Basil Bernstein - Restricted and elaborated codes

Basil Bernstein was a British sociologist known for his work in the sociology of education.
His theory was that the working class speak a 'restricted code' in comparison to middle class who speak in the 'elaborated code'
In the case of an elaborated code, the speaker will select from a relatively extensive range of alternatives … In the case of a restricted code the number of these alternatives is often severely limited … On a psychological level the codes may be distinguished by the extent to which each facilitates (elaborated code) or inhibits (restricted code) an orientation to symbolize intent in a verbally explicit form.

Pragmatic Development - Jess and Dad conversation response.

In this piece, the father misinterprets instrumental language for representation according to Halliday. When Jess says "book" dad thinks she is labelling when she is in fact requesting to be read to. During the conversation she is answering, responding and labelling.

If Jess had full adult abilities of speech she would say:

"Dad I want you to read me the book"
"No dad, READ me the book, I know that's a book!"
"Yes read me the god damn book please dad."
"Yes there are some horses, and a dog, we saw Jim's dog in the shop."
"Yeah that's like Jim's dog, the one we saw in the shop."
"A sheep says baa, yes"

Jess, if had adult ability of speech, would be becoming frustrated with her dad for misinterpreting what she says, and his current repetition. The father is consistently reinforcing her knowledge of words and places.

Analysing Child Language Acquisition

As soon as a child is born, he/she is introduced to spoken language and gestures. Although crying is universal, it is still a use of immediate communication, and the child quickly learns that crying receives attention and response from their caregiver. Through hearing speech and being interacted with, a child will learn sounds. 

15 months:

• Bye Mummy
• Isee
• Allgone

 At 15 months, a child is over a year old, and becoming very familiar with phonemes and words. The use of "Bye Mummy" is interactional and personal; the child is beginning to make relationships through speech. During the process of a 15 month old child experimenting with sounds and words, they learn how to imitate sounds they hear others making. 
"Isee" and "Allgone" are examples of Packaging as identified by Jean Aitchison in 1987 - where children are beginning to understand a range of meaning, but making errors, they are network building and making connections between words, but have not yet identified that the two words are separate.

20 months:

• All fall down
• Teddy tired
• Gone, where Mummy gone?
• More juice

At 20 months, children are beginning to understand syntactical development, they order words into phrases and use words for different functions. "More juice" and "teddy tired" are examples of the two word stage, usually used around 18-24 months, developing on the holophrastic stage to make a phrase out of a word, they are using two words in the correct order to gain a response. The child is beginning to understand the use of interrogative sentence, they are associating the term "where" with a question phrase.


28 months

• Teddy's hat came off
• Harry's got a big, big green truck

At 28 months, a child is over 2 years old, and developing their speech rapidly. The phrase "Teddy's hat came off" makes sense and is a main clause sentence. The use of the inflection "s" on the end of "Teddy" and "Harry" shows the child is starting to understand tense and belonging. The child uses the indefinite article "a" before the adjective of "big" which the child repeats as a form of emphasis, as their vocabulary is not yet widened to synonyms of the term "big".

  36 months

• Little Luke hit me, he did
• I am going to see Harriet another day tomorrow
• I don't like faces, I want to see children's ITV

By 36 months, the child is most likely to be in the post-telegraphic stage, using much more first person pronoun (in the correct sentence structure).

How does Piaget's theory on linguistic development support the type and order of words a child uses?

Piaget's theory of the four cognitive processes supports the type and order of words a child uses, this links in to Katherine Nelson's research which showed that a child's first words could be split into four groups: naming, action, social and personal and describing and modifying. A child's first stage of language is naming concrete nouns; seeing what is in front of them and attaching a name to the object. Piaget describes this as the sensorimotor stage, as the child approaches the age of 2 and begins to recognise objects for their colour or shape. As time goes on, a child will begin to use "action" words, such as "more" or "whack", this helps them receive a response and a greater understanding of interaction and conversation.

Child Language Acquisition - Theorists and their beliefs

Noam Chomsky - Nativist

Chomsky theory is that language acquisition is an innate structure and function of the brain. 

Optimal learning age

Between the ages of 3-10, a child is most likely to fluently learn a language, after this age it can be considered almost impossible for a child to completely grasp a language, this is why education systems are often criticized for teaching second languages in secondary schools, not primary schools.

Chomsky believes that a child does not persuasion to begin language acquisition, the parent does not need to prompt the child to speak, if around language production, the child will work to produce language independently through development.

B.F Skinner

The theory that praise causes progress. Skinner believes that positive reinforcement when a child is learning to speak is of high significance. He proposed that language could be categorised by the way it was reinforced. Skinner views the child as the "passive subject of operant conditioning in whom randomly occurring behavior is selectively reinforced"

Jerome Bruner

Bruner believes there are three stages to child language acquisiton.
1.Enactive (0-1 years)
This involved action based information and muscle memory e.g. a baby might remember the action of shaking a rattle. 

2.Iconic (1-6 years)
Where information is stored visually in the form of images. Mental images can help children learn, e.g. diagrams and images beside verbal information will be easier to remember.

3.Symbolic (7+)
Where information is stored in the form of a symbol or a code e.g. language.

Bruner's constructivist theory
Suggests it is effective when faced with new material to follow a progression from enactive to iconic to symbolic representation; this holds true even for adult learners. Bruner's work also suggests that a learner even of a very young age is capable of learning any material so long as the instruction is organized appropriately.

Jean Piaget - cognitive

"Children construct an understanding of the world around them, then experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment."