English Language

According to B F skinner (1953) imitation and reinforcement are basic learning structures for learning, which is used by not only humans but animals too. In terms of child language acquisition this is the process of a child learning, understanding and correctly interpreting language. This “active” process is called operant conditioning, which consists of 3 types of consequences of behaviour, these are; Positive reinforcement – is receiving a reward when certain behaviour is performed, for example a parent praising their child for correcting pronouncing a word or standard phrase or utterance, to praise them in the hope they will replicate this in the future. This is evident in text A, where Tom who is age 2years; 7months is talking to his parents but in this text he is helping mend bikes with his mother and father. E.g. Echoing “I need to fix dad’s bike OK” “you need to fix Dad’s bike”, this is a form of positive reinforcement because the parent is clearly agreeing with the child...

Hypothesis - How does language differ for men and women, when they participate in gender bias sporting activities?    This would involve analysing commentary of live matches or performances or interviews with the athletes; How are the questions constructed differently? Is there different types of language used for different genders? Is the vocabulary different, when describing different gendered athletes? Is one gender favoured over there other for a particular sport? Data will be collected by watching videos from the Olympic games, I will transcribe at least 3 events from each sport, for both men and women. Ethics - The videos are able to view online, so the public is able to view them. Meaning I can analyse not only what is being said but also the atmosphere and peoples reactions without ethically violating them. Reliability - Although the athletes are being the fact they are being film would not affect what they say in the interviews, a...

*Word of mouth* This podcast how children construct and interpret language, in most cases over extending a term that they already know. Interestingly some parents end up using the child's language in everyday life, meaning that it takes the child longer to differentiate between the wrong and right term.

Michael Halliday’s ‘Learning how to mean’ proposed seven main ‘functions’ that spurred a child to want to use language. FUNCTION WHAT IT IS WHAT IT’S USED FOR   INSTRUMENTAL Language used to fulfil a speaker’s need Directly concerned with obtaining food, drink comfort etc . e.g. ‘I want’   REGULATORY Used to influence the behaviour of others Persuading / commanding / requesting other people do as you want ‘daddy push’ (child on swing)   INTERACTIONAL Used to develop social relationships and ease interaction The Phatic dimension of talk eg ‘hello’     PERSONAL   Used to express personal preferences / the speaker’s identity Sometimes referred to the ‘here I am!’ function – conveys attitudes, expresses feelings INFORMATIVE Used to communicate information Relaying or requesting information eg ‘I got a new doll   HEURISTIC Used to learn and explore the environment Using language to learn – this may be questions or answers or the kind of runni...

This article is trying to persuade the reader that women rights are just as significant in 3rd world countries, as they are in the rest of the world. The benefits of educating women Article 26 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “everyone has the right to education.” The fact that almost half the women in sub-Saharan Africa are illiterate shows that these women are clearly not being delivered the human rights they deserve. Educating women is just as important as educating men; indeed educating women provides additional benefits. It has been proved that women who receive an education enjoy improved health benefits. For example, they have better maternal health because they are more likely to have children when they are older due to marrying later, more likely to space out their pregnancies and have 2.2 fewer children, and more likely to seek health care assistance when needed. Such benefits to the mother also reduce the number of deaths that occur during...

When kids mangle language we all benefit Clangernackys, needs and poodles, strangled eggs – young children don’t just invent language, they spruce it up as they learn to talk ‘When children get words skew-whiff, our language remains vibrant’ … Nicola Skinner with her daughter, Polly. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt for the Guardian Nicola Skinner Saturday 9 January 2016 06.30 GMT Last modified on Saturday 9 January 2016 10.00 GMT Helping a tiny baby to learn your language is like building a bonfire with words for twigs. Nothing happens for ages. You keep putting the bloody twigs on and trudging back and forth in a cold, damp field. You may have a faulty pelvic floor and much rather be watching something on the telly with a towel under your bum, but bonfires don’t build themselves, do they? Talking to babies boosts their brain power, studies show Children whose parents speak to them least fare worst in language tests, lagging behind by up to six months at age t...