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EXAMPLE CLA ENG LANG A LEVEL AQA
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An example answer from the child language question in AQA A level english language paper 1. Scored 28/30 from my teacher.
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Children acquire language through their experiences (30).Social interactionists would agree with the statement that children learn language through
ritualised activities. Bruner argues children have a language acquisition support system in
which they are predisposed to learn language but for it to develop they need scaffolding from
others in their environment and through routined experience. For example, when Hollie
states “and then you say would you like cashback”, she is developing Ewans language
through ritualised play and acting out roles as shopkeepers. She then says “no not yet”, and
is seen to sequentially scaffold Ewan’s language so next time they play he will know what
language to use and when. Through the use of playing shops, Ewan and Hollie have
developed an idea of a complex noun “cashback” which they may have not been able to use
without the experience of play. Despite the fact they may not fully understand the idea of
cashback they are still able to linguistically articulate it going against the Cognitivist idea that
children cannot say something they do not understand, indicating the importance of
scaffolding in building up their knowledge of words. Ewan is vertically scaffolding when Hollie
uses the interrogative “how much is that?” that elicits a suitable response from Ewan “ten p
please”, thus showing how children's language develops through prompts from others.
However, behaviourists would argue rather than Ewans language being scaffolded, his use
of the manner “please” is actually rather a result of imitation and reinforcement. Hollie also
uses what Snow calls child directed speech in the repetition of “it's in there it's in there”, in
order to direct and prompt Ewan’s role in the play activity. Overall, social interactionists
would use this data to support the claim children learn through experiences as through the
experience of playing shops Ewan and Hollie have an understanding of how complex
scenarios in the real world play out and what kind of language they should use and expect.
Behaviourists would also agree with the statement that children learn through their
experiences but in terms of imitating the language we hear and our experiences of
reinforcement. Skinner argued children's language is either positively or negatively
reinforced, this is shown through both the children's use of the manner “please”. Manners
have no real benefit to the child and so behaviourists believe they use them due to
reinforcements. Manners are positively reinforced by parents when they use phrases such
as ‘good manners’ and ‘well done’ which makes children likely to use them in the future.
Manners are also negatively reinforced as when children don;t use manners they are told off
and phrases are used such as ‘say please’, therefore through experiences children are
reinforced to use manners. Behaviousits also argue complex phrases children use are
simply a result of copying what they have heard around them for example when Hollie says
“your hands are cold aren’t they”, this is a complex utterance for children due to the auxiliary
verb “are”, tag question “aren’t they” and pronoun use of “your”. Behaviourists would
describe this as Hollie copying what she has heard others say, however Nativists would
disagree and argue Hollie is simply moving through universal stages like every other child.
For example, she is moving into the post telegraphic stage and including auxiliary verbs and
determiners into her language. Behaviourists would agree with the statement children learn
through experience due to reinforcement, however it can be questioned how useful
reinforcement is. Hollie negatively reinforces Ewan’s langage by rewording his utterance
“now you say would you like cashback”, however this is ignored and Ewan repeats “do you
like cashback”. Ewan still uses the auxiliary verb “do” rather than the modal verb “would”
demonstrating how he has ignored the reinforcement and so behaviourists explanation
cannot account for everything. It may be useful to take a cognitivist approach and how if
Ewan doesn't understand concepts like choice and possibility he cannot use modal verbs.
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