CLA Revision Questions

1. What is phonemic expansion and contraction? Explain why this happens.

Phonemic expansion - This is when a child starts to string a range of sounds together and use a variety of sounds.

Phonemic contractions - This is when sounds are put together meaningfully and are selective.

2. How is turn-taking encouraged in early speech development? Why is it important?

3. What is a phoneme and what is a grapheme?

4. Which phonemes develop later than others? Whose research (‘Fis’ phenomenon) suggests it is articulation rather than not knowing the difference?

5. What is a proto word?

6. What is a holophrase?

7. What are the four categories of first words according to Katherine Nelson (1973)?

8. What is positive reinforcement?

9. What is negative reinforcement?

10. Explain the following stages of children’s linguistic development according to Jean Aitcheson:

        a) Labelling

        b) Packaging

        c) Network-building

11. Explain the following stages of children’s linguistic development according to Piaget:

        a) Sensorimotor

        b) Pre-operational

        c) Concrete operational

        d) Formal operational

12. What is Mean Length Utterance (MLU) and what can it tell us about a child’s language proficiency?

13. Define the following stages in terms of a child’s grammatical development:

        a) One word/holophrastic

        b) Two-word

        c) Telegraphic

        b) Post-telegraphic

14. What three stages of negative formations did Ursula Bellugi discover in young children?

15. What does LAD stand for? Which theorist suggested we have a LAD? What is a LAD?

16. What is a virtuous error? Give examples.

17. What are overextension and underextension? How do they contradict Skinner’s ideas?

18. What is Universal Grammar?

19. How are Bruner and Vygotski’s theories similar and different? Give examples and use terminology.

20. How are Halliday and Dore’s categories similar and different?

21. What is egocentric speech?

22. Child-led discourse?

23. What are some useful features of CDS to discuss in an essay and why?

24. What does recast/reformulation mean?

25. What does LASS stand for and whose theory is it?

26. Define the following theories and say who the theorist(s) are for each:

        a) Nativist

        Chomsky -

        b) Behaviourist

        c) Social interactionist

        d) Cognitive

        e) Critical period

27. What are the main approaches to teaching children to read? What are the differences between top-down, bottom-up, and other approaches?

28. How might we relate Skinner’s ideas about reinforcement to literacy acquisition?

29. What cues do children use when reading?

30. List and note the key characteristics of Chall’s stages of reading development.

31. List and explain the key features of reading schemes. What are the arguments for and against reading schemes and a ‘synthetic phonics’ approach?

32. List some quality children’s books and why they are valuable.

33. What are some of the key miscues a young reader makes and what fundamental ideas do they have to learn about reading that they often have difficulty with at first?

34. Why is reading so hard in English? Give examples using terminology.