Assessment of Comprehension and Expression (ACE)
Presented on Thursday, 26 April
Spoken language development over the Primary years
Rachel O'Neill
- Syntax – grammar
- Semantics – word and phrase meaning
- Pragmatics – language in use
- Other areas like Phonology we are not looking at today
Important textbook for syntax: Katharine Perera (1984) Children’s writing and reading
Syntax developments
- Clause patterns
- Noun phrase
- Pronoun use
- Verb phrase
- Word structure
- Negatives
- Questions
- Passives
- Complex sentences
- Adverbial clauses
- Postmodifying (ACE) or relative clauses
Semantic developments
- Key texts: Nation and Clark
- Expanding the number of fields
- Filling in the gaps
- Saying the same thing different ways
- Rate of vocabulary expansion
- General knowledge and new word meaning
- Coining new words
- Extensive reading as a way of working out meaning of new words
- Noun phrase tells us more about verb meanings
- Different ways for deaf children?
Pragmatic developments
- Inference
- Non-literal comprehension
- Co-ordination
- Organising features in speech
- Taking the listener's needs into account
- Highlighting
- Ellipsis
References
Biemiller, A & Boote, C (2006) An effective method for building meaning vocabulary in primary grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 98(1), Feb 2006, 44-62.
Brown, G (1982) The spoken language. Ronald Carter (Ed) Linguistics and the Teacher. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Clark, E (1995) Later lexical development and word formation. Paul Fletcher & Brian MacWhinney (Eds) The Handbook of Child Language, Oxford: Blackwell.
Fletcher-Campbell, F, Soler, J & Reid, G (2009) Approaching difficulties in literacy development. Milton Keynes, SAGE publications.
Gleitman, L & Gillette, J (1995) The role of syntax in verb learning. Paul Fletcher & Brian MacWhinney (Eds) The Handbook of Child Language, Oxford: Blackwell.
Marschark, M & Hause, P (2012) How deaf children learn. Oxford: Oxford University Press
McLaughlin, B (1984) Second language acquisition in childhood, Volume 1, pre-school children. 2nd edition New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum
Nation, ISP (2001) Learning Vocabulary in another Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Perera, K (1984) Children's writing and reading: analysing classroom language. Oxford: Blackwell
Thanks Lovel, Maud, Miriam, Paige, Peter, Falkirk Council, Fife Council