Texts D, E, F, G - quick PEE paragraph

It is difficult to comprehend whether a child's reading is at an evaluative level if they read at a monotone pace. Tom demonstrates he is able to not only read but understand what he is reading by his use of intonation and emphasis. At the beginning of the extract, Tom shouts "NO", as the character in the book, Ross, also shouted - showing he has a pragmatic understanding of the book. Tom then follows by emphasising the "go" in Ross' older brother's sentence. This shows that Tom understands Ross is older brother is attempting to persuade Ross to give the trousers a chance, yet again showing Tom's reading capibilities and pragmatic understanding of conversation.

Language Change

Language Change by Philippa Law

Americanisation - Don't worry, it's not as bad as you might think

It's one issue that really gets people's goat: Americanisms. Tony Robinson from Cheltenham says, "In these days of mass communication it is sad to see the English language being battered by the ever advancing tide of Americanism." 

British English borrows lots of words from American English. Prioritise was apparently coined during the 1972 presidential election; teenager, blizzard and belittle originated in the USA and, unsurprisingly, there are umpteen computer-related terms that come from the United States.It's not always obvious to speakers where new words have emerged from. As Virginia Reed from California writes, "I thought incentivise was 'all your fault'!"Mark Hughes from Walsall doesn't like it either: "The thing that drives me demented is the rampant Americanisation of everything, especially British English, and the habit of turning nouns into verbs, such as prioritise and incentivise. Yuk!"

 The American linguist John Algeo notes a propensity in the UK to attribute changes in British English to the influence of the USA, whether it's justified or not: "The assumption is that anything new is American and thus objectionable on double grounds."An example of misattribution is the word controversy. Some people pronounce it with the stress on the first syllable: CONtroversy; others stress the second: conTROVersy. It's a widely-held belief that the second, newer pronunciation is an Americanism, but it isn't - it originated in the UK.And for those of you who don't like the phrase I guess..., did you know that the word gesse (for think or suppose) was common in England in the Middle Ages, and I gesse... crops up in Chaucer?Patsy from Cornwall deplores Americanisms: "Let us ensure that future generations learn to use English correctly. We should be aware that the English language originated in England and was taken from here to other English speaking countries."

She's right that English originated in England, but it's not right to imply that other varieties of English are versions of 'our' language. Americans don't speak a different version of British English; English speakers in the UK and the USA speak modern dialects which have both evolved from 16th century English. Today's British English is no nearer that common ancestor than American English is! As it happens, American English has been more conservative than British English in some respects. It has retained the third syllable of words like library and secretary, whilst many British dialects use the newer forms secretree and libree. Old words like diaper and fall are still used in America but have been replaced by new words (nappy and autumn) in Britain.Why do so many people hate Americanisms? The word itself suggests it's something to do with America, rather than linguistic borrowing in general. As the linguist Steve Jones points out: "Ever heard jodhpurs referred to as an 'Indianism' or karaoke as a 'Japism'?"He suggests that, "It would seem that when folk complain about the Americanisation of the language, their complaint is really about the insidious effect of Americanisation on our culture." Whatever your feelings are towards Americanisms, there's no reason to think we'll all turn American any time soon. As Peter Trudgill explains, our language is most influenced by the people we interact with, not by watching TV. Even though the American and British vocabularies are getting more similar, our accents and pronunciation are more different than they have ever been - and are growing further apart.

Influenced by others

Language also changes very subtly whenever speakers come into contact with each other. No two individuals speak identically: people from different geographical places clearly speak differently, but even within the same small community there are variations according to a speaker’s age, gender, ethnicity and social and educational background. Through our interactions with these different speakers, we encounter new words, expressions and pronunciations and integrate them into our own speech. Even if your family has lived in the same area for generations, you can probably identify a number of differences between the language you use and the way your grandparents speak. Every successive generation makes its own small contribution to language change and when sufficient time has elapsed the impact of these changes becomes more obvious.

Listen to these recordings in this section, which illustrate important, recent changes in spoken English. Consider the following statement and click on the highlighted words for more information about particular types of language change:

“we couldn’t listen to the latest tunes because we hadn’t a wireless”

how are children taught to read?

The method of the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s was the “look and say” approach. This is where the child would memorise the words that they were reading so that they would be say them next time that they would see that word. It identifies how they can remember but are they really reading with this method?

The order of Book Band colours is as follows

Please note this is a guideline only.

Reading schemes are carefully constructed by a group of people who are experts at teaching children to read.
The aim is to provide children with lots of small, achievable steps as they begin to read so they learn to read without any difficulty and enjoy the process.
Each new level or stage within the reading scheme introduces new things and practises the skills and knowledge learned in the previous levels.

Until the 1990s, each reading scheme had its own levels and stages that were entirely different from all the other reading schemes. Then reading experts at the University of London created 'Book Bands'.

 

All ‘phonics’ involves teaching letter-sound correspondences. The adjective ‘synthetic’ refers to the fact that children are taught to ‘synthesise’ (i.e. put together or build up) pronunciations for unfamiliar written words by translating letters into sounds and blending the sounds together (‘blending = ‘synthesising’). ‘Analytic’ phonics focuses more on the analysis of words after they have been identified in some other way – for example by being supplied by the teacher, recognised as 'sight-words' or guessed from pictures or context

The drive to establish “synthetic phonics” as the primary method of reading instruction in the first year of school has not been widely welcomed by teachers and academics. The phonics check has attracted particular criticism, much of it focused on the inclusion of pseudo-words without referential meaning: the purpose of these is to test children's ability to apply the grapheme-phoneme correspondences that they have learned. According to several respondents to a survey of schools conducted by Sheffield Hallam University on behalf of the United Kingdom Literacy Association, the non-words confuse children who have been taught (in the words of one teacher) “to try to make sense of what they read”. Arguing that "there is more to reading than just phonics", the UKLA report finds that the phonics check disadvantages successful readers; misidentifies pupils who are beyond this stage of development as readers; undermines pupils’ confidence as readers; and has negative implications for relationships with parents (UKLA 2012).



Bibliography:
http://www.syntheticphonics.com/synthetic_phonics.htm
Phonic Boom, By John Hodgson, NATE, Teaching English, Issue 4
http://www.mumsnet.com/learning/reading/what-are-reading-schemes

Phonetic development in children

Language Development Chart

Age of Child	Typical Language Development
6 Months	Vocalization with intonation Responds to his name Responds to human voices without visual cues by turning his head and eyes Responds appropriately to friendly and angry tones
12 Months	Uses one or more words with meaning (this may be a fragment of a word) Understands simple instructions, especially if vocal or physical cues are given Practices inflection Is aware of the social value of speech
18 Months	Has vocabulary of approximately 5-20 words Vocabulary made up chiefly of nouns Some echolalia (repeating a word or phrase over and over) Much jargon with emotional content Is able to follow simple commands
24 Months	Can name a number of objects common to his surroundings Is able to use at least two prepositions, usually chosen from the following: in, on, under Combines words into a short sentence-largely noun-verb combinations (mean) length of sentences is given as 1.2 words Approximately 2/3 of what child says should be intelligible Vocabulary of approximately 150-300 words Rhythm and fluency often poor Volume and pitch of voice not yet well-controlled Can use two pronouns correctly: I, me, you, although me and I are often confused My and mine are beginning to emerge Responds to such commands as “show me your eyes (nose, mouth, hair)”
36 Months	Use pronouns I, you, me correctly Is using some plurals and past tenses Knows at least three prepositions, usually in, on, under Knows chief parts of body and should be able to indicate these if not name Handles three word sentences easily Has in the neighborhood of 900-1000 words About 90% of what child says should be intelligible Verbs begin to predominate Understands most simple questions dealing with his environment and activities Relates his experiences so that they can be followed with reason Able to reason out such questions as “what must you do when you are sleepy, hungry, cool, or thirsty?” Should be able to give his sex, name, age Should not be expected to answer all questions even though he understands what is expected
48 Months	Knows names of familiar animals Can use at least four prepositions or can demonstrate his understanding of their meaning when given commands Names common objects in picture books or magazines Knows one or more colors Can repeat 4 digits when they are given slowly Can usually repeat words of four syllables Demonstrates understanding of over and under Has most vowels and diphthongs and the consonants p, b, m, w, n well established Often indulges in make-believe Extensive verbalization as he carries out activities Understands such concepts as longer, larger, when a contrast is presented Readily follows simple commands even thought the stimulus objects are not in sight Much repetition of words, phrases, syllables, and even sounds
60 Months	Can use many descriptive words spontaneously-both adjectives and adverbs Knows common opposites: big-little, hard-soft, heave-light, etc Has number concepts of 4 or more Can count to ten Speech should be completely intelligible, in spite of articulation problems Should have all vowels and the consonants, m,p,b,h,w,k,g,t,d,n,ng,y (yellow) Should be able to repeat sentences as long as nine words Should be able to define common objects in terms of use (hat, shoe, chair) Should be able to follow three commands given without interruptions Should know his age Should have simple time concepts: morning, afternoon, night, day, later, after, while Tomorrow, yesterday, today Should be using fairly long sentences and should use some compound and some complex sentences Speech on the whole should be grammatically correct
6 Years	In addition to the above consonants these should be mastered: f, v, sh, zh, th,1 He should have concepts of 7 Speech should be completely intelligible and socially useful Should be able to tell one a rather connected story about a picture, seeing relationships Between objects and happenings
7 Years	Should have mastered the consonants s-z, r, voiceless th, ch, wh, and the soft g as in George Should handle opposite analogies easily: girl-boy, man-woman, flies-swims, blunt-sharp short-long, sweet-sour, etc Understands such terms as: alike, different, beginning, end, etc Should be able to tell time to quarter hour Should be able to do simple reading and to write or print many words
8 Years	Can relate rather involved accounts of events, many of which occurred at some time in the past Complex and compound sentences should be used easily Should be few lapses in grammatical constrictions-tense, pronouns, plurals All speech sounds, including consonant blends should be established Should be reading with considerable ease and now writing simple compositions Social amenities should be present in his speech in appropriate situations Control of rate, pitch, and volume are generally well and appropriately established Can carry on conversation at rather adult level Follows fairly complex directions with little repetition Has well developed time and number concepts

taken from - http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-development/language_development/

Zach (2;4) drawing a banana

Sumamry of activity, interaction and language development
Zach is trying to draw a banana, whilst his mother Halla is attempting to get him to engage in a conversation, to attempt to peruse into how much his language as developed. The father, Nick, briefly involved in the conversations as Zach demonstrates how to draw a banana. Eventually, Zach then goes onto reading a book, 'Busy Railway', just before his parents are about to have dinner.

Analysis
Something which is quite clear from the start is that Zach as already began to develop his own idiolect. He refers to his notepad as 'my little pad' , this his familiar term and he uses this term throughout the entier conversation - "where's my little pad gone?". Halla's reply of "where is your little pad?" invites conversation. Also the open question echoes the child so allows him to build on the familiarity that he has with the term "little pad" rather than simply "the book". This is a form of child-directed speech, the child-led discourse allows the child to talk more and is comfortable doing so. Open questions from his mother are evident throughout the conversation as she encourages him to converse more and expand his sentences. Children normally talk about local topics (things in their every day life) so utterances of words from their own idiolect should promote more pragmatic responses.
The use of both open and closed questions are used to generate a particular answer. for instance Halla says "3 things?" which in a way is a bit of both - not only does it invite more than just a "yes" or "no" answer, as it provides range. The question is also contextual so that Zach is able to build on what the "3 things" are. Zach responds with "here" and points at part of the drawing - the use of the paralinguistic feature is common with young children as it helps them to communicate even more efficiently.
Zach's use of the utterance "frough" instead of the standard utterance "through" helps generate evidence to the Fis phenomenon. The phenomenon states that as the child is not yet completely familiar with phonetics, children use simplification through substitution. It's clearly evident here as Zach believes he is saying "through" but "frough" is what is heard instead.
In addition, Zach calls 'bolognese', 'bolognay'. As he is not familiar with the word (which is the reason why he calls it lasagne - an example of overextension by category), he replaces the unstressed syllable with something that is easier for him.

Methodology of CLA (Child Language Acquistion)

Investigation:
The natural code-switching of bilingual children

Young bilingual children can confidently switch between one langauge to another, especially if one parent predominatly speaks one and the other speaks another e.g: a mother who speaks Punjab and a father who speaks English predominatly.

Investigation type:
To investigate this claim, I would conduct a longitudinal study of how different ages of children process the information necessary to switch from language to another but also if age is an important factor to see, how fast the children can code-switch but also how fast they can learn the basics of both languages respectively.

Method:
Take 4 children who all speak English but their home language or first langauge may be something else
Examples: French and English speaker; Punjabi and English speaker; Polish and English speaker; Somali and English speaker; Yoruba and English speaker.

first 500 words of my technology blog piece

BBM for Android and iOS... again?


'Even when something seems to be going right for BlackBerry in 2013, it swiftly ends up going wrong.'

For example, over 1 million people were so eager to get its BBM app for Android that they downloaded a leaked version ahead of its official release on 21 September. The problem being that the app was faulty, and kept producing "volumes of data traffic orders of magnitude higher than normal for each active user".
BlackBerry's head of BBM Andrew Bocking stated that the Android and iOS versions of BBM need some more work. "This will take some time and I do not anticipate launching this week," he blogged. BlackBerry could easily fix those problems and get BBM working efficiently for iOS and Android devices, but its real challenge is ensuring people actually will go out of their way and download it. BBM still has around 60 million active users on BlackBerry devices, but you do wonder how many people would discard it for the new version and/or even want to continue using it any more anyway.

BBM has its fair share of fans but the development and popularity of its 'cross-rivals'. Although BBM million people use BBM; WhatsApp has 300 million active users, although it is not directly known how much still use their accounts. Whatsapp in particular has a vast amount of users, as its free to download and free to use - how can Blackberry compete with this?

Blackberry's counter-strike was to finally launch BBM for other companies' devices, to try and face the competition in the market. But will this ensure they stay relevant? This all or nothing approach may be due to the fact the BB10 software and Z10 smartphone being deemed as 'unpopular'.

Blackberry's counter-strike was to finally launch BBM for other companies' devices, to try and face the competition in the market. But will this ensure they stay relevant? This all or nothing approach may be due to the fact the BB10 software and Z10 smartphone being deemed as 'unpopular'. The Z10 mobile failed to compete with the likes of the iPhone5, Samsung S4 and the Sony Xperia. Is this Blackberry's counter-measure or an act of desperation? Possibly a bit of both.

Especially as competition is now even closer than it seems... In the form of fellow Canadian firm Kik Messenger, who now have a total of 80 million registered users. New types of instant messaging apps are emerging from other categories like video calling (Tango), VoIP (Skype), social networks (Facebook Messenger) and photo-sharing (Snapchat).

BBM is now available to download from Apple's App Store, Android's Google Play store and some countries' Samsung App Stores. BlackBerry. however,  is using a virtual "waiting line system" to stagger access to the new app. It's taken people, a few minutes, a few hours, even a day to successfully download the app.

It's asking people to download BBM and register their email addresses, then wait for an email to notify them that they can use the app. The many fortunate people who signed up for information on the BBM website before the original launch in September get immediate access to the app.