Table of Contents:

1) Introduction i) Introduction......2 ii) Hypothesis2 iii) Methodology...............................................3 2) Analysis i) Lexis and Semantics..4 ii) Discourse.....7 iii) Grammar......9 iv) Graphology.15 v) Pragmatics.17 3) Conclusion i) Answering Hypothesis..19 ii) Innate Language and Cognitive Development.20 iii) Differences Between the Ability Levels.20 iv) Summary21 4) Media Text i) Media Text Style Model...22 ii) Media Text.23 5) Appendices (25 end) i) Cartoon Images. ii) Vocabulary Count.. iii) Transcription Data. iv) Written Data v) National Assessment Criteria.. vi) Student Friendly APP Writing Assessment Focuses.. 6) Bibliography

An Investigation into child language acquisition: Are there significant differences in ability between children in the same school year in terms of spoken and written language?
Introduction This investigation concerns the differences in both speech and writing between children of the same age but different genders and abilities. It goes without saying that there will be noticeable variations but hopefully, through analysis of the grammatical constructs and orthography of the gathered data it will be possible to show the different challenges that language acquisition poses to individuals, particularly in the transition between spoken and written language. It may be considered that the differences are the products of different rates of cognitive development (Piaget) and that there are set hierarchies in the order in which certain skills are achieved (Barclay), particularly in terms of the development of a personal voice and conforming fully to the structure of narrative. Hypothesis I propose that the leap from grasping a concept to the point where an individual can express it through speech and mapping that concept into written language is very significant, particularly at a young age. The question as to whether or not spoken language is innate in its nature, (Vygotsky and Piaget offer conflicting theories on this topic), means that speech may or may not be a particularly challenging development, whereas writing must always be specifically taught. This should mean that speech, whilst containing minor errors such as self-correction and repetition, should be more correct in terms of obeying the rules which surround the components and construction of noun and verb phrases, using coherent tenses and identifying the narrative as a whole using temporal connectives. I also plan to investigate the pragmatic factors which pose difficulties for individuals and govern the rate of cognitive development in children as I believe this has a great bearing on how language is taught and to what extent this teaching is effective. I expect: y Written language to be more accurate in terms of obeying grammatical rules than spoken language in each individual y Both the spoken and written language of the children in the higher bands to be more accurate and expressive than that of the less able children y Total word count (both spoken and written) to be higher in the lower ability bands and the spoken word count to be generally higher than the written y The development of synonyms and an increasing range used as ability improves as opposed to simply using core vocabulary y More grammatical errors in the lower ability bands in terms of the construction of verb and noun phrases in both spoken and written language y Examples of self-correction both in speech and writing but to a lesser extent in the higher ability bands y Less dependency on image-text (discourse) cohesion in the higher ability children and therefore they will be less context bound

More examples of explicit stylistic choice to reflect context and audience seen in the language of the higher band children

Methodology The methodology for gathering data for this investigation will involve going into the primary school local to my sixth form (St Columbas Catholic Primary School) and interviewing (with permission) six children from the year 4 class (ages 8-9), this I have decided is an appropriate representative sample of a class of twenty. I will interview a boy and a girl from each ability band (as determined by the teacher assessment based on the National Assessment Criteria for reading and writing) in the hope of maintaining the validity of the data as a fair test by collecting a varied enough sample that it predicts and overcomes anomalies including extraneous variables such as individual problems with language development and differences between the genders. The collection of spoken and written data should show any such instances as an anomaly. There is a possibility of committing a Type I error in my research (Chi Square) although the format in which my numerical data is presented allows for a direct interpretation and thus this risk is reduced, meaning my data is of statistical significance. Each child will be interviewed individually (to make sure their response is unique and to reduce the risk of distractions) and will be presented with six images, the images will be the same for each child in the interest of maintaining a fair test and to ensure that the results are comparable. The images form a cartoon about two gender neutral characters, a dog and a bird. This neutrality is necessary to avoid excluding any individual or group. The children will then be asked to speak the story which I will record live using a Dictaphone with minimal prompting again to ensure their response is not impacted upon by external factors. Finally each child will be asked to write down the narrative. The most pressing problem of data collection concerns the anonymity of the individuals although their consent was requested and given. Consequently the children will be referred to as: Male/Female (M/F) followed by the ability band they are currently in (1/2/3).

Analysis: Lexis/Semantics
The lexical constructs of English become increasingly complicated as young children expand the range of things they wish to express. This incurs an increase in the overall word count as they originally use many common words to get across an idea to a receiver, whereas further development will allow them to find synonymous words that will reduce the overall word count as they become more fluent. Hence I have begun with a simple word count:
Candidate M1 F1 F2 M2 M3 F3 Speech 27 38 84 67 67 68 Written 23 29 41 53 41 55

A graph to show the differences in number of words used between spoken and written language and the number of fillers used in spoken language by the different children

The graph shows that the two lower band children use considerably fewer words to outline the story than those in the higher bands. This could be considered to be an indication of a more developed skill, (the ability to condense the given information and produce a concise narrative), however, as can be seen in the spoken transcripts and written data, they explain it in incredibly simplistic terms compared to those of the higher bands. As I predicted, the number of words used then increases substantially into the middle band as the children use multiple simple, core vocabulary words to express a concept and then the numbers fall again in the higher band as a greater variety of synonyms are used to replace a chain of core vocabulary words. M1: they fall M2: they look like theyre going to be flying F3: they zoomed down the hill This could be because many examples of early childrens literature begin by using the core vocabulary before extending the use of synonyms. This would reflect the position of the individual children within the school reading scheme because the class teacher thought that the lower band children progressed more slowly through the books compared to those in the higher band, so they would not have had the same degree of exposure to synonymous language and therefore will not have the same range of vocabulary. The research of Piaget may also have an influence here because, in the early stages, children will have simple ideas and express them using equally simple lexis, then, they begin to want to express more complex ideas but before their linguistic skills develop beyond the core vocabulary and finally they develop linguistically so that more complex ideas are expressed eloquently. Lexical Choices There is a clear progression in terms of the lexical choice of verb, for example the lower band children use common verbs such as falling and flying, whereas the girl in the higher band, specifically selects the word zoomed, which is onomatopoeic and originates from the semantic field of racing, to better express the speed at which the characters are travelling before they crash into the tree. Interestingly, in her written narrative she uses, they started to ride down the hill instead, this suggests that she used zoomed as a colloquial term within her spoken language but uses more formal lexis when writing. It could be concluded from this that F3 is the only child demonstrating an awareness of stylistic requirements and is therefore at a higher level of development than the other children, despite being of the same age. M (L3): but they went so fast they bumed into a tree In F3s writing there is also an indication of cause and effect, went so fast, which creates a clear link in terms of reasons for events. This is not seen in any of the other childrens writing or speech. Connectives Development through the ability levels could also be said to be shown through the progression from simple connectives such as and to an effective combination of temporal connectives such as then. And is seen first in speech and not in writing, in the children in the lower band, secondly, and is always seen in the spoken language of the children in the middle band but not in the written language, then is used once by the boy in this band. Finally, a combination of the two connectives is used by the children at the top end. This combination demonstrates an acknowledgement of the need for appropriate links, including for events to be linked in terms of chronological order according to the images, and makes the narrative more flowing. F3 and M2 go further to add: 5

M2: when he got to the top This gives further indication of the order in which events occurred.

Comparison between spoken and written word and vocab counts

Name M1 F1 F2 M2 M3 F3 Spoken 19 25 33 33 31 36 Written 13 20 24 28 27 29

The table above shows a comparison of the spoken and written vocabulary count of the different children (see Appendices for full count). This shows a strong positive correlation between increasing ability and breadth of vocab. This explains the larger number of words used by children in the lower bands because they are using core simple vocabulary to express complex ideas. The lower band children also required similar numbers of words to express the same narrative in spoken and written contexts whereas the higher band children are more inclined to summarise the story in written form. This could be due to a developed cognitive ability to retain the information from the pictures and remember it as a continuous narrative, as opposed to the two lower band children who still referred back to each picture before writing. This also suggests a use of elaborate code (Bernstein) by the stronger candidates as they feel it necessary to explain all the content because they are consciously constructing a narrative with an awareness of the potential lack of shared knowledge of the picture content with an audience wider than just the teacher. In contrast, the children in the lower bands demonstrate a greater use of restricted code as they are recounting information only to the teacher without acknowledging the possibility of a wider audience.

Analysis: Discourse
Non- Fluency Features A graph to show the number of fillers used by each candidate as a percentage of the total word count
Fillers (%) 20 15 10 5 0 M1 F1 F2 M2 M3 F3 Fillers (%)

There is a natural level of non-fluency in the spoken language of most individuals, however, particularly the use of fillers is more common than average in the language predominantly used by the lower band children. This could be because they require more time to develop and link their ideas before they express them. For example: M1: er (1.0) erm (.) Although, there are alternative explanations for this including the fact that some of the children may be more nervous than others when coming into a new situation and interacting with a new teacher figure. They would possibly be more fluent given a more familiar situation. It should also be noted that at the higher end there is a small regress into the use of fillers. This may be because more complex ideas and links are being established as well as acknowledging the normal levels of non-fluency in spoken language although it may also simply be an anomaly in the data as it is only seen in one pupil. These fillers may also represent a lack of fluency and confidence in expression. However, these have not been included in the table as part of the overall word count because they cannot be considered to be lexemes in their own right. There are also other features of non-fluency in spoken language including consecutive repetition of a simple noun phrase; this seems an almost subconscious method of filling the time as they form the next image into a spoken concept just like fillers.

Narrative Structure

As there are clear stylistic choices, there is some suggestion that a narrative structure, (Labov (1972) and Hoey (2005)) has been recognised as the style required. Hoey suggests, within the theory of lexical priming, that language users will expect certain lexical patterns at certain points in the discourse structure. To conclude a story it is typical to use the narrative motif the end and whilst none of the children said this it was written by Kane (L3). This is the coda (end signal) expressed in Labovs theory of narrative structure, and all the children conform to the structure of evaluation, narrative, result despite there being differences in the ability to tell a coherent story in terms of tense and connectives. I would have expected to possibly see more of these motifs because it was clearly emphasised to each child that they were to tell a story and narrative has a very well established position within childhood development. From a very young age parents read to their children and often turn everyday activities into a story or adventure in order to effectively engage the childs attention and develop their creative and imaginative abilities. The types of story told will vary between families and cultures but particularly in Western society many children have some experience of the traditional fairytales written by the brothers Grimm and most modern adaptations of these conclude with the phrase, and they all lived happily ever after. The End. Consequently, this becomes an expected part of the discourse surrounding narratives, however, it does require specific recognition of purpose and this is clearly lacking in the lower ability children.

Analysis: Grammar
Sentence types In the lower bands the sentences are predominantly compound in the form of utterances which are linked by co-ordination in both speech and writing: Compound: M1 (S): falling (.) and (1.0) er (1.0) erm (.) the dogs (2.0) bouncing off (.) and (.) they fall F1 (S): walking up the hill with (.) with the bird and a (.) thing on his head F2 (W): the dog and the bird go up the hill and the dog has got his bowl on his head Although, in the spoken and written data of M1 simple sentences are dominant with few examples of links between single clause utterances: Simple: M1 (S): the dogs saying hello M1 (W): The dog is say alolo This suggests that there may be a problem with the individuals learning ability as his written language is undeveloped compared to that of the other children in terms of an understanding of the need to establish links between separate ideas in order to create an effective narrative that is fit for purpose. Although he does not have any learning difficulties so it may be simply due to having a more introvert personality. This would mean that his involvement in the classroom environment would be lessened and so his participation would be reduced, meaning that his ability to acquire and develop skills such as clause linkage would be restricted. M1 and F1 in the lower band both use a combination of simple and poorly formed compound sentences, although greater fluency can be seen as the ability of the child progresses. This could be attributable to the fact that this follows the developing stages of childrens literature, from simple to compound to complex. In the middle ability level examples of subordination begin to emerge: M2 (S): to the birds house and then (.) and then (.) he goes down the tree M3 (S): on its head and they walking up the hill (.) and then he sat in the bowl However, this is applied with greater success in spoken language and actually leads to a number of errors in written language as the child repeats either the entire or the latter part of the phrase as a separate single clause utterance, or occasionally a word within the phrase, although this could be considered to be a natural degree of self-correction for children at this stage of development. M2 (W): When he got to the top he sat in his bol. Then he sat in his bowl. F3 (W): when when they got to the top they got in it

These complex sentence forms also become increasingly fluent with ability; this is because subordination is a skill which is acquired at a later stage and develops as the childs grasp of language improves and the complexity of the ideas they wish to express increases. Interestingly, here the children have more success in constructing subordinate clauses in written as opposed to spoken language, although this could be because they have more time to convert their thoughts into conveyable language, possibly suggesting some degree of a conscious desire to use technically correct and developed language. Noun Phrases
Number of pronouns used Spoken Written 0 3 6 7 9 8

Candidate M1 F1 F2 M2 M3 F3

0 1 4 8 5 4

The table above shows the extent to which pronouns are used by the different children in order to avoid repeating simple noun phrases. There is a clear difference between the ability levels in that the children in the lower bands repeat the head noun and determiner as opposed to using pronouns as anaphoric referencing. Perera (1984) suggested that this was a sign of immaturity in consecutive sentences. This is clearest in the writing of the lower band boy: M1: The dog is say alolo The dog is wrog bul The dog is ongoigon the is is sholg is besg dog is snolp The use of a pronoun to avoid repetition of the head noun could also be said to be sue to the development of audience awareness which again is a skill that seems to develop according to ability.

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A graph to show the greatest length of noun phrase and the number of instances of pre and post modification occurring in the spoken and written language of each candidate.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Name Jack Mia M1 (L2) F1 (L2) Wiktoria Kane (L3) F2 M2 (L3) Caden M3 (L4) Molly (L3) F3 Longest Noun Phrase

Written
Pre- modification

Written
Post- modification

Written

The graph demonstrates that competency in developing more complex noun phrases comes with an increase in ability, particularly in written language, although, the girl in the middle band displays a surprising degree of grammatical competency for her ability level. It can also be seen that, whilst most of the children use pre-modification (mostly in the form of prepositional phrases), post-modification is only used in a limited form by F3 and M3 in the higher band and only the girl uses it in both speech and writing. This suggests that post-modification of noun phrases is a more highly developed skill and, as the boy uses it only in writing, it requires more thought on the part of the child. F3 says that the bucket is on the dogs head: F3: so that they they could ride down Correct and consistent pronoun usage also seems to improve with ability because, the boy in the lower band uses consistent and correct pronouns in his spoken narrative, there are no pronouns at all in his written work and he completely ignores the presence of a secondary character, repeating the phrase the dog. This could be linked to childrens literature because in the most simplistic book the head noun and determiner are repeated with each new action. However, pronoun usage becomes more extensive as the ability level increases, most likely this is in order to avoid repetition of the head noun. Despite this improvement there are still examples of inconsistencies, for example: M2: I think that the dog is talking to a bird and then (.) the bird is showing it way to somewhere So there is recognition of the secondary character however he goes on to say: M2: hes (.) hes going all the way down (.) and hes (.) got his bowl (.) he looks like hes going to be flying then he crashes into the (.) the tree

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In the second section M3 has forgotten the presence of the bird, (indicated by his use of the singular rather than the plural form of the pronoun), and stated that only the dog is committing the action even though it is clear that the bird is in each image. Finally full and correct pronoun usage is achieved as can be seen in the written and transcription of a child in the higher band: F3: a duck (.) a dog and a duck wanted to take a ride (.) a sledge ride down the hill so they walked up the hill and the dog carried the (.) erm (.) the bucket on his (.) head so that they they could ride down (.) when when they got to the top they got in it and they zoomed down the hill and they went so fast they crashed into a tree The girl has recognised that there are two characters and the dog commits some actions alone and some with the bird.

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Verb Phrases
Catenative verbs Spoken Written intended0 0 actual-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 Modal auxiliary verbs spoken written intended0 0 actual-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

Candidate M1* F1 F2 M2 M3 F3

The correct position of the verb within the sentence is better understood by the children in the higher bands and it becomes clear which character is committing which action. This is a clear progression from simply using the appropriate words and reflects a developing understanding of the internal structure of verb phrases. The phrases also become more complex including components such as modal auxiliaries and catenative verbs. There is also some use of adverbs by the children in the higher band: F3 (spoken): the dog carried the (.) erm (.) bucket on his head so they could ride down F3 (spoken): a dog and a duck wanted to take a ride F3: they went so fast they crashed into a tree These add more detail to the story and offer a better explanation of why the events occur. They are a narrative construct not seen in the work of the lower children as it demonstrates a stronger grasp of verb phrases and the function they have in a sentence giving an inference of cause and effect. The children nearly always recognize the need for a verb to express the action occurring in each image but often, particularly in writing, it is then left as a minor sentence or the sentence is left unconcluded. M (L2): flyin of a hil the noun has been ignored K (L3): then the berd shon him haw to get up the. again the noun is negated but this cannot be considered an independent sentence

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Tenses
Simple present verbs Spoken Written intended1 0 actual-1 0 0 6 4 0 0 0 0 0 2 Present active verbs Spoken Written intended5 5 actual-1 6 6 0 1 6 0 3 0 0 0 Past tense verbs Spoken Written intended0 0 actual-0 0 0 0 0 0 5 5 5 7 7

Candidate M1* F1 F2 M2 M3 F3

* This childs writing is poor (see Analysis: Orthography) Hence the difference between what he thinks he has written (intended) and what is actually written (actual)

The table above demonstrates the verb tenses used by the different children, those in the lower band tend towards using the present tense either in its simple or continuous form: M1: they fall M1: the dogs saying hello It could be said that this demonstrates that they understand the events to be occurring as they look at each image, it is also a reflection of the style in which early childrens books are written. The use of the present tense is consistent in the lower band but Kane in the middle band begins to mix the tenses using some past tense verbs but only in his written narrative. This could be an indication of the pictures being read in the present tense but then when he writes the story afterwards it automatically occurs in the past tense, but only when this aspect of tense is deliberately considered by the child, leading to the mixed tenses. A lesser degree of combined tenses is found in the higher levels which implies a greater degree of control although it still occurs here. This is possibly because more advanced childrens literature is written in the past tense so the children automatically incorporate this into their stylistic choices when creating narrative. There is a clear progression in use of the past tense according to ability although there is still some room for improvement in the higher band. This stylistic use of tenses could also be said to indicate the beginnings of the development of a narrative register and a personal voice.

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Analysis: Graphology
Image- Text Cohesion The graphology of the written pieces is relatively constant in that nearly all are presented as a block of text. The exception to this is the writing of the lowest band boy who has written about each picture on a separate line and accompanied it with an illustration of a dog. This could be because early childrens fiction has this format and the image-text cohesion is vital to the childs understanding of the story, (De Loach and De Mendoza (1987) suggested the importance of images as related to context in a young childs cognitive development), whereas fiction for older children retains the simplistic language and grammar but presents it as a whole text and the need for illustrations is lessened. Orthography All the written texts conform to the conventions of English Language to a recognisable degree, even in the case of the weakest pupil whose writing is, to some degree, illegible. Despite Stephen Pinkers argument (1994) which proposes that spoken language in innate factor common to all societies whereas written language is a developed technology, Goodman (1989) implies that the consistent conformity to basic concepts of written language could be because the development of initial literacy is a product of a childs awareness of the forms and functions of written language, as well as their integrated experience as talkers, before they enter mainstream education.

Candidate M1 F1 F2 M2 M3 F3

Word Count 23 29 41 53 41 55

Correct Spelling (%) 61 66 100 83 100 95

Phonetic spelling (%) 22 28 0 15 0 4

Missed double letter (%) 0 7 0 2 0 0

Unrecogniseable (%) 17 0 0 0 0 2

Naturally, as the table shows, there is a clear progression in terms of spelling and letter formation as ability levels increases. This is due to the fact that the skill of mapping spoken concepts into fully formed written language requires a higher degree of cognitive development than simply expressing the concept through spoken language and this is one of the criteria by which the children are placed into appropriate ability bands. It would appear that there is a strong correlation between hand-writing ability and spelling ability which is most likely due to the fact that the child develops a visual and motor memory of the form a word should take and consequently their ability to reproduce it correctly improves. For example the spelling of standing compared between two girls in consecutive bands: M (L2): Sdandn W (L3): Standing
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Here it can be clearly seen that the lower band girl is using phonetic spelling whereas the girl in the higher band has learned the correct spelling associated with the idea. The variety in degree of success when combining graphemes is interesting because, if we consider phonemes and graphemes to be roughly equal in terms of the building blocks of spoken and written language, there should be either similar issues when combining phonemes to produce the correct sound or spelling should be at a much higher level. The actuality of the situation complies with Vygotskys theory of second order symbolism, whereby a child first learns the phonemes with which to construct spoken language and then develops an understanding of the correctly associated graphemes, which can then be formed into written images. Some of the words, particularly in the handwriting of the lowest band boy are completely unrecognisable, although it can be seen that he is using the simplistic tools of letter formation, i.e. Ball and stick graphemes. This develops with ability until an individual style of hand-writing is developed and the letters become consistent and recognisable. Barclay (1996) shows that there are seven stages of child writing skills and this child would be considered to be between stages 4 and 5, (conventional letters stage and invented spelling stage), because, whilst some of his spelling is accurate or recognisable, some of it is completely illegible and appears made up although he still reads it as words. Whereas the other children, (including the girl in the lower band), would be more appropriately placed between bands six and seven, (the appropriate/phonetic stage and the correct stage). A similar comparison is given by Kroll (1981) suggesting that, as they are, all the children in my study, due to their age, should be at the consolidation stage where they have mastered handwriting despite some examples of more colloquial spelling such as. However, Kroll could be critiqued because his band descriptors are far more wideranging and inclusive than the very specific criteria used by Barclay. This could be said to make Barclays system more precise and therefore more able to create an accurate distinction between the children in my particular study, (this may be different in other cases), because they are all of the same age. F1: Flyin However it appears that M1 would be more accurately place in the preparatory stage as he has no visual memory of the correct sequence and formation of graphemes required to make certain words.

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Analysis: Pragmatics
Functions of Written Language Both the speech and writings of the children comply with Hallidays functions of language, which include: y y y y y y y Instrumental: Expresses needs Regulatory: Instructs others Interactional: Used to make contact for relationship purposes Personal: Expresses feelings, opinions and personal identity Heuristic: Requests information about environment Imaginative: Constructs an imaginary environment Representational: Conveys facts or information

To illustrate this point; the lower level children use purely simple declarative sentences with regard to each picture individually, for example: M1: the dog is saying hello (Representational) Then there is a progression to requesting unknown information in order to further develop their own contribution, (heuristic): F2: what is it? (.) a bird Finally they can extract information from the images independently and begin to build connections and explanations that link them: M2: the bird is showing it way to somewhere and then its (.) to the (.) to the birds house (Imaginative) This final piece of information is not given or implied in any of the pictures, (in fact it is the dog that is pointing), but it shows creative thinking on the part of the child because he could not see an alternative explanation. The language used by the children can be seen to predominantly conform to three main types, representational, heuristic and imaginative. This suggests that, whilst there are, as Halliday suggests, clearly distinguishable functions of language, within these types there is a strong sense of hierarchy. Children progress from conveying pieces of information; to requesting the information they need to express themselves in greater detail and finally using their own knowledge and that gained from others to create an effective narrative. So, whilst the information extracted is not always accurate and the children interpreted the images differently, the ability to form the chain of images into a consistent narrative represents a higher degree of cognitive development. The fact that it is no longer simply an informative statement suggests that there is a developing awareness of the purpose and structures of narrative, i.e. to entertain and illustrate as well as inform. The creative element then conforms to the expectations of the audience and allows the individual to develop a personal voice in terms of aspects they choose to emphasise and the amount of detail they extract
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and relay. The leap from informative to creative is crucial because it indicates acknowledgement of a need to draw on stylistic choices creating variations in language use.

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Conclusion
The crux of this analysis was to investigate the differences between spoken and written language in terms of ability, gender and social context. In terms of language ability this part of my hypothesis has been answered because there are clear differences in the data between those in different ability bands (as determined by the teacher). This was fully expected and it would have indicated an anomaly in the data if it had been otherwise. In my hypothesis I suggested that there would necessarily be a significant degree of cognitive development between grasping a concept to the point that it can be discussed in spoken form and then mapping it into written language. The data does show some lag between the spoken and written language of individuals but more significant is the clear difference between those in different ability bands. This is in terms of the grasp of English grammatical strictures, (including the structure of verb and noun phrases), the amount of words used to express similar ideas, the extent to which synonyms were used to replace core vocabulary and the ability to construct a consistent and flowing narrative. Improvement in all these areas came with the increasing ability assessments made by the teacher. My hypothesis also states that speech should contain a greater degree of natural errors but should also be more correct in terms of obeying grammatical rules. This point may be considered to have been disproven as the lag displayed within individuals is not particularly significant except in the lowest band where the child assumes that their written language expresses their thoughts correctly, despite it being unrecognisable as English. Despite this obvious difference, this cannot be considered a universal difficulty at this stage of development and may instead be interpreted as the impact of factors concerning only the individual, for example a lack of willingness to partake in class activities due to a shy demeanour. It can therefore be disregarded in terms of the investigation as a whole. The consideration of the ability to construct a narrative is another key part of my analysis and my hypothesis implicates that the children in the higher band will be more able to construct a flowing and consistent narrative and will have a lesser extent of dependency upon the images they are given and are therefore less context bound. The data shows that the children in the lower levels depend heavily upon shared knowledge of the images and restricted code (Bernstein) to deliver the narrative whereas those in the higher band do indeed appear less context-bound. Therefore this section of the hypothesis can be seen as fulfilled. My final proposition was to investigate the pragmatic factors which govern the development of individuals language and create barriers and boundary markers. The most predominant of these I found was the functions of language as proposed by Haliday because it seemed that these were fulfilled by the children in a hierarchical fashion and consequently this provided narrow boundaries by which to review each childs ability. The influence of social factors could also be seen such as the impact of gender roles on whether technical pride (females) or narrative engagement (males) takes priority and the direct impact had on confidence in expression by the degree to which an individual is introvert or extrovert. This section of the hypothesis can be deemed to have been proven correct because there is a clear influence of social context upon the development of language that is clear in the data.
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Innate Language and Cognitive Development

In almost all cases the childrens spoken language conforms fully to the conventions of English language, this could be because knowledge of language can be considered to be innate and consequently all children will be able to accommodate the basic conventions of spoken language through innate ability (Chomsky) without having had any great degree of instruction. In addition, theories of imitation and care giver support offer an explanation for the importance of socialisation in early language development. Piaget (1959) offers a conflicting theory which suggests that the differences in the childrens ability, regardless of the fact that they are the same age, are due to the degree of cognitive development within each individual child as knowledge of spoken language is not innate. If the child has a problem with grasping simple concepts, as may be the case with the lowest band boy, it is impossible for them to map it into language as their language acquisition is limited by their cognitive development, the development of their thinking and their understanding of the world. This would account for the fact that the vast difference between the bottom end boy and girl compared to the much more similar narratives produced by those in the higher levels. It would suggest that M1 is not driven to experiment and experience language, either spoken or written and so his development is more limited than that of the others. This is reinforced by his shy demeanour and unwillingness to interact fully and with confidence. Basing any assumptions on the evidence presented by cultures and societies across the world, it can be seen that every one of these has some form of spoken communication or language. Hence, it is possible to say that spoken language has at least some elements that are innate, dependant on cultural context. This may be because early humans needed a method of communication and language was therefore a necessary evolutionary development. In contrast, written language is not demonstrated in all societies and is not humanitys primary method of communication, it is consequently necessary that, in societies in which it is used, language is taught as an extrinsic skill. This is compatible with Vygotskys theory of Second Order Symbolism in which it is proposed that an individual must master phonemes and the ability to express a concept in spoken language before it can be mapped into written language and a competency with graphemes is required and achieved. This is because spoken language is a more basic skill and written language is a derivation of this. The need for a higher level of cognitive development to progress through these stages of language development seems to explain the significant differences in language fluency between the children. Differences between the ability levels In the lower band the differences between the genders in terms of ability is very clear to see. As mentioned earlier M1s writing ability was limited, predominantly inaccurate and presented as separate and unconnected ideas referring to each image. By contrast, the girl in the lower band produced a single block of narrative that, whilst short, was far more accurate. Similarly, the boy required prompts in the spoken narrative and gave minimum feedback whilst F1 produced a consistent piece of discourse. This could be due to a minor learning disability in the case of the boy
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although his teacher clearly expressed that he was not considered to have anything by the school, it may therefore be instead attributable to his less outgoing personality restricting his opportunities to learn effectively. There is then a substantial gap in ability between the lower and middle bands, although, there is also a significant difference between the spoken and written language of the girl and boy in the middle band. The accuracy of spoken language has no great degree of variation but the content and interpretation of the images is very different. F2 correctly identifies all the elements of the images unlike M2 who considers the hill to be a tree. This does not make sense in terms of why the dog would be going there so he offers the explanation that they are going to the birds house, which would be a nest and would therefore rightly be found in a tree. It is interesting that he interprets the pictures incorrectly but still manages to produce a consistent narrative. This could be because he is responding to the task set rather than demonstrating strong creative skills. His narrative does not necessarily need to make sense to anyone else because he has identified his sole audience, (me) and determined that I have also seen the pictures so his narrative does not need to be explicit, restricting his development of an individual narrative voice (Barclay). This implies that his abilities are entirely context bound and he may struggle to apply his knowledge to stylistic choices involving a broader audience. F2s written language is also far superior to that of M2. There are some elements of self-correction in both instances but F2s writing is consistent in terms of grammar, her sentences are full and her spelling is accurate, whereas M2 leaves sentences unfinished and there are examples of phonetic spelling. This could be because the girl takes more pride in producing technically accurate work whereas the boy is more concerned with the narrative itself, as indicated by his use of the narrative motif. Interestingly, the most substantial difference between gender ability is in the middle band, once the top levels are reached there is no longer significant variation. This could be because, once a certain degree of development is achieved, the challenges of language revolve more around the development of an individual voice and catering correctly for an audience as opposed to the language itself. Summary In summary we have drawn a strong conclusion that, whilst in some cases development can only be seen to a lesser extent than in others, this can predominantly be attributed to external factors. It can also be concluded that normally children have more difficulty acquiring written rather than spoken language, despite the lag in the work of individuals not being as significant as was initially assumed, and a greater difference exists between the language of children in different ability levels. The fact that some variation occurs within the bands themselves also suggests that there is no way to generate a universal rate of development as it relies heavily on the character and natural ability of the individual, (indicating the strong influence of pragmatic factors), although there are some loose boundaries that can be applied in a cautionary fashion such as Hallidays functions of language and the development of these into a hierarchy of achieved skills. I believe that my investigation has produced replicable results if applied on a larger scale, although it would be interesting to do this and see if anomalies similar to the boy in the lower band would occur and whether there are any more subtle differences, for example between the genders within the ability band, that a limited sample would not highlight.
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Media Text
An Article for the parenting magazine Junior aimed at a non-specialized audience with an interest in educating children

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What if your child is at the bottom of the ability range in their class? Dont worry, theyre simply more introvert than their class mates.
Written by Tessa Darbyshire Alexander is a quiet little boy and Mrs Sarah Langley, a worried mother from Lincolnshire, recently found herself in the difficult predicament of bringing Alexander out of his shell. She has, she believes, through careful management, now given him the confidence he needs for life. She describes her original situation as, Fearful. I want what every mother wants, for my child to be successful in every endeavour and make life-long friends within his class. However, his teacher suggested that Alexander was displaying signs of shyness during creative play and preferred to remain at a distance from the other children. With the introduction of new and increasingly rigorous strictures and criteria into the world of mainstream education, some parents are worried to find that their child has, like Alexander, been placed in the lower ability bands. However, fear not, this often simply comes down to a case of your child being a little more shy and therefore less willing to interact and experiment than others of the same age. One of the more stringent criteria concerns the ability of the child to take spoken concepts and express them through writing, this is a common problem for those children who are less inclined to be extrovert and actively take part in class activities. This theory is supported by the research of Piaget who suggests that language acquisition, both in spoken terms and then achieving written language, is determined by the rate of the childs cognitive development, (defined by Piaget as the development of their thinking and understanding of the world). This means that, if your child is shy when interacting with others, it is possible that their rate of development will be slightly slower, but this is not a cause for serious concern because the vast majority of children will develop and master language in their own time. However, there are some courses of action that you can take that will encourage their active participation in class. In Alexanders case, his unwillingness to interact was reflected in his school marks, his spoken language lacked eloquence and his hand-writing and grasp of written language were weak. His mother was distraught but she realised that the cause of his lower grading was his retiring demeanour so she quickly put in place a list of rules to help encourage Alexander. She feels that her childhood development was restricted by the lack of opportunities for imaginative play so she bought for Alexander a range of different toys and made sure there was time set aside within their daily routine for him to enjoy them, this lead to him exploring more concepts as an individual and developing his spoken fluency through play. He particularly enjoyed interacting with his parents in this more relaxed, sociable atmosphere. The second rule his mother enforced was, as Alexander unfortunately has no siblings with which to engage, to sign him up for the local football team and he was of course accepted. His coach originally described him to be a quiet boy but he really began to enjoy being with his 23

Bottoms up on the ability scale

team mates, improving his social interaction skills as well as keeping him fit through regular exercise. This new found confidence gradually began to impact upon his school life, bringing him to engage with his classmates and become more inquisitive and experimental, consequently his school work improved. His teacher was impressed with the rate of development and dedication Alexander had shown and expressed this impression to his mother. Alexanders vocabulary expanded so he was more able to express himself freely using more descriptive synonyms to give life to his spoken and written work. He also no longer restricted himself to making simple declarative statements. He began to apply his new vocabulary to produce dynamic creative language which better suited his rate of development. Halliday first suggested these different functions of language and its apparent that Alexander is progressing through the hierarchy of skills. His ability in terms of orthography, (the ability to produce correctly formed letters etc), had also improved because he was far more engaged in his class work and now

regularly receives awards in school assemblies for his progression and ability. These results are repeatable and if you feel that your child would benefit from such an intervention the only thing you need to do is, rather than worrying about their lack of development, find activities that you can do as a family or that they can do as an individual and simply encourage social interaction in all forms as well as the development of individual creativity. It may seem that this is irrelevant to their school work but buying them spelling books to work through will simply make them increasingly introvert as you isolate them from the activities of their classmates. Simple activities such as hovering can be made into forms of adventure play and if you engage with your child in this way you will also build the foundations for a wonderful relationship in the future.

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Appendices

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M1- Spoken:

F1- Spoken:
5 the 3 hill 3a 2 with 2 falling 2 erm 2 bird 2 and 1 walking 1 up 1 top 1 to 1 thing 1 they're

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1 talking 1 standing 1 sky 1 on 1 off 1 of 1 now 1 jumping 1 in 1 his 1 head 1 he's 1 at

F2 Spoken:
17 the 6 dog 6 and 5 they 5 bird 4a 3 in 3 hill 3 bowl 2 with 2 on 2 his 2 has 2 go 2 down 1 what 1 up 1 tree 1 they're 1 then 1 slide 1 saw 1 picture 1 it 1 is 1 into 1 head 1 grass 1 got 1 gets

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1 fly 1 first 1 erm 1 bang 1 air

M2- Spoken:
8 the 7 he 6 then 6 and 5 to 4s 2 way 2 tree 2 is 2 going 2 down 2 bird 1 think 1 that 1 talking 1 somewhere 1 showing 1 looks 1 like 1 its 1 it 1 into 1i 1 house 1 his 1 got 1 goes 1 flying 1 dog 1 crashes 1 bowl 1 birds 1 be 1 all 1a

M3- Spoken:
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11 the 9 and 6 he 3 then 3 on 2 with 2 slid 2 hill 2 head 2 has 2 down 2 dog 2 bowl 2 bird 1 wanted 1 walking 1 wacks 1 up 1 tree 1 to 1 they 1 sliding 1 sat 1s 1 put 1 play 1 its 1 it 1 in 1 his 1 found 1a

F3- Spoken:
8 they 7 the 6a 4 and 3 so 3 ride 3 hill 3 down 2 when 2 to 2 got

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2 duck 2 dog 1 zoomed 1 went 1 wanted 1 walked 1 up 1 tree 1 top 1 that 1 take 1 sledge 1 on 1 it 1 into 1 in 1 his 1 head 1 fast 1 erm 1 crashed 1 could 1 carried 1 bucket

M1- Written:
6 is 4 the 4 dog 2 on 1 wrog 1 snolp 1 sholg 1 say 1 id 1 goig 1 bul 1 besog 1 alolo

F1- Written:
3 the 3 hil 3a 2 up

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2 on 2 of 1 wocn 1 torcn 1 top 1 to 1 sdandn 1 jumping 1 jumbing 1 is 1 in 1 he 1 flyin 1 flor 1 er 1 bird

F2- Written:
7 the 4 and 3 they 3 hill 2 on 2 down 2 dog 2a 1 up 1 tree 1 standing 1 slide 1 into 1 his 1 head 1 has 1 grass 1 got 1 go 1 fly 1 bump 1 bowl 1 bird 1 are

M2- Written:
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6 the 4 then 4 he 3 to 3 in 2 up 2 sat 2 his 2 him 2 haw 2 get 2 berd 2a 1 when 1 went 1 was 1 tree 1 tre 1 top 1 shon 1 self 1 it 1 hert 1 got 1 end 1 dog 1 dawn 1 bowl 1 bol 1 asking

M3- Written:
5 the 4 he 3a 2 with 2 in 2 hill 2 bowl 2 bird 1 went 1 walked 1 up 1 tree 1 to

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1 then 1 slid 1 really 1 play 1 on 1 his 1 head 1 got 1 found 1 fast 1 down 1 dog 1 banged 1 and

F3- Written:
8 the 4a 3 to 3 they 3 hill 3 dog 3 and 2 so 2 ride 2 got 2 duck 2 down 2 bucket 1 when 1 went 1 wanted 1 up 1 tree 1 topp 1 started 1 on 1 into 1 in 1 his 1 head 1 fast 1 carred 1 but 1 bumed

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Transcription data
M1 Writing assessment Level 2 M: Whats happening in these pictures J: erm (.) the dogs saying hello M: okay (.) now what happens in the next one J: erm (.) dogs carrying his bowl on his head M: and this one J: erm (.) and (.) they are sliding down the hill (.) falling (.) and (1.0) er (1.0) erm (.) the dogs (2.0) bouncing off (.) and (.) they fall F1 Writing assessment Level 2 M: so I need you to tell me what you think's happening in these pictures (.) so (.) if you start with this one (.) what do you think's happening here Mi: He's talking to a bird (.) walking up the hill with (.) with the bird and a (.) thing on his head (2.0) standing at the top of the hill (1.0) falling off a hill (1.0) erm (.) erm (1.0) and now they're (.) falling in the (.) sky (1.0) jumping F2 Writing assessment Level 3 W: In the first picture the dog has saw a (.) what is it (.) a bird (.) a bird (.) and (.) they (.) they're on the grass (1.0) then (.) the dog and the bird go up the hill and the dog has got his bowl on his head (.) the dog (.) the dog (.) gets in the bowl with the bird and they slide down the hill (.) the dog and the bird (.) erm (.) go in the air with the bowl (1.0) they (.) they fly down the hill (.) and they bang into a tree M2 Writing assessment Level 3 K: I think that the dog is talking to a bird and then (.) the bird is showing it way to somewhere and then its (.) to the (.) to the birds house and then (.) and then (.) he goes down the tree and then (.) hes (.) hes going all the way down (.) and hes (.) got his bowl (.) he looks like hes going to be flying then he crashes into the (.) the tree M3 Writing assessment Level 4 M: right so start with this one C: the (.) the (.) the dog (.) has found a bird (.) and he wanted to play with it (1.0) and (.) and the dog has put the bowl (.) on (.) on its head and they walking up the hill (.) and then he sat in the bowl (.) with the bird and (.) and he slid down the (.) he slid down the hill (1.0) and then (.) hes sliding (.) and then he wacks his head on the tree F3 Writing assessment Level 3 M: a duck (.) a dog and a duck wanted to take a ride (.) a sledge ride down the hill so they walked up the hill and the dog carried the (.) erm (.) the bucket on his (.) head so that they they could ride down (.) when when they got to the top they got in it and they zoomed down the hill and they went so fast they crashed into a tree

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Bibliography

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Bibliography
Crystal, D Stilwell Peccei, J 2004 1999 Rediscover Grammar Child Language New York New York Longman Inc. Routledge Inc.

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