Language Acquisition [Written]

KROLL

BARCLAY

J.R. GENTRY

ROTHERY

recognised 4 stages of development

1. Preparatory stage (4-7)

  • basic motor skills develop
  • principles of spelling system acquired

2. Consolidation stage (7-9)

  • children begin to use writing as expressing what they can say
  • closely reflects spoken lang patterns
  • colloquialisms, unfinished sentences and clauses linked by 'and'

3. Differentiation stage (9-10)

  • writing begins to diverge from speech and develops its own patterns
  • children learn new standards and experiment with new structures
  • written work becomes fuller as they experiment more

4. Integration stage (11+)

  • writers have a good command of language
  • can vary stylistic choices and develop a 'personal voice'
  • this continues to develop

At this point children need guidance about structures/functions of language
They realise writing is a time to reflect and use language to shape thoughts

1. Scribbling

  • random marks on a page to encourage children
  • adults can talk to children about their writing

2. Mock handwriting

  • often appears with drawings
  • children produce lines of wavy scribbles
  • may be revisited

3. Mock letters

  • children make letter-like shapes to resemble alphabet letters

4. Conventional letters

  • first word to appear is usually child's name
  • often seen with a string of random letters

5. Invented spelling

  • child writes conventional letters that begin to cluster to make words
  • may not appear conventional
  • child seeks advice from adult

6. Approximated/phonetic spelling

  • children begin to associate sounds with the letters

7. Conventional spelling

  • occurs as the child's approximated spellings become more and more conventional

1. Pre-communicative stage

  • child realises symbols create a message and have meaning
  • may also invent symbols

2. Semi-phonetic stage

  • child realises letters have sounds
  • in writing they may abbreviate words and use pictures for words they don't know

3. Phonetic stage

  • child spells sound-symbol correspondence
  • may not be aware some strings of letters aren't acceptable or correct

4. Transitional stage

  • child uses basic conventions of the English language
  • become aware of the patterns in spelling that extend further than using just phonetic spelling

5. Correct stage

  • child understands basic spelling patterns and knows word structures
  • uses visual strategies to spell
  • large automatic spelling vocabulary

Observation/comment

  • the writer notices something and provides feedback

Recount

  • chronological sequence of events written in first person

Report

  • a factual or objective description of events or things, not chronological

Narrative

  • a story that follows orientation, complication, resolution and coda (occasionally), traditional structure rarely achieved

BRITTON

Expressive mode

  • developed first, resembles speech, first person & content based on personal preferences

Poetic mode

  • gradual development due to skill required, rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, adjectives & similes common

Transactional mode

  • developed last, academic essay style, third person, chronological and formal sentence structure to signpost ideas

CREATIVITY VS ACCURACY

ALAN MALEY

  • says that creative writing promotes a playful engagement with language which allows children to test out the bounds of writing in a supportive environment
  • he believes that creative writing develops children lexically, grammatically and phonologically

CRAIK AND LOCKHART

  • believe that creative writing requires ‘semantic processing’ which indicates an act of ‘deep processing’
  • whereas accuracy is more about ‘structural’ and ‘phonemic’ processing which is indicative of ‘shallow processing’

DORNYEI

believes creating writing can

Offer respite from the other classroom monotony.

Allow students to experience success.

Motivate students.

Make tasks more enjoyable.

Increase autonomy

CRYSTAL

  • writing can sometimes be seen as a prison and that playing with language in a creative way may be the key to opening success within writing

CREATIVITY VS ACCURACY

GOOUCH AND LAMBIRTH

  • believe that there is a negative impact on a child’s self-esteem if their writing is wrong

HECKMAN

  • believes that we live in an ‘audit culture’ in which measuring learning and accuracy is more important than creativity
  • believes that this has been created by pressure placed on schools by the government

RICKFORD

  • argues that there is a necessity of having rules and that as such, creative writing should be done with rules in place
  • suggest that the end-goal is to get children writing in Standard English

TORRANCE

  • believes that teachers can enhance a student’s creativity through judging their level of accuracy and that correcting them leads to better writing