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.