Phonological Development

The Hardest Phonemes

Source: http://www.eps.n-cook.k12.il.us/epsweb/rosenberg/site/articulation.html 26/10/14

Source: http://www.playingwithwords365.com/2011/09/phonological-processes-and-phonological-delay/ 26/10/14

Throughout phonological development, language is acquired but to learn how it is done, they must make virtuous errors in their phonological speech. It means that they will make mistakes but they must be completed so that they can learn how to use language 'correctly.'

When a child is at age two and a half, they can pronounce all of their vowels and two thirds of their consonants, which then by four they will only have problems with a few consonants. At the age of 6/7, they will finally be confident in using all vowels and consonants.

The first word that a baby will say is at between 9-15 months. This can range from different babies depending on their parents if they notice them say a word and how the parents interpret it.

During development, children may replace a 'r' for a 'w' which leaves it open. This can go for quite a long time until they can understand how to pronounce this properly.

• It is harder for a child to say a consonant at the end of the word than at the beginning.
• Replace hard consonants with easier ones. “R” replaced with “W” “T” replaced with “D” “P” replaced with “B”
• Replace consonant blends with a single consonant. Phoneme,"th" is often changed to "d".
• Reduplicate sounds. For example, a child might say "manana" for "banana" because "m" is similar to "n".
• Shorten words of several syllables such as syllables that are unstressed

Bibliography

http://www.playingwithwords365.com/2011/09/phonological-processes-and-phonological-delay/

http://revisionworld.com/a2-level-level-revision/english-language/child-language-acquisition/phonological-development

http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/369/Language-Development.html

http://www.eps.n-cook.k12.il.us/epsweb/rosenberg/site/articulation.html

http://www.allinfo.org.uk/levelup/enb6aq.htm

Chart

Been researching and found a very interesting chart from 0-6/7 years on how language is developed.

Summary of the Transcript on Zachy (2;4) drawing a banana

During the speech, a supportive and questioning tone. This means that Zachy speaks to the parent because of the tone that the Mother has, which is of encouragement. On the first turn taken by H (Mother), they use "Darling" after saying "What?" We understand through this that she is trying to use a politeness strategy to mitigate what she is saying. This ensures that the child feels more able to answer to H as he feels comfortable that she is not being judged by his language.

Throughout the speech, H uses many open questions including "what else have we had?" This identifies how she is encouraging her son to speak and continue to speak to make longer turns. We can see that it encourages him to continue to speak on a recent topic that he has been completing previously in the day. This means that we can notice the skills of encouraging the child to continue talking as she asks questions in order to continue the speech development. Also, she uses the 1st person "plural" to show that she is encouraging him about group work and collaboration. It enables him to know that not everything is centred around the singular first person with "I".

Additionally, H uses echoing and repetition to repeat what Zachy has just said. For example: Zachy says "a banana and 3 things in the banana" and H replies with "a banana and what? 3 things?" This identifies that she is encouraging Zachy that the speech that he is saying is correct and questioning whether he knows what he is talking about. This develops his speech by allowing him to see that he is speaking correctly in areas of his speech. It will also allow him to see where he can develop in his speech and expand what he is saying.

Within H's speech, she uses praise to allow Zachy to see where he has used his language in a correct way or starts to read. H says "you are a star little man." This highlights that he has used language correctly. The use of the noun "star" has positive connotations and shows to Zachy the positivity that is used.

Non-standard Pronunciations
7 uses of non-standard pronunciations

Homework: Magazine extract and paragraphs of commentary

DO YOU APPRECIATE EVERYONE'S LANGUAGE?
 

But do you appreciate how a range of different cultures and sex speak? "Yo man!" is this socially correct for the workplace or is "sir" to formal? We have so many ways to speak and communicate with others but is anyway seen as wrong?

Should a relaxed environment mean a diverse range of speech or should we use Standard English. Picture: (SOURCE)https://personnel.ky.gov/Pages/Mediation-Information.aspx



The workplace has changed over such a short time period. With a life based around social networking and technology, do you actually know how to speak in a work situation and how to appreciate how people speak? There are many sub-cultures that you need to learn the different speech and how it varies but we all speak the same language and this is interesting that we have diverse speech.

Does this even matter?

We know that women can sometimes use weaker adjectives, sometimes, than men as Robin Lakoff says and men are more dominant and "macho" in all men speak. Does this even matter? We all accommodate our language for each other to understand. This should be appreciated within the workplace we all have our own variety of language.

 

However, language that we use though should have some structure in a workplace. Isn't a "Standard English" needed so that we can communicate and understand what is going on? The language we use is important and because of the diversity that we now have in language, it means that we could get the "wrong end of the stick."

 

Tips for you in the workplace

• Speak in a 'standard' form.
• Make sure that you understand everything that is being said to you.
• Understand that everyone's speech is 'normal' and should be taken as it is.

Commentary

Within my media article, I have used the structure so that it can be seen by the reader as being a magazine article. I used a image with a caption. This means that it shows the reader of a person in a workplace what the perfect environment for working should be and mean that they can identify that verbal communication and diversity that there will be in their speech. The picture allows them to put themselves in the situation. They can see that this is a magazine article with the image as it shows the main focus of the article and means that the reader is able to be focused on it.

 

 

Also, I used a pull quote of "Does this even matter?" which is then used in the following paragraph of text. This emphasises to the reader the main subject of the text. Due to the use of the interrogative, it emphasised the opinion of the reader needed to be taken into account. It allows the reader to think about what they are reading and therefore take in the articles subject on using diverse language.

 

The article is written using the second person pronoun "you" and the third person pronoun "we." This makes the magazine article feel inclusive and allow the reader to feel involved in the article. This has created a 'Synthetic Personalisation' with the reader and allows the article creates a bond with the reader to make them want to continue reading the article. By creating the false relationship, it means that they understand the information to a better extent and feel as they are wanted. This makes the reader understand the topic and abide by the information they are being told as the writer is persuading them to be able to speak "properly" but appreciate diverse language that we have.

Additionally, I have used bullet points to create a less formal tone which a magazine will have. This will make the reader feel as if they can take the "tips" and do as the magazine instruct them to do with the use of imperatives "Speak...." which emphasises the persuasion that the article is trying to do in a work situation.





A Test Methodology

I am going to test how different politicians post messages on Twitter and if their political party depends on the tweets that they make. Before I start the investigation, I would need to research and list the politicians and the party that they are in so that I can make cards with their names on. To do this investigation, I would make a fair draw, putting the names of members from each of the 3 leading parties (Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats) who have Twitter into three different containers coordinating with the party that they are in. Then, randomly I would select three names from each container so that it avoids bias in the data sample. This is because I do not want the data to be based on my views.

After finding the data, I will use a random number generator to select a number to look at the tweet that they had. This will mean that I will have no bias in the tweets that I am looking at so I can unbiasly look at the data and analyse how they have used language. From these tweets, I will look at the language that they use with whether they use high or low frequency lexis and their use of slang terms and cliché. This will mean that I can look at whether the party they are in depends on the language that they use of social networks.

To make this ethnical, I will need to ask the permission of the people's tweets that I will be looking at so that I am not just taking the language that they are using and invading their Twitter account. I will keep as many of the variables the same as possible except changing what party the politician is from.

Ideas for my coursework investigation??!!

Tricky, ideas to come up with ideas for my coursework...

• Looking at if gender effects teaching style- Language used and amount of talking?
• How presenters use language depending on the topic and individual they are talking to and how they accommodate to that?
• Does class affect the way you speak? The higher the class the lower frequency language used.
• How has the language used within morning TV changed?

One question: Can we use lyrics from music and how they have changed over time? Or does it have to be around spoken language and written language?

Please let me know what would be the best idea??

The Oxford Comma

A good friend of mine sent me this and I really like it

Do you know how to use commas correctly??

This is a very interesting article. I find the use of commas hard and it has really allowed me to understand it. Had a chat to confirm with parents to check I was right. Very good article, allowing me to understand how to use commas correctly.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2014/sep/04/mind-your-language-commas

Wish I was clever enough to do this

Such a great video on how grammar is used. However, the prescriptive attitude, that it has, is arguable if it should be used.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc

Do you still use marvellous?

Quite an interesting article with how, everyday our language is changing. Weird that I still use most of the language though!
http://www.theguardian.com/science/shortcuts/2014/aug/26/british-english-words-endangered-awesome-marvellous