Chomsky’s universal grammar theory that children are born with the ability to use and understand language. However, although Tom uses “dad’s bike” correctly further on in the interaction it could be said that he may not have actually retained this information. If we were to accept Piaget’s theory that children learn in stages, it would be likely that Tom would return to using the non-standard form.
In Text B, Tom is shown to be seeking positive reinforcement from his mother when he says “is these drawing Cartoon Network cup of tea mum”. The interrogative followed by the vocative “mum” for clarification shows that he is seeking a positive response, and could also show that he is himself unsure of how to phrase the interrogative and is possibly looking to learn from his mother. Although the utterance is non-standard, the use of the determiner “these” acts as a deictic reference and could suggest that his language is more complex than displayed in this example. However, this could also be Tom expecting his mother to understand his question within their context. Although Tom is in the telegraphic stage at this age, the fact that he uses the vocative “mum” rather than the diminutive “mummy” we would expect from a child of 2 years, this could suggest that his language is developing more quickly than the average child. This could refute Piaget’s theory of the stages of language, if Tom really is learning more rapidly than Piaget’s stages suggest.
When Tom uses the interrogative “did I kill you” in Text B, he is overextending from when his mother said “what you squashed it”. When his mother reformulated his utterance earlier in the interaction, this could act as an example of Vygotsky’s idea of scaffolding his learning. However, we could accept Piaget’s theory of stages here as Tom does not learn from this and continues to use the verb “kill”. This could be because Tom may be in a state of panic after thinking he “killed” the sheep after “squashing” it, and then overextended this panic to his mother after he “stood” on her fingers. However, it is unusual that a 2 year old child would be using the verb “kill”, and this could possibly suggest that his background with his parents is unlike the average background a child would have – as he may be exposed to more mature ideas at a younger age by his parents. Although his mother does respond “um (.) did you kill me”, in this context it could be said that this is negative reinforcement as the filler “um” could suggest that she may not have been paying attention to Tom, and she did not answer his question or offer any helpful response.
To conclude, there are a number of theorists that believe that imitation and reinforcement are crucial for children's language development are highly supported in these transcripts. The parents both use positive reinforcement regularly and it is shown in Tom’s language throughout that he is benefitting from this. In particular, his mother uses imitation as a form of positive reinforcement and it has seemed to encourage Tom to improve his language independently. So, with many respected theorists such as Skinner and Vygotsky supporting this idea, it could be easy to accept the idea that imitation and reinforcement are the most important tools. However, theorists such as Piaget and Chomsky contradict this idea. Although these theories do refute the statement, when analyzing the two transcripts Piaget and Chomsky’s ideas were not heavily supported, which makes it easy to accept the statement.
Tuesday, 18 October 2016
Zachy transcript analysis
When comparing the two texts, it could be discussed that in ‘Zachy drawing a banana’ there were 27 interrogative used. However, in the ‘Zach and the healing robot’ transcript there were just 14. This could be due to observer effects – the fact that Halla is aware that she is recording the interaction, may mean that she may alter her language to cater for the aim of the investivation into language. So, this could explain why in the ‘Zachy drawing a banana’ text, Halla may not only use more interrogatives due to the context of the interaction, but because she is trying to collect more relevant and comparable data. When compared to ‘Zach and the healing robot’ she uses almost half of the amount of questions used in the first transcript. It could be discusssed that this is because in this context, Zach was the “project leader”. This may mean that Zach feels as if he has more authority and Halla may ask fewer questions due to not being so much in control. Zygotsky’s theory into the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) would give an idea into why these caregivers use so many interrogatives when interacting with a child. The theory of the ZPD is that there is a difference between what a child is able to do alone, and what they are able to achieve with help. So, Halla may be using this amount of questions in order to create the ‘scaffolding’ for Zach’s own learning.
In the ‘Zachy drawing a banana’ transcript, Zach says “Yes/ I course you can mummy”. This could show that at a younger age, Zach may not have yet learned politeness features such as ‘please’ or ‘thank you’. So, when Zach says “I course you can mummy” this would be his way of encouraging Halla to help him. This could actually be said to be quite an intelligent technique as Zach has clearly learned how to get what he wants in this way, and does this while also not being rude or using authority. However, in the ‘Zach and the healing robot’ text, Zach first asks “Can you do it mummy?” using no politeness features, but then after Halla helps him, Zach replies saying “thank yooou”. This could mean that at a slightly older age, Zach has began to learn his politeness features, but is still too young to fully understand them. As the text continues, it becomes evident that Zach is aware of the possibly metaphorical authority he has as the ‘project leader’ in this context. This is shown when Zach announces that “we don't need breakfast” and later strongly replies “no” when asked if they could have breakfast while the robot is healing. So, this has shown that Zachy (while not always using them) understands when and where to use politeness features, and also understands the idea of authority and that it means that he doesn't need to use these features.
In the healing robot transcript, Zach uses discourse markers when saying “it's gonna be a long time though(.) but we’re not gonna have breakfast still”. This shows that Zachy understands what he is trying to say, but is unsure of how to say it and so corrects himself saying “still” which is Zach showing he is trying to clarify what he is saying. This would support Chomsky’s Nativist theory as it shows that children may have an innate ability to understand the structure of language (known as universal grammar) but may not have developed the correct vocabulary yet. However, the ‘Zachy drawing a banana” transcript may counteract this idea as Zach very rarely corrects his own grammar. This would mean that Skinner’s idea that children are born as empty vessels is correct, and that Zach is still learning his lexis and grammar from his environment. A support for this would be when Zach exclaims that he doesn't like “bolognay”. The use of the onomatopoeia could suggest that Zach is purely learning from his caregivers and doesn't understand what “bolognaise” is. However, Zach attempts to understand this when he overgeneralises “lasagne” to bolognaise. This shows that Zach is trying to learn and understand, which may support Chomsky’s idea that he may have an innate drive to learn language.
The use of pauses varies slightly in the two transcripts. In the ‘Zachy drawing a banana” text, there were 26 pauses taken by Zach. However, in the healing robot transcript Zach uses 32 pauses. In the second transcript, Zach is slightly older than in the first. This could explain why the length of his pauses increases. At an older age, Zach’s language would begin to develop and become more complex. This could mean that Zach is more conscious of mistakes and is taking longer to think of what he is going to say in conversation. So when compared to the first transcript, his language is slightly less complex and so he may use fewer pauses because he is less conscious of his mistakes as he isn't yet aware that they are mistakes. This shows how children’s language may develop from the two-word stage to the telegraphic stage – as his language begins to develop and become more complex as he gets older.
Skinner’s theory of positive reinforcement could be used throughout both transcripts to discuss how the caregiver (in this case, Halla) helps the child's language to develop further through encouragement. When Halla uses phrases such as “well done”, “very good” and “you are a star” in both texts, this would show Zach that what he has said was impressive and so encourage him to repeat what he has done. So, if this technique is used throughout Zach’s learning of language, whenever he would say something new and more complex, politeness features would be applied to ensure him that what he is saying is correct and that he should continue to expand his knowledge. It is shown in the texts that this technique may have helped Zach to develop as in the second transcript his language is slightly more complex, and Halla still uses positive reinforcement. So this may support Skinners idea because it is shown that Halls applies positive reinforcement techniques in both interactions and also shows that Zach’s language had improved.
To conclude, it is clear that the two transcripts are fairly similar. Both ‘Zachy drawing a banana’ and ‘Zach and the healing robot’ support Skinner’s operant conditioning theory and Zygotsky’s Zone of Proximal development theory. However, it is clear that Zach’s language is more complex and diverse in the healing robot transcript and so differs slightly to the ‘drawing a banana’ text. It is clear that these two transcripts support the idea that language may be innate, and learned in stages. However, the texts also do not fully support any of the child language theories and so they may not be correct. Saying this, there are aspects of the two interactions that could be explained and used as evidence for certain parts of each theory.
In the ‘Zachy drawing a banana’ transcript, Zach says “Yes/ I course you can mummy”. This could show that at a younger age, Zach may not have yet learned politeness features such as ‘please’ or ‘thank you’. So, when Zach says “I course you can mummy” this would be his way of encouraging Halla to help him. This could actually be said to be quite an intelligent technique as Zach has clearly learned how to get what he wants in this way, and does this while also not being rude or using authority. However, in the ‘Zach and the healing robot’ text, Zach first asks “Can you do it mummy?” using no politeness features, but then after Halla helps him, Zach replies saying “thank yooou”. This could mean that at a slightly older age, Zach has began to learn his politeness features, but is still too young to fully understand them. As the text continues, it becomes evident that Zach is aware of the possibly metaphorical authority he has as the ‘project leader’ in this context. This is shown when Zach announces that “we don't need breakfast” and later strongly replies “no” when asked if they could have breakfast while the robot is healing. So, this has shown that Zachy (while not always using them) understands when and where to use politeness features, and also understands the idea of authority and that it means that he doesn't need to use these features.
In the healing robot transcript, Zach uses discourse markers when saying “it's gonna be a long time though(.) but we’re not gonna have breakfast still”. This shows that Zachy understands what he is trying to say, but is unsure of how to say it and so corrects himself saying “still” which is Zach showing he is trying to clarify what he is saying. This would support Chomsky’s Nativist theory as it shows that children may have an innate ability to understand the structure of language (known as universal grammar) but may not have developed the correct vocabulary yet. However, the ‘Zachy drawing a banana” transcript may counteract this idea as Zach very rarely corrects his own grammar. This would mean that Skinner’s idea that children are born as empty vessels is correct, and that Zach is still learning his lexis and grammar from his environment. A support for this would be when Zach exclaims that he doesn't like “bolognay”. The use of the onomatopoeia could suggest that Zach is purely learning from his caregivers and doesn't understand what “bolognaise” is. However, Zach attempts to understand this when he overgeneralises “lasagne” to bolognaise. This shows that Zach is trying to learn and understand, which may support Chomsky’s idea that he may have an innate drive to learn language.
The use of pauses varies slightly in the two transcripts. In the ‘Zachy drawing a banana” text, there were 26 pauses taken by Zach. However, in the healing robot transcript Zach uses 32 pauses. In the second transcript, Zach is slightly older than in the first. This could explain why the length of his pauses increases. At an older age, Zach’s language would begin to develop and become more complex. This could mean that Zach is more conscious of mistakes and is taking longer to think of what he is going to say in conversation. So when compared to the first transcript, his language is slightly less complex and so he may use fewer pauses because he is less conscious of his mistakes as he isn't yet aware that they are mistakes. This shows how children’s language may develop from the two-word stage to the telegraphic stage – as his language begins to develop and become more complex as he gets older.
Skinner’s theory of positive reinforcement could be used throughout both transcripts to discuss how the caregiver (in this case, Halla) helps the child's language to develop further through encouragement. When Halla uses phrases such as “well done”, “very good” and “you are a star” in both texts, this would show Zach that what he has said was impressive and so encourage him to repeat what he has done. So, if this technique is used throughout Zach’s learning of language, whenever he would say something new and more complex, politeness features would be applied to ensure him that what he is saying is correct and that he should continue to expand his knowledge. It is shown in the texts that this technique may have helped Zach to develop as in the second transcript his language is slightly more complex, and Halla still uses positive reinforcement. So this may support Skinners idea because it is shown that Halls applies positive reinforcement techniques in both interactions and also shows that Zach’s language had improved.
To conclude, it is clear that the two transcripts are fairly similar. Both ‘Zachy drawing a banana’ and ‘Zach and the healing robot’ support Skinner’s operant conditioning theory and Zygotsky’s Zone of Proximal development theory. However, it is clear that Zach’s language is more complex and diverse in the healing robot transcript and so differs slightly to the ‘drawing a banana’ text. It is clear that these two transcripts support the idea that language may be innate, and learned in stages. However, the texts also do not fully support any of the child language theories and so they may not be correct. Saying this, there are aspects of the two interactions that could be explained and used as evidence for certain parts of each theory.
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