New Words In The Oxford English Dictionary - December 2016

•Bralette
•Brexit
•Brunchtime
•Gobby
•Teleconference
•Wobbleboard
•YouTuber

Etymology of the word 'naughty'

The word 'naughty':

In the late 14th century, the word 'naughty' meant needy or having naught/nothing. This then had a semantic to shift to mean evil, immoral or unclean. These meanings are now obsolete.

From 1869, it meant "sexually promiscuous" which is also obsolete. The more modern meaning of 'naughty' is about disobedience which derived from the meaning between 1530-1750 of "a woman of bad character". It is usually used to describe children. The word 'naughty' can also mean improper, tasteless or indecent in modern day. e.g. A naughty word

1600's Comparison

Romeo and Juliet 1600's

Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,

Which mannerly devotion shows in this,

For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,

And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

Modern Day Translation

Good pilgrim, you don’t give your hand enough credit. By holding my hand you show polite devotion. After all, pilgrims touch the hands of statues of saints. Holding one palm against another is like a kiss.

The use of the word, "pilgrim" is almost obsolete, it means someone who travels to a sacred place as an act of religious devotion. This may be because of the context, religion used to be a big part of many people's lives but it is not so much in modern times. 

Young readers should be corrected whenever they make a mistake

Reading is essential for a child's success as it helps them to acquire early language skills. It is recognised as important to language development. Not only does it give basic speech skills but it helps children to communicate more effectively. The term 'corrected' in the question means to tell children the standard use of the lexis they are using and a 'mistake' is an example of a non-standard miscue. 

Ways of correcting children's miscues can be through positive or negative reinforcement. This is from Skinner's Operant Conditioning theory which says that positive reinforcement is when a certain behaviour, in this case language, is praised or rewarded so the child will want to repeat it. In the text, George struggles with the word "sandbags" and his mother takes a phonic approach by telling him to, "sound it out". When he pronounces it right, she gives him positive reinforcement by saying, "well done". George later struggles with this word again and says, "sanbags". This is likely because it is not a local topic and so is an example of low frequency lexis. It is also a compound word with a consonant cluster meaning the 'd' is unstressed. This may be the reason why George struggles enunciating the word. George's mother models breaking down the compound word in to "sand" and "bag". This is an example of scaffolding which relates to Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) meaning that George can say the compound word with support and strategy from the caregiver. After his struggle with the word "sandbags", George is praised by his mother with a "well done". 

Skinner's theory states that negative reinforcement is performing a behaviour to avoid a negative response. An example of negative reinforcement in the transcript is when George says, "we never" and his mother replies, "nooo". This highlights the virtuous error and his mother elongates the word 'no' to mitigate it as it can sound quite harsh. This may be because too many corrections, particularly if they are similar to punishment (another feature of Skinner's theory), may discourage them from reading and reading is a vital element in order for children to learn. George continues to self correct himself when he says, "no we need". This is an example of the 'top-down' cognitive approach as George guesses the word "never" instead of "need" because they have visual similarity. They have the same initial grapheme and are similar word lengths which is why the error is virtuous.

According to Piaget's theory, children develop language abilities in different stages. These are the sensori-motor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational stages. George is 7 years old so according to Piaget's theory is between the pre-operational and concrete operational stages. The pre-operational stage looks at children not knowing the difference between the child interacting with others and thinking out loud. In the concrete operational stage, the child is capable of using logic and of solving problems in the form of stories. In the text, George uses several strategies to work out what words are. He uses the phonic approach and the breaking down of compound words. When George says "to their house", his mother replies "watch the endings". This gives a sense that George often miscues on this which means that he has not quite reached the concrete operational stage as he is not solving problems without assistance yet. Later on in the text he makes the same mistake by saying "made" instead of "may". This time, his mother immediately corrects him. This may be to preserve the flow of him reading as he continues to read the rest of the extract without help.

The context may have an effect on the language used by children. For example, George says "upstairs" instead of "upset" because the image in the book shows Mum on the stairs. This is a word guessing error and his mother prompts him to try again by saying "look at the word". George then use the phonic approach to sound out the word "upset" and he gets it right. He is then praised through positive reinforcement by his mother saying "that's right". This can relate to Bruner's interactionist theory in the children learn language best through interaction with others. George miscuing the "upstairs" with "upset" can relate to the iconic stage of Bruner's theory where information is stored through images. Without George's mother giving him strategies to correct himself, he may miscue far more frequently. These strategies will help with George's cognitive growth as Bruner's theory states that the outcome of cognitive development is thinking.

It is important to correct children when they make a mistake whilst reading as this helps them to learn. However, this can become an issue if children are being corrected too frequently or corrected through punishment. This is because it may discourage them from reading which may affect them later in life. George's mother does not always necessarily correct him but helps him to work out the word through different strategies. Skinner's positive and negative reinforcement helps with child language acquisition as it teaches them if they are miscuing. This will help them to self-correct in the future and become independent readers.

Analysing Children's Writing

In one of the Year 6 pieces of work, they spell the word 'baggy' as "baggie". This can be overgeneralisation of spelling rules because the "ie" can make a "y" sound such as in the word "hippie". This can relate to Stage 6 of Barclay's theory as they are spelling language how it sounds.

CLA Writing Theory

B.M. Kroll (1981)
4 stages in the development of writing.  
 
Stage 1: Preparatory Stage

• Masters the basic motor skills needed to write
• Learns the basic principles of spelling

 
Stage 2: Consolidation Stage (age up to 6)

• Child writes in the same way they speak
• Uses short declarative sentences which include mainly ‘and’ conjunctions 
• Incomplete sentences as they don’t know how to finish the sentence off

 
Stage 3: Differentiation Stage (age up to 9)

• Child becomes aware of the difference between speaking and writing
• Recognises the different writing styles available e.g. letter, essay
• Lots of mistakes
• Use writing guides and frameworks to structure work
• Write to reflect thoughts and feelings 

 
Stage 4: Integration Stage (12+)

• Child develops a personal style
• Child understands that you can change your style according to audience and purpose

Dr Cathy Barclay (1996)
7 stages to a child's developing its writing skills.  
 
Stage 1: Scribbling Stage

• Random marks on a page
• Writing and scribbles are accompanied by speaking

 
Stage 2: Mock Handwriting Stage

• Writing + drawings
• Produce wavy lines which is their understanding of lineation
• Cursive writing

 
Stage 3: Mock Letters

• Letters are separate things.

 
Stage 4: Conventional Letters

• Usually involves writing the name as the first word
• Child usually puts letters on a page but is able to read it as words

 
Stage 5: Invented Spelling Stage

• Child spells in the way they understand the word should be spelt 

 
Stage 6: Appropriate / Phonetic Spelling Stage

• Attach spelling with sounds

 
Stage 7: Correct Spelling Stage

• Are able to spell most words

 

Imitation and reinforcement are the most crucial tools for child language acquisition

Imitation and reinforcement is the process of children learning language through listening to adults use it and copying it. The two types of reinforcement are positive and negative. Positive reinforcement is when a child will want to repeat the behaviour because of a reward or positive feedback from the adult. Negative reinforcement is not a punishment but it is about repeating the behaviour to avoid a response. This idea comes from Skinner's Operant Conditioning theory which is a key theory in child language acquisition (CLA). This can be important for children in learning language but it may not be the most import factor. 

There are examples of Skinner's positive reinforcement in the text. This is where Tom says, "it make noises" and his mother replies, "it makes noises". This is her echoing and correcting him. Positive reinforcement can occur just through adults responses which is happening here. This form of scaffolding she is giving him can relate to Vygotsky's theory. This in particular is about Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) which is the distance between what a child can do independently and what their potential is. The ZPD is what language the child can use with support from the caregiver. However, Piaget has criticised this theory of learning through others support as he believes they have to reach certain stages and this is universal. According to Piaget, thought comes before language. This contradicts the idea that imitation and reinforcement is the most crucial tool for CLA.

Another example of reinforcement in the text is when Tom says the declarative utterance, "the dad bike" and his mother echoes "dad's bike". This is reformulating what Tom said incorrectly. Tom's utterance could be over-generalisation because his mother goes on to say, "you're not on dad's bike (.) you're on your bike". Although Tom's mother is correcting him, this is in a positive way as she does not use the interjection "no". This means that Tom is not being punished so he will not fear being scalded for the incorrect use in the future. Tom has learnt from his mother recasting the possessive utterance as he uses the correct phrase later on in the transcript. He tries to remember the possessive inflection by saying "the dad (.) dad's bike (.) dad's bike mum (.) dad's bike". This can relate to Vygotsky's theory as he is seeking knowledge through the support of the caregiver. 

There is an example in the text of negative reinforcement, however, this is for behaviour rather than language. The mother says, "don't touch (.) don't touch" about Tom noticing the tape recorder. Tom replies "no (.) can I put it on" and the mother answers "in a minute". This shows that although positive and negative reinforcement can be used for language, it is most likely to be used in relation to behaviour. Skinner's Operant Conditioning theory is in relation to behaviourism and it does not take in to account factors such as genetics. It assumes that without reinforcement, it will not be learned. This could mean that imitation and reinforcement can not be the main factor in CLA as not all language use by children needs to be reinforced. Chomsky's theory critcises Skinner's Operant Conditioning. The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) by Chomsky is the idea that children learn language by listening to utterances around them and repeating them. This does not require any type of reinforcement but does involve imitation. However, this can lead to over-generalisation which may be why reinforcement is necessary. 

Overall, imitation and reinforcement may not be the most crucial tool for CLA but does have a big impact on how children learn language. In the transcript, there are clear examples of imitation and either positive or negative reinforcement used and you can see that Tom has learnt some language this way. Yet, not all of the reinforcement is about language. Skinner and Vygotsky are clear advocates of this way of learning but Piaget and Chomsky offer an alternative view which shows that there is more than one way for children to learn language. Although the transcript does not offer much support for these ideas, it does not mean that imitation and reinforcement are the most significant ways for children to learn language.