Crthl, D, Úqqt).
f/,'L C-atnb""/¿< of uV*f
€ne¿úo¡cd,L
38 . INVESTIGATING CHITDREN'S LANGUAGE
For over 200 years,scholarshave shown an intere¡t in the
way children learn to speak and understand their first ANCIENT
QUESTIONs
language. Scqeral small-scale sudies were carried our, Child languagestudy has
exercisedits fascinationon
especiallytowards dre end ofthe 19th cenrur¡ using data rulersand scholarsalike for
recorded in parental diaries. But detailed, q¡stematic over 2,000years,especiallyin
investigation did not begin until the middle decadesof relat¡onto suchquestionsas
the ori gi nsand grow th of l an-
the 20th century,when the tape recordercame into rou- guage ($49).Many felt that
tine use. This made it possible to keep a permanent the study of.linguisticdevel-
record of samplesof child speech,so that analystscould opment i n the chi l d(l anguage
ontoge nesis)would provide
listen repeatedly to obscure extracts, and thus produce a
cluesabout the linguistic
detailedand accuratedescription.Sincethen, the subject development of the human
race(fanguagep hylogenesis).
has attracted enormous mulrldisciplinary interest,
Some¡nterestingsim¡lar¡ties
notably from linguists and psychologists,who have used have been noted between the
a variety of observationaland experimentaltechniquesto vocal tracts of infants and
non-human primates(549),
study the processoflanguage acquisitionin depth.
but there is still a great gap
Central to the successof this rapidly emerging field between the emot¡onal
lies the ability of researchersto devise satisfactory expressionof ínfantsand the
propositionalcontent of adult
methods for eliciting linguistic data from children. language,which studiesof
The problems that have to be faced are quite difFerent acquisitionhave not yet been
able to bridge.
from those encountered when working with adults (p.
S omeonew how asremark-
414). Many of the linguistt routine techniques of ably modern in hisviews was
enquiry cannot be usedwith children. It is not possible the Mogul Emperor of lndia,
to caffy out iertain kinds of experiments, because
aspectsof childrent cognitive development - such as
their abiliry to pay attention, or ro remember instruc-
tions - may not be sufficiently advanced.Nor is it easy
PARENTAL
DIARIES
to get children to make systematic judgments about
language- a task that is virtually impossible below the The earl i estapproachto the
study of chi l d l anguagew as
ageof 3. And anyone who has tried to obtain even the to keep a wr¡tten diary of
most basic kind of data - a tape recording of a repre- observationsabout one's
sentativesample of a child's speech- knows how frus- ow n chi l d. S everal19th-
centuryschol arsengaged i n
trating this can be. Some children, ir seems, are th¡stask, i ncl udi ngA ugust
innately programmed to switch off as soon as they S chl ei cherand C harl esD ar-
notice a tape recorder being switched on. w i n. The approachfel l out of
favour with the advent of
Since the 1960s, however, several sophisdcated audi o- and vi deo-recordi ng
recording techniques and. experimental designs have technigues, which permitted
been devised. Children can be observedand recorded a more systematic,objective,
and comprehensi veanal ysi s.
through one-way-visionwindows or using radio micro- It has nonethelessoccasion-
phones, so that the effects ofhaving an investigator in ally been used with good
the same room as the child can be eliminared. Large- effect in recent decades-
notabl y i n Werner Leopol d's
scalesampling programmeshavebeen carried out, with
foui-volume study of his
children sometimes being recorded for several years. daughter H i l degard,pub-
Particular aftention has been paid to devising experi- lished between 1939 and
1949, Speech Development
mental techniquesthat fall well within a child's inrellec-
of a Bilingual Child.
tual level and social experience. Even prelinguistic Below are some extracts
infants have been brought into the research:acousric from the earl i estknow n
techniques are used to analysetheir vocalizations, and diary study,.by the German
philosopher Dietrich Tiede-
their abiliry to perceivethe world around them is moni- mann (l 748-1803) about hi s
tored using special recording equipment (gl!). The son, Friedrich,kept between
result has been a growing body of reliable data on the 1782(w hen the chi l d w as 6
months) and 1784:
stagesoflanguage acquisition from birth until puberry.
¿ff:ry,
Akbar the Great (1542-1605),
He believedthat speecharose
from people listeningto oth-
ers,and that children who
were isolatedfrom human
contact would not be able ti)
speak.A contemporary Per-
sian account.the Akbarnama
of Abu"f-Fazl.takes up the
$ory:
As some who heard this
appearedto deny it, he, in
order to conv¡ncethem, had a
seral lmansion] built in a
placewhich civilizedsounds
did not reach.The newly born
were put intothat placeof
experience,and honest and
active guardswere put over
them. For a t¡me, tongue-tied
wet-nurseswere admitted
there, As they had closedthe
door of speech,the placewas
commonl ycal l edthe Gang
Mahai (the dumb-house).On
the gth August 1582 he went
outto hunt. That n¡ght he
stayed in Fa¡zabad,and next
On February 1Oth he showed
the fi rst si gn of surpri seand
approval ;so far hi s onl y
expressionsof pain, anger,
i mpati ence,and pl easure
had been crying, writhing,
l aughi ng. N oW w hen he saw
somethi ng new and del i ght-
ful, he greeted it with the
excl amati on'ach!' - the nat-
ural si gn of admi rati on...
After all manner of exer-
cise in the production of
tones, and after the acquisi-
ti on of some ski l l i n usi ngthe
speechorgans variously,he
commenced. on the 14th of
March, to articulate con-
sciouslyand to repeat
sounds.H i s mother sai dto
hi m the syl l abl e'Ma'; he
gazed attentively at her
mouth, and attempted to
i mi tate the syl l abl e.."
A few words he pro-
nounced cl earl yon N ovem-
ber 27th and knew also their
meanings exactly;these
w ere 'P apa'and 'Mama'...
On the 8th of March. at
the sight of an object, he
day he went with a few spe-
cial attendantsto the house
of experiment. No cry came
from that house of silencenor
was any speechheard there.
In spite of their four years,
they had no part of the tal¡s-
man of speech;and nothing
came out except the noiseof
the dumb.
(From H. Beveridge,
1897-1910,pp.581-2.)
Akbar the Great
would repeat its name if he
had frequently heard it, but
he still found it hard to oro-
nounce words of severalsyl-
l abl es.
On the 30th of J ul y he
finally succeededin uüering
complete, though short sen-
tences, for example: Ihere
he stands. There he líes...
. [February 14, 1784] This is
as far as my observations go.
Other businessprevented
me f rom thei r c onti nuati on. I
greatly desire that others
may make s i mi l arones ;i t
w i l l then b e pos s i bl eto
determine various things by
compari s on,and that i mpor-
tant branch of psychology,
too little exploited as yet,
which studies the develop-
ment óf h uman fac ul ti es -
the foundati on of pedagogy
-w i l l mak e apprec i abl e
progressthereby. (From C.
Murchison & S. K. Langer,
1927;l
 3 8 . INVEST IGAT ING C H ILD R E N 'S LA N GU A GE ¿Jl

R ESEARCH P A RA DI G M S Sampling: how much? how often? RESEARCH

There.isno singieway of studying childrenkianguage. Those who do researchin child language are always COOPERATION
Linguistics and psychology has each brought its own being pulled in two directions, *hln ih.v h"u. ro Childrendo not alwayssee
approach ro rhe subject, and many varia-tionshave decidequestionsof sampiing.They can chobseto fol- the needto cooperateto the
been introduced to cope with the variery of activities in Iow a single child, or a small group of children, in an bestof their abilityin lan-
which children engage,and the grear age range rhar guageacqu¡s¡tion research,
intensive way, raking relatively large samples ar fre-
they present. lwo main researchparadigmsa¡efound. asthe following storyshows:
quent inrervals. Or they can selecra large number of
children and takesmallersamplesat lessfiequent inter- Another week we noticed
Naturalistic sampling A sample of a child's sponra-
vals. Both procedureshave their srrengrhsand limita- that Adamwould sometimes
neous useof languageis recordedin familiar and com_ pluralizenounswhenthey
tions. The former enablesthe r.searÁer to plot the shouldhavebeenpluralizeo
fortable surroundings. One of the bestplacesto make
gradual emergenceof linguistic pamernsfrom absence andsometimes would not.
the recording is in rhe childt own home, but it is not
to acquisition; but it is unable to provide confident We wonderedif he could
alwayseasy-romaintain good acoustic qualiry and the
generalizationsabout rhese patterni, given the small makegrammaticaljudg-
presenceof rhe researcheror the recording equipment mentsabout the plural.if he
number ofchildren examined.The laner permits such coulddistinguisha correct
can be,a distraction (especiallyif the proieeáings are
generalizations,bur is likely to miss points of signifi- form from an incorrectform.
being filmed). Alternatively, the recording can belade 'Adam',we asked.'which is
cant progressthat fall benveenthe sampling intervals.
in a specialsefting, such asa research..rrir., where the right "two shoes"or "two
Dependingon rhe merhod used,rheiefoñ, sampling shoe"?'His
child is aliowed toplay freelywith toys while talking to . answeron that
intervals can. range from every few days, ..p..i"il| occasion.producedwith
parents or orher children, and the observersand tñeir
when the children seem ro be undergoing a piriod of explosiveenthusiasm,was
equipment areunobrrusive.
rapid progress,to 3 months or more.-The major 'Popgoesthe weasel!' The
A good quality, representarive,naturalistic sample is two-yearold child doesnot
rgse.archp_rogrammelaunched by the American psy- makea perfectlydocile
generallyconsideredan ideal datum for child language
choiogistRogerBrown (1925-) in the 1960sr"-ptéa experimentalsubject.(From
study. However, t1re merhod has severallimitaiioris.
three child¡en for at least rwo hours a monrh - in one R.Brown& U. Bellugi-Klima,
These samplesare informative about speechproduc- p.134.)
case,for half an hour a week. By conrrast,a British pro- 1964,
tio.r-r,.but they give little guidan.. th. *ny gramme of the 1970s,directed by the psycholinguist
children understand what they hear"tout around them. Gordon Vells (1935- ), involved t28-cirildren.-and
Moreove¡ samples cannot contain everything, and
'fearu-res took a half-hour sample from each child ever-, th"""
t,u-b.r,
they can easily miss some important of monrhs. Even larger of children nr.tr;;.:
a childk linguistic abiliry. They may also not provide
times used,but this resrricrsthe researchto rhe srudy of
e¡ough instancesof a developing feature to-enable
a very smail set of linguistic features.It should be borne
the analyst to make a decision about the way the child
in mind, too, rhar largesamplesdo not guaranreethe
is learning. For such reasons,the descriptiónof sam-
occurrenceof important features.In the \7ells pro ject,
ples.ofchild speechhas ro be suppiementedby other
a searchfor passiveverbs (e.g. wn kicked¡in'tS,OOO
methods.
utterancesfrom 60 children who were ¡ecorded three
Experimentation Themethodsofexperimenralpsy- times between3 and 3*yearsof age,producednexr to
chology have been widely applied to .hild l""g,rng. nothing: 12 child¡en used such a vérb a total of 19
research. The investigator formulates a speciñc timesl
An audiotaperecordingof a
hypothesisabout childrenk abiliry to useor undeistand t{alf-hour samples are a popular measure, though playgrouppresents¡tsown
an aspectoflanguage,and devisésa relevanttask for a of¡en peopleusea sampleconsistingof a fixed nu-t, specialproblems- not least,
group ofsubjecrs ro carry our. A statistical analysisis ol utterances(e.g. 100 urterancestaken from some the difficultyof tellingthe
childrenapart,andthe ques-
madeofthe subjects'behaviour,and the resultspiovide point. in a recording session).Vhatever the length,
tion of howto determine
:vidence that suppons or falsifiesrhe original hypoth.- samplesneed to be as represenrariveas possibleo{the what isbeíngsaidwhen
;is - or, ar ieasr,suggesrways in which the experiment childt language, and researcherstherifore need to everyoneistalking (or shout-
night be betrer designednext time! anticipate th-einfluence of such factors as time of day, ing)at once.
Using this approach, aswell asother methods ofcon- the nature ofthe setting,and the presenceofobservers
:rolled observation, researchershave come uo with (p.233).
nany detailed findings about the production aná com-
>rehensionof groups of children. Howeve¡ it is not
)asyto generalizethe findings of these studies. V4rat LONGITUDINALVS CRO55-SECTIONAL
nay obtain in a carefully controlled setting may nor Studiesthat follow the gence,by studyinga setof
Lpplyin the rush of daily interaction. Diffeienr Linds progress of a setof vari- variablesin a groupof chil-
rfsubjects,experimentalsituations,and statisticalpro- ablesovertime in the same dren of differentages,
set ofchildren are known usingdifferentsubJects at
may produce different results or interp.eta- as longitudinalstudies.
'edures eachage.Thisisknownasa
ions. Experimental research is therefore ^slo*, Most chifd fanguage cross-sectionalstudv. Com-
rainstaking business; it may take years" before research isof thisform. bineddesigns ar" ,iro pos-
esearchersare convinced that all variabíeshave been HoweveLit isalsopossible sible.
to buildup a'composite'
onsideredand a finding is genuine. p¡ctureof languageemer-
232
TALKINGDOLLS
How do we know when
y oung c h i l d r e n a r e a b l e t o
recognize errors in what
people s a y ?O n e i n g e n i o us
res ear c ht e c h n ¡ q u e m a d e
us e of a d o l l t h a t w a s a b l e t< ;
' t alk ' . A t o y p a n d a , a b o u t 7 5
c m t all, w a s b r o u g h t i n t o a
nurs er yw h e r e c h i l d r e n
(aged between 3 and 5)
were playing. Theywere
t old t ha t t h i s w a s a v e r y s p e -
c ial k in d o f p a n d a , b e c a u se
he was l e a r n i n g t o t a l k . H e
want ed t h e c h i l d r e n t o c o m e
and s ee h i m o n e a t a t i m e ,
and t alk t o h i m s o t h a t h i s
s peec hw o u l d i m p r o v e .T he y
were al l v e r y w i l l i n g t o h elp .
In the test sessions,two
ex perim e n t e r sw e r e
inv olv e d . O n e s t a y e d i n t he
room w i t h t h e p a n d a a n d
t he c hi l d , p l a y i n g w i t h v a r i-
ous ma t e r i a l s .T h e o t h e r w a s
out s ide t h e r o o m , o b s e r vin g
t he s es s i o nt h r o u g h o n e -
way -v is i o ng l a s sa n d s p e ak-
ing ¡nt o a m i c r o p h o n e
link ed t o a l o u d s p e a k e ri n
t he pan d a ' s h e a d . T h e c h i l-
TASK EFFECTS
Settingup an experimental
task sothat it doesnot hin-
der a child'sperformance is
nevereasy.Eventhe sim-
plesttaskscanhidesnags
that makeit difficultor
impossible to ¡nterpreta
responsecorrectly-Where
the childisseated,how the
toysarearranged.and
howthe experimenter
givesthe ¡nstructions can
allcauseproblems. The
apparentlysimpleinstruc-
tion to 'Putthe carbehind
the lofry',to test knowl-
edgeof 'behind'illustrates
someof the d¡ff¡culties.
1.Thechildissittingoppo-
sitethe experimenter.
Shouldsheput the car
behindthe lorryfrom her
own point of view at X, or
from the experimenter's. at
I or shouldsheuseher
knowledgeofthe real
world,and placethe carat
the backend of the lorry,
at Z, asit would appear
when travellingalongthe
road?A failureto respond,
or a wrong placement,may
reflectonlyher confusion,
not her lackof knowledge
PART VII . C H l LD LA N GU A GE A C QU IS ITION
dren were trained to pressa Themain reasonfor hassincebeenusedin stud- mands) that are often
b e ll wh e n th e p a n d a sa id developingthis methodwas iesof speechproductionas avoided when talking to
so m e th in g th e y th o u g h t to reducethe extentto wellasof comorehension adults. (After P.Lloyd & M.
was right, and to pressa whicha ch¡ldmightbe influ- and interaction.Byputting D ona l ds on, 1976.)
b u zze r wh e n h e wa s wr o n g . encedby an adult experi- the children'in charge',
T h e p a n d a wo u ld a lso a sk menter,or overawedby an researchersareableto elicit
th e ch ild r e n wh y h e wa s artific¡altest situation.lt a naturalspeaking style,anc C hu-C huand c hi l d
wr o n g , if th e y d id n o t sp o n - provedto be an extremely to observeseveralstructures excha ngi ng names atthe
ta n e o u sly g ive a r e a so n . successful technique,and it (suchasthe useof com- begi n ni ng of a s es s i on.
T h e ch ild r e n a d a o te d to
th is situ a tio n e n th u sia sti-
ca lly,a h d so th e te ch n iq u e
wa s u se d in se ve r a lkin d s o f
study. lt proved to be a very
good way oftesting sen-
te n ce co m p r e h e n sio na n d
co n ve r sa tio n a lskills.In o n e
o f th e co m o r e h e n sio nstu d -
ies,for example, a car was
p la ce d in e a ch o f fo u r
garages, and a fifth car was
le ft o u tsid e .T h e d o ll th e n
sa id su ch se n te n ce sa s ' a ll
the garages have cars in
them' (which was true) and
' a ll th e ca r sa r e in th e
garages' (which was false)-
T h e ch ild r e n ' sr e a ctio n sth e n
showed how far they were
a b le to g r a sp th e d istin ctio n
between the sentences.
o f wh a t th e p r e p o s¡ tio n the real w orl d here. U nfortu-
m e a n s, nately, it has been placed near
the back of the table, so that
2 . No w th e ch ild is a lo n g sid e
th e e xp e r im e n te r ,b u t th e r e
the chi l d hasdi ffi cul ty reach-
i ng behi nd i t. A l so, she mi ght
is still a p r o b le m . T h e ta il e n d
th¡nk that the car w i l l fal l off
ofthe lorry is facing her. So
the table if she placesit so far
sh e is stillfa ce d with th e
away. Suchfactors could once
p r o b le m o f wh a t th e e xp e r i-
agai n l ead herto act i ndeci -
m e n te r in te n d s.
sively,or to put the car some-
3. A ball does not have a front where else,thus giving a
and a back end, so there mi sl eadi ngi mpressi onabout
should be no difficulties from her l i ngui sti cknow l edge.
 3 8 . INVES' I- IC]ATIN G C H l LD R E N 'S I,,A N GU A GE

fNDIVID UA DI
L F F E RE N C ES TE C H N OLOGIC R
AEL V OLU TION S
T here has b e e n a n a t u r a l e m p h a sisin la n g u a g e a cq u isitio n The i nventi on ofthe audi o Wi th vi deo, the ti ni est parent-child interaction.
res earc ho n t h e u n i v e r s a lc h a r a cte r istics o f d e ve lo o m e n t. tape recorder led to the first features of non-verbal But video studies are never
Howev e4 t h e r e a r e m a n y i n d ivid u a l d iffe r e n ce swh ich a lso revol uti on i n chi l d l anguage behavi our.and the rol e of straightforward: lighting,
n eed t o be t a k e n i n t o a c c o u nt.Ch ild r e n m a y va r y in th e ¡ r research methodology. The the accompanying context, cameraangl es ,s ound
ra t e and s tr a t e g i e so f l e a r n i n g fo r a va r ie ty o f r e a so n s,to i nventi on of the vi deo can be transcr¡bedand anal - recordi ng,t he i ntrus i on of
d o wit h s u c hf a c t o r s a s s e x ,i nte llig e n ce ,p e r so n a lity,a n d recorder may well prove to ysed.l t i sthus a frequentl y the camera,and other
s oc ialbac k g r o u n d ( 5 5 6 * 10 ) . Th e r e a r e ' fa st d e ve lo p e r s' be a second.E achtechni que usedtool i n modern chi l d matters need to be carefully
and 's low d e v e l o p e r s ' .B u t i t h a s n o t ye t b e e n p o ssib leto has i ts strengthsand l i mi ta- l anguage research- espe- thought out i f an i nforma-
generaliz e a b o u t t h e w a y t h ese va r ia b le sa f{ e ct th e co u r se trons. ci al l y i n studi esof tive picture isto be
of languag e d e v e l o p m e n t . The audi o tape recorderi s comprehensi onand obtai ned.
Popular n o t i o n s n o n e t h e l esse xist.F o r e xa m p le , it is t he more w i del y used
w idely bel i e v e dt h a t g ¡ r l sl e a rn to sp e a k m o r e r a p id ly th a n meansof obtai ni ng chi l d
boys, and several researchershave noticed a trend for girls l anguage data. A udi o tapes
to be lí ngu i s t i c a l l ys u p e r i o r ,a t e a r ly a g e s.Bu t th e r e is n e g - and equi pment cost l ess,
l i gible ev id e n c ef o r a d e f i n i t e e ffe ct. Sa m p le ste n d to b e and the techni que i s rel a-
ve ry s mall,a n d m e a s u r e ss e l ective ,Su chd iffe r e n ce sa s a r e t i vel y unobtrusi ve.l f radi o
found seem to be due more to the effect of the different mi crophonesattachedto
way s in wh i c h b o y sa n d g i r l s a r e b r o u g h t u p , r a th e r th a n t he chi l d'scl othesare used,
to phy s iolo g i c a o l r g e n e t i c f a c to r s. Pa r e n ta lstyle a n d t he actual recorder need
ex pec t at ¡o n ss e e mt o b e f a r m o r e im p o r ta n t. not even be in the same
room, and recordi ngsof
excel l entqual i ty can be
made.
H ow eve[ an audi o record-
Observer effects ing gi vesno i nformati on
about w hat a chi l d i s doi ng.
The presenceofresearchobserversin a recordingses- Gesturesand facial expres-
sion may affectthe morher more rhan the childl But it sions,which are often used
hastakensometime for this point to be appreciatedby to suppl ementspeechor
show comprehensi on,are
researchefs.
not avai l abl e.l t may not be
One of the first findings abour maternal language poss¡bleto interpret sen-
concerned the presenceof grammatical.expansions tencescl ear,y;on an audi o
when talking to a child. Mothers wouid often providea tape, Put that over there
makes very little sense.lt is
glossfor their childt utterancewhich addedelements possibleto get round these
tnat werenot present: problems to some extent, by
having an observer present
CHII-D:Go car, who makes notes on what is
happeni ng.B ut thi s i s far
MO'rilER:\1es,daddykgoing in his car. inferi orto a vi deo recordof
the event, which can be
In Brown'sresearchproject (p.229), it was found that viewed severaltimes by dif-
'Fel l dow n', saysthe chi l d - a total l y obscureutteranc e w ¡th-
ferent researchers.
expansionsappearedin nearlya third of mothert inter- out the pi cture.
actions, in early sragesof learning. Their funcrion
seemedto be asa teachingaid for the child, in that rhe
mothers were providing their children with a target
CH ILD E S
that was slightly aheadof their performance.However,
Modern methods of compu- i nternati onalcomputer net- standardsof data anal y s i s ,
in Wells'sproject (p.229), very few expansionswere tati onal anal ysi sand data w ork. Thi si s the mai n ai m of becauseerrors can be read-
found. How is this discrepancy ro be explained? processingcould well revo- the C hi l d LanguageD ata i l y checkedand c orrec ted,
The main factor is thought to be the presence.or luti oni ze the study of l an- ExchangeSystem(CHILDES), and extra an al y ti c alobs er-
g uage acqui si ti on.One of w hi ch w as establ i shedi n vat¡onsi ncorporated.
absenceof obse¡vers.In Brown'sapproach,therewere
the mai n probl emsfaci ng 1984 by an ¡nternati onal H ow eve¡ a s hari ng of
always researcherspresenr; in \X/ells'sthere were no the chi l d l anguage group of l anguageacqui si - resourcesi s p os s i bl eonl y i f
researchers presenr,and the mother wasalonewith the researcheris that the collec- ti on researchers. researcherscan agree on a
child most of the time. Wells made useof radio micro- tion and transcri pti onof It i s now possi bl eto tran- set of pol ¡c¡esand s tandard
data samples is extremely scri betape-recordeddata conventi onsfor obtai ni ng,
phonesand a sampling programme in which 90-sec-
time-consumi ng.A n hour of di rectl y i nto computer f i l es, transcri bi ng,and s tori ng
ond recordingsweremade auromaticallyat 20-minute recorded conversational w here the materi al can be chi l d l angua ge data i n c om-
intervalsthroughout the da¡ so rhar the parentwould data can take 10 or more edi ted, anal ysed,and dupl i - puteri zed form. Thes eare
be unaware when a recording was taking place. \i/ith hours to transcribe, check, cated. Fi l esof data can thus currentl y und er di s c üs s i on.
e di t, and type. l t hasthere- be shared between It w i l l take so me y ears
theseparents,the frequencyof expan.sions increased fore been proposed that, researchers w ho have com- before al l the methodol ogi -
only uüen another adult was presenr.This suggesrs once scholarshave made puter accessto the central cal probl emsc an be s ol v ed,
that the main function of expansionsis to act asa gloss th ei r transcr¡pti ons,the data database,maki ng a consi d- but the outl ook for c hi l d
shoul d be made avai l abl eto erabl e savíngof ti me and l anguage researc hi s
for the benefit of an observer,and not, as was first
th e w i der researchcommu- money. The processcould extremel ypr omi s i ng.
thought, solely to provide the child with extra gram- n ity through the use of an al so l ead to a rai si ngof
maticalinformation.
 3 8 . INVES' I- IC]ATIN G C H l LD R E N 'S I,,A N GU A GE

INDIVID UADI
L F F E RE N C ES TE C H N OLOGIC R
AEL V OLU TION S
T here has b e e n a n a t u r a l e m p h a sis¡ n la n g u a g e a cq u isit¡ o n The i nventi on ofthe audi o Wi th vi deo, the ti ni est parent-child interaction.
res earc ho n t h e u n i v e r s a lc h a r a cte r ¡ st¡ cs o f d e ve lo o m e n t. tape recorder led to the first features of non-verbal But video studies are never
Howev eI th e r e a r e m a n y i n d ivid u a l d iffe r e n ce swh ich ¿ lso revol uti on i n chi l d l anguage behavi our,and the rol e of straightforward: lighting,
n eed t o be t a k e n i n t o a c c o u nt.Ch ild r e n m a y va r y in th e ¡ r research methodology. The the accompanying context, cameraangl es ,s ound
ra t e and s tr a t e g i e so f l e a r n i n g fo r a va r ie ty o f r e a so n s,to i nventi on of the vi deo can be transcr¡bedand anal - recordi ng,t he i ntrus i on of
d o wit h s u c hf a c t o r s a s s e x ,i nte llig e n ce ,p e r so n a lity,a n d recorder may well prove to ysed.l t i sthus a frequentl y the camera,and other
s oc ialbac k g r o u n d ( 5 5 6 * 10 ) . Th e r e a r e ' fa st d e ve lo p e r s' be a second.E achtechni que usedtool i n modern chi l d matters need to be carefully
and 's low d e v e l o p e r s ' .B u t i t h a s n o t ye t b e e n p o ssib leto has i ts strengthsand l i mi ta- l anguage research- espe- thought out i f an i nforma-
generaliz e a b o u t t h e w a y t h ese va r ia b le sa ffe ct th e co u r se trons. ci al l y i n studi esof ti ve pi cture i s to be
of languag ed e v e l o p m e n t . The audi o tape recorderi s comprehensi onand obtai ned.
Popular n o t i o n s n o n e t h e l esse xist.F o r e xa m p le , it is t he more w i del y used
w idely bel i e v e dt h a t g ¡ r l sl e a rn to sp e a k m o r e r a p ¡ d lyth a n meansof obtai ni ng chi l d
boy s ,and s e v e r a lr e s e a r c h e r sh a ve n o tice d a tr e n d fo r g ir ls l anguage data. A udi o tapes
to be lí ngu i s t i c a l l ys u p e r i o r ,a t e a r ly a g e s.Bu t th e r e is n e g - and equi pment cost l ess,
l i gible ev id e n c ef o r a d e f i n i t e e ffe ct. Sa m p le ste n d to b e and the techni que i s rel a-
ve ry s mall,a n d m e a s u r e ss e l ective ,Su chd iffe r e n ce sa s a r e t i vel y unobtrusi ve.l f radi o
found seem to be due more to the effect of the different mi crophonesattachedto
way s in wh i c h b o y sa n d g i r l s a r e b r o u g h t u p , r a th e r th a n t he chi l d'scl othesare used,
to phy s iolo g i c a o l r g e n e t i c f a c to r s.Pa r e n ta lstyle a n d t he actual recorder need
ex pec t at io n ss e e mt o b e f a r m o r e im p o r ta n t. not even be i n the same
room, and recordi ngsof
excel l entqual i ty can be
made.
H ow eve[ an audi o record-
Observer effects ing gi vesno i nformati on
aboutw hat a chi l d i s doi ng.
The presenceofresearchobserversin a recordingses- Gesturesand facial expres-
sion may affectthe morher more rhan the childl But it sions,which are often used
hastakensometime for this point to be appreciatedby to suppl ementspeechor
show comprehension, are
researchefs.
not avai l abl e.l t may not be
One of the first findings abour maternal language poss¡bleto ¡nterpret sen-
concerned the presenceof grammatical expansions tencescl earl y;on an audi o
when talking to a child. Mothers wouid often providea tape, Put that over there
makes very little sense.lt is
glossfor their childt utterancewhich addedelements possibleto get round these
tnat werenot present: problems to some extent, by
having an observer present
CHII-D;Go car. w ho makesnotes on w hat i s
happeni ng.B ut thi s i s far
MO'rilER:\1es,daddykgoing in his car. inferiorto a video record of
the event, which can be
In Brown'sresearchproject (p.229), it was found that viewed severaltimes by dif-
'Fel l dow n', saysthe chi l d - a total l y obscureutteranc e w i th-
ferent researchers.
expansionsappearedin nearlyathird ofmothert inter- out the pi cture.
actions, in early sragesof learning. Their funcrion
seemedto be asa teachingaid for the child, in that rhe
mothers were providing their children with a target
CH ILD E S
that was slightly aheadof their performance.However,
Modern methods of compu- i nternati onalcomputer net- standardsof data anal y s i s ,
in Wells'sproject (p.229), very few expansionswere tati onal anal ysi sand data w ork. Thi si s the mai n ai m of becauseerrors can be read-
found. How is this discrepancy ro be explained? processingcould well revo- the C hi l d LanguageD ata i l y checkedand c orrec ted,
The main factor is thought to be the presence.or luti oni ze the study of l an- ExchangeSystem(CHILDES), and extra an al y ti c alobs er-
g uage acqui si ti on.One of w hi ch w as establ i shedi n vat¡ons¡nco rporated.
absenceof obse¡vers.In Brown'sapproach,therewere
the mai n probl emsfaci ng 1984 by an ¡nternat¡onal H ow eve¡ a s hari ng of
always researcherspresent; in \Wells'sthere were no the chi l d l anguage group of l anguageacqui si - resourcesi s p os s i bl eonl y i f
researchers presenr,and the mother wasalonewith the researcheris that the collec- ti on researchers. researcherscan agree on a
child most of the time. Wells made useof radio micro- tion and transcri pti onof It i s now possi bl eto tran- set of pol ¡c¡esand s tandard
data samples is extremely scri betape-recordeddata conventi onsfor obtai ni ng,
phonesand a sampling programme in which 90-sec-
time-consumi ng.A n hour of di rectl y i nto computer f i l es, transcri bi ng,and s tori ng
ond recordingsweremade auromaticallyat20-minute recorded conversational w here the materi al can be chi l d l angua ge data i n c om-
intervalsthroughout the da¡ so thar the parentwould data can take 10 or more edi ted, anal ysed,and dupl i - puteri zed form. Thes eare
be unaware when a recording was taking place. \i/ith hours to transcribe, check, cated. Fi l esof data can thus currentl y und er di s c üs s i on.
e di t, and type. l t hasthere- be shared betw een It w i l l take so me y ears
theseparents,the frequencyof expan.sions increased fore been proposed that, researchers w ho have com- before a Il the methodol ogi -
only rnhen another adult was presenr.This suggesrs o nce schol arshave made puter accessto the central cal probl emsc an be s ol v ed,
that the main function of expansionsis ro act asa gloss th ei r transcr¡pti ons,the data database,makíng a consi d- butthe outl ook for c hi l d
shoul d be made avai l abl eto erabl e savíngof ti me and l anguage researc hi s
for the benefit of an observer,and not, as was first
th e w i der researchcommu- money. The processcould extremel ypr omi s i ng.
thought, solely to provide the child with extra gram, n ity through the use of an al so l ead to a rai si ngof
maticalinfbrmation.
 234 p AR' ,f vir cH l r_D LA N GU A GE A C QU tS t-fIoN

PRODUCT I O N, C O MP R E H E N S IO N ,
ELICITED
IMITATION
I MITA T I O N
Acquiring a language'involves rwo distinct skills: the The tec hni que of ' el i c i ted
ship doesnot alwaysobtain. production may precede i mi tat¡on' c an be us edto fi nd
* producespeechin a spontaneous way;and the comprehension,or rhe fwo processes
*ili,y may be so inti- out w h at a c hi l d k now s about
abiliry to understand the speeáhof others. The former mately connectedthat they áe,relopin paraliel.There l angua ge.The ex peri menter
is relativelyeasyto study: all we haveto do is rurrr a rape is certainly a greardeal of evide.r.. to ,ho* that chil-
reads out a sentence to be
repeated. l f the c hi l d mak es
recorderon, and analysewhar comesout. Researchinto dren producea word or consrrucrionwithout havinea any ch anges ,thes e c an i ndi -
speechcomprehensionis ñr more difficulr becausewe fuil understanding of it. pogie, saysone young chiíd, cate as pec tsofthe l anguage
needro take into account not onlywhat is spokento rhe pointing ro a car.He got hat on, saysanorher, w hi ch are s tíl l bei ng l earned
child, but the situation in which it is uttered, and rhe th.r-, or not y et ac qui red.One 2j -
later saysTakethat hú on off- asii hnt or*rrra"ñdnoun. year-old child, 'Echo', gave
childt.prior_knowledgeof the world. In one stud¡ a 2, This kind of thing happensfrequently from around the fol l ow i ng i mi tati ons :
year-old child was observedto respond correctly when age2 * and, indeed,it could be arguedthat our readi_ 1- The owl eats candy and the
his mochersa-id,at bedtime, 'Go and geryour pyjamas nessto uselinguistic forms we do iot fully understand owl runs fast.
out of the drawer in your bedroom.'ñ,rtit i, not at all stayswith us throughout lifel Echo: Owl eat candy and he
clear,wirhout a carefulinvestigation,which pans ofrhis run fas t.
It hasalsobeenrecognizedthat imitation is a distinct 2. The owl who eats candy
sentencerhe child had understood- it mighi simply be skiil in langlage acquisition- many children spenda runs fast.
that the word pfiamas, said at bedtime, "and colpled greatdealof time imitating what their pa.e.rtsh",.e just Echo: Owl eat a candy and ne
with the knowledge of where pyjamas are kept,'was said. This is mosr noticeablewhen new ,ounds or
run fast.
enough to produce the appropriáie action. vocabuiaryare being learned,but it has been shown The first imitation suggests
What is rhe relationship bemeen production and that Echo understands the
that imitation may be imporranr in rhe developmentof mean¡ngand s truc tureof the
comprehensionwhen ir comesto languagelearning? grammar too. Often, children imitate senr;ce par- coordinate sentence (p. 95).
There a¡e three possibilities.The tra-ditlonal,.om- terns that they are unable to produce .pont"..or'rrl¡ She usesthe same strategy ¡n
monsenseview is thar comprehensionalwaysprecedes the sec ond
and then stop imitating these rt.u.,rrr.. *hen they geststhat c as e,w hi c h s ug-
production: children .r..d to understand a ^*ord o, she cannot yet cope
start to usethem in their speech- suggestingthat imi- w ¡th the more di ffi c ul t s en-
grammarical consrrucion before they useit. Howeve¡ tation is a kind of 'bridge' berweencomprehension tence co ntai ni ng a s ubordi -
there is increasingevidencethat thii simple relation_ andspontaneous nate clause introduced by
producri on. w ho, though s he doesfol l ow
i ts mean i ng. (A fter D . t. S l obi n
& C .A . W el s h, 1967.)
PL OTTING T HE C O U R S E OF
L ANGUA G E DE V E L O P M EN T VOCABULARY
SIZE
popul"r metaphorin child developmentis to talk of The average vocabulary size of
I may use it to apply ro waret food, and grim facial ten samplesof children
'milestones'- the age at which child takes
a sienifi_ expressions.In these circumstances,a siigle score, between the ages of 1 and 6.
"
canr step forward in behaviour (such assirting, clawi_ basedon one developmentalparamet..,conc"e"ls mor"
(After M. E.Smith, 1926.)fo
ing, standing).The metaphor does ,,o, *o.liso well than it iliuminates:it needsio be supplemented. Interpret such totals, a great
wh.en,ircornesto language:roo much happensroo by a deal needsto be known about
wider and more detailedseriesof that take the method for defining
qulcldy. I here is simultaneous development of into. accounrrhe qualitative r-angeof-irr,r.., 'words' used bythe investiga-
linguistic features
sounds,grammar,meaning,and interacrionskills;and usedby the child. tor (p. 104).Were go, goes,
significa4t progresscan bé made on severaldifferent gong, etc. counted as one
After severalyearsof acquisition research,in which word or several?Were words
f¡onts in a matrer of days. It is thus no easymarrer ro mariy measureshavebeen investigated,it is possibieto of radicallydifferent meaning
quantiS' the amount of"languagelearned by a child isolatece¡tainbroad uendswith someconfiáence,and (e.9.bear'anim al'/' carry')
within a parric ,.larperiod (aswe needto do in deciding thesearethesubjectmatter of SS39+3. It appearsthat counted separately?Decisions
what counts as 'normal' devclopment,and in plomin[ of this kind have a major influ-
most children do follow the samegeneralpath as they ence on the totals reached al
deparruresfrom this norm (p. jgl)). acquire sounds and grammaricai structuies, in a word count.
Severalarremprshave beenmade to find important and severalcommon trends are evident in the
. 2,600
singlemeasuresof developmenr,within particularlin- learning of vocabularyand pragmatics(S2l)
guistic levels(S13) - notably the notions of sentence also.However, rhereseemsr; bé considerable
2,400 3
length and vocabulary size',both of which steadily 2,200 2
variation in rare of development,and there
increaseas children grow older. Such indices can pro_ are many individualdifferéncesin the order
2,000 :
vide_general indicationsofprogress,but they haveseri_ ofacquisition ofspecific featuresthat haveto
1,300É
ous limitations. Two .r"nt.rr..i may consisiof exactly 1,600 i
be taken into accounr(p.233). The study of
the samenumber of words, or syllablei, thesevariationsis a majór emphasisof .,rrr.,rt
1,400 k
-a
and yet be very differenr in -orpÉ"-.r,
terms of their syntactic child languageresearch. 1,2002
compiexity:I seea catand a dogand aco¿¿ is múch sim- 1,000j
o
pier than I seea catthatis nexrloa dog,thouehboth are 800 .&
the samelength. Similarl¡ two childien maiboth ha.,e 600 y.
vocabulariesof 100 words, yet differ in tÉe range of 400 F
words used and in their meanings:one child may use 200
cold to mean only 'cold weathei', whereas the other _s _s *s ¡s *s -s
-< N N ó ó V S 6 h 9 9 N

Age in years
 3 8 . INVEST IGAT IN G C H ]LD R E N 'S LA N GU A GE 235

MLU LANGUAGE
TESTS
Measuringthe meanlengthof utterance(MLU)hasbeen A Ianguagetesttakesa selec- toringthe success of inter- PuertoRicanpopulationsin
one of the mostwidelypractisedindicesof grammatical tion of linguisticfeatures- vent¡on.Butthey areof lim- the U.S.and isdesignedto
developmentin youngchildren.Thetotal numberof utter- for example,a setof conso- ítedvaluein fundamental identifySpanish-speaking
ancesin a sampleisdividedbythe total numberof words nants,grammatical construc- research in childlanguage, children who do not demon-
(in someprocedures) or morphemes(in others)(p.90). tions,or itemsof vocabulary because they dealwith only stratenativesyntacticprofi-
The best-knownmeasure,which usesmorphemes,was - and establishes whethera a fractionof the linguistic cienrycommensurate with
devisedby RogerBrown(p.231)in the 1960s. Thedia- childhasknowledgeof featuresbeingacquired.By theirage.Inthe comprehen-
gram showsthe way Brown'sthree subjectsgradually them,in eitherproductionor their nature,téstshaveto be s¡onpart ofthe test,the
increased their utterancelength,Fivestagesof develop- comprehension. Thechild's shortand highlyselective. examinerreadsa sentence to
ment are recognized,basedon a dívisionof the lenoth responses arescored,accord- Theycangiveusefulback- the child,who hastopointto
continuuminto ,ntervals of 0.5morphemes. ThereÉ a ingto somepredetermined groundinformationabouta the appropriatepicture.The
good correlat¡onbetweenMLUand age,but the relation- criterion. Aslanguage ability child'sgenerallevel,butthey ¡llustrat¡on
showsfour pic-
shipbetweenMLUand the rangeof constructions found progresses, higherscores are cannotprovidethe detailed turesusedto test knowledge
in a sampleislessclear.Predicting
the grammatical com- obtained. accountof the emergence of of a contrastinvotvingtwo
plexityof a speechsamplefrom lenqth aloneis bv no Testsarewidelyusedin linguistic skills
that acquísi- prepositions:Elperro está
meansstraightforward,especiallyai length incráases. the field of languagehandi- tion research reouires. detrásde la sílla and EIperro
(R.Brown,1973.) cap(546),because they pro- A taskfrom a language estádebajode la silla(T he
videa convenientmeansof test isillustratedbelow.The dog isbehind/underneath
identifyingchildrenwho ScreeningTestof Spanish the chair').Theremaining
requirespecial teachingor Grammaris basedon the lan- two picturesare 'decoys'.
therapy.and a way of moni- guageofthe Mexican and (FromA. S.Toronto,'t973.)
I
I J.rv
I
a
E I.
'Eve

€ú aoo /\l
-_--

é
¿.)v
¡ó I
c
I
2 z.oo

in months

P R OFIL E S
An extract from a profile of grammatical development used
in the study of language handicap and based on a synthes;s
'Y' ó 'N' I Other problems
o f f indings f r o m t h e s t u d y o f n o r m a l la n g u a g e a cq u isitio n .
The abbreviations in this procedure, known as LARSp(Lan- Vord
guage Assessment,Remediation and 5creening procedure) 5V -? AX 7 D N ,/,/ w /
refer to different grammatical constructions, e.g. S OV O4 Adj N J Vp a rt ?
4
SC/ VC NN In ¡X
SVO ='Subject + Verb + Object' pl
PrN ='Prepos i t i o n + N o u n ' ( S 1 6 ) . NegX Other P¡N ó Other ,z 2
-ed
The totals refer to the number of instancesof a category
u se d by a c hi l d i n a s a m p l e o f s p o n ta n e o u ssp e e ch . N -en
I
retxy I voA r.r
Profilespe r m i t a m o r e d e t a i le d im p r e ssio no f th e r a n g e l svo/ l aa¡aa; Aux$
N vs (x) | ruo vodo, I ;;orv' 3s
of structures used than can be obtained from a test. and
do xr NesxY orhe¡
enable t he an a l y s tt o p l o t e m e r g in g str e n g th sa n d we a k- | | | lronl + othe¡
nes s esin s ev e r a la r e a so f g r a m ma r sim u lta n e o u sly,In th e X l +S :N P X Y +Y :V P X f.am
- --T----r---
present case,the child has begun to use constructions at +s
Stage ll (typically age 18 months-2 years),but there are l Ovs I svoa AAXr I nnn,Nl Negv
Othe¡ p' D Adj N Neg X
several gaps, and he has not yet made much progress in |
YXY+ l v S ( X +) l s v o d o .
Stage llf. A s t h e c h i l d i n t h e s a mp le h a d in fa ct r e a ch e dth e
ch ronologic a la g e o f 2 y e a r s3 mo n th s, h e wo u ld se e m to rag I SVOC I x.x othe¡
be a s omewh a t s l o w d e v e l o p e ¡ a s fa r a s th e a cq u isitio n and lCoord. l Coord. I Cood. I
^l t
> \ ?- | | |
of g ram mar i s c o n c e r n e d .( D . C r ystaI e t a /., 19 g 9 .) .
to T I l Ocher l Orher I S ubord.a r
d$l' I I I s c
 PART VII . C H ILD LA N GU A GE A C QU IS ITION

arising out ofthe generativeaccount oflanguage ($65).

THEORIESOF LAI\GUAGE It was argued that children musr be born wirh an
ACQUISITION innate capaciryfor languagedevelopment: the human
brain is 'ready' for language, in the senserhar when
child¡en are exposedto speech,certain generalprinci-
IMITAT I O N ples for discovering or srrucruring languageauromari-
LangL¡geacquisitionhaslong beenthought ofas a pro- cally begin ro operar€.These principles constitute a
cessof imitation and reinforcement. Children learn ro childt'language acquisitiondevice'(LAD).
speak,in the popular view, by copying the utterances The child usesits LAD to make senseof the utrer-
heard around them, and by having their responses ancesheard around it, deriving from this primary lin-
strengthenedby the repetitions, corrections, and other guistic datd hypotheses about the grammar of the
reactions rhat adults provide. In recent years, it has language- what the sentencesare, and how they are
become clear that this principle will not explain all the constructed. This knowledge is then used to produce
facts of languagedevelopment. Children do imitate a sentencesthat, after a processoftrial and erro¡ corre-
greatdeal,e-specially in learning soundsand vocabulary; spond to those in adult speech:the child has learned a
but litde of their grammarical abiliry can be explained set of generalizations,or rules, governing the way in
in this way. Two kinds of evidenceare commonly used which sentencesare formed. This sequenceof evenrs
in support of this criticism - one basedon the kind of can be summa¡ized in the followingway:
languagechildren produce, the other on what they do
not Droouce. OUTPUT
The first piece of evidencederivesfrom the way chil- I
dren handle irregular grammatical panerns. \Wh.enthey
\-nltd s I
encounter such irregular pasr-r€nseforms (p. 90) as ,l
speecn I
-l
went and tooh, or such plural forms as mice ind sheep,
I
there is a sragewhen rhey replacetheseby forms baséd -_'J
on the regular parrerns ofthe language.They saysuch
things as wented" tahed, mices, mluses, and sheeps.Eví- Jean Piaget (1896-198O)
There have been many differences of opinion over
dently, children assumethat grammatica.lusagelsregu- how best to characrerizeLAD. Some
have areued that
lar, and try to work our for themselveswhat ihe forms LAD provides children with a knowledge
oflinguistic
'ought'_tobe - a reasoningprocessknown asanalngl (p.
universals($14), such as rhe exisrenceof wordorder
332).They could nor havelearnedrheseforms by a pro- and word classes;others, rhat it provides only general
cessof imitation. Adults do nor go around sayingsuch procedures for discovering how language
is to be
things as wentedandsheeps! learned. But all of its supporrers are agreedthar some
The other kind of evidenceis basedon the way chil- such notion is neededin order to explain
the remark-
dren seemunableto imitate adult grammaricálconsúuc- ablespeedwith which children learn to speak,
and the
tions exactl¡ even when invitJd ro do so ('elicited considerable similariry in the way
grammatical pat-
imitation, p- 234). The best-known demonstration of terns are acquired across different
children and lan-
this principle in acdon is rhe dialogue reported by the guages.Adult speech,it is felt, cannot
ofitselfprovide a
American psycholinguist, David McNeill (1933- ), m-eansof enabiing children ro work our
the regularities
wherea child proved unableto usea panern, eventhough of language for themselves,becauseit
is too iomplex
the parent presented rhe correct adult model r.ueial and disorganized (p. 52). However, it has
proved diffi-
times: cult to formulate the detailed properties of LAD in an
cHrLD:Nobody dont like me. uncontroversial manner, in che light of the changesin
MOTHER: No, say'Nobodylikes me.' generative linguistic theory that have taken place in
cHrLD:Nobody dont like me. recent years; and meanwhile, alternative accounts of
(Eight repeütionsofthis dialogue.) the acquisition processhave evolved.
MoTHER:No, now listen carefully: say'No body li hes me.'
C OGN ITION
cHrLD:Oh! Nobodydon't likesme.
The main alternative accounr argues that language
The child, at this point in its learning of gramma¡ was acquisition must be viewed within the context of a
clearly not qeady ro use rhe 'single negative' parrern childt inrellectual developmenr. Linguistic srructures
found in this dialect of English. Such exampler i,rgg"r. will emergeonly if there is an already-establishedcog-
that languageacquisition is more a marter of matura- nitive foundation - for example, before children can
tion than of imitation. usestrncruresofcomparison (é.g. This car is biggerthan
that), they need first to have developedthe conieptual
I NNATE NE S S abiliry to make relativejudgments of size.Severaliarly
The limitations of an imitation/reinforcemenrview of child language scholars maintained that such a rela-
acquisitionled in rhe 1960sto an alrernativeproposal, tionship exists,but the most influential accounr
stems
 3 8 . INVEST IGAT IN G C H ILD R E N 'S LA N GU A GF

from the model of cognitive development proposedby useof ay I ieending and similar forms have been noted MOTH ERESE - OR
the GenevanpsychologistJeanPiaget( 18 96- I 980). in severalother languages,such asJapanese- ho, Gilyak OTH E RESE?
Several controlled studies have been carried out -k I -q, Berber -[/-[tt. Occasionall¡ totally different Theterm'motherese' seems
investigating rhe iink beween the stagesof cognitive words will be used,e.g. bunny for 'rabbit', There may a naturalone,giventhe
development proposed by Piagerand the emergenceof be special use of individual sounds, such as rhe use of importantroleof mothersin
linguistic skills. The links have been most clearly earlychilddevelopment.
rounded lips in English, or specialpalatal sounds in However,it would be more
shown for the earliestperiod of languagelearning (up Lawian and Marathi. accurateto referto 'par-
to iB months), relating to the devilof*.rr, ofífrat Some of thesefeaturesalso seemto function asways entese'.asfathersare also
Piaget called 'sensori-motor' inrelligence, in which ofholding the child's a¡tention, or ofidentifying panic- ableto adapttheir speech
whentalkingto children,and
children construd a mental Dicture of a world of ular words and sounds.This may well be the reasonfor useverysimilarstrateg¡es.
objectsthat haveindependentéxistence.For example, the very common use of high, wide pitch-range in Mothereseand'fatherese'
during the later part of this period, children develop a maternal speech.Mothers also devote a grear deal of arenot identical,however.
senseof object permanence- they will begin to search Fatherstend to be more
time to obiaining feedback from their .hYldr..r, .rp.- intenseanddemandinQ in
for objects that they have seen hidden - and some cially in the first three years.Their speechconrains a theircommunication, using
scholarshave argued that the ability to name classesof very high frequencyof question forms, and many urter- mored¡rectcuestionsanda
objects(i.e.to givethem a comparably permanent'lin- anceshavea high rising inronarion (yes?, wider rangeof vocabulary.
all rightA. But even'parentese' istoo
guistic status) depends on the prior development of
specifica notion.Someof the
this cognitive ability. However, it is difficult ro show These modificarions are evidently important ways of characterist¡cs of motherese
precise correlations between specific cognitive establishingand maintaining meaningfulcommunica- canbe foundin otheradults
behavioursand linguistic featuresat this early age.The tion with rhe child, asrhey can be found in rhe earliest too - and evenin 4-year-olds,
whentheytalk 'down'to
issue is a highly controversial one, which increasesin mother-child interactions(S39).It hasevenbeensug- youngerchildren.Moreover,
complexity as chiidren become linguistically - and gestedthat thesefearuresare universal,but this claimls in somenon-Westerncul-
cognitively - more advanced. premature in the absenceof empirical studies, and tures(e.9.WesternSamoa),
there is alreadysome counrer-evidencefrotn other cul- the primarycaregivers may
not be the parentsat all.and
I N PU T tures - severalof thesefeatu¡esare lackine in Samoan the developing childmay
For many years,in the wake of the innatenesshypothe- and Quiché Mayan, for insrance.Howevá rhe highiy receivemostof itslinguistic
sis, the i*port"r,.. of the language used Ui struc¡uredcharacrerof maternalinput is not in doubt, stimulation from siblings,
(especiallymothers) to chiidren was minimized. "aUts otheradultrelatives. or
But and its possibleinfluence on rhe .ourr. of language
neighbouring families. A
studies of 'motherese',as it came to be called in the acquisitionis now takenvery seriously. more neutralterm, suchas
1970s,showedthar maternal input is by no meansas lJnfortunatel¡ it is difficult to ,Lo* correlarions 'babytalk'. isthus preferred
complex and fragmentr.y proponenti of innateness berween the featuresof mothereseand the subsequent by someresearchers - though
"r itsambiguity(speech bychil-
theory claimed it to be. Many parentsdo not talk to emergenceof these fearuresin child speech,and even drenor fo children?) limitsits
their chiidren in the same way as thev ralk to other more problemaric to move from talk about correla- usefulness.'Caretaker
adults.Rather,theyseemcapabieofadapting theirlan- tions to talk about causes.Somestudies,searchingfor speech'isalsowidelyused.
guageto give the child maximum opportuniry to inrer- such relationships, have found very few; others have Verylittle studyof the
natureof culturaldifferences
act and learn. Severalof these adaptations have been found occasionalcorrelationsberweenspecificstruc- hastakenplace.In the
nored (afterC. A. Ferguson, 1977). tures, though often with an appreciabletime gap 5amoancase,for example,
between the use of a feature by the mother and its sub- manyof the featuresof
. The utterances are considerably simplified, espe- Anglo-American motherese
sequent use by the child; yet orhers argue rhar inpur (suchasthe useo{ simplified
cially with respectro their grammar and meaning. Sen- structures arevery closely taiiored ro rhe needsofthe structure,expansions, and
tencesare shorter: one study showed that the average child (the 'fine tuning' hypothesis). The use of differ- diminutives) werefoundto
iength of maternal senrencesto 2-year-olds was less ent researchmethodologiescloudsthe picture, but it is be absent.Theturn-taking
than four words - half that found when the mothers patternwasalsodifferent,
now plain that the narure and frequency of linguisric often taking the form: child
talked to other adulrs. There is a more restricted range featuresin maternal input can no longer be neglected talksto mother-+ mother
of sentencepatterns, and a frequent use of r.rrr.rrl. in devisingtheoriesoflanguageacquisirion. talksto oldersibling-+ sib-
'frames',such as Where's-?or That'sa-. The meanings lingattendsto child.Suchdif-
ferenceshaveimportant
are predominantly 'concrere', relating to the situation C O N C LU S ION S implications for the develop-
in which mother and child are acrine. It is not possible,in the presentsrateof knowledge, to mentof anytheoryof lan-
. There are severalfeatureswhose"purposeseemsto choosebetweenthesevariousapproaches. guageacquisition in which
The number
be clarificadon. Exrra information is provided thar mothereseplaysa part.
ofdefinite, generalfacts known about languageacqui- (After E.Ochs,1982.)
would be considered unnecessarywhen talking to sition is still very small.In particula¡ much more infor-
other adults. Sentencesare expanded and paraphrased mation is needed about the way children learn
and may be repeatedseveraldmes. The speedof speak- languages other than English. Doubtless imitative
ing is much slower than that used ro orh€r aduhs. skills, a general languageJearning-mechanism,cogni-
. There is also an expressive,or affective, element in tive awareness,and strucrured input all play their part
motherese, shown by the use of special words or in guiding the courseoflanguage acquisition. Unravel-
sounds. Diminutive or reduplicarive words (e.g. dog- ling the interdependence of these factors constitures
gie, choo-choo)are common. English makes particular the main goal of future child languageresearch.
 39 . THE FIRST YEAR

For many parenrs, a child's first words, urtered ar usually consisting of a short, vowel-like sound pre- GOODTALKERS?
around I year ofage, mark the first real evidenceoflan- ceded by a consonanr-like sound made towards the Frequentand variedvocal play
guagedevelopment- the child has 'started to talk . But back of the mouth. Many have nasalqualiry. and babbling is sometimes
this is to ignore a great deal ofearly progressduring the Later in this period, cooing sounds are strung thought to be the signof a
good talker, or an indicationof
first year,without which no first word would emergeat together - often l0 or more at a time. These strings are
super¡or¡ntell¡gence,memory,
all. This progresshas to be made in rhree main areas: not pronounced in a rhythmical way; there areno clear or personality.Thereisno evi-
sound production, speech perception, and speech intonational conrours. However, some of the dencethat any suchcorrela-
tions exist. There have been
lnteractron. sequences(such as[ga] and [gu]) do begin to resemble manyquiet babieswhosesub-
the syllables of later speech. Then, at around 4 seguentlanguagedevelop-
SOUI{D PRODUCTION months, the first throaty chucklesand laughs emerge. ment has been rapid;and,
conversely,there are certa¡n
During the cooing stage,babiesseemtoi. p..foñr,- areasof mental subnormality
Between birth and 12 months, a vasr change rakes ing the first grossactiviriesrequired for the production (suchas Down'ssyndrome)in
place in a babyt sound-producing abilities, and several of speech.The tongue begins ro move vertically and which a good range of bab-
bling can be heard.No-onehas
stagesof development have been proposed. horizontall¡ and the vocal folds begin to be used in been able to discovera direct
coordination with it. There is a great-dealof lip move- link between earlyvocalization
and later ¡ntellectualor linguis-
StageI (0-8 weeks): Basic biological noises ment and tongue thrusting, which it is thought may be tic development(97).
Over the first few weeks of life, a babyt vocal sounds a form ofimitation.
directly reflect its biological state and activiries. States
of hunger, pain, or discomfort that causecrring and StageIII (20-30 wee[s): Vocal play
fussing are known as reflexiuenozsss. Breathing, eáting, The sounds ofvocal play aremuch steadierand longer
excreting, and other bodily acrions concerned wirh than those of cooing. Most segmentsare over 1 séc-
survival causea wide range of uegetatiuenoises,such as ond, and consistofconsonant + vowel-like sequences
sucking, swallowing, coughing, and burping. Infant that are frequently repeated.They are usually al a high
reflexivecries have been studied in detail. The normal pitch level, and invoive wide glidesfrom high ro low. A
'basic'cry consistsofa seriesof l-second pulsessepa- considerablerangeof consonant and vowel qualities is
rated by brief pauses.The vocal folds (SZ2) vibáte apparent, including nasaland fricarive soundsmade in
strongl¡ and the pitch of the voice falls sharply with
eachpulse.The qualiry of the sound is similar to that of
an [a] vowel. 5 000
It is not easyto attribute clearly different funcrions to ¡l OOO
cries at this age. Hunger and pain cries tend to merge 3 000
into a single distresscry, though pain cries are often 2 000
much tenser and have a different rhy'thm. Discomfort r 000

criesare usually much shorter (* sec)and occur in brief

¡.0 I¡ 2.o 2.5
sequences.Vegeative noises a¡e even shorter ({ sec) S E C OND S
and contain more consonantlike sounds.
Acousticanalysis(p. 135) is essentialin the analysisof
There is nothing language-specificabout theseearly earlyvocalizations.The upper trace (a) is a spectrogram
sounds. However, they do have some featuresin com- sooo.i I of the first part of a pain cry (suchas might be causedby
,l OOO .l an iniectionor other suddenstimulus)from a normal,
mon with later speech. An air-stream mechanism .l
I

3 000 healthy child: it showsa feady, full-bodied,falling pitch

(S22) is being used to produce noise; there is rhythmi- 2000r movement over some 4 secondsof expired breath. The
calvocalízation; the vocal folds are being used ro pro- I o00 .r infant then pausesfor more ai¡ and further expirations
follow (not shown here).
duce pitch pafterns: all of these are-fundamental o
O.5 Lo 1.5 Abnormal pain criessoundand look very different.
characteristicsof later speech. Trace(b) is a cry from a baby born with a degree of
SECON
DS
brain damage:its main feature ¡sa high-pitched,erratic
phonation.Trace(c)is part of a long, stridentcry (the
StageII (8-20 weel<s):Cooing and laughing
expirationlastsfor nearly10 seconds)from a baby with
Between6 and 8 weeks,*re first cooing soundsarepro- meningitis.(After O. Wasz-Hóckert,etaf 1968.)
duced, generally when the baby is in a settled state.
L TJ
These sounds develop alongside crying, gradually
becoming more frequent and more varied, as the child
respondsto the mother's smiles and speech.They are
50o0
1oo0
3 o00
i
1
gqe.* ':'

quieter,lower pitched, and more *'.tri."l than crying,

]*
2 0o0 .l \1 ?t + J¡..?
r |:i
tooo-
o ._.'--
o.5 l.o 1.5 2.o 2.s 3.0 3.5 4.o 1.s 5.0
DS
SEC ON
 3 9 ' TFIE FIR S T YEAR
239

variousparrsof the mouth (S2Z).There aremanyindi-

B A B B L I NG
I N DI FFERENT
vidual differencesin rhe o¡der of emersence oi these EARLYVOCALIZATION
LANGUAGE
sounds, and severalchangesin the focuJofrhe activiry Whichconsonantsounds(S27)do infantsusemostoften E N V IR O NM ENTS
duringthe period - on some daysuvular sourrd, in their earlyvocalizations?
In the fírstsixmonths,back
(velar)consonantspredominate.Then,betweeniix There is a considerablesimilar-
be the dominant soundsheard;on other daysit may -"ybe and ity in infant babbling patterns,
ninemonths,alveolarsoundsbecomedominant.Labial
labial sounds.In due course,the sounds irr,o soundsare neverthe mostfrequent.Thispatternstabilizes w hateverthei r l anguageenv i -
"o*birr.
longer sequences,to produce the first babbled at aroundninemonths.Childrenseemto havethe physical ronment. The table below
utter_ shows the occurrence of
ances. capabillty to producethe wordsof a languagelong béfore
E ngl íshor Engl i s h-l i kceons o-
thesesoundsare usedin speech.(After B-.l_.imith á O.f .
There seemsto be a strong elementof practicein the nant segmentsin the babblinq
Ollet 1981.)
activiriesof this period, bui"nyone whá h"s observed of infants reared in i 5 lan-
guage environments.The con-
it will recognize that it also provides a grear deal of
sonantshave been divided in¡o
enjoyment for parent and child alike. two groups of 12: consonants
which are heard frequently in
E ngl i shbabbl i ng(ac c ounti ngi n
StageIV (25-50 weel<s):Babbling
fact for about 95% of all conso-
Babbling is much lessvaried than-rhe sounds of vocal nants heard);and those which
pla¡ in rhe eady part of this period. A smalier set of are heard infrequently.lt can
soundsis usedwith greaterfrequencyand srabiliry to be seenthat there isa very
,6 0
m closecorrespondence between
produce rhe fbababa] and othir r.qrr.r... known as E the different languages,
reduplicatedbabbling (becauseof the r.pe"ted use of though there is no identity.
the sameconsonanrsound). About half_waythrough Only [m] and [b] turn up ín all
language environments.
the period, this develops into aariegatedb"tblirrg,1r, The similaritiesare imores-
which consonantsand vowelschangJfrom one syliable sive.However,it should úe
to the next (e.g.[adu]). The ¡hvthm of the utterance noted that the numbersof chil-
dren involved in thesestud¡es
a¡d
the syllablelength at this point a¡e much closerro are very small- often only one
that found in speech.Babbledutterancesseemto have chifd. and rarelymore than
no meaning, though some may resemblethe words of five. The comparativepicture
3-6 6-9 9-12 may oecomemore complexas
taterspeech. Age(in months) the databaseincreases.
It used to be rhought that there was no link berween (After J. J. Locke, 1983.)
babbling and.spoken language. The chitd was imag_
ined to be trying out everypoisible sound in a randoÁ
A ge i n Frequent E ngl i shconsonants
manner, and that babbling would stop before speech Environment months hdbmtg
began. Recenr studies have shown thai this view does Afri kaans 11-12
not hold. In many cases,babbling continueslong after M ayan 9
speechbegins- sometimesas lati as 1g months-.Nor L uo 12
T hai 10-11
arethe soundsof babbling a random selection:most of
Japanese 9-12
babbling consistsofa smallsetofsoundsvery similar to Hi ndi 9-10
,i-",r: in the early languageto be spolen by the Chi nese 8-l 1
:,.d Sloveni an 'I 1
chrld. I he brain seemsro be controlling the develop_
Dutch II
ment of babbling and early speechin a s-imilarway, so Spani sh 9
that a set ofwell-pracdsed sounds is availablefor useat German 10-12
the time when children become intellecrually capable Ar abi c 6-10 t
of usingsound for the communication ofmeáning. Norw egi an o-12 * x* *
Latv¡an o-l¿ ***
Engl i sh 1- 15 ***
StageV (9-18 months): Melodic urterance
Variarions in melod¡ rh;.'thm, and tone ofvoice (S29) A ge i n InfrequentEnglishconsonants
months vl Qzfj ó
become a major featu¡e of child urrerancerowards the
end ofthe first year.Parentsbegin to senseintendons Afrikaans 11-12
Mayan I
behind rheseutterances,with tñeir more well-defined LUo t¿
shape, and often attribute meanings to them, such as Thai 10-11
questioning,.calling, greeting, or wánting. Games and Japanese 9-12
Hin d i 9-10
rituals may develop thei¡ own melodic cJntours. Indi-
Chinese 8-11
vidual syllablescome to be used with a fixed melodv. 5lovenian 11
producing proto-words', where the sounds arl-,lr r, Dutch 11
but it is not possibleto be surewhat they mean.These 5panish 9
German 10-12
are the first real signs of language devélopment, and Arabic 6-t0
children growing up in differeñt l"rrg,r"g. environ- Norwegian o-12
ments begin to sound increasinglyunlfe eáchother. Latvian 0- tz
Eng l i s h 1- 1 5
 PART VII . C H ILD LA N GU A GE A C QU IS ITION

On the basis of such findings, the investigators HABITUATION

SPEECHPERCEPTION hypothesized that childrent perceptual apparatusis in E XPER IM EN TS
some way programmed' to discriminate speech A widelyusedtechniquein
Very young babies present an extraordinary range of sounds- that they are born with special'feature detec- infant speechperceptionisto
playsoundsto the baby
auditory abilities. There have been severalexperiments tors' that respondto the acousticpropertiesofspeech.
througha pairof head-
in which different soundsareplayed to babies,and their A great deal ofresearch hassince focused on this issue, phonesor a loudspeaker, and
responsesmonitored. For example,day-old babieshave in an attempt to determine whether the children are then to monitorthe baby's
beenplayed their mothert voice speakingnormall¡ the displaying a general auditory abiliry (which might be responses, suchasthe speed
of its heart-beat.In th¡s
samevoice speakingabnormally (ín a monotone), and a sharedby certain other species- experimentson both approach,a soundisplayed
stranger'svoice: only the first causedthem to attend. chinchillas and rhesusmonkeys have shown compara- severaltimesto the child,and
Other studieshave shown how babiesturn their heads ble responses),or whether it is a specific abiliry tuned the heart-rateismonitored.
towards the sourceof a sound within the first few days to phonetic distinctive features.The amazingly early Thereisan initial'orienting
response'and a periodof
of life, and prefer human voicesto non-human sounds ageat which infants begin to make auditory discrimi- heart-ratedeceleration,as
asearly as2 weeks.Abilities of this kind areso apparent nations is now accepted,but the critical issue- how the childgetsusedto the
that some researchershave concluded that auditory thesebasicperceptualcapacitiescome to be affectedby stimulus.Thiseffect isknown
as'habituation'. A second
training must begin within the womb. the infants' emerging experienceof language- is not soundisthen played.lf the
The question ofwhen babieslearn to distinguish the yet resolved. child noticesthe difference.
soundsof speechis controversial.An auditory abiliry therewill be a new orientino
to discriminatecertain pairs of consonantsor vowels Speechcomprehension response.
Thereare manymethod-
(e.g. [pa] vs [ba]) is present from around 4 weeks,and Between2 and 4 months, babiesbegin to respondro the
ologicalproblemsin this kind
this ability to discriminate becomes increasingly meaning of different tones of voice, such as angry of research, especiallywith
sophisticatedin subsequentmonths. An earlyfinding soothing, or playfirl voices.From around 6 months, dif- veryyoung babies.Moreovel
wasthat infants seemable to perceivethesedistinctions ferent utterancesbegin to be relatedto their situations, there isstillsomeway to go
beforethe findingsabout
in the sameway as adults. Adults make a sharp, cate- e.g. Bye-bya Ckp hands, or pointing in responseto the perceptionof isolated
gorícal distinction between such sounds as [pa] and questions. Some individual words may be recognized, syllables canbe relatedto the
perception of thesesyllables
[ba] in perception experiments (p. 147).\iMhen l- such as names of family members, or basic responses
in connectedsoeech.Butthe
month-old infants were presentedwith setsof sounds (e.g. l/o). Most children understand severalwords by habituationparadigmhas
that alsovaried only in the degreeofconsonant voic- the end ofthe first year.In one study ofeight children, shownhow it isoossibleto
ing, they too made categorical distinctions (P. D. six showed clear evidence of understanding up to 20 m a kea b e g i n n i n gi n a n sw e r -
Eimas et a/., l97l). By careful moniroring of the words by the end of the first yea¡ and one child under- ingthe difficultquestion:
when arel¡nguist¡c contrasts
babies'responses (seebelow), itwas shown thatpresen- stood as many as 60 (H. Benedict, 1979).In all cases, first perceived?
tationsofrwo kinds of [pa] or two kinds of [ba] caused this comprehension abiliry was at leasta month ahead
no reaction, whereas[pa] vs [ba] did. of the appearanceof the children'sfirst words.

A 1-month-old infantsuckingon a specia I nipplewhile listeningto a recordingof differentsyl-

lables.Thechild'snormalsuckingrateisfirst established, then sequences of soundsarepre-
sented.Asthe child hearsthe firstsound,the rateof suckingincreases. Duringsubsequent
repetitionsof the samesound,the suckingrateshowsa gradualdecrease. A new soundisthen
playedto the child.lf no distinctionisperceived,the suckingratewill cont¡nueto decrease; but
if a changeisperceived, it willshowa suddenincrease.
y 4<

q) v

x 5432r01234 X 5432r01 234

Time (min)
What happenswhen the difference between a pair of auditory
stimuliis(a)ignoredand (b) perceivedby a group of children.The
lineat 0 represents the point when the soundstimulusis
changed.Thedifferentpresentations areshownat 1-minute
intervals. X showsthe normalsuckingratebeforethe stimu¡iare
presented.In the first case,two kindsof fbal ortwo kindsof [pa]
producehardlyany changein su€k¡ngrate.In the secondcase,
the changefrom [pal to [ba] (orvice versa)is clearlyshown. (After
P .D . E i mas
eta/-,1971.)
 3 9 ' TH E F]R S T YEAR

SPEECHINTERACTIOI{ O N E -5ID EC
DON V E R S A TION S Mother Well,what isit, then?Are you hun-
gry,¡sthat it? lsit a longtime sincedinner-
Michael (3 months): (Loud crying.)
time?
From the momenr a baby is born, a morher holds it in Mother: (Enters room) Oh my word, what a
Michael:(Gurgles.)
front of he¡ and talks ro it - despite the fact that noise! What a noisel (Picksup baby.)
(Sobs,)
Mother: (Nuzzlesbaby.)Oh yesit is,a long
she knows it does nor yer have any language!Mothers Michael:
longtime.
seemto have an instincr ro promote communication Mother: Oh dear, dea4 dear. Didn't anybody
M i chael: (Cooing n oise.)
come to see you? Let's have a look at you.
as soon as possible,using thá childt earliestbiological (Looks inside nappy.) No, you're all right Mother:Yes,I know.Let'sgo and get some
noises (p. 238) as stimuli. Cries, burps, sneezes, t here, aren't you. lovelygrub,then...
and other vocalizationsareseizedupon and interpreted, M i chaeL (SpIutte ri n g noise.) (D.Crystal, 1986,p.51.)
asthe extract (seebox, right) shows.The morher is very
ready to ascribeintentions to the babyt ufterancesand
A CONVERSATIONAL CYCLEAT AGE1OWEEKS Conversationa I cyclesinvolve
to build them into a conversation- somerhinsshedoes fatherstoo.Thesestillsfrom a
not do wirh its non-vocal activities.such ashád move- documentary videoaretaken
ments or arm waving. The conversationalpressurecan from a proto-conversation
betweena Turkishfather
be quite intense:in one stud¡ over 100 queitions,com- Youssouf (Y)and his 1O-week-
ments, and other utteranceswere used by a mother old babygirl,Hande(H).The
while attempting to elicit a burp from a 3-month-old: commentaryisbasedon work
by ColwynTrevarthen(1993).
Wltereis it?, Come0n, comeon, clme on, Youltauen'tgot
Theseguence showsY and
any, I donl belieae)/0u, etc.(C. Snow, I 972). H gazinginto eachother's
Itwould seemthat the foundationsofconversarionare eyesandtradingexpressions
being laid in these early interactions. The mother's of sympathyin proto-con-
1 versation. Theyphrasetheir
behaviour is not random. She usesa la¡ge number of utterances, andtake turns,
quesdons,followed by pauses,asif to shÑthe baby that clearlyshowingtheir inter-
a responseis expectedand to provide an opportuniry for est¡n oneanotherandtheir
it to respond.Shecontinuaily greetsthe bab¡ evenafter feelings for the other's
changingstatesof assert¡on
very short periods of separation.Moreover, she talks to and apprehension, uttering
the child at length onlywhen the child is (in principle) in and attending.
a position to reply. \ilZhilethe baby is feeding,for exam- 1 YtakesH in hisarms,looks
ple, mothers tend to remain silent, taking up rhe conver- at hereyesand speaks to
sation only when the baby ceases to suck or needsto be her,questioning with raised
eyebrows. H,complaining,
winded. This ryclical paftern ofspeecha¡d silenceantic- meetshiseyeswith intense
ipatesthe fundamentalstructureofolder conversarions. concentration, knit brows
There aremany changesin conversarionalstyleduring and clenchedhands.
the first year.At around 5 weeks,the exchangesbecome 2 Placedin front of him on
the couch,H addresses I
more emotive, assmiling develops.The mothert utter- meetinghissmileand ges-
anceschangeasthe babyt vocalizationsgrow.At around turingw¡th her right hand.
2 months, the emergenceof cooing elicits a softer voice. 3-4 Shewatcheshishand
when hespeaks, then closes
Some time later, the baby begins to laugh, and the hereyes,grimaces, andges-
mothert voice becomesmore varied in response.As the turesagainwhile he moves
child starrsto take interesrin the environmenr and looks closer,watchesher.and
around, the mother speals more loudl¡ drawing arren- smiles.
5-6 Y guestions againwith
tion to different obiects.Her intonation becomesmore raisedeyebrows, grasping
exaggerated,and sheoften repeatsher sentences.Simple H'shandasshestaresat him,
face-to-facegamesare played (such as peekaboo),pio- andthey laughtogetheras
he takesherother hand.
moting a greatdealofcommunication.
7-9 WhileH ismakinga seri-
After 6 monrhs, the baby's more purposeful move- ousutterancewith mouth
ments and explorationsproduce more extended com- and hands,Y reachesfor-
mentariesby the mother. Sheno longerrespondsto every ward to strokeher on the
chin.
vocaiizationthat is produced, but focusesspecia.latten-
tion on those that are more srructured in cÉaracter- in
particular,the first babbledunerances.Between8 and l0
months, babiesattempr to artracrthe attention of others
by pointing. They begin to 'follow adulr conversations,
looking first at one person,then at dre other. By the time
their first words appeat babieshavelearneda greardeal,
both from observationand from practice,abJur what a
conversarionis and how to participatewithin it.
 40 . PHONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

By the time children are ayear old, they have learned a to usethem. Thesetrendsinclude: T H E 'FIS'
great deal about the way adults use sounds ro express P H E N OM EN ON
differencesin meaning (SZB), but their own abiliry to . Fricative€onsonanrs(p. 159) tend to be replaced
Severalstudieshavereported
produce thesesoundslagssomeway behind. Some l- by stops,e.g.seeíspronounced[tir]. intriguingconversations
year-olds s¿¡ ¡erognize severaldozen words, involving . Velar consonanrs (p. I57) tend to be replaced by betweena youngchildand an
a wide range of vowel and consonanrs,bur their own alveolarconsonanrs,e.g.goneispronounced[don]. adul! showingthatthere may
. Consonant clusters are avoided, e.g. sby is pro- be a big differencebetween
abiliry to pronounce rhesewords may be restricted to what childrenhearandwhar
just two or three consonanrs and a single vowel. One nounced [kar]. they cansay.Thephe-
child at l3 monrhs could useonly [b], [d], and [a], but . Consonanrsar the endsofwords areoften omitred, nomenonwasf¡rst reported
e.g. hatis pronounced [ha]. in the followingway:
he used thesesoundsro expressa variety ofwords - for
example, [ba] was used for babl, bath, cup, and peter. . LJnsüessedsyllablesareofiendropped, e.g. banana Oneof us,for instance, spoke
to a childwho calledhis
By 15 monrhs, he had added [m], [p], and [u] to his becomes[nana].
inflatedplasticfish a fis.In
repertoire, and was thus able to distinguish a much . As words become longe¡ sounds in one part of a
imitationof the child'soro-
larger number of words. He alsobeganio usesome of word can alter the pronunciation of sounds in other nunciation,the observersaid:
these consonantsar rhe ends of words aswell as at the parts. This tendenry for sounds to 'harmonize' (p. 'Thisisyour frs?''No,'saidthe
child,'my fii.' Hecontinued
beginning; for example, [pu] was used for a nasry 163) is found with both consonantsand vowels. Con- to rejectthe adult'simitation
smell, and [,tp] was usedfor up.By age2, he was using sonant harmony is found in such pronunciations of until he wastold, 'Thatis
over a dozen consonants and vowels, and was able to dogasfgag]or [dod], with identical(or near-identical) yourfish.''Yes,'he said,'my
consonanrs.Vowel harmony would,be heard if win- f¡s.'(J-Berko& R.Brown,
pronounce over 200 words in an intelligible (though
1 9 6 0p, .5 3 1 .)
often immature) manner. dow were pronounced for example as [wouwou] or
The effect hasbeenreferred
It is not possible,at pres€nt, to make precisepredic- lwadal. to asthe 'fii ohenomenon'
tions asto the order in which child¡en come ro us€new . There is a preferencefor
[w] and [] sounds to be eversince.Suchreportsindi-
sounds. Some children have 'favourite' sounds, which usedinsteadof fil and [r], e.g. legasfiegl. catethat childrenknowfar
they introduce into manywords, whether the sound is moreaboutadult ohonol-
ogythantheir own pronun-
in the adult version or nor; others 'avoid' sounds- for ciationsuggests.
example, persistently dropping certain consonants ar
the ends of words. There may also be a great deal of
variation in the way target sounds are produced - one TH EE ME R GE N COF
E C ON S ON A N TS
child pronounced blanhetas [bwati], [bati], [baki], Most Englishconsonants usingphotographs of famil- being producedcorrectlyby
beginto be acquired iar objects.The periods the majorityof the children
and [batit], within a few hours of each other. Another
between2 and 4 yearsof shownareaverages, and at age 2; and otherswere
produced ten different forms of pen within a single age.Thisdiagramshowsthe the upperage-limitisbased still not being saidcorrectly
half-hour! orderof emergence as on a correctpronunciation at age4.
Nonetheless, as a result of severalstudies involving found in a studywhich by 90%ofthe children.The (After E.M. Pratheref a/.,
elicitedpronunc¡ationsof diagramalsoshowsthat 197s.)
large numbers of children, cerrain general trends can wordsfrom 20 children, somesoundswerealready

'fl''ll'll,
be shown. For example,consonant sounds are more
likely to be first used correctly ar rhe beginnings of Over4
,|]'
words; final consonantsemergelater (though there are
exceptions, such as the early use ofñnal [f] and [s] in 4:0 le
English). A I97I survey of 100 English children
s
II
lt ilil
3;8
showedthat, during the secondyear,[pJ, [b], [k], [n],
[f], [d], [g], [m], and [h] were commonly usedword,

ilu
'lJ' il
initially; but only the first five of these sounds were o

developing word-finally (D. Olmsted, l97l). This 3;0

f
survey also showed that at least eight vowels or diph- 5
thongs were usually in use by the end of the secónd
year:[r], [ir], [a], [u], [o], [cr], [or], and[ar]. Byase4,
op 2;8

2;4 l,Ll- ,ll

I.|]'|]'H
all the vowels and diphthongs were in use, rrrd oñy
few consonantswere still posing problems - [e], [ó],"
[rt], and[s], certain
uses
of tnl, ttl, andfzl. 2
il
"nd to seerrends[l],
It is also possible in the
way children Below2
changethe soundsof the language,when they arempt
 4 O . PHONOLOGIC A L D E V E LOP ME N T 243

R E D UPTIC A T I O N
o;1o
Du ri n g t he s ec o n dY e a r ,a n Tigger ndr
effect known as reduPlica' scissors drdr
ti o n ( p. 177) is a n i m P o r t a n t
fe ature of c hil d r e n ' s
take
Ang¡e
keke
nano 0;11 rl
J
phonologies :t h e d i f f e r e n t B:
syl l a blesof a w o r d a r e p r o - Snoopy supr,nupr
nounc ed ¡n t he s a m e w a y . I n necklace nekrs
o ne c hild, war e r w a s p r o - hungry hn¡kr 1;00
nounced [wowo], boftle as chíp üp
[bubnJ, and window as
[mum u] . Ev en m o n o s y l l a b i c
words can be reduplicated, as
water
chicken
w3t
tJrk
drp
1 .1 ,TJ
when bal/ becomes lbobo].
Ch ildren do n o t a l l r e d u p l i -
sock
Franc¡e
fop
fe-¡ l"'l
T.,T
cate to the same extent. With hospital pit 1 .'.)
so me c hildren , m o s t w o r d s hair he¡r
are affecte.d, and the process truck t^k
can be observed for several kitten k¡kr

T'T
months. In other cases,there powder pav
may be very few words pencíl nFfj

involved, and the effect may burger hq.q¡

l ast o nly a { ew d a y s .T h e d i f - outside ausard

T."T
ferenc e c an be s e e n i n t h e boat bot r.Á.
fol l owing word - l i s t s ,t a k e n Eleanor eno
from t wo c hild r e n ,A a n d 8 . A
is a reduplicator: the Iist con- The purpose of reduplica-
ta¡nst en c om p l e t e r e d u p l i c a - tio n h a sb e e n m u ch d iscu sse d . Eo ,E 2)
ti o ns and f iv e i t e m s w h e r e It may be partly motivated
there is only a s m a l l c h a n g e simply bythe need to play
Phone trees 5o manythings tically,and the set of phones a phonewas being usedin dif-
b etween t he sy l l a b l e s B . uses with sounds or to practise happenat once in a develop- usedby H at any one point ¡s ferentwords(e.g,mama, milk),
ju st o ne redup l i c a t e d w o r d them. But it is more likelythat ing phonologicalsystemthat shown horizontally. they are linked by a dotted
(kitten). (After R. G. Schwartz the processhelps children as it is alwaysdifficult to follow The proceduregrouped line.We canthus seehow H's
et al ., 19aO ,p. 7 9 . ) they try to cope with the pro- what isgoing on. 'Phonetrees' together all H'sversionsof a phonologicalinventory
nunciation of more compli- are an attempt to visualizethe givenword, aswell asall H's increases overtime, aswell as
cated words. lt has been emergingrelationships wordsthat beganwith the the variat¡onaffectingindivid-
Christmas d'td''t argued that a word like tlger. between different types of samephones.Eachclassof ual words.(FromC.A. Fergu-
neck lac e neke with its changesof consonant phoneticsegment,or phone phonesissummar'rjgdwithin a son & C.B.Farwell,1975.)
nungry h¡:n and vowel, would be difficult (527)over a period oftime. box: for example, fgl,r, means D i agram sof thi s k i nd hav e
chip ¡I for a 1|-year-oldto learn at The treesillustrated(above) that H used4tokens beginning provedto be very useful in
water wswc o n e g o : r e d u p lica t¡ o nwo u ld show the initial consonantsys- with [p] in a givensession; the studyof phonol ogi c al
chicken krka g ive th e ch ild a ch a n ceto tem of a child,H, between 10 lp-lE*-1,r, meansthat there , they c l earl y
acqui si ti onas
ba nana mlmr, mtml master the pronunciation in months(0;10)and 17 months rIeñ2taies of variation show the diff iculty of making
(1;5),basedon a seriesof between[pl and [b]. lfsucces- si mpl egene ral i z ati onsabout
thank you deter stages,by first producing the
recordedsamples.Develop- sivesamplescontainedthe how i ndi vi d ualphonemesare
s/5¡er SISAI word's syllablestructure and
ment of different classes of sameword, the boxesare l earned.
belly button bebe stress,along with the most
phonesover time is shownver- joined by a solidverticalline;if
mouth MGIllAV n o tice a b lep h o n e ticfe a tu r e s.
clock kck A more precisepronunciation
candy kel would come later, afterthis
money mlml phonetic outline had been
house drdr learned.

_ EARLYANDLATE
INTONATION
Most chíldren have begun to
make some use of their lan-
guage'sintonation patterns
(529)before the end of the
f irst year. Different tones of
voice are usedto expresssuch
meaningsasq u e s t i o n i n g ,
demanding ,c a l l i n g .g r e e t i n g ,
warning, recogn¡tion,and
surprise.During the second
yeaL astwo-word sentences
develop (p.244), a wider
range of attitudes is
expressed,and prosody
beginsto signal differencesin
emphas¡s.At this point, it
becomespossibleto dist¡n-
guish suchgeneral sentences
as Daddy gonefrom the con-
trastive Daddy gone (i.e. not
someoneelse).
As the ch¡ld'sgrammatical
and socialabilitiesdevelop,so
new usesof intonation
emerge. For example,the con-
trast between rising and
falfing tones differentiatesthe
two functions of a tag ques-
tion in English('asking',as in
He'soutside, isn't he?, and
'telling', as in He'soutside,
isn'thel), and this is learned
during the third yeaq along
with the grammar.
What is surprisingisthat
the learning of intonation
g oeson for so l ong. C hi l dren
seemto masterthe formal
patterns of ¡ntonation quite
early on, but their awareness
of the range of meaningsthat
these patterns conveyis stifl
developing asthey approach
their teens.Thiswas f irst
shown in a study of the way
Br i ti shradi o and TV announc.
ers read out football results
(e.9. Everton 3, Liverpool 3).
By listeningto the intonat¡on
of the first part of the result,¡t
is possiblefor adults to predict
whether the scoreis going to
be a draw, a home win, or an
away win (p. 56).When this
task was given to children
aged 7 to 11, it was found
that the youngest children
were hardly able to do it, and
even the oldest children did
not reachthe level of compe-
tence shown by the adults. ln
fact, only one child out of 28
got allthe resultsright (A.
Cruttenden, 1974).
The i mpl i cati onsof thi s
exper¡ment go well beyond
the world of football, for the
intonat¡on patterns used are
to be found in everyday
speechalso.lt seemsthat
aspectsofthe ¡ntonation sys-
tem are not only the first
phonological fe¿tures to be
l earned,but al s os ome of the
last. Eventeenagers have
been shown to have difficultv
understanding the differ-
ence,signalled by intonation
and pause,between such sen-
tences as she dressed, and fed
the baby (i.e.the person
dressedherself,and then fed
the baby) and she dressed
and fed the baby (i.e. fhe
baby is both dressedand fed).
There can be few clearer
examplesof the differences
that can exist between pro-
duction and comprehension
ski l l s(p. 234 ).
 4T . GRAMMATICAL DEVELOPMENT

SIN GLE - \ T O RD U T T ER AN C E S
The earlieststageof grammarical development hardly ON W U GS A
, N D OTH E RTH IN GS
Languages often makeuse
seemslike grammar at all, since only single words are
of a systemof word end-
. involved - ufferancessuch as Gone,More, Dada, and ingsto expressgrammatica
Bye-bye.Somedmes longer-sounding urterances are meanings(S916,50).
heard (such as Allgone or All-fall-down),but these are Englishhasarounda dozen
deceptive: they have been learned as whole phrases,
suchendings(-íng,-s,-ed,
and children userhem asif theyweresingleunits.
etc.).When do children
learnaboutthesemorpho-
Most of the words used at this stage (about 600lo) logicalaspectsof grammar?
Oneofthe best-known
seem to have a naming function and will develop into
earlystudiesin childlan-
nouns. About 200loexpressacrions.Many of thesewill guageinvestigated this
develop into verbs, though not all. V7hen a child says question(J.Berko,1958).
In!, holding a brick and gesturing violently ar a con- Theexperimenter elicited
from the childrena seriesof
tainer, we have to interDret this as an action utterance. formswhichrequireddiffer-
even though the *ord class(p. 9l) is a preposition. ent grammat¡cal endingg
Other word classesare also found at this stage(such as suchaspluralsand past
adjectivesand adverbs),along wirh severalwords that tenses.Theinstructions were
all ofthetype illustratedin
it is difficult to assignto any word class (such as ,Bya- the picture(right),which
4d. wasthe first item in the
study.Theexperimenter
The 'one-word' stage is usually mosr nodceable
would showthe childthe
between 12 and 18 months. But to talk about it solely pictureand readout the
in terms of 'words' is misleading. In many respecrs, text, leavingthe childto sup-
theseearly utterancesfunction asif theywere senrences
(and they have been given capital letters above,ro rep- t00
plythe missingword in the
sentenceThere aretwo-.' lf
the childrensaidwugs,it
wasinferredthat they had
learnedthe pluralending.lf
they saidwug, they had not,
ti is importanttó rru non-
sensewordsin experiments
ofthis kind,to guaÍanteea
genuineresponse. lf real
wordshad beenused(e.9.
showinga pictureof a cow,
and askingfor cows),a cor-
rectanswerby a childwould
proveverylittle.Thechild
might havelearnedthe
form cowsby heart at some
point,and might not really
know that ¡t wascomposed
of cow + -s.Invented words
get roundthis problem.
Therehavenow been
severalstudiesof children's
learningof Englishmor-
phology.Theyshowthat
someword endings(usually
Thir is e rug
.4.
ft tt t' \ I '\
ry'
.L'LY
Now thcrc is anotlrr onc.
Thcrc ¡rc rwo of thcm.
Thcrc a¡c two
-rngand plural)first appear
at around 18months,but
take severalmonthsto be
usedcorrectly.Otherend-
ingsappearat intervals
overthe subsequenttwo
years,and showa similarly
gradualpattern of develop-
ment.Manyirregular
inf lectionalpatterns(e.9.
comparativeformssuchas
worse)may not be correctly
useduntil the age of 8 or 9.

resentthis interpretation). For example,one child used

90
the word dada in three differenr ways: as he heard
someone approach outside, he said Dada?,with a ris- gR o
J "-
ing intonation; as he saw rhar it was indeed daddy he E
saíd Dada, with a triumphanr, falling intonation; and p, 70
o
then he said Da-da!, with an insisrenr, level, intona-
tion, with his arms outstretched. At a later stage in Soo
€
development, these three functions would be called b50
'question','statemenr',and 'command'. At this stage, E

theseutterancesdo not have a distinctive Erammatical f.40

form, but the use of prosody and gestur.ionveys the
force ofthese senrencerypesnonerheless.In such cases,
many scholarsare happy to talk about 'one-word sen-
tences',or bolopbrases.

T\7O-I7-ORDSENTENCES
Most people think of 'real' grammar as beginning
when children string rwo or more words rogether,
which takesplacearound 1Bmonths. This rendsnot to Onechild'sdevelopment -lngendingtakes16 eraltrend isrising.The
happen abruptly. There is usuallya ransitional period, of the -rngand plural monthsto get from a 50% curvesstart to flatten out at
in which words are broughr rogerher,but rhe sequence inflectionsbetweenage 27 level(at sample1)to the aroundthe 90ololevel,
and48 months.Thedia- 100%level(in sample16). whích hasled severalinves-
is not uttered as a single, rhythmical unit, asin Daddy. gramshowsthe gradual Thereareseveraldipsin the t¡gatorsto concludethat
Gone.Lengthy sequencesof such words can often be natureof morphological child'sperformance,proba- this isthe pointwhen
heard: one child said Daddv. Garden. See. Daddv. acquisition.Theplural bly due to fluctuationsin 'acguisition'of a feature
Daddy. Garden in quick suclession. But soon r*ó- endingtakesonlya short the numberof instances can be confidently
t¡me to reachthe 90% level that turnedup in the vari- asserted.
word sentencesemerge wirh great confidence - and of correctuse,whereasthe oussamples.but the gen- (After R.Brown, 1973.)
lncreaslngfrequency.
 42 . SEMANTIC DEVELOPMENT

The learning ofvocabulary ($ l7) is the most noticeable THE FIRST50 WORDS
HOW MUCH DO CHILDRENSAY IN A DAY?
feature of the early months of language acquisition. Thesearethe f irst 50 words
Usingradio microphonesand tape recorders,it isnow pos- usedby two Americanchil-
From the point when a child's 'first word' is identified, sibleto makelarge-scalesurveysof children'slexicalusage. drenbetween11 and 16
there is a steadylexical growth in both comprehension Largeportionsof a child'sday can be recorded- in some months.Thereareveryfew
and production. An indication of the scopeand speed cases,coveringeverythingthe childsaysbetweenwaking items¡ncommon,and major
ofprogresscan be obtained from a study ofAmerican 1- uo and bedtime. differencesin order (e.9.
Thetable below givesthe age of severalGermanchil- mommyisSarah's second
year-olds:the averagetime it took eight children to get dren recordedin one.study,alongwith the lengthof the word, but Daniel'sforty-
from 10 to 50 words in production was 4.8 months - recording,andthe numberof wordtokens(515)used¡n third).
about 10 new words a month. In comprehension,the the recording.Asthe recordingtimesare not the same,
the right-handcolumngivesa standardized total,based
children understood an averageof22 new words each Daniel Sarah
on an assumed12-hourday. 1. l i ght 1. baby
month (H. Benedict, 7979). By 18 months, it is 2. uh-oh 2. mommy
thought that most children can speakabout 50 words Age 3. w hat' s that 3. doggi e
(years; Time 12-hr 4. wow 4. j ui c e
and understand about five times asmany.
months) (mins.) Tokens total 5. banana 5. bye-bye
5. kitty 6. daddy
1.q 202 3,881 13.800
THECONTENT
OF EARLYVOCABULARY 7. baby /. milK
1;8 241 3,907 11,700 8. moo 8. cracker
Youngchildrentalk aboutwhat isgoingon aroundthem- ¿t5 5,978 20,200 9. quac k 9. done
the 'hereand now'- and rapidlybuilda vocabulary in 3;6 189 9,891 37,700 10. c ook i e 10. bal l
several semanticf ields(p. 104). 5;4 152 6,464 30,600 11. ni c e 11. s hoe
. Peoplemainlyrelativesand housevisitors* daddy, 8;7 193 6,630 24,700 12. roc k (noun) 12. teddy
baba,grandma.man,postman. 9;2 ?11 10,524 24,400 13. c l oc k 13. book
o.Á 869 25,401 21,000 14. sock 14. k¡tty
. Actions the way things move(give,jump, kiss,gone),
c.7 804 28,142 2s,200 15. woof-woof 15. hi
and routine actívitiesin the child'sday(bye-bye,hello). ' 16. A l ex
. Food occasions aswell asproducts-din-din,milk,juíce, 16. daddy
Theseresultsfar exceededthe expectationsof the 17. bubbl e 17. noC no)
drink, apple.
. Body pari'susuallyfacialwordsf irst (moufh,nose),then researchers. No-onehad imaginedthat childrenasyoung 18. h¡ 18. door
as2 couldproducein excess of 20,000words in a day,or 19. s hoe 19. dol l y
other areas(toes,handie(s))and bodyfunctions(wee- 20. up 20. what's
wee)" that a 3!-year-oldcould producenearlytwice that num.
ber! that?
. Clothing of all kinds- nappyldiaper, shoes,coat. 21. by e-by e 21. c hees e
, Animals whether real,in pictures,or on'ÍY - doggie, The numberof different words (word types,515)used
22. bottle 22. ohw ow
cat, horse,lion. duringthe daywasalsomuchlargerthan had been
23.. no 23. oh
. Vehiclesobjectsand their noises- car,choo-choo,brrm. expected.Theserangedfrom a remarkable'1,860(for the 24. rock (verb) 24. button
. Toysand games manypossibilities-ba/,bricks,book, 1;S-year-old) to over 5,000for an 11-year-old, with an
25. eye 25. eye
dolly, peep-bo. averageof 3,000for the whole group.(After K. R.Wagner, 26. nose 26. appl e
. Householdoblectsallto do with daily routine- cup, 1985,p.477.) ¿/. ftre 27. nose
spoon, brush, clock,light. No corresponding surveyhasyet takenplacefor English. 28. hot 28. bird
. Locationsseveralgeneralw'ords-there,look, in, up. But asthe childrencamefrom a varietyof socialback- 29. yogurt 29. al l done
. Socialwords responsenoises- m, yes,no, ta. grounds.andengagedin manykindsof activityduring 30. pee-pee 30. orange
. Desc ri b i ng words early adject¡ves- hof, p retty, bi g. their day,it islikelythat the f igureswill be fairlytypical- 31. j ui c e 31. bottl e
. Situat¡onalwords several'pointing'words (deictics, in whichcase,trad¡t¡onalimpressions of children's vocabu- 3L Datl 32. coat
p. 106)- fhat, mine,them. larygrowth (p. 23a)will haveto be radicallyrevised,in an 33. whack 33. hot
upwarddirection. 34. frog 34. bib
J 5. n e l t o 35. hat
36. y uk 35. more
37. appl e 37. ear
38. B i g B i rd 38. night-
ni ght
T HE MEANING OF EARLYW O RDS
39. w al k 39. paper
Childrendo not learna word with itsmeaning'ready made'. 2. Underextension In this case,the word is usedwith a nar- 40. E rni e 40- toast
Theyhaveto work out forthemselveswhat it mustmean, rowermeaningthan it hasin the adultlanguage.Dog might 41. hors e 41. O' Tool e
and in so doing they makeerrors.Threetypesof error occur be appliedonlyto the familydog,or shoesonlyto a child's 42. more 42. bath
often duringthe secondandthird year. own shoes. 43. mommy 43. down
44. bunny 44. duck
3. MismatchHere,there is no apparentbasisfor the wrong 45. my 45. leaf
1. OverextensionA word is 'extended'to applyto othet useof a word by the child,aswhen in one casea telephone 46. nut 46. cookie
objectsthat sharea certainfeature,suchasa commonprop- wasreferredto asa tracfor.Thereis usuallyno way of trac- 47. orange 47. lake
218.block 48. car
ertyof shape,colout or size.Dog mightbe appliedto other ing backthe associationof ideasthat hascausedsuch
misidentifications. 49. ni ght-ni ght 49. rock
animals,or moon to other roundobjects. (noun)
5U. milK 50. box

(After C. Stoel-Gammon& J. A.
Cooper, 1984,p.264.)
 41' GRAM M A TIC A L D E V E LOP ME N T 245

Several studies have been made of the meanings attempt to handle longer sequences. For example,this SAYING NO
expressedby these two-word senrences.They include child of 3 years 9 months gets into trouble wirh his Severalstudieshavebeen
such sequencesasthe following: sequenceof tenses,ashe tries to expressa complicated madeof the expression
of
thought: negat¡onby youngchildren.
an Actor performs an Actio n Daddy kich.
'1.Thef irstnegativewords
an Action affectsan Object Shut door. If FatherChristmascomedown the chimne¡ andhewill
emergein the secondyear-
an Object is given a Location Thereteddy. havepresentswhenhe camedown, canI stayup to seehim? usuallyno or notasa one-
an Object or Personis Described Sbecold. word sentence.
The sorting out of grammatical errors is a partícular
These sentencescould also be describedin more tradi- - 2. Thenegativewordscom-
featureof 4-year-old speech.Many of the irrégularities
tional grammarical terms. Daddy hicb,for example,has binewith otherwordsto
of syntax and morphology arebeing mastereáaround maketwo-wordsentences:
the clause strucrure (p. 95) Subject + Verb; She cold this age, though it can take severalyears before such No sil Goneno, Not there.
could be analysed inro Pronoun + Adjective word er¡ors asthe following are eliminated: Several differentmeanings
classes.Howeve¡ not all sentencesuttered by children can be expressed at this stage
at this stage are capable of a clear grammatical or You bettern't do that. - in particular,
non-existence,
That's more better. e.g.No car(whilelookingfor
semanticanalysis.One child looked ar a photograph of a toy); reject¡on,e.g.No drínk
her father and saidDaddy Mumm)/; Are there much toys in the cupboard? (whilepushinga drinkaway);
a in
a garageand said Car want. \7e may^notherpui It just got brokened. and deniaf,e.g. Notm¡ne
hazard plausible (pointingto someoneelse's
-ar
meanings to such sequences,but definite interpreta- Are we going on the bushome?
coat).(1.M. Bloom,1970.)
tionsareoften out of rhe question. The study of errors is important, becausethey show
3. Duringthe third year,neg-
children breaking fresh grammatical ground. They ativewordscometo be used
SENTEN CE S T RUCT UR E provide the main evidence of how children go about within constructions,e.g. You
At around 2 yearsof age,many children produce sen- acdvely learning new consrrucrions. no do that, Mummy not got
tencesrhar are three or four words in iength (p. 235), It At the sametime, such
More advancedgrammatical constructions continue verbsascan'tandwon't
and combine these words in severaldifferent ways ro to be acquired throughout the early school years. appear.
produce a variery of grammatical constructions. Typi- Around the ageof 7, more sophisticatedforms of sen-
cal sentencesat this stageinclude Man bich ball" Him 4. The negativewordsand
tence connection begin ro emerge,using such words as endingscometo be used
gzt ctr, lVhere daddy going?, and Put that on tl¡ere. really though, anywqt, and (ar later ages)for instance, moreaccurately:not replaces
Questions and commands are being used as well as actlyally, and of course.Children begin to distinguish no, and n't is usedwith more
statements,and difiFerentclausepatterns are now evi- verbs,e.g. You'venot got
different underlying meanings for sentencesthat look one, Sheisn'tgoing. 'Double'
dent. By the end of the third year, clausesrrucruresof the same (e.g.AskJohn what time it ísvs TellJohntahat negatives for emphasis (51)
four or five elementscan be heard, asin Yougiue me my time it i.s).And they consolidaretheir awarenessof the area normaldevelopment,
c4r nou. way sent€nces may have the same meaning even e-9.Nobodydon't liketo go
The 'telegraphic'character of early senrenceshas in.
though they look very different - for example,the reia-
often been noted in many children - an impression tionship between activeand passivesentences(The girl 5. A few advancednegative
derivedfrom the omissionofgrammaticalworás (such constructions are not
chasedthe boy<+ Tbe boy was chasedb1tthe girl, whlch acquireduntilthe early
as the and i) and word endings (such as -ing). By the is not thoroughly sorted out until the ninrh year.A schoolyears,e.g.the useof
end ofthe rhird year, this characterhas largely disap- popular impression ofgrammatical learning is that it is somevsany (cf. I've not got
peared,and children'ssenrencesmore closelyresemble any ratherthan *l've got
compiete by age5; but recent srudieshave shown that
their adult counterparts. any),or the useof hardly and
the acquisition ofseveral rypesofconstruction is still scarcely.
Towards the age of 3, there is a major grammarical taking placeas children approach 10 or I 1
advance,wirh the appearanceofsentencescontaining
more than one clause.A largeproportion of thesesen- AS K IN GQU E S TION S
tencesare coordinateclauses(p.95),linked mainly by One ofthe first topicsto be third year approaches, e.g. quest¡on- the word where and
and- a patrern which, once learned,producesurrer- studi edby ch¡l dl anguage Where Daddygo¡ng?, What the inversionls Daddy. Chil..
researchers was how children you doing in there? dren often rely on the first
ancesthat go on and on: learnto askquestions.Three 3. A maj oradvancecomesw ¡th alone,and for a while produce
main stageshavebeenpro- the learningof the verb fo be, suchsentences as Where
Daddyhaveb¡eakedthe spadeall up and- and- and it bro- posedfor English,and similar and suchauxíl i ary verbsas Daddy is going?. (After R.
ken- and- hedid hurt hishandon it and- and- and- itt developmentshavebeen noted haveand do. C hi l drendi scover Browneta/., 1968.)
goneall soreand... in severalother languages: the apparentl ys¡mpl erul ethat
1. The earlieststagemakesuse turns statementsinto ques- Thecomplexityof questionfor-
of intonat¡on(529),e.g.Daddy ti onsby changi ngthe orderof mat¡oncan be seenfrom the
Sentencesinvolving subordination (p. 95) are also
tlereT, spokenw¡th a high ris- the Subjectand Verb (e.9.Ihat following selectionof errors,
increasinglyfound at this age,using such words as'co¡ ing tone, in effect asks'ls is a car -) Is that a car?),and all made by 2-year-olds:
so,if, afier, what, and u.,hen: Daddythere?' then learnthat it is not so s¡m- Whoseísthat is?
2. During the secondyear,chil- ple after all (e.9.it cannot be What are you did?
dren startto usequestion * Went he to town?, but D¡d he
I let go'cosit hurtedme. What d¡d you bought?
words. t4láafand where are go to town?).Sentences that ls ¡t'smy car?
Teli mewhat it'scalled. usually the first to be acquired, usequestionwords posepar- Don't he wanted it?
with why, how, and who com- ticular problemsiWhereís Despitethis complexity,most
A great deal of grammatical knowledge is required ing later.Thesequest¡ons Daddy going? has ¡n fact two of thesedifficultiesare over-
before these consrructions are used correcdy, it is becomemore complexasthe forms ¡ndicat¡ngits statusasa comebeforethe age of 3.
"trd
common to find errors and non-fluency as children
 4 2 . SEM A N TIC D E V E LOP ME N T

CU PSAND G LA S S E S After the ageof 18 months, very little preciseinfor-

mation is available.By age2,spokenvocabularyprob-
Childrenc a nt a k e s e v e r a l Both g/assand mug came By age 9, somequite sub-
ye arst o lea r nt h e m e a n i n g to be usedregularly by the tle distinctionswere being ably exceeds 200 words. But after this, estimates
of a word, especiallywhen 6-year-olds,who alsoadded made,with the namesand become extremely vague. A dramatic increasein the
the word is usedalong w¡th such labelsas drshand yase. def initionsshowingthat the sizeand diversity of the lexicon takesplace during the
othersto reler to objectsor A stillwid e r r a n g eo f la b e ls childrenwere beginningto
ideasthat are not easyto was usedby the older chil- . be awarethat they were third yea¡ so much so that it hasnot yet proved possi-
distinguish.Eveneveryday dren (e.9.eggholder, can, dealingwith an areawhere ble to make accurate calculations (especially about
objectsmay prove difficult measure).During this boundariesare vague.Thisis
to dif lerenti a t ea n d l a b e li n period, also,there was an
vocabularycomprehension),orwork out any norms of
most clearlyshown from the
a consistentway - suchas increasinguse made of definitionsthey gave,which spoken lexical frequency.\7hat happens at older ages
the d¡stinct¡onbetween words reflectingthe percep- containedqualifyingwords, is iargely guesswork, and vocabulary totals cited for
'cups 'and 'g l a s s e s ' . tual propertiesof the suth as usually or could havel
The uncertainboundary objects- especiallytheir fo r exampl e'acup hol ds
these children should therefore be viewed wirh srear
betweenthesecategoriesis size,shape,and material thingsto drink, and some- caution.
well illustratedfrom the 25 (e.9.big, round, paper). timeshasa handl e...', 'a gl ass
drinkingvessels drawn in the However,between 6 and 9, is like a cup only it could be
diagrambelow.Foradults, th e ch ild r e n ' sp r e fe r e n ce s taller, doesn'thavea handle,
Other issues
someof theseare clearly sh o we da cle a rch a n g e th : e and could be plasticor glass'. The study of semantic development takes in far more
cups,someare clearlyglasses, older they became,the It is age '12before compe- than vocabulary (p. 107). Grammatical construcrions
and somerequirea more more they preferredto use tence becomescloseto that
complexkind of description. attributes ref lectingwhat o{ an adult - nine yearsor alsoneedto be studiedfrom a semanticpoint ofview -
How long doesittake chil- they thought were the func- more after the distinctionis for example, the way in which children master the
dren to becomeawareof tional propertiesof the first introduced.(FromE.S. complex conditional meaning of z;fconstructions,or
thesedistinctions? objects(e.9.medicinecup, Andersen,1975.)
Childrenaged between3i Martini glass). the causalmeaning of because, s0,or since.That there
and 12* were shownthis set areproblems here can be readily shown from the errors
of objects,and askedto carry
out varioustasks, 1Il
r-t children make:
suchas 6 l.:l 11 fl 16 [D 21 [-}l
naming,defining,and sort- Lf U The mant fallen off the ladder becausehet broken his
¡ng.Theyoungestchildren
ft f-l¡ l.g.
usedfar fewer namesto
describethe objects,often
"Y
')ll 7Yf 12n T7U
L} I had one fish left. becauseits name was Bill.
overextendingthe word cup
to applyto itemswhichthe .n
" ¡' 8U 13il 23fh Chiidren aged8 or 9 may havemasteredthe grammar
12-year-olds calledg/ass(e.9.
items4 and 9 in the día-
"U \¿ of such constructionsverywell, but still be having dif-
ficulty with the meaningsthey encode.Auxiliary verbs
gram).One 3-year-oldwent
the other way, callingmost 4- J !0 enLJ 14 lj 10 V
A z4 T-¡
LT such as zughL rnutL and shouldprovide another pfob-
things g/ass,and keepingcup
for the smallestitems. lem area,asdo subtle prepositional forms (e.g. despit)
rE 10n i5 -4
LJ 25 vj and verb contrasts(e.g.askvs tel[ sayvspramise).The
abiliry to use figurative expressions,and to seedouble
F OU RR E P LI E S
meanings in language, aiso developslargely after the
Age 3 Age6 Ag e 9 Age 12 ageof 6.
fruit One of the most significant developmentsof this
2. big cup glass wine glass
later period is the childk emerging ability to integrate
3. little cup a measure @
Z I'AC."p J^ juice glass
severalfeatures of semantic knowledge into a single
trurt cu defining statement. Young children cannot define: in
.S7hat's
glass qlass responseto such questions as X?', they give
cuP grass emptf ambiguous, or idiosyncratic replies. What'sa
8. litle cup plasticcup glass medicine cup shoe?askedan adult. That, replied one young child,
9. big cup plasriccup grass
-- grass pointing. And a socb,rcpIied another. Murnmy got a
I0 r,,n nl-..;- LUP
yr¿rr¡L cup outdoor cup
-..^
shoe replied a third. Gradually, howeve¡ definitions
l-;Mñ;ia."p tl^td glass Ron McDonald happy cup
becomemore sophisdcated.A particular feature is sin-
Plasüccup cup cup
glass glass cup gled out (A knife is sharp)or irs funcdon is specified(,4
cuP cuP coffee cup knife is whenyou cut with ir). But it is not until around
-
1). GFe
D crp
coffeecup pl,silc"p
Plasüccup ."p
cup s;pper
slpper c"p
cup
srPPer cuP age8 or 9 that statementswith something resembling
16. cup cup cup coffeecup an adult definitional form begin to be produced (An
1 7. pape¡ cup
17. paper cup cup l)ixie
Lirxre cup appleh a tlrt offuit, and it's round and red,and we eat
18. big cup cup glass
grass glass
gtass
i¿).(8. Litowitz, 1977.)
19. orangecup meta.lcup measurelor wine measu¡ingcup
20. litrle cup metal cup cup baby'smetalcup
Semantic development continues throughout the
21. coffeecup =..:-- :::d-:-::-
LUrlcc lrruB cofiee cu school years - and, indeed, throughout adult life.
n. co(a* - Unlike phonology and gramma¡ it is not largely over
gl"tt..p ."p beer mug
-.om*p
,3 tñ(muá-- .rp when children enter their teens.There is always new
24. cup glass cup -"g
coffee cup vocabuiary to be learned, and new worlds of meaning
75
--' .,,ñ cuP cuP coltee cuP
- "v ro exprore.
 43 . PRAGMATIC DEVELOPMENT

The task of language acquisition requires üat children By 3, it is plain that children have learned many TALKING BACKWARDS
Iea¡n much more than paftems of sound, grammar, and aspectsofconversational strategy.They are able to in! From around age 7, children
vocabulary. They must also lea¡n to use drese patterns tiate a dialogue - the various ways of obtaining and develop a large creative reper-
appropriately in a rapidly increasing range of weryday holding a listenert attendon. They can handle several toire of interactive linguistic
skills,as they fearn to tell jokes
social situations. This dweloping pragmaüc awareness of the conventions of turn-taking. They know a great and ri ddl es ,i ns ul t eac h otheL
($2 I ) hasatuacted a greatdealofstudy in recentyears,pa¡-deal about how to respond appropriately * for exam- rhaintain group identity, and
ticularly in relation to dre way children learn strategiesof
ple, by providing clarification when requested to do make up languagegames(p.
59).One of the mos t remark -
conversational interaction. It is not vet oossible to talkso. abl e of thes e abi l ¡ti esi s tal k i no
about definite stagesofdevelop*.rrr; úr'r,,L very anly age These skilis developgreatly benveen3 and 5. In par- backwards.
at which thesestrategiesemergeis now dearly established. ticular, there is a major development in child aware- A study of two 9-year-olds
who were able to talk back-
ness of the social factors that govern a successful wards showed two quite dis-
C O I{VERSATIO NAL SKI LLS conversation - such as the correct use of forms of t¡nct styles.One child (A)
addressand markers of politeness (e.g. please,sony), reversedthe sounds of each
word and ignored the
Between the agesof 2 and 4, a remarkable development and how to make requestsin an indirect way.They also spelling. The second (8)
takesplace in the ability of the child to participarein a Iearn to anticipate points of potential breakdown reversedthe s pel l i ngs s, ound-
conversation. At the earlier age, conversadonsare often (carry out conversational'repairs',p. 1 16), such as by ing the letters out. The pro-
nunciations which resulted
very erraticand disjointed,with parenmdoing most ofthe repeating uüerances that are unclear, or asking for were very different. Size, for
'worli, and children usingsequences ofufterances,m¿rny clarification. In particular, they develop their abiliry to example, would come out as
of which are not obviously directed to any listener.The cope with situations where they do not have things all [zars], usingA's method. but
would come out as [ezrs]
effectis a curiousmixture ofmonologue and dialogue: their own way. In one study o f rwo -year-oldchildren
using B's.Here is a selection of
playrng together, there were 576 sequencesin which their reversedwords:
cHILD:Ball.Kick.Kick. Daddykick.
one child (r4) requestedthe other (.8) to perform an AB
MoTHER: That'sright, you haveto kick it, don'tyou.
action; in 122 cases,"Brefusedto comply. It was there- ntne naln 'enln
cHILD:Mmm. Um. Um. Kickhard.Onlykickhard. guy arg jug
fore necessaryfor Ato adopt various persuasivetactics
Our playthat. On floor.Our play that on floor.Now. boi l lcrb ljab
in order to gain compliance: saum 'esuam
Our playthat.On floo¡.Our playthat on foor. No that. mouse
continue uje'nrtnak 'utenrk
Now. A: Sayyes. bomb mab bemab
MorHEn:All right. B: No. castle le'sek 'eltsak
CHILD: Mummy,comeon foor me. A: I'll beyourbestfriendifyou sayyes. axe skre kse
MOTHER: Yes. bone nob 'enab
' ,' , auto o'ta 'otuwa
CHILD: Youtip thoseout. ;
n: \-nansetuncnDoxes. i nhal e le 'nr ele'ne
MoTHER: Mm. All right. B: No. elevate 'tevele ,eta'levet
CHIi-o:That onebroke. A: Youll havea biggerone,soyou will.
The sentence 'Pleasepresent
(P Fletcher,1985,p.64.) (M. McTear,1985,p. 109.) an idea to the class'was trans-
lated by I as: Ieselp tene'zep
The contrast with a 3-year-oldt conversation is strik- Some of these exchangescan be very lengthy. In the nre?eede?¡.t ?et ?e'selkl. The
ing, with both parties very much involved with the samestud¡,4t requestfor a pair ofscissorswas conrin- words are not always perfectly
detail ofwhat eachis saying: ued for over 60 turns before it was (reluctantly) com- accurate reversals;but there is
clearly a systemof rules gov-
CHILD:Hesterbefastasleep,mummy. oliedwith. erni ng thei r produc t¡on.
MOTHER: Shewastired. Studies of young children's conversationsshow that Oncesomeone Iearnsto talk
many adult interaction skills are abeadypresent well backwards, the ability seemsto
CHtt-D:
And why did her havetwo sweets,
mummy?
stay.lntervlewswith 27 adults
MU.lHr.K:DeCaUSe you eacnnao rwo, tnat s wny. before school-age.There is sdll a great deal to learn, of who had been backwardtalk-
She had the sameasyou. Ooh dear, now what? course- for example, 5-year-olds do not make much ersaschildren showed that the
CHILD:Daddy didnt give me rwo in the end. useof such 'manipulating' devicesasyou know oÍ actu- ability was still present.Some
were only able to do it slowly,
vOTs¡n: Yes,he did. ally, andthey must iearn the strategiesassociatedwith or on short wordt but three
culo: He didnt. the more formal interactions that are oart of educa- retained an lmpressivefacility,
MOTHER:He did. donal learningand discussion(S44).gur alt of this will reversingnot only the order of
soundsin words, but the order
CHTLD:Look he given one to - rwo to Heste¡ and two to us. build on a foundation of conversationalabiliry that in of words in sentencesaswell-
MOTHER:Yes,that's right. many children is already extremely sophisticated by and often at speedsvery similar
CHILD:\Vhy did he give? the fifth year. to those found in forwards
speech! (After N. Cowan & L.
MOTHER:'Cos there were six sweets.That's rwo each. Leavitt,1982,pp491, ff.)
(P Fletcher,1985, p. 9 i .)
 4 3 . PRA GMA T]C
T\TINS
The languagelearningenvironmentofrwins is unique.
During their earlyyears, their linguisticexperience
dif-
fers greatly from that of single children. Singletons
receivemost of their languagestimulationfrom adults
or older children, whose utterancesprovide a more
advanced learning 'target'. Twins, ho*e,rer, spend a
great deal of time together,with eachlearning from a
linguistic setting in which the other speakeris at the
samedevelopmentallinguistic level.In such circum-
srances,it is hardly surprising to find many twins
developinga privateform of communication.
One study found a greatdealof private languageplay
in early-morningrwin conversations. At 33 months,
for example,there were dialoguesin which eachchild
respondedto featuresof pronunciadon it noticed in
the other:
¡: zreki su
v: (laughing)zreki su zr,ki (both laugh)ret
A : apll
B:olp olt olt
a: opir opir
s: apir apir ([aughing)
api api api
A: ai ju
v: (laughing)ai ju api (repeatedseueraltimes)
¡: kaki (repeatedseueraltimes)
s: a i i l o r
,q:ai ir o ol
(8. O. Keenan,1974, p. 171.)
To the outsider,this kind of dialoguemight resemblea
'secretlanguage',but it is no more than a form of pho-
netic play.
One of the most interestingfeaturesof rwin language
is the way in which they 'share'the responseto an adult
uttefance;
MOTHER:\lhat can you seein the picture?
T\X/INA: A cat.
T\llN B: And a dog.
Observers have been struck by the intuitive way in
which one twin is able to reSpond very rapidly to what
the other has just said, and how the first rwin is able to
anticipate when to stop. They very seldom talk at the
same time. Even very short utterances can be split in
fwo:
Mo'.fHER:\X4rat do you want me to read?
TWIN A: Puss.
TIX/INB: In boots.
This kind of skill can only come from the frequent
opportunities the wins have had to interact, in the
early years. They know each othert rhythms, and each
is able to predict a great deal ofwhat the other is likely
to say.
Perhaps becauseofthis close dependence, rwins are
usually somewhat late in developing their individual
language skills. When their language is formally
D E V E I-OP ]\4E N T
assessed,during the third and fourti'r years,it is often
found to be about 6 months behind the norm for sin-
gletons.On the otherhand, therearecertainaspects of
their developmentthat may be aheadof other children
- notabl¡ their abiliry to keep a conversationgoing,
and to interactwith adults.By age7 or 8, the delay
seemsto havedisappeared.
P OTOA N D C A B E N GA
eRnce:Cabenga,padem manibadu peeta. SECRET
LANGUAGES
vrncr¡¡r¡:
Doan nee bada tengkmatt. Poto.
Twins have often been
Reported extracts ofthis kind from a twin conversation observedto talk to each
achi evedw orl d-w i de publ i ci ty¡n the l ate 1970s.They came other i n a w ay that i s uni ntel -
from the Kennedy twins of San Diego, California, who at l i gi bl e to a dul ts or other c hi l -
the age of 8 w ere sti l l usi ngthei r ow n pri vate l anguage. dren.The phenomenon has
They called themselvesby different names in this lan- been vari ous l yl abel l ed' c ry p-
guage: Gracebecame'P oto'and V i rgi ni a became tophasi a' ,' i di ogl os s i a'or
,
'Cabenga'- names which were later used asthe title of a 'autonomous speech'. Esti-
f¡l m about thei r earl yyears. matesof inc i denc eare unc er-
Thei rtotal l y uni ntel l i gi bl espeechfor a w hi l e promoted tai n, but s ome hav e
the ¡mpressi onthatthe chi l drenw ere mental l y retarded, suggestedthat as many as
butthis proved notto be so. In due course,a detailed study 40% of twin pairs develop
of thei r l anguagecameto be made.Thi si ndi catedthat some form of private speech,
thei r speechw as not as al i en as i ts bi zarresound had l ed especiallyin the second year.
people to believe. lt was basicallya severelydistorted form There seemsto be no basis
of English,with some features of German, severalidiosyn- for the view that a com-
cratic grammatical characteristics,and a proportion of pl etel ydi fferent' l anguage' i s
invented vocabulary.What made it so difficult to follow involved. The patterns heard
(and al soto anal yse!)w as i ts extremel yrapi d speedof can l argel ybe ex pl ai nedw i th
articulat¡on and ¡ts staccatorhythm -features that later referenceto the children's
transferredto thei r E ngl i sh,w hen therapi stsbegan to efforts to cope with the kind
w ork w i th them. of l angua geus edaround
There are probably specialreasonsfor the late retention them, and to the kind of pro-
of private speech in this case.The children, it seems,had cessesthat take place in nor-
very little opportunity to hear good models of English mal l anguageac qui s i ti on.
speechi n thei r earl yyears.They saw few other chi l dreni n The twin situation promotes
the area where they lived. Their parents were both work- the cont¡n uedus eof i mma-
ing, and dur¡ng the day they were cared for by their Ger- ture and idiosyncraticpat-
man grandmotherw ho spoke no E ngl i sh.Therew as al so terns of so und,grammar,and
an expectat¡onthat they might be retarded (becauseof a vocabulary,and a personal
history of convulsions),which affected the style of the par- style of interaction often
ents' interaction. Left to themselves,the twins would have characteri z edby abnormal
had little alternative but to develop their own medium of i ntonati on and rhy thm.
communi cati on. These patterns become par-
ti cul arl yn oti c eabl ew hen the
chi l drenc onti nue to us e
them pastthe normal peri od
of 'baby talk'. In the most
dramat¡c cases,private
speechhas lasted until age 5
or more, when it often
attracts a great deal of pub-
Iicity.
 4 4 . L A N GU A GE DEVELO PMENT I N SCHOOL

\7hen children arrive in school, they experiencea dif- oral skills are being supplementedby work on listen- IMAGINATIVE SPEECH
ferent linguistic world. They meet for the first time ing comprehension.Above all, teachershavebegun to A NDWRI TI NG
children from unfamiliar regional, social, and ethnic stressthat childrent linguistic abiliry is a major factor
backgrounds, whose linguistic norms differ gready influencingtheir success in the learningofodrer sub-
from their own. They encountera socialsituation in ject areas,such asscience,mathematics,and history.
which levelsof formal and informal speechare care- In the 1970s,this central,integratingrole oflan-
fully distinguished, and standards of correctness guagework promoteda hostof new languageschemes,
emphasized.The educational setting presentsthem materials,and approaches, and a philosophywhich is
with a variery of unfamiliar, subject-relatedstyles of bestsummarized in a phrasethat becamesomethingof
language.They have to learn a new rangeof linguistic an educational slogan in Britain, following the llK
skills - reading, writing, and spelling. And they find governmentt publication of the 1975 report on the
themselveshaving to talk about what they are doing, ieaching of English in schools' A Languagefor Life
which requires that they learn a special technical ('The Bullock Report'): 'languageacrossthe curricu-
vocabulary- a 'languagefor talking about language', lum'. Sincethen, other aspectsof the role of language
or metalangtage. have come to be better appreciated- not least,the
In recent years,educationistshave begun to recog- needfor a correspondingemphasison child¡en's've¡ti-
nize the complexiry of the languagedemands being cal' development, as they move between classesand
Lo ok at
made on the young schoolchild, and to realize that schoolsand encounter different kinds of language thisstrange an¡malon the
progressin many areasof the curriculum is greatly experiencein avarietyofsubjectareas.From the chil- b Iackbo ard (hard Iuck!).
dependenton a satisfactoryfoundation of linguistic dren'spoint ofview, agreatdealof languagework must What sounds would it make
when ít is:happy? hungrY?...
skills. The traditional emphasison literacy,the ability seem fragmentary and inconsistent,as long as no
to read and write, has been supplementedby an effort is made to ensurea coherentframe of reference This¡sa tasktaken from a
coursedesignedto foster chi!
emphasis on oracJt,the ability to speak and iisten. that will accompanythem as they move through the
dren'sabilityto usesPeech
Teathers now pay increasing aftention to a childt educational system.Researchinto the best means of an d w ri ti ng i n a more i magi -
preschoollinguistic experience,seeingthis asa founda- achieving a coher-entlinguistic approach is thus a nativeway,aimedat children
aged from around 7 to 12 (R.
iior, on which they can build. Specialefforts aremade maior aim of the slowly developingfiel dof educational
James& R.G. Gregory,1966).
to relatedifferentkinds oflinguistic learning:the task línguistícs.The whole perspectiveis now often sum- It introduceselementsof art,
ofwriting is being brought closerto the childt experi- maúzedunder the heading KAL, or'knowledge about music,and drama,and stresses
language'. the enjoymentthat can be
enceof reading;reading,in tu¡n, is beingbroughtinto obtainedfrom the useof lan-
contact with the ability to use spoken language;and guage.The variousexercises
try to makech¡ldrenmore
aware of the different quali-
NO T A LK I NG I tiesof soundsmade by thingq
animals,and people,and to
T h e t r a d i t i o n a l e m p h a sisin culty comes from a classon ended, and P 7 takesthi s to pupi l s l earn i n thei rs,taki ng
stimulatetheir ¡mag¡nationto
schoolson the written lan- r e lig io u se d u ca tio n ,in mean that an i mprovi sed i n hi s w ords, w hi ch 'mean' uselanguagethemselvesin a
gu a g e ( 5 1) l e d l a n g ua g e which l(eacher) is asking answ erw oul d be appropri - someth¡ng different to more personaland creative
ed u c a t i o n i s t si n t h e 19 7 0 sto two P(upil)sabout life in ate. He does his best, but them, and struggl i ngto way.
em p h a s i z et h e ¡ m p or ta n t New Testament Palestine. receivesonly the comment i ncorporateth¡s mean¡ng
role of speechas part of chil- 'You might do it that way', into their own frames of ref- Whatsounds doyou make
I: How did they get the spoken i n a doubtful i ntona- erence.The l anguagew hi ch when: you are given an ice
dr e n ' sd e v e l o p m e n ta n d
wa te r f r o m th e we ll? ... Do tion. P2, perhaps not¡cing is an essentialinstrument to cream? somebody treads on
le a r n i n g .l t w a s p o i n te d o u t
this, gives f a different kind hi m i s a barri erto them. (D . your toe? you are ¡n a
that talk was often discour- you remember? ... Yes?
of answer,the name of the Barnes,1969, pp. 29, 30.) haunted houseand a door
ag e d , a n d t h a t i n a l m o st Pl : They ... ran the bucket
object. This is evidently the opens?
every setting, teachers did d o wn ...e r ,,.a n d it wa s fas-
m o s t o f t h e t a l k i n g - fillin g tened on to this bit of string answer f wants, and so P2 As a result of such studies, Make the sound of a clock.
up 70% of classroomtime, and it... lsome inaudibílítYl gets the pra¡se- even the spoken l anguageof Now, instead ofthe sound,
according to one study. ... other end to the water. though w e mi ght thi nk that teachersand pupi l s became make the word that comes
A g r e a t d e a l w a s l ea r n e d r: You might do it that waY. Pt's responsewas not a major focus of interest in from the sound...
f r o m t h e a n a l y s i so f ta p e ...Wh e r e d id th e y p u t th e unworthy. the 1970s.
wa te r ... Jo h n ? Having stud¡ed several At more advancedstages,the
recordingsof teacher-pupil
P2 :ln a b ig .,. e r ... p itch e r. casesof communicative dif- children studythe Power of
di a l o g u e .O n e s t u d y wa s
r : Go o d ... in a p itch e r ... fi cul ty of thi s ki nd, the descriptivewords and the
able to draw attention to a
wh ich th e y ca r r ie do n th e i r author comments: sound effectsconveYedbY
hi t h e r t o u n r e c o g n i ze d
nameS :
problem in the stylesof ...?
question¡ng used by teach- P2: Heads. The teacher teacheswithin
er s .A n e x a m p l eo f t h e d iffi- T h e fir st q u e stio n is o p e n - his frame of reference;the
I

:'.'
:::::::

44. L ANGUAGE D E V E I,OP ME N T ]N S C H OOL 251

S T R U C T U R E v s U SE apparent.However, the approachmade no provision

There is considerablerecognition these days of the fo¡ a standarddescriptiveapparatus.Criticism there-
need to developa childt linguistic skills so that they fore came from teacherswho felt such an apparatus
will promote educationalgrowth inside school aswell was necessary, in order to facilitate the understanding
as social and personal development outside school. of texts, and to make comparisons between them.
However,there is much lessagreementabout the best Other critics argued, with varying levels of cogency
way of achievinga competentand confident use of and emotion, that a return to 'older standards'was
languagein thesedomains.Sincethe 1950s,the con- prerequisitefor progress.
J"¿h.n/ Jü troversyhas focusedon the competing claims of rwo
Current trends
Stol, l^.{" slo.n}¿o[ approachesto language teaching - one based on
The situation in the 1980s was unclear. At one
'structure',the other basedon'use'.
Stdrntbtdr1lcatfí8 extremethere were those who advocateda wholesale
Parsing return to the principles and practicesof raditional
RhW€lII The maditionalstructuralapproachstresses the impor- parsing.At the other, there were those who avoided
silrn¡l¿ st¡.srJü tanceof getting children to analysegrammar in a con- anything that smackedof grammatical terminology.
ctopOUcHI sciouswa¡ and to learn the appropriatetenninology. Fortunately,in the 1990s,severalfruitful intermedi-
The technique,astraditionally practised,is known by ate positions have begun to emerge- particularly in
Ooo-a (+ouln such namesas parsing','clauseanalysis',or 'diagram- the UK, promoted by the principles underlying the
:
ming' (p. 96). Sentenceswould be analysedinto their new National Curriculum in English. There is now a
-1
constituent parts, the labels for the different parts of healthy movement arguing for a general approach
t¡o¿ [o¿ tú¿ speechwould be learned,and greatstresswould be laid basedon 'awareness oflanguage',aimed particulady at
?""¡ ü*á ?ri",h on the masteryof formal rules(S51,62). the middle yearsofschooling.It aimsto stimulatethe
This is still the most widely practisedapproachto child's curiosiry about language,and to integratethe
Hh ¡ootl.¡r¡ mother-tongueteachingin Europe, but during the variouselementsoflanguagetraining in school- both
J
(Á
gl]'I.l,ofL 1960sit fell out of favour in most English-speaking 'horizontally', in relation to the different languageele-
utno4Jj-
J countries.Parsingwas felt to developa mechanical, me{rts acrossthe curriculum (English, foreign lan-
Ércun analyticsetofskills that borelittle relationshipto chil- guages,minoriry languages,etc.), and vertically',as
¡a1cr
O- Jrlr| \ED drenk everydaylinguisticneeds.Most children,it was the child movesup through the school.Structuraland
argued,found suchexercises dull and irrelevant,unre- functional elements are involved, and much of the
A n 11-y ea r - o l d ' sp o e m ' , b a s e d latedto the problemsand practicesof living English, appealof the approachliesin the way in which pupils
on someof the work in the are invited to discoverthe imoortance of both these
James& Gregorycourse. Languagein use
aspects of languagework for rhemselves.
In placeofparsing, theredevelopedvariousapproaches
Whattaste and whatsize to the study oflanguagein use.Pupilsand their teachers Contrastingcoversof two schoo¡books reflect the change in
would you give to sweetsw¡th would collectsamplesof reallinguistic situations,both attitude towards languageteaching in recentyears"The first is a
thesenames?Cholly,Teeníes,
Wumps, Chooce,Jelloc, Quan- spokenand written, and discussthe distinctivefeatures grammar book intended for use in Brazilianprimary schools:
the chi l drenare show n happi l yhol di ng a gr ammarbook , and
gles? ofthe language.Typical situations,usedby one leading writing out a l¡stof parts-of-speechlabels.The secondis a lan-
Theystudythe stresspatterns project of the 1970s for work with older secondary guage awarenesstext for usewith young senior-schoolpupils: it
of phrasesand sentencesin school children were: advertising, news reporting, showssomeof the varied topics,from smokesignalsto televi-
proseand poetry;they begin sion,that form its content.
operating instructions, being tactful, using technical
to éxperimentwith language,
in the form of nonsenseverse; terms, and projecting an image.Pupilswould usetape
and they lóok at how the recordings,collections of written material, role pla¡
effectsare producedin a range and other techniquesthat provided involvement and
of descriptiveand atmospheric
poetry.Here,this kind o{ realism.By choosingsituationsthat would bemeaning-
approachlinksup with the tra- ful and motivating, educationistshoped that pupils
ditional focuson written liter- would explore the nature of their experiencewhen
ature. But it is hoped that by
grounding the study of literary using or respondingto language,and thus arrive at a
languagein the earlyexperi- fresh understandingof its meaning for them. In this
enc eof s pe e c ha n d s o u n d ,c h i l - way,it wasfelt that theywould developtheir awareness
dren will developa more
sensitiveand creative ofwhat languageis and how it is used,and by degrees
approachto languagework, extend their own competencein handling it. Similar
not only in their imaginative ideaswere introduced at junior levelsusing more ele-
readingand writlng but alsoin
their everydayspeakingand
mentary functional notions, such as askingquestions,
l i s t ening. giving instructions,and providing explanations.
The 'ianguagein use' approach is still widely prac-
tised, but it too haslimitations. As teachersand pupils
becamemore involved in languageactivities,the need
to have availablea more systematicway of analysing
and talking about the languagebecameincreasingly
 PAli- l VlI C H ILLf LAN - C U AC IE AC Q U ISI- 1'l O N

A page from a l i v el ymodern

sti ckerbook - th e R os i eand J i m
LEARNING TO RE,AD In the afternoon,
Johnvisitsa farm!He says Sticker Book (1992), illustrated by
Joan H i c k s on,and bas edon a tel e-
Literacy has long been considered the main evidence of vi si ons eri esw ri tten by J ohn C un-
helloto the who showshimaround. l i ff e. S ome of the c ol oureds ti c k ers
a childk edr-rcationalplogress. As a result, more atten-
provi dedw i th the book hav e been
tion has been paid to the nature of tlre task facing chil- pl acedi n thei r pos i ti onson the
dren as they learn to read than to any other ale¿ ofthe page. In materi al of thi s k i nd,the
curricuium. Hund¡eds of readine schemes and
philosophieshave been devisedin the past 200 years,
Theyseesome , some
ffi",.0 pi cture ss tand i n for c ertai nk ey
w ords,thereby hel pi ng to reduc e
the readi ng l oad and to prov i de
and rnany have achieved a degreeof success.However, cuesto mean¡ng.The c hi l drenget
some ThenJohnandthe farmer
it is usually an open question whether successis due to practi . e i n rec ogni z i ngthe prec i s e
the properties of an approach or to the enthusiasm l ocati onof w ords i n w hol e s en-
, {-ft--ffi ,o/tA tences ,and thi s i s rei nforc edby
with rvhich it is promoted by its adherents. Systematic nde al ono a l ' ' :' " rl on the Gt*r¿
L-t;¡. t
the act;on of s ti c k i ng.H ow ev er,
research into the teaching of reading is relatively C a r. i t e ia mi xi ng c apti onsand mai ntex t c an
recent, and, althor-rgh a currently fashionable field, rai sepo s s i bl eteac hi ng probl ems :
i { the c apti on w ords are s how n
there have as yet been few definitive findings into the
w ¡th a capti al l etter,the c hi l dren
natu¡e of the child's reading process(discusseclin S34) Active reading are exp os edto a us age w hi c h
and the effectivenessof different teaching methods. There are nvo contemporarypreoccupations. Fi¡st, there confl l c tsw ;th normal w ri ti ng
Many positions are advocated. Some recommend pracL¡c e w hen the s fi c k ersare i n
is a focus on the need to motivate children to readbv pro-
pl ace.
the initial use of a particular scheme or method to all viding materials and activities that are interesting. It is
children; others argue that there is no 'right way', and pointed out that the content of traditional reading- Breakthrough The active
approac hto readi ng i s
that a range ofapproaches should be available to suit scheme books is singularly uninspiring: children often nowhere better i ll ustrated
the needs of individual child¡en. For some, reading is view such leading as a dull, decoding task, and choose than i n the us eof the w ord
essentially the skill of decoding w¡itten symbols; for very diffelent kinds of books ('real books') when they cardsand s entenc emak er
others, it is a means of discovering the meaning provi ded by the s c heme
read by then.rseivesfor enjol'ment. Toda¡ this contrast is
'behind' the symbols. In this deeperview, reading plays Breakth rou g h to Literacy (D.
lessapparent, with new schemesplacing a greater en'rpha- Macka yet a/., 1970).W ords
a fundamental role in promoting childrenk c¡itica,land sison story-tellingand more appealingvisualdesign,T'he are tak en from a hol der and
imaginative thir-rking, and thus their intellectual and world of the childt own experienceis also increasingly pl acedon a s entenc eframe,
emotional development. A sirnila¡ concern moti\¡ates to make s entenc esof a c hi l d' s
represented,though the use of familiar social situations ow n choos i ng.The s entenc es
the view that the teaching of reading should not be and everydayvisuallalrguagecontexts,such asroad signs, can buil d on the c hi l dren' s
rest¡icted to the class¡oom. In particu.la¡ severalrecent shop names,andvehicle labels(e.g. taxi,police). personaI ex per¡enc esthey ;
studies have indicated tirat regular parental reading use w ords that refl ec tthei r
spoken l anguage;and they
aloud to children, accompanied by infblmal discussion
can be ' w ri tten' w i thout the
of what is being read, ma1'$¿ ¡1t. t;t,gle most important need to c ope w i th the tas k of
facto¡ in promoting reading abiliry. handw ri ti ng.

S y llab i c t e a c h i n g c a r d sar e p a r t o f a se t d e sig n e dto i¡ r tr o d u ce

c hildr e nt o r e a d i n gt h r o u gh th e u seo f sylla b le s( a so p p o se dto
phone m e so r w h o l e w o r d s) .T h e p a r ticu la rp r o g r a m m eis kn o wn
. th e sta g esh o wn , p ¡ ctu r e sa r e
ast he' s y l l a b a r yc u r r i c u l u m 'At
being u s e dt o m o t ¡ v a t ea se q u e n ceo f wo r d s in a se n te n ceL. a te r
s t agesi n v o l v et e c h n i q u e sfo r th e id e n tifica tio no f so u n d sa n d
t he ble n d i n go f s y l l a b l e s. ( F r o mP Ro zin& L . R.Gle itm a n ,1 9 7 4 .)
 4 4 . L ANGUAGE D E V E LOP ME N T IN S C H OOL

Secondl¡ there is an emphasison training the cogni-

S O M E A P P R O A C H E ST O R E A D I N G
tive skills that children need in order to read efficiently.
It isnot possibleto makea neat classification into types,becausemany
of readingschemes
Researchhas shown the relevanceof such abilities as Howeve4somegeneralcomparisons canbe made,asis
arebasedon a mixtureof principles.
classifying, sequencing, and pattern matching; and illustratedbelowfor threekindsof approach.
new 'pre-reading' materials therefore provide Practice Characteristics Advantages Dísadvantages
in tháse areas,along with opportunities to draw, cut 'Basalreading' Widelyusedin the U.5.;a Comprehensive; Expensive;can be
out, colour in, and so on. It is alsoevident that many programmes systemof pre-
large-scale graded; careful l y us ed i nfl ex i bl y ;
paratorytexts,graded pl anned; chi l dren does not promote
children find their first encounter with the world of
readers,work books,tests, get to know the an exploratory use
print confusing, so that a greatdeal ofattention is now and othermaterials. characters,set- of l anguage out-
being paid to ways of providing an opporruniry to t¡ng, etc. si d ethe s c heme.
think about what is involved in reading and writing Language lntegrateswork in listening, C atersfor i ndi vi - Li ttl e gradi ng of
(e.g.how are books made?what is writing for?), and a experience speaking,readingandwrit- dual differences; structure; difficult
melala.tg,ragefor talking about these activities (e.g. programmes ing,usinga varietyof ma- promotes creati- to evaluate pro-
terialsand activitiesrelat- vity, confidence, gress; little motiva-
page,line, beginning space).
- ¡ngto the child'sown world. and meani ngful tion to read out-
Much of this work involves an actiue approach to activities. si d ethe c hi l d' s
reading. \Vhen children encounter aword they cannot i mmedi ate w orl d.
read, emphasisis now often laid on helping them to lndi vi dual i zed Childrenselecttheir own Mai ntai ns i nterest; D i ffi c ul tto orga- .
work out for themselveswhat it must be, by using such pro9rammes readingbasedon ¡nterests fosters indepen- ni z e book av ai l abi -
techniquesas reading on to the end of the sentence, and ability,and readat dence and confi - lity, record-keep-
their own pace;eachchild dence;i s fl exi bl e; i ng, di s c us s i on
reading back to the sentencebeginning, and checking hasitsown programme, makes no publ i c ti m e w i th teac her;
any illustrations.In this approach,the intention is to usingchecklistsand di sti ncti on be- no systematic de-
make them relylesson tl-remechanicaltask ofdecoding charts,and discusses tw een good and ve l opment of
readingwith the teacher. bad readers. skiI ls.
lerters,and to capitalizemore on their linguistic expe-
rience and awarenessof context so that they can guess
what a word might be. Reading, according to the
ALP H A B E D
T E C OD IN G
American researcher,Frank Smith (1928- ) is a 'psy-
Severaltechniques have h ighlightcertainsound-let- di graphsha v e a bar under;
cholinguistic guessinggame'. This is not to say that been proposed that try to ter combinations. Diacritics schwa (seeAppendix I) is
accuracyin word decodingis unimportant. Rather,it is facilitate the task of decod- mayalsobe addedto letters, marked w¡th a dot; and an
stressedthat 'getting the words right' is a graduai pro- ing the phonic basisofthe asin the followingillustra- asteriskis used for excep-
cess- as indeed it is in spoken language acquisition writing system.Some,such tion of a systemfrom the ti ons.)
as Unífon or i.t.a. (p" 219). 1960s.(Silentlettersare
(S:s;. introduce new symbols. markedwith a slash;long Ónce rpon átimé á hen
In recent years,attention has also been drawn to the Some make use of colours to vowelshavea barover; l i vl d on á f¿rm. Thé hen ...
many different kinds of activiry that are found under
the heading of 'fluent reading . At one extreme, there is
the careful, complete, and vocal technique known as ,P H ON IC S
V 'S ' W H OLEW OR D '
'reading aloud'; at the other, there is the rapid, selective,
Sincethe early1gth century. theseto constructor . Whole-wordor look-and'
and silent technique known as'scanning'or'skimming'
the relativemeritsof decodewords.Phonic sayapproachesare based
- something widely practisedby time-pressedadults as phonicandwhole-word schemeshaveattracteda on the principleof recog-
they work quickly through a report or readthe morning approaches havedomi- great dealof support, nizingindividualwordsas
newspaper.In between there are many other activities, natededucational debate mainlybecause of the way wholes,without breaking
aboutthe teachingof read- they givechildrena ratio- them down into const¡tuent
such as critical reading (e.g. underiining sections of lettersor sounds. Themain
ing.Schemes havebeen nalefor'soundingout' new
text, or adding marginal notes), proof-reading (check- devisedbasedlargelyon words.Onthe other hand, a¡misto avoidthe useof
ing onet own or someone elset text for errors), and one principleor the other, they havealsobeen stringsof meaningless
reading for learning (ifyou suddenly discoveredthat as andtherehavebeenseveral severelycriticized.The phonicsyllables, andto per-
'mixed'schemes, which child'sphoneticawareness mit access to longerand
soon asyou had readthis pageyou would be askedques- isoften not up to the task moremeaningfulsen-
attemptto integratethe
tions on it, your reading strategywould alter immedi- strengthsof each.In recent of phonicdecoding. The tences,through the useof
ately). Current thinking about reading draws attention years,the debatehastaken taskof blendingisolated frequentlyoccurringwords
on a new dimension, in the soundsintowholewordsis (the, go, saw l¡ttle, my, etc.)
to the importance of all thesereal-world skills.
lightofthe evidence ac(u- not easy:to get from c Ikel + - andevenmuchlonger
mulatedby experímental a [a] + t [ta]to caf [kat],an words,suchasaeroplane
psychologyabout the actualchangeof pronuncia- and doctor.Whole-word
natureof the readingpro- tion isinvolved, asthe pho- approaches havebeencriti-
cess(934). netictranscriptionshows. cizedfor their lackof clear
. Phonicapptoaches are ,Andfirst bookshavesevere gradingprinciples, andfor
basedon the principleof restrictions on their perm¡t- the way wordsareoften
identifyingthe regular ted vocabulary, which often arbitrarilyselected, unre-
sound-letter relationships resultsin artificialorbizarre latedto the child'sexperi-
in a writingsystem,and sentences (e.g-Patand Dad ence.
teachingthe chíldto use ran).
254
L IN EB RE A K S
Thereis much that is not
known about the factorsthat
promote and hinder the pro-
cessof reading in the young
child, Evenbasictypographi-
cal questionsremain unre-
solved,suchasthe optimum
sizeof type or the distance
between lines in the first
texts. One suchquestion
relatesto the necessityof Iine
div i s i o n l.s a c h i l d ' sr e a d in g
ability affected by the way in
which linesof text end? A
completelyarbitrary set of
line breaksis bound to cause
somedifficulty - hyphen-
ation, for example,would
hardly be a help to young
readers!But would the¡r per-
formance be facilitated if
lineswere made to end
accordingto certain linguistic
principles- for example,fol-
low¡ng a major semanticor
syntact¡cboundary?
In a study of adult recall,it
was found that the first of the
follow¡ng two sentenceswas
Mr. \fest lived in a housewith a monkey.
One da¡ the monkey got up first.
He got up befo¡eMr. \7esr and
befo¡ethe sun.
He openedthe window. The monkey
had a look down the st¡eet.
The¡e was no one about.
"Mr. \7est is in bed and
he is sleeping,"he said.
"I'm going down the street
and into the park.
Mr. \7est can't stop me."
READABILITYFORMULAE
Over50 procedureshave
beendevised that claimto
be ableto computehow
difficult a text isto read.
The'Fog Index'(1952),for
example,isarrivedat in
four steps:
1. Selectseveral1O0-word
samplesfrom a text.
2. Calculatethe average
sentence lengthby dividing
the numberof words by the
numberof sentences,
(lncludeonlycompletesen-
tences.)
3. Obtainthe percentageof
longwordsin the ent¡re
sample:countthe number
PART VII . C H ILD
much easierto learnthan the
second:
The very old man
was alwayssitting down
o n o n e o fth e b ig ch a ir s.
The very old
man was alwayssitting
down on one ofthe b¡g
chairs.
The first set of line breaks
occursat major grammatical
boundariesin the sentence,
whereasthe seconddoes not.
Would this kind of factor
affect the reading ability of
yo u n g ch ild r e n ?
To obtain someevidence
on this point, a recent study
printed a story in severaldif-
ferent ways,so thatthe line
breakswere altered.A sample
is given below: it showsthe
placementof andchanged on
three occas¡ons, and the
changed once.A text using
justi{ied right-hand margin
setting (p. 185)was also pre-
pared as a control. Groupsof
Mr. \íest lived in a housewith a monkey
One da¡ the monkey got up first.
He got up beforeMr. S7est
and before the sun.
He openedthe window. The
monkey had a look down the street.
There was no one about.
"Mr. West is in bed
and he is sleeping,"he said.
"I'm going down the streetand
:- "^ *L- ^ ^- 1.
Mr. \7est can't stop me."
of wordscontainingthree
or moresyllables anddivide
this total by the numberof
100-wordsamples.
4. Add the resultsof 2 and
3, and multiplythetotalby
0.4.The productisthe
(A.merican) gradelevelfor
which the text isappropri'
ate, in termsof difficulty.
5everalsuch formulae
havebeenproposed,of
varyinglevelsof complexity
Most assumethat difficulty
canbe measured simplyin
termsofthe lengthof
words and/orsentences.
Howevecthere isno neat
correlationbetweensen-
LA N GU A GE A C QU IS ITION
childrenreadthe stories
aloud,andtheirperformance
wasmeasured in termsof
non-fluency,readingerrors,
andcomprehension.
The results.althciughlim-
ited to g¡venconstructions,
were clear.Breakswithin
grammatical phrases caused
manymoreproblemsthan
breaksbetweenphrases.
Also,and at the beginning
of a line causedmoretrou-
blethanwhen it appeared
at the end of the previous
line.Thesmallsamplesize
makesthesefindingstenta-
tive, but they supportthe
conclusion that linebreaks
are a possiblehazardin
earlyreading-amatter
whichshouldbe bornein
mindwhen des¡gn¡ng texts
for young readersor for
thosewith a readinghandi-
cap(p.274). (FromB.
Raban,1981.)
tencelength and difficulty
(p.235);and not all long
words are difficult to read.
Factors suchasthe complex-
¡tyof sentenceconstruction
and the natureof word
meaningarefar more
important,but theseissues
the procedures usually
ignore.Readability formu-
lae havethus attracteda
great deal of criticism,but
in the absenceof more
sophisticatedmeasures,
they continueto attract
widespread use,asa rea-
sonablyconvenientway of
predicting(thoughnot
explaining) readingdiffi-
cultv.
READYTOREAD?
m th¡s 33
(a) Circle eachword.
F ELEPHANT to b
(b) Circle eachcapitallerrer.
Dlow
22 The plant grows. snow grows
flow
(c) Circle each thing that is a sentence.
Sandy , Br uc e and J am es r a n h o me .
(d) Circle each full srop.
A seriesof tasksfrom one sectionof the LA,RRTest(tin-
guist¡cAwarenessin ReadingReadiness,
1983),which
invest¡gates young children'sawareness ofthe features
and funct¡onsof written language.The ma¡naim isto see
whetherchildrenhavegraspedthe conceptsthat are
requiredin orderto recognize andtalk about literacy
skills.Thereisan importantconnectionbetweenchildren's
awareness of the technical'metalanguage'of literacyand
their subsequent performance in readingand wr¡ting.
Thatthereare'errors'ín thisdoma¡nisreadilyillus-
trated from the repliessomechildrengivewhen asked
aboutthe form andfunctionof language.
. 'Te¡lme a long word', an investigatoraskssome3-year-
olds.'Train',repliesone. 'Giraffe',repliesanother.Both
arethinking of the length of the objects.
. 'Showme who'sreading,'says an ¡nvest¡gato[pointing
to a set of picturesin which different peoplearereading,
writ¡ng,drawing,and lookingat photographs. Thechild
pointsto the photographs.
Other kindsof difficultiesare known: manych¡ldrenhave
problemsin namingletters,or sayingw,hethersequences
of soundsarethe 'same',or correlat¡ngshortwords in
speech.Thereis little doubt that childrenneedto have
developedcontrolover severalmetalinguisticnotions
beforethey are 'ready'to readand write.
However,the notion of 'readiness'has beensomewhat
controversialin recentyears,and mustbe interpretedwith
caution.Thereisno singlecriterionfor sayingthat a ch¡ld
is'ready'to read.Severalpsychological factorsare
Involved,suchasconceptdevelopment,memory atten-
tion, intelligence,and left-right orientation.Thereshould
be severallinguistic skillspresent,suchasgood soL¡nd d¡s-
crimination, the abilityto {ollowinstructions, and a devel-
op¡ngspokenlanguage,aswell asan abilityto talk about
language.Readingseemsto presuppose a greatdeal.
Butthe exactrequ¡rements are by no meansclear- as is
shownby parentswho havesuccessfully taught their baby
to read(usuallythrough the useof wordson cards,which
aresimultaneously shownand spokenfor regularperiods
eachday)- in somecases,startingasearlyasthe first year.
In suchcases, the ideaof a 'natural'stage of readingreadi-
nessbecomesobscure.
(J.Downinget al., 1983, 12-13)
{a
:': 4 4 .L ANGUAGE D E V E LOP ME N T IN S C H OOL

:1
P OORH A N D W R ITIN G?
.)
:i
LEARNING TO \TRITE
One of the most w i despread
misconceptionsis that poor
c il f\fuft R ;rv¡u
A MOT O R S K I LL
handw ri ti ng i n ol der chi l dren
or adul ts i ndi catesa carel ess or \{ Vt q 9 { V óTr
For many people,learningto write is primarily a matter
of acquiringthe motor skill of forming and sequencing
otherw i se i nadequateperson-
al i ty,or perhapsl ow i ntel l i -
trd)c +c t'D
letteri in a fluent' automatic manner, and positioning
gence (p. '191).The vi ew has
no basi si n fact. P oorw ri ti ng Lw* R BFc,SA.
*nz¿n-t
them clearlyon a Page.But this involvesfar more than may be l i ttl e more than the I u -c tóF
the correctformation of letter shapes:letter sizes,word reflex of a busy or rushed life-
style. lt may even relate to
-]_llo &,.
spaces, spacesberweenlines,margins,and other mat-
tersof layout needto be consistent,if a wridng sryié
"lso These
hi gh i ntel l i gence,w here the
wr¡ters are having difficulty FF<:r
-¡rrreF-tr7-
<-'-/
is to be acceptable. skills do not alwayscomeeas- keepi ng up w i th thei r
ilx and it is thereforenecessary to determinethe factors thoughts. -\,,
t-\lP-C,&q+
,É", pro*ot. or hinder the development of efficient
E veni n young chi l dren,i t
w oul d not do to di smi ssa
ú^, MrMLte.
handwriting. There havebeenfew scientificstudies,so pi eceof w ork si mpl ybecause 1c T rteT
that claims about the 'best' kind of handwriting to it looked messy.Firstimpres-
sions of the extract (right) can-
reach,and the'best'wayro teachit, tend to be impres- not be good, but ¡n fact it is
sionistic,subiective, and conroversial. part of an extremely impres-
Of the many issuesraised,most attention hasbeen si vel i ngui sti cperformance- a
paidto the quesrionof writing posture'- the optimum 34-pageepi c narrati vei n ei ght
chapters,full of events and
positionof the body for writing. It includesa consider- characters,written bY Patrick,
ation ofsuch factorsashand position,finger grip, the aged 5i . (From D . Mackay& -.
angleofthe body towardsthe paper,and the heightof 5i mo, 1976.)
the writer's chair. Too low a chair, for example, can
causea rwisted hand position, which inhibits finger CHAPÍER SEVEN- IT WAs NOT.
ROY TOLD MARBELARTO STOF
movement, and thus Preventsthe formation of a free THE AIRCRAFTA MINITE SO THET
cursivd(p. 188)sryle.In addition,simplemanagement HE CUDE GET HIs GUN, TO PLAY

strategiesneedto be taught - suchasthe needto move WITH IN THE PLANE

the writing paperupwardsasone nearsthe bottom of a

page(ratherthan to move oneself,which is what some
childrendo). The type of writing implement and the P R OGR E S S
A MON TH ' S
kind of paperneedto be considered- a child may be A l though i ttakes a l ong (a) Severallettershapesare word spacesare well used.
unwilling to write with a certainkind of pen, or find it t¡me to control al l the fea- made well, butthere is a Linesare steadier,but there
difficult. The question of when to.introduce lined tures of handwriting, great deal of sizevariation (e, i s sti l l nee d for i mprov e-
monthl y sampl esof a chi l d's u, t), some contrastsare not ment i n the us eof l i ne
paper needscareful thought: iines help the child to w ork w i l l show severalsi gns clearlyformed (9, u, c),word spaces,an d i n the rel ati v e
control the direction and sizeofscript, but they also of progress.lt is not difficult and line spacesare erratic, positionsof letters on the
constrain the spontanetq, of a natural writing sryle. to seewhich of these two and the linesare not straight. l i ne (e-9.in goi ng, the s ec -
sampl es,taken a month ond g is written on a level
There may also be difficulty in transferring letter
apart from a S-year-oldgirl, (b) Lettersare of a more with the n, instead of
shapesfrom one visualplane (e.g.on a blackboard)to i s the more advanced. consistentsize, and are bet- descendingbelow it).
another (the page).And there may be problems of ter formed (there has been (FromD. Mac k ay & J . S i mo,
coordinationbetweeneyeand hand movements,espe- a notabl e advancei n g); 1976.)
cially if there has been little experienceof scribbling
and drawing. It is easyto seewhy it can take children
threeyearsor more to developa reasonablysmooth,
onr t -hc rhQ c nt C
1l
iné ^^^ñ
automaticwriting technique.
^
+f) o.Je\ OgOh oq \ -uhl5
H OL D I NG
A P E NCI L
T he nor m a l ' t r i p o d 'g r i p ( t o p ) ,
m afo-\b\ "^?" a" mummyw ent to the c üni ci ns teadof to
schoolthi smorni n g.
widely recommendedfor
everyday use,contrasted with a

flew co"ltA/'S
w^tr,qfr"k,t
lessefficient grip (bottom)-
Childrenoften useeven tighter
grips - h o l d i n gt h e p e n c i lí n a
clenchedfist, lor example.This r5
usuallyresultsin too much
pressureon the papet and an
go[hgr0 ho"\ f i3étPd.,rt¿T0
erraticwriting style.lt is also
unnec e s s a r itliyr i n g . we arehavinga new car this afternoonand
my grandmai sgoi ngto hav ea ri dei n i t.

{
 PART VII. CHi LD LA N GU A GE A C OU TS l I'ION

A FUNCTIONAL SKILL . Children may addressthemselves,as in diaries,

There is far more to writing than the automatic exer- notes,and first drafts.
ciseof a motor skill - a poini that hasbeenemphasized . They may addresstheir peers, as in writing an
in recent years,as researchers have begun to study the account of an event for their class,or writing a
developmentofwriting in relation to children'semerg- letterto a friend.
ing cognitive, social,and linguistic abilities, and to . They may addressa trusted adult, using a very
the demandsbeing made upon rhem by the curricu- personalsryleof writin g.
Ium. The unique role of written languageas a means . They may addresstheir teacher,seenasa partner in
of enabling children ro formulate their rhoughts to dialogue, in the expectation rhat they will receive
themselves,and to reflect on what they mean, is now help.
widely recognized.\Triting is seenas an integral part . They may addressexaminers,whether in routine
of the processof learning, and not simply as an ancil- classassessments or in formal examinations.
lary firnction - something ro be usedasa way of check- . They may addressan unknown audience,aswhen
ing that learning has acmally taken place (as in the they haveto producework for a public occasion,or
traditional subject essay).This view requires a more write a letterofapplicationfor a job. WRITINGBTOCKS
sophisticatedaccount of the nature of the writing pro-
All children (and adults)
cessthan has traditionally been available- in particu- In the Martin , et aL study,it wasfound that half of all ;;p;;i;;";t,"s btocks
at
lar, it requiresan appreciation that writing is usedfor school writing had the examinerin mind - writing sornetimeorother.Blocks
"used
a wide range of purposesand a variety of audiences seemedto be more asa meansof testing than as. :*:^31:::::ll:1""'on''
(p.2r4). means
oflearning.
In manysertings,
ir wasnotieingr..r, ][:lJfit#r? ff #fi!*
x partof thelearniog process,but assomething that hap- writing task,be ünsurehow
V/hywrite? pened afier learning was supposed to have taken place. to expresssomething.or sim-
The purpose of writing should never be taken for Mort oFih.oth.r r.idien.ee*periences
wereconspii,,ou: i,lu"T;lÍfilr;:::H::u*.,.
granted.One 5-year-old,returning from a nature ram- by their absence.The researchstressedthe imponance of suchcases,chiidrenneedto
ble with his class,was asked by his teacher to 'write giving children the opportuniry of writing for a wide behelpedovertheblock.rhe
about it'. '\7hy?' he replied. 'It's easierto tell you!' range ofaudiences, in view of the demands rhatwould be illus-
:y:1"11']:? .:lart
Adults tend to forget thar the 'obvious' reasonsfor a pracec
uponrnemonc€
tttr
rneyhadlefrschool,
andpoinred [:li*,
community's use of writing (S3l), may be quite to the need to develop a balanced writing curriculum. cultywith-ffi:..""tljJil:i,*,
the developrient
obscureto the young child. of a story. (From H. Cowie &
'Vhen the point is investigated,it quickly becomes
apparentthat writing is usedfor an inde6nitelylarge
number of purposes- to expressfeelings,tell stories,
*g¿ H. Hanrott, 1984.)

report events,completeforms, keeprecords,and much

more (S4). Children have to learn abour thesepur-
poses,and how the functional differencesaffeci the
nature of the languagethat is used.Severaisimple clas-
sificationsofwriting sryleshavebeenmade,asa means
of describingthe nature and developmentof children's
ffiqg*',#,@
Y,-qhH"-*lfu@ -""f,"r-:",!$.:j;
writing in school, and in order to give guidelines to -1 E'i\,$J! Fü-mt---/¡;r
teachersanxiousto developa balancedwriting curricu-
lum. One approachdistinguishesthree main sryles:an
\, -r--.-.,.
\W-/ ,)-
*¿e_-;-Iry/^-@
f-.--..-.-,/ .,4

fl--+I xegS@-*
'expressive'style, close in sryle and contenr to the l, W "léé -\-!
everydayuse of speech,which focuseson the writer's l^""**l
personalfeelings;a'rransacrional'sryle,which focuses
on reasoned,logical starement;and a poetic' sryle,
which presentsthe readerwith an imaginative experi-
ence.\(/hen üis systemis usedto analysethe narureof
k1--[m=-f',*ilim-,ry_
' \ + ñ )' , L . ----. ---J L / --r/ ? F /
L¿
traditionalwriting of older schoolchildren,ir emerges
that most of this writing is transactional,with expres-
sivewriting hardly being usedat all. (After N. Marrin et
al .,1 9 7 6. )

\7ho is the child writing for?

The sryle and content of wrinen language is much
affectedby the nature ofthe recipienr(S31), and an

@'h#Éb-v'g
important goal in working with children is thus to
developtheir 'senseofaudience'. Severalpossiblekinds

--
of audiencefor child writins havebeenidentified.

Wi,.:
.l"u
 4 4 . L ANGUAGE D E V E LOP ME N T IN S C H OOL

New apProaches
Basedupon such findings, severalways of fostering
childrent abiiity and enjoyment of writing have been
suggested. New writing Programmesencourageteach-
ers"ioprovide a varieryofreal audiencesand functions
for théir pupils'work, so that childrencan seethat their
writing hasa genuinepurPose,and that it is not being
done solely to be 'marked'. In addition to essaysand
exDerimentalreports,there are now increasingoppor-
,urriri", to writé in other srylesfor other audiences-
such as magazinearticles, or letters to the press' Many
teache¡shavebegun to keepa'chart' ofdifferent kinds
of writing produced by their pupils. And more atten-
tion is now paid to discussingsamplesof writing with
the children, both in groups and individually. It has
long beenappreciatedthat writing arisesout of talk, in
rhelarly years;perhaps the most important aspectof
current thinking is the realization that the reversepro-
cessis just asimportant - to givechildren the opPortu-
niry to talk about what they write.

A LIN GUIS T I C S K I LL
In addition to motor abiliry and functional awareness,
young writers need to develop the ability to use the
structures of language in an appropriate and matule
manner. This abiliry takes several years to emerge. givinghim falsepraise.
Marking conventions nize the strengths of differ-
There have been few detailed longitudinal (p. 23I) Recognizing the imPor- ent ki nds of w ri ti ng, and to In recentyearsthere has
studies, so that analysesin terms of developmental tanceof writinghasmanY provi de the best ki nd of beena greatdealof discus-
stagestend to be very generalo¡ anecdotal;but a num- consequences for the orga- feedback. One of the P rob- sionin educational circles
nizationand practice of l ems of tradi ti onal marki ng aboutthe needto develoP
bei of initial distinctions have been proposed. One pract¡cei s i l l ustrated i n thi s morebalancedand comPre-
teaching.lt isby no means
schemerecognizesfour stagesof development (after B. easyto providechildren example of a story wr¡tten hensivekindsof assess-
M. K¡o l l , 1 9 81) : with a rangeof audiences by a young secondarY - ment,in which¡nteract¡on
and purposes in the institu- school boy. The 20 correc- with the pupilplaysa major
tionalizedsettingof a ti ons gi ve a general part.Butmanytheoret¡cal
7 A preparatory stage,whenbasic motor skills develop, and practicalproblemshave
school.Linksneedto be i mpressi onof fai l ure, Y et
andihé principlesof the spellingsystemareacquired' madewith the outsidecom- the mark gi ven i s 70% and to be facedbefore alterna-
munity(e.9.localgovern- the mai n comment i s'w el l tive philosophies and
ment, press,or emPloYers). done'. Whi chever w aY the strategiesof markingcan
2 A consolidationstage, usually from around the seventh imple-
Butcreatingsuchlinksisa writer interprets the mark- be successfully
year,when children begin to use the writing systemto slowandtime-consuming i ng, there i s a probl em: i f he mented- not least,the con-
expresswhat they can alreadysayin speech'\Triting at process. notes the good mark, he straintson the teacher's
this stagecloselyreflectsthe patternsofthe spoken lan- More important,new must assumethat the errors time.(FromP.Gannon,
wayso{ responding to chil- cannot be very i mportant; i f 1985.)
g,rrg.. Íh.t may be many colloquialisms, strings of
dren'swork needto be he notes the errors, he must
clauseslinked by and" unfinished sentences,and other found,in orderto recog- assumethat the teacher i s
featuresof the child's conversationalexperience.

3 A dffi renti ati 0n stage,fro m around the ninth yea¡ i n
which writing begins to diverge from speech, and
developsits own patterns and organization. Errors are
.o**ón at first, as chiidren learn new standards,and
experiment with new structuresfound in their reading.
Their written work becomesfuller and more diverse,as
they encounter the need to produce different kinds of
writing for different audiencesand situations.
It is at this point that children most need guidance
about the structuresand functions ofwritten language.
In particular, they must learn that writing aids think-
ing in ways that speechcannot perform. Writing is a
medium where there is time to reflect, to re-think, to
uselanguageas away ofshaping thought (SS3l, 34)
They therefore need to seethe importance of drafting,
revising, and editing asessentialways of obtaining the
best expression.From this point ofview, such activities
..osJing out haveto be seennot simply as'mistakes',
"r but
to be criticizedon groundsofhaste or carelessness,
as an indispensablestep in the searchfor the best
expressionof what children aretrying to say.
4 The íntegration phaseis found when writers have
such a good command of languagethat they can Yary
their srylistic choices at will and develop a personal
voice' - something which is rare before the middle
teenage years, and which, in a sense, continues to
develop throughout adult life.