Written Language (Child Language Acquisition)

Question 1

Graphemes and Phonemes

Answer 1

Graphemes: letters
Phonemes: sounds
Phonemes and Graphemes correlate with each other.

Question 2

Synthetic Phonics

Answer 2

where children first learn phonemes and how they can be represented (by letters) and then this is applied to words.

Question 3

Analytic Phonics

Answer 3

where children guess words based on the word’s onset and rime. Learnt as reading develops.

Question 4

Start of Writing

Answer 4

it can be argued that writing starts as soon as written words are seen and links between graphemes and words are made. The process also involves first picking up a pen and scribbling.
Early reading enables young children to begin to see phoneme graphemes correspondence. This enables them to move from spoken to written language.

Question 5

Jean Chall 1983 (reading)

Answer 5

suggested stages through which children learn to read.
-Pre reading or pseudo reading: (up to 6)have been read to by caregivers and may imitate reading. They might be able to identify some letters

-Initial reading and decoding: (6-7) decode words to read and understand basic texts. may identify familiar whole words or recognise letters and blend sounds together to sound out words. can make reading process slower and can hamper understanding of the text as a whole

-confirmation and fluency: (7-8) becomes faster. children will be able to decode words more readily and read with some fluency. There will be a greater sense of the text as a whole

-reading for learning: (9-13) rather than learning to read, student, they read in order to learn. might be accessing a wider range of texts by this point and reading to obtain facts and scanning for the most relevant details

-multiple viewpoints: (14-18) students begin to recognise how meaning can be conveyed in different ways or with a different focus. They will become more critical readers recognising bias and influence

-construction and reconstruction: (18+) can read a range of sources and synthesise these in order to develop their own interpretations. They can skim and scan efficiently and recognise what is and is not important to read

Question 6

Approaches to teaching reading

Answer 6

Initially, children are explicitly taught methods to make sense of texts. Accepted approaches are the phonic approach and the look and say approach.

-look and say approach: children identify familiar words as a whole to then read them accurately. used alongside phonic approach usually
-phonic approach: children blend sound within a word to decode the whole word. also teaches them to write themselves. can be divided into synthetic and analytic phonics

Question 7

Worksheets and scaffolding

Answer 7

how teachers can support children in reading/writing

Question 8

Phonetically Plausible

Answer 8

If the graphemes could produce the intended sound, despite perhaps being spelt incorrectly.

Question 9

Factors in the process of writing development

Answer 9

-It is helpful for children to see printed text at an early age. It can help oracy as well as their literacy.

-It is difficult to progress in literacy if spoken development is behind.

-Cognitive awareness of how language works needs to be in place before writing can develop.

-Lexical range and grammar and syntax are needed to start writing words and then eventually written sentences.

Question 10

Fine Motor Skills

Answer 10

carers actively encourage children to use a tripod grip which allows more controlled movement. These allow children to write letters that are the right size.
These are refined from gross to fine. can explain why writing is initially overlarge and imprecise and gradually becomes less of an issue

Question 11

Directionality

Answer 11

writing from left to right. reading or looking at books helps develop an awareness that writing is positioned from left to right on a page and is usually in straight lines. Early books might instruct children to hold the book up the right way. Early writers may struggle with syntax and straight lines, so they may be given widely spaced lines.

Question 12

Cognitive awareness

Answer 12

learning how words are presented or encoded into written form is a cognitively challenging part of learning to write. usually learnt alongside decoding and the connection between phoneme and graphemes.

Question 13

Emergent Writing

Answer 13

before they can write coherent letters or words, they are in the emergent stage. Child understands that writing represents words on a page but do not have the skills to be able to do it themselves. they may be able to produce recognisable letters but these might not make sense when placed together

Question 14

Barry Kroll 1981(writing)

Answer 14

four stages in writing process. ages for each stages aren’t definitive but added by Katherine Perera, whose research focused on development of writing

-Preparatory stage (up to 6): developing fine motor skills, practising holding pen and pencil and basic spelling

-Consolidation (7-8): writing as they speak in usually short declarative sentences using conjunctions. will usually be and or but. sentences often incomplete

-Differentiation (9-10): between speech and writing. styles of writing are understood. still errors and writing guides might be provided. writing might be able to reflect thoughts and feelings.

-Integration stage (mid-teens): children develop a personal stye of writing and can alter their writing depending on audience and purpose

Question 15

Creative Model for teaching writing

Answer 15

argues a child should be allowed to experiment creatively and without strict correction and becoming more accomplished through trial and error. they will be less afraid of making mistakes if the focus is not on accuracy.

Question 16

Rule Based Model for teaching writing

Answer 16

equally, when a child understands the conventions of writing, progress will become more rapid and they will more easily move to producing a text that is understandable and appropriate for the audience and purpose
can be argued that children being given rules could stifle individual language patterns or idiolect and placing emphasis on accuracy can limit creativity

Question 17

Primary school Key Stage steps

Answer 17

Primary school key stage tests at the end of KS1 places emphasis on children being able to proof read their work for spelling, punctuation and grammar. by the end of KS3, the expectation is that students should be taught to write accurately, fluently and effectively. and at length for pleasure and information. To achieve a high degree of success in English, it is important that rules are understood.

Question 18

John Abbott on Rule Based Vs Creative

Answer 18

John Abbott used the metaphor of batter hens or free range chickens to describe the approaches

Question 19

Split diagraph

Answer 19

hop->hope, the effect of the e on the o sound. hop becomes hopping (consonant doubled), hope becomes hoping

Question 20

Jean Rothery

Answer 20

1980s, introduced an infuential model for literacy that considered a more functional approach; looking at what the purose of the writing is and how this can be best fulfulled. made four categories that appeared most in early writing

Question 21

Jean Rothery’s types of early writing

Answer 21

-observation/comment: simplest type of writing. A child observes something and makes a comment

-recount: subjective, chronological account of an event. takes the structure of orientation event and reorientation.

-report:a report is an objective and factual description of an event or thing rather than the more subjective recount. students might produce non-chronological reports on a day, focusing on ideas, events and themes in general rather than in order

-Narrative: hardest as it involves orientation, complication, resolution and coda (moral)

Question 22

Britton’s model

Answer 22

suggested three key types of writing.focuses on the purpose of writing and the style required to fill it

-expressive:develops first. takes first person and enables children to explore their own identity and preferences through writing. Supports egocentrism

-Poetic: is literary. is often encouraged in early writing, allows children to be creative while encouraging them to think about the craft of writing, including imagery, phonology, etc.

-Transactional: is wordy. seen as when the writer is able to separate their own identity from the writing so the writer has been able to become entirely detached from the context of the writing. takes on an impersonal tone

Question 23

Environmental Factors

Answer 23

children will have reached emergent writer before starting school. may be able to draw a picture and write a few letters or words. school and the input of teaching staff are arguably the most influential factors in learning to write at this stage
In the UK children usually start school following their 4th Birthday. there is a difference between four and five year olds, particularly in fine motor skills.

Question 24

The Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework 2012

Answer 24

-children use phonic framework knowledge to write words in ways that match their sounds. Write some irregular common words. Write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others. Some words are spelt correctly and others are plausible

-the aim by the end of their first year is for children to show development n relation to spelling, orthography and grammar, with words being plausible even if wrong. becomes increasingly cohesive.

Question 25

Writing at home

Answer 25

A child who is encouraged to write for a variety of different purposes at home will inevitably be developing their independence and start to see the point and purpose of writing. In the same way, a child who does not might struggle to see the point.

Question 26

Geographical and Social Influences

Answer 26

-writing at consolidation is likely to resemble speech. suggests writing choices are often more colloquial than they will be later in writing. children will make language choices depending on context.audience purposes and genre of the writing will affect the vocabulary choices but so will age, gender, regional background and social class
(poem written by little boy with regional phonetic spellings)

Question 27

Orthography

Answer 27

the basic skills needed to develop writing are: cognitive development, fine motor skills and an awareness of directionality.
from 5th to 15th century, few people could write. until the late 19th century, learning to write was judged more by the production of aesthetically pleasing scripts.
children today encouraged to use cursive script after acquiring print handwriting. if the pen is not lifted from the paper, writing is faster
there is less preoccupation with handwriting than a few decades ago but there is still an expectation of legibility and speed.
casual cursive is when some letters are joined and others are not

Question 28

The Stages of Spelling

Answer 28

Pre-communicative stage: random letters or symbols appear on a page with no letter to sound connections

Semi-phonetic (or partial alphabetic writing): Letters might be used to represent whole words. Writing will generally be formed from left to right and there is some letter to sound connections.

Phonetic stage: Spelling will be based on the sound of words

Transitional stage: Spelling will combine phonetic approaches as well as visual approaches. Silent letters might start to be acknowledged within words.

Conventional stage (correct spelling): Difficult spellings have been learnt and words with alternative spellings are known

Question 29

Undergeneralisation (in spelling)

Answer 29

failing to apply a spelling rule

Question 30

Overgeneralisation (in spelling)

Answer 30

applying rules where they are not applied

Question 31

Omission (in spelling)

Answer 31

when letters are removed

Question 32

Insertion (in spelling)

Answer 32

when letters are added where they shouldn’t be

Question 33

Substitution (in spelling)

Answer 33

When a letter is replaced with a different letter within a word.

Question 34

Transposition (in spelling)

Answer 34

When a pair of letters are switched around.

Question 35

Adult support in spelling

Answer 35

while there are plenty of resources for teaching spelling, support from adults to become more confident in the spelling of both common and more unusual words will help the child to consider initial, medial and final sounds so words can be segmented more accurately

Question 36

Patterns in spelling

Answer 36

As a child’s writing progresses, one strategy for developing spelling is to recognise patterns with words. In reception, a child might learn vowel digraphs (cluster of two letters that represents one sound) and think about clustering all the words that appear in this way.

Question 37

Developmental model for writing

Answer 37

Similar to spoken language. Their writing skills will not be at the same level as speech. Lexical range broadens to incorporate adjectives and function words and sentence will become increasingly sophisticated.
Points towards a model where only when there is a cognitive awareness of different items, features and characteristics can linguistic knowledge develop and more vocabulary be learnt.

Children must have two levels of knowledge: content and theme, and linguistic knowledge (lexical, syntactical etc)

Question 38

Bereiter and Scardamalia 1987

Answer 38

suggested two levels of writing:
-Knowledge-telling strategy: for example, a schoolchild writing about their holiday
-Knowledge-transforming strategy: a writer is able to use the knowledge they have (as well as their knowledge of discourse and understanding of writing techniques) to transfer the knowledge of different types of writing.

Question 39

Lexical development in writing

Answer 39

May be a predominance of monosyllabic lexis. It is simpler to deduce the phoneme-grapheme correspondence of a simple monosyllabic word. Easier to encode.
Child will gradually move on to more complex lexical choices as their writing becomes increasingly confident and they wish to represent the extent of their wider understanding with more varied lexical choices.
They will also be learning subject specific lexis that they’ll want to employ to demonstrate precision (for example, in science, transparent or flexible).

Question 40

Grammatical development in writing

Answer 40

As they become more accomplished writers, they move from creating simple sentences to producing compound and complex sentences.
Simple sentences are one unit of thought, while compounds connect several individual units in a logical manner. Complex sentences require more sophisticated awareness of the link between different clauses in a sentence.
Will usually write in declarative sentences. Will use others as they become more aware of how to consciously craft writing.

Question 41

Scaffolding in writing

Answer 41

teachers providing children with resources to support them in their writing. Could be a list of words.

Question 42

Common grammatical errors

Answer 42

What looks like an error may demonstrate how a child overgeneralises grammatical rules. “Runned” instead of “ran”, overgeneralising the rule that regular first-person past tense formation will apply a suffix of -ed.

Question 43

To be a successful writer, a child needs:

Answer 43

-knowledge of genre (allows children to structure their own writing)
-vocabulary + language techniques
-spelling
-grammar
-fine motor skills
-paragraphs