Analysing the childrens transcripts

Analysing The Transcripts:

The five year old child who is discussing zombies when talking to her mother uses alot of repitition when explaining to her mother what it is that zombies consume. The coordinating conjunctions 'and also'  are repetitively used which shows that the child has learnt the concept of these sentence frames and the child is therefore using them to elaborate and add further information. The child shows signs of being in the post telegraphic stage through the use of plural pronouns such as 'they', this shows that they have knowledge regarding how to discuss people other than themselves or a singular person and shows depth on their language knowledge. When speaking the child also uses intonation to put emphasis on certain nouns or verbs such as 'eat' and 'sharp tools', this could be a sign of the child possibly imitating the language of a parent or older sibling when it comes to story telling. This supports the theorist B.F. Skinner in that the childs language skills are reinforced through the influence of others and that skills are learned through nurture instead of being pre installed through nature. The child also includes informal language when describing certain things within the speech, this is shown when the child uses 'squishy'.

The five year old child Gus shows attempts at complex sentences which strengthen the concept of the child being in the post telegraphic stage. Throughout the transcript the child and the mother uses interrogatives as a means of carrying on the conversation and showing adjacency pairs. Dr Deb Roy explains that by the age of five years old the child knows around 5000 words. He also says that when communicating with children people tend to simplify language, this is shown when the mother of the child says 'bad' instead of more formal language such as 'misbehaving'. The mother shows signs of needing verification when repeating the question that the child has recently asked, she also shows scaffolding in the same way to try and influence the child to elaborate. The mother shows parentese when referring to her and and the childs father as "mummy's and daddy's". The mother shows use of ellision when saying "tryna" this shows that the speech is taking place in an informal setting as is a result of spontaneous speech. Another sign of it being spontaneous speech is the use of non verbal fillers such as "uh" and "um" which is used by the child. The child says "its just wrong way" this shows a lack of determiners which the child is said to struggle with when in the post telegraphic stage. The child also shows a lack of abstract noun which would have shown strong evidence of being in the post telegraphic stage due to the child not being able to physically see abstract nouns. The child shows use of auxillery verbs such as 'is' and plural pronouns such as "we're" when formulating sentences which shows signs of them being in the post telegraphic stage. Interruption is shown by both the mother and child however, it could be suggested that the mother had only done this as she believed that Gus had finished his sentence.

Transcript of children speaking

5 year old talking about zombie’s transcript

Girl: Know what zombies eat momma (.)You don’t know (.) I know what else they eat (.)they also eat bones I think(.) the blood off their bones(5) I tell you what they also eat(.) they also eat their skin(.) and they also eat their eyeballs(.) they also eat the hair(.)They also EAT you know what they also eat (2) it’s really squishy and (.) hard to eat that we can not eat TOOLS (.) SHARP TOOLS and even when it gets in their throat and they die (.) they are still alive.

5 year old Gus talking about discipline

Gus: what I’m trying to say here is um(.) is that we need to stop with it (.) and (4) it’s just not the way it is(.) so what’s that mean huh(3) what does that mean is what I’m trying to say it’s not funny

Mum: [laughter] I understand what you say but its(.) it’s just (.) I think you’re so cute (.) I just (.) I’m just still tryna figure out what we’re talking about that’s all

Gus: well then(.) well then what does it mean(.) about being bad(.)

Mum: what does it mean about being bad

Gus: yes
mum: it means that Mommy’s and Daddy’s do the disciplining not(.)not you

Gus: ah well I know but sometimes I scold the cat(.)

Mum:                                                                         |well|

Gus:                                                                                    |that’s what I do
mum: well you don’t really scold the cat that much because he doesn’t get in that much trouble

Gus: well yeah sometimes he does so that’s the just way it is

Mum: so is it(.) you’re saying that its okay for you to scold the cat but it’s not okay for you to scold your friends

Gus:             |well what’s just disappointing is not the way it is so what does it mean (.) what does it mean

Mum: what does what mean

Gus: well it’s just the way it is I’m trying to(.) it doesn’t mean about scolding(.)

Mum: [laughter]

Gus: [laughter] it’s not funny (3) what we’re trying to talk about here is(.) uh (.) like being bad

Mum: you're being bad right now [laughter]

Gus: no

Mum:  I didn’t think so

Gus: it’s just wrong way

Mum: [laughter]

Gus:  it’s just wrong way and wrong time(.)

Mum: what’s the wrong time

Gus: the wrong way that means its(3) I don’t know

Mum: [laughter]

Gus: mom it’s not funny [laughter]

Link for the child talking about zombies:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9XwDb1xLlQ

Link for child talking about discipline: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVYNRUnPpHo