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Discussing how children use language in play?

How do you set out your answer when asked to discuss how children use language in play. Given two transcripts of two children playing. Need ur help!

Reply 1

evantej

Original post by gemini14

How do you set out your answer when asked to discuss how children use language in play. Given two transcripts of two children playing. Need ur help!

What age children are investigating?

Paradoxically, with young children, they tend not to 'use' language at all. David Barton, a linguist who specialises in literacy, wrote the following:

The adult is structuring the whole interaction and even turning the child's sounds into answers which act as turns in the conversation. The adult is creating the child's meanings. The child is learning to take part in a simple conversion. There are several alternative ways of analysing it: for example, the conversation contains within it the seeds of the very common cycle, found in classroom talk, of getting attention, asking a question, providing an answer, and giving feedback. This little pattern is a common building block of spoken interaction. (143)

Hopefully this might give you something to think about in terms of researching 'outside of the box', especially if you have learnt anything about spoken language (e.g. Grice's maxims). It might also be worth considering the significance of the transition between young children playing with physical toys and engaging with books, and then from picture books to those with words (i.e. the symbolic nature of the things and how they are represented).

I could suggest specialist works on first language acquisition (i.e. how children learn language) but it would probably be far too advanced for you and you would most likely have to buy it. But if you are interested then get back to me.