Child Language Aquisition - Learning to Read

Features borrowed from the Oral
Tradition

Alliteration

This involves repetition of the same consonant or
consonant cluster sound (like ch or gr)

Eample:
'Treehorn's Treasure'

Repeated Epithet

This is like an additional name tag, often an adjective that goes in front of a characters name.

Eample:
'Little Mo : Little Red Riding Hood

Balanced Sentence

This occurs when two ideas are placed side by side with the second complementing, contrasting with or complementing the first

Eample:
'Dennis didn't like the night time, didn't want to be alone'

Assonance Repetition

Repetition of the same vowel sound,

Eample:
One
night, when she had been
Put to bed, while it was still
light.
She made a wish

Repeated Formulae

This could, for example, be a repeated spell or sequence of events

Eample:
'Good grief!' said the goose.
'Well,well!' said the pig.
'Who cares?' said the sheep.
'So what?' said the horse

Proverb or Aphorism

This is a saying or a summary of some accepted wisdom

Eample:
'Never talk to strangers'

Parallel Sentence

This is similar to a balanced sentence except that there is some repetition of the syntax (grammatical structure) of the sentence

Eample:
'The pianist was annoyed. The bandleader was unhappy.'

Rhythmic Language

This is best appreciated when the text is read aloud. does not necessarily refer to regular rhythms but emphasises some words over others, using a combination of alliteration and parallel sentences

Epithet as Metaphor

Some epithets combine with other words to create new ways of looking at familiar ideas.

Eample:
'whale road' to mean 'sea'.
this is like children's creativety with language when they don'e know the words.

Framework for analysing children's reading books

Graphology

Pge Layout
lineation
pictures
font(s) and size of letters

Lexis and Semantics

Length of words and number of syllables
types of words and semantic fields
sounds of words, example :rhyme
concrete/abstract nouns
repetition
ease of recognition (sound spelling match)
how context could help with more difficult words

Grammar/ sytax

sentence type (simple,compound,complex)
sentence length
position of subject and verb in sentence
use of active or passive voice
verb tense
modification, example: adjectives
pronouns used after subject (or object) has been clearly established

Cohesion

careful structuring of sentences to make the text cohesive
repetition (of words or parts of sentences)
pronouns used after referent well estabished

Influences from everyday speech

face to fact interactions
familiar scenarios
use of direct speech
informal register
repetition

Features borrowed from the oral tradition of story-telling

alliteration (big bad wolf)
repeated epithet (Little Red Riding Hood)
parallel sentence structures
rhythmic language

4 Stages of Learning to read

1.The Sight Vocabulary
or Whole word stage

Where children recognise written
words as a whole and are not aware
of their internal orthographic structure

2.The Discrimination Net Stage

Where Children are beginning to pay attention to the orthography, but in a rather fragmentary way. When faced with unfamiliar words, they are likely to base their judgement on broad similarities to words already known to them.

3. The Phonological Recording Stage

Where extensive use is made of letter to sound correspondences and 'sounding out' words. This stage is a necessary one and vital for decoding words that have never been encountered before.

4. The Orthographic Stage

Where words are recognised directly by their spelling rather than by sound. Reading words this way is much faster and easier than sounding them out.