Investigating the grammatical features of a child(TM)s language and influences in a three year longitudinal study

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        English Language Investigation        

Introduction

Investigating the grammatical features of a child’s language and influences in a three year longitudinal study

The topic under investigation is child language acquisition. I plan to use home videos of myself at the ages of three through to five, studying the linguistic features of my spoken language. I am interested in seeing how my language developed throughout this time; beginning at playschool and ending in having started school. Carrying out a longitudinal study will be beneficial when researching language development, as it will give the opportunity to demonstrate how a child’s language improves and develops over time; any mistakes that become inevitably rectified, and how the language develops from simple sentences, to complex structures. I am also interested in looking at child directed speech; that is, how others direct their speech at a child. According to Frank Myszor in his book ‘Language Acquisition,’ there are three purposes of child directed speech and thirteen methods that can be used to demonstrate these purposes. Part of my study will involve looking at how a caregiver (i.e. parent) and sibling affect and/or influence the way a young child uses language themselves. Will I copy my brother/mother/father? Will I react to what they say to me? Will my language become dependent on their languages choices?

The source of the idea for this piece of work came largely from a topic discussed in the A2 English Language for AQA B textbook. I was initially inspired by the concept of a longitudinal study to see specifically how language develops and changes over time. Subsequently, having begun the A2 Child Language Acquisition topic for Unit 6, I became fascinated with child directed speech and how an important figure in a child’s life can influence how the child speaks and develops their own language skills.  I would like to see what exogenous factors play a role in a child’s language choices; whether social aspects have any impact and whether language used in different situations is entirely context dependent.

        As language acquisition is such a wide ranging topic, I have chosen to narrow my sights and concentrate on three aspects:

Grammar

Lexis

CDS (child directed speech)

Aim:

How does a child’s language develop grammatically and lexically over a period of three years, and how much impact do a caregiver / sibling have on the child’s language choices?

Methodology

Over the last few months I have been collecting my research necessary for the completion of this investigation. This involved watching videos of myself from the age of three to five and then sifting through to find qualitative and valuable data. This data was then transcribed. Following on from this, I began to analyse my data. It was then necessary to choose an appropriate form of analysis.

After transcribing the data, I decided an appropriate step would be to create a series of sub-questions to enable me to concentrate on each aspect of the investigation at the relevant time. These questions will be referred to at various points throughout the investigation, and I will be attempting to answer them in the findings of the study.

Sub-questions

1. How much of a child’s language is dependent on the language used by those around them? Does a caregiver / sibling affect the utterances chosen by a child? What evidence is there that a caregiver / siblings’ influence increases or decreases as the child grows older?

2. What grammatical terms are used by a child at the age of three and what evidence is there of these choices becoming refined by the time the child reaches five?

3. Does a child display confusion on a particular grammatical aspect of language at the age of three but fully understand the concept by the time they reach five?

4. Are there any gender differences in language between a boy and a girl of the same age? Is there any obvious difference between the mistakes made, or in the advancement of language acquisition?

5. How does a child use language to react to insults / criticisms made by an older sibling? Is there any proof of a sibling ‘bond’ through language use, evident in the data? Does an older sibling show jealousy of his younger sister through language or prosodic features?

1. How much of a child’s language is dependent on the language used by those around them? Does a caregiver / sibling affect the utterances chosen by a child? What evidence is there that a caregiver / siblings’ influence increases or decreases as the child grows older?

To analyse and conclude an answer to this question effectively, I will first discuss the aspects of child directed speech, proposed by Frank Myszor in his book “Language Acquisition.” Myszor suggested that there are three purposes of child directed speech (the following are directly quoted from Myszor’s book, as mentioned above):

1. attract and hold the child’s attention;
2. help the process of breaking down language into understandable chunks;
3. make the conversation more predictable by keeping the conversation in the ‘here and now’ and referring to things that the baby can see.

In order to fulfil these purposes, Myszor proposed thirteen different features / methods of CDS:


- Higher pitch and exaggerated intonation and stress
- Repeated sentence frames
- Repetition and partial repetition of adult’s own words
- Questions and commands
- Frequent use of the child’s name and an absence of pronouns
- Absence of past tenses
- A large number of one word utterances (holophrases)

- Use of simple sentences
- Omission of inflections e.g. plurals and possessives
- Fewer verbs, modifiers (adjectives in front of nouns) and function words (such as     ‘at’ ‘my’)
- Use of concrete nouns
- Use of expansions – the adult fills out the child’s utterance
- Use of re-castings – child’s vocabulary put into a new utterance

When analysing the data for this sub-question, I will be mildly following Myszor’s ideas on child directed speech, as I am very keen to find out how much strength there was in Myszor’s arguments, or indeed, whether the data I have collected fits Myszor’s hypotheses. However, I am going to look at the data as a whole, without any preconceptions of previous theories or ideas.

ANALYSIS

11/03/92

Georgie        (nodding) (mumbling) Look!

Mum                Who’s that?

Georgie        Minnie Mouse

Georgie        Can’t do the pedals. Nearly done it

Mum        Nearly. Outside you will won’t ya. Wow look at that. That’s just right for you ain’t it. Do you like it?                        

Georgie        Yeah

Mum                You wanted a little bike didn’t you. You pleased?

This conversation incorporates various aspects of child directed speech, in that my mother is encouraging my language by asking lots of predictable questions. My mother also uses a significant amount of simple sentences and holophrases. For example: “Nearly”, and “you pleased?” Neither of these sentences are full sentences, and the latter utterance even omits the vital verb. “Nearly” simply repeats what I have already said, which is yet another feature of child directed speech.

 

When looking through the collected data, it became clear that most of my interaction as a child was with my brother, James, who is 17 months older than me. After realising this, I was interested in looking at any dialogues between us and whether, as a younger sibling, I looked up to my brother in both his actions and language.

09/06/92

Jamie        She didn’t wanna pay for  even bread

Georgie                                       even bread

Jamie        Or even   rolls

Georgie                    even rolls        

Jamie        Or even  oranges

Georgie                   oranges

Jamie        Or even apples…or even bananas

Georgie                        or even apples…or even bananas

This dialogue was taken from the 09/06/92 transcript; the second earliest data collected for the purpose of this investigation. The most obvious thing to recognise from this transcript is how I copied what my brother said. It is clear that my brother took the lead in the conversation, and even though I was the one pretending to read the book, I allowed my brother to effectively read it for me so that I could repeat what he said. As can be seen from the overlaps in the transcript, I copied every word as soon as it had been said, showing that I was eager to interact with my brother. Clearly from this transcript, it can be seen that my sibling has significantly affected my own utterances. As a young child, I shared a bedroom with my brother and perhaps this created a bond between us, strengthening our relationship. This could explain my eagerness to be like him and attempt to copy him.

25/12/92

Mum                And a pile for you…so. No hang on George, they’re all for…they’re for all together, what you have to share. Right, Jamie’s are over here

Georgie        Over there?

Mum                This side

Georgie        That side

There is an aspect of some humour within this dialogue, as I repeated both things that my mother said, but changing the “here” to “there” and “this” to “that.” This shows that I have a very solid understanding of location in terms of language; I grasped the concept that if I was standing somewhere different to my mother, then my utterance would follow a similar pattern to my mother’s, but changing the preposition to fit the location. I believe in this transcript, I was not necessarily dependent on my mother’s language, but I chose to incorporate my own knowledge of language into the conversation.

25/12/92

Georgie        Oh, just what I didn’t want mum

Mum                Just like you didn’t want?

Georgie        No I didn’t even want it I didn’t

Dad                You didn’t even want it?

Using both of these small dialogues as a means of an analysis into child directed speech, it can be seen that both my mother and father incorporated aspects of CDS into their utterances. By turning my sentence into a question, they encouraged me to expand on what I had said. By doing this, it inevitably developed my language, as I was forced to either recast or extend my utterance.

25/12/92

Georgie        Oh! Thank you, I didn’t even want this did I mummy?

Mum                You mean you didn’t ask for it, not you didn’t even want it. That’s what you mean isn’t it?

By correcting me when I made a grammatical error, my mother was pushing me to learn the correct term for something. This is also an aspect of child directed speech; firstly, my mother corrected the term, and then repeated what I had said in the negative form. She then verified that that’s what I meant, using the question “that’s what you mean isn’t it?” This is more of declarative statement than a question; it already assumes the answer.

25/12/92

Georgie        Mum! Mummy! Mummy, I didn’t ask for this

Mum        You didn’t ask for it

Georgie        I didn’t ask for this

Leading on from the previous dialogue, a few presents later I expressed how I didn’t ask for something, rather than saying I didn’t want it. This perhaps suggests that CDS does indeed have an influence on a child’s language, as I have gone from not understanding the concept of saying I didn’t specifically ask for something to realising what verb is the most appropriate to use in that context. Given that I learnt this on the same day, this surely provides considerable evidence that my mother and father’s speech helped me discover the correct terms.

11/03/93

Georgie        I love it

Mum                You love it?

Georgie         Yeah I love being my birthday. ‘Cos I’m 4 today aren’t…aren’t I.

Mum                Open the presents, do you wanna open a present?

Georgie         Yeah, this 1. (undecipherable) Bag!

Mum                What is it? 

Georgie         Bag!

Georgie        I’m 4 now aren’t I

Mum                Yeah. 4 today

Georgie        4 today

All of the above transcripts show my mother reacting to my utterances by asking further questions, or turning my own utterance into a question. This is in order to keep the conversation predictable.

Georgie                  Oh four!

Mum                 Four! Who’s it from?

Georgie        Don’t know

Mum                Read the name. You know the name

Georgie        James

Mum                That’s it. Good girl

Georgie          And he’s done some kisses  and love

Mum                                                   Kisses. Love. Yup that’s it.

Join now!

This transcript shows my mother encouraging me to read the name in my birthday card; she uses praise (“good girl”) when I get it correct; this suggests that praise is an important factor in teaching a child the correct forms of language. My mother also repeats some of my sentence in one word utterances (“kisses” and “love”) – this is a major part of child directed speech and is aimed at holding my attention.

Mum                George, she’s really lovely.  Mummy loves her. I want one

        

I chose to make a brief comment about this sentence as it shows one ...

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