Child Language Acquisition Essay Example for Free

Child Language Acquisition Essay Linguistically, both of these infants are at different stages of their language development. The lexical choices made by each child can show what stage they are at in developing their language and applying it to situations and conversations. Sophies use of the word Bissie, meaning biscuit shows that she hasnt quite been able to pronounce the sound therefore makes an alternative word up that sounds similar, that is understandable by the childs carer/parent, but is easier to say than biscuit. Other lexical choices Sophie uses, tend to be commanding words, such as me want No. As the child is young, she realises to get what she wants; she has to ask for it and by using the commanding words, she is airing the fact that she wants something to her parent/carer. According to Hallidays functions, this language is regulatory, as well as being instrumental. She is controlling the behaviour of others (telling Fran that she doesnt want to tidy the dolls house) and she is obtaining material needs (wanting a biscuit). Katharine has grasped the concept of pronouns. She uses the personal pronoun I to refer to herself Now Ill do Jason, and she can even use we as the collective term for her and her mum together We do Jason again shall we? Sophies sentences have basic structure to them, as she voices what she needs to say, in the simplest way to say it. They are quite short, and to the point. Her language acquisition is at the stage where she knows how to communicate, speak and use words in a simple sentence to voice what she wants. Mary come me, meaning Can Mary come and play with me, is a very simple form of the sentence, but still communicates to her mum what she wants to do. She uses me instead of I to refer to herself. This confusion of pronoun usage is common among young children. Some of the words she uses, she omits the prefixes of the sounds, such as nother instead of another. This makes it easier to say, and shortens what she says. Katharine on the other hand, who is involved in an activity, is communicating with her mum using more structured sentences. Her mum is constantly questioning what she is doing (Skinners theory of reinforcement and imitation (response)) Wheres his body? then Katharine replies; Deres his legs, touching his mouf. The pronunciation of the words isnt as important as the fact that she is constructing sentences and answering questions herself. A word such as there has a consonant cluster at the beginning which is hard to say for young children, therefore they change the pronunciation, so it still sounds like there but is easier to pronounce. She understood the question her mum was asking, and actually understood it was a question, maybe because of the intonation her mum wouldve had in her voice. This shows that she is capable enough with language to turn take, in a small conversation with her mum, talking about a subject/activity. This shows that her language acquisition is slightly more advanced than Sophies, as Sophie doesnt turn take, she doesnt answer questions either, she asks them and is at the stage of using why as a questioning word. Sophies conversation with her mum doesnt flow like Katharines, it is full of statements and commands rather than a question answer structure. Turn taking is apparent in both these conversations as the parents are initiating the conversation and getting the children to talk, causing no interruptions. Sophies utterance lengths are longer than Katharines on average, but the fact that Katharine is involved in an activity has an affect on her utterances, due to concentration. Comparing the utterance lengths, Katharines are more advanced with the syntax structure, as her sentences make more grammatical sense than Sophies. This doesnt make Sophie incorrect in her structure, she is just at a different stage of language acquisition than Katharine, and she is in the middle of developing her sentences. Age isnt a factor in language development, as every child is different. Katharines mother uses tag questions, such as; isnt it? This encourages Katharine to answer her mum. Katharine does also use tag questions herself, to get a response from her mum, shall we. She has probably learnt how to use tag questions from listening to the way her mum speaks. This is quite advanced for a child as it shows they use a different way of getting a response, rather than just saying why or using commands. She also uses encouraging sounds, which is back channel behaviour; uhuh and mmhu, to show she is listening and taking in what Katharine is saying. Sophies carer/parent however doesnt use tag questions and neither does Sophie. The conversation between the child and parent/carer is very simple and uses statements rather than questions, encouraging Sophie to talk. It is just a short conversation, with Sophie controlling it, rather then the parent/carer trying to encourage her to talk and say things. Of course, the pragmatics behind the conversations are for the parents/carers to get the children to speak and further their knowledge and understanding of the language. It is merely to get them to practice speaking, so they acquire language. There is a large difference between the two conversations, as they are in different environments (the contexts are different), with the children taking part in different situations. This is a factor which affects their language use and the way they use it in the context. After considering all of the factors to do with both conversations, I have come to the conclusion that Katharine is more linguistically developed and seems to be at a more advanced stage of language acquisition than Sophie. Katharine has a wider knowledge of the language and applies it to a conversation better than Sophie, as her sentences are constructed better and flow well.

Existentialism in Catcher in the Rye Essays -- Catcher Rye Essays

Existentialism in Catcher in the Rye The Catcher in the Rye creates an existentialist out of Holden Caulfield by giving him a strong personal opinion, a different sense of view, and isolation. Holden's individuality and his different way of thinking creates within him an Existentialist that refuses to accept weakness but holds sympathy for the weak and vulnerable. The basis for these beliefs lies within the most commonly identifiable theme of existentialism, which states that the philosophy stresses the concrete individual existence along with the individual freedom and choice. It also stands on the idea of moral individualism, in which one must choose his own way without the aid of universal, objective standards. His views also coincide with those of many famous people who have shared the same ideas, including Pascal, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche. The Catcher in the Rye demonstrates existentialism by having the main character, Holden Caulfield, isolate himself from a world full of "p...

Education On Health Promotion Essay

Q. 1 Validity is said to be the power to convince about the conclusions that have been found. It is the strength that the conclusion has to convince others on the facts that have been outlined. There are said to be four types of validity namely external, conclusion, construct and internal validity (http://www. brainyquote. com). The external validity is about the ability to generalize the findings to other settings, the conclusion looks for a relationship between the outcomes and the program, the construct validity determines the presence of a relationship between concepts in a study and an actual casual relationship and finally the internal validity looks for the relationship between the study object and the outcomes of the study. On the other hand, reliability is said to be the ability to get the same results over and over again when performing the same test at different times (http://www. asiamarketresearch. com). It is said to estimate how consistent your measurements are. For a tool of measurement to be reliable, it has to give the same results when used at different times by different people to measure the same thing. It can be tested through using different questions that measure the same thing to see if the answers are consistent while the test/retest method means getting the same findings for the same test done at different times but under the same conditions. Validity and reliability will be used in the dissertation to test the conclusion. First checking on the reliability of the tools of measurements does this. This ensures that the data provided for the study is to be trusted as being correct. It also helps eliminate the data that contains some inconsistencies. Once all the reliable data has been compiled, it can then be used to arrive at some conclusion. This conclusion will be valid if all the measurements that have been done have involved the data that was supposed to be measured. If one has been using the correct data using reliable tools then the conclusion will be a valid one. The correct questions have to be asked in relation to the topic and the measurement tools have to be reliable for the conclusion to be valid. Q. 2 When starting a project one begins with choosing a topic on which to research on (http://www. ri. net/schools/East_Greenwich/research. html). This topic should not be too general as to include subjects that are not relevant to the researcher instead it should be very specific on what is to be research on. When choosing a topic, one uses the tool of research called the â€Å"human mind†. This is because a topic is chosen according to how the researcher perceives the surroundings and thus requires reasoning and analyzing which uses the brain. Next is gathering the relevant background information concerning the topic. This can be done through the use of the computer and its software. It is done to get the most basic information on the chosen topic. This information can be supplemented by the use of the library where one can find encyclopedias among other sources. This information is used to refine the chosen topic (http://www. ri. net/schools/East_Greenwich/research. html). If there is need to change the research topic it is done now. After revisiting your topic, you now need to gather the information needed. This is done by the use of the computer and the library. This information is then supplemented by fieldwork, which uses different methods of gathering information. This is done to confirm or challenge the statistics gotten from the library and computer software. While conducting the field research, one has to estimate the reality of the tools of measurement so as to ensure the information gotten is correct and in the process eliminate those, which contain errors after this is done, the information is coded and analyzed. The information is now ready for use to get the conclusion and then organize it to be able to write it in a way that the reader will understand. When it comes to the writing part, the language to be used has to be chosen carefully. It has to be a language accessible to all the presumed readers. The research is then written and is used to justify the problem statement and why the project should be undertaken. The conducting of a research and writing of a dissertation are the actual start of a project. This is because they justify the reason why the project can now start. All the six tools of research are used to ensure that the information provided in the research is reliable and valid. One can only gain experience in the use of these tools by conducting many researches. By writing dissertations and research papers, one ahs to use these tools and in so doing gets a lot of experience in their use. Over time one gets to learn how to use the various tools. When it comes to computers, one has to solicit the help of computer experts an also using the help icon in the computer. For a researcher, it is very useful to join research projects as an assistant researcher. This ensures that one gains a lot of experience and by working with an expert researcher one is able to pick up quite a number of tricks in the research field. Also as a research assistant, one does a lot of work and so is able to come up with new and more effective ways of using the tools of research. On top of this, one is able to choose which tools they can use best and which ones they need to work on to understand how they are used. To learn to be an expert researcher, one can only go through the above mentioned process of first becoming a research assistant. The expert researcher has to be able to use the six tools of research namely the human mind, the computer and its software, the statistics, the traditional library, tools of measurement and the language facility. It one has gone through the process of becoming a research assistant, there is knowledge gained from constant use of the tools and one can then be able to decide which tools they are most comfortable using. All the tools are important and necessary to any researcher but the order of importance assigned to each tool is what differs from researcher to researcher. It is only through experience of having worked on many research projects does one become competent in the use of all the tools and so that is what any novice researcher concentrates more on. Q. 3 The dissertation topic is education on health promotion.  From the interview with the researcher, I have learned how to use the six tools of research in the dissertation topic. By using the human mind, the topic, which is education on health promotion, was chosen. Using the computer and its software, the topic will be researched on and the basic knowledge gathered. Since the topic has enough materials to be used, it will not be changed. The information is then supplemented with that from the traditional library. After the topic has been re-affirmed, the field information will be collected and this will be done by using tools of measurement that are reliable (http://www. ih. gov/news/researchtools/). Once the information has been collected, it is then analyzed, cleaned and coded. The findings will now be used in writing the paper. When writing the paper the language to be used has to be that which the targeted readers can understand. When writing one has to avoid plagiarism and ensuring that any information from other sources is cited will do this. The paper must be in the proper format and should include all the parts of a project paper. The conclusion will have to support the topic and reason for the research. It will therefore have to support education on health promotion

ISIS Definition - Islamic State of Iraq and Syria