Child Language Acquisition

• They see it more than hear it
• Need eye contact to communicate
• NVC (non-verbal communication) as the main source of communication
• Intonation- sound of words, rhythm, stress
• Lip reading
• At around 18 months, a child learns about 10 words a day
• Deaf children exposed to sign language show the same stages of language acquisition, as do hearing children exposed to spoken languages
• If a person develops his/her language after puberty he/she will never be able to fully acquire language
• Children at the age of 18 months will have a productive vocabulary of around 50 words
• A child can understand more words than he/she can speak
• If you can expose a baby to two languages at the sane time, he/she will learn both 

Stephen Fry- Planet Word- Origins of language

This is a documentary series on how we adapt to language.

• Over 7,000 languages used on our planet today
• 2 years old is a key stage when children speak 
• In the build up to that stage, they are listening and watching others 

Opinionated articles

Why save a language?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/opinion/sunday/why-save-a-language.html?_r=0


Language rules are meant to be broken
http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/language-rules-are-meant-to-be-broken-20101202-18hry.html


Text speak: language evolution or just laziness?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/9966117/Text-speak-language-evolution-or-just-laziness.html


Straight from high school to a career
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/opinion/straight-from-high-school-to-a-career.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FEducation&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection


A fair chance after a conviction
http://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/education

Why is there a lack of pupils wanting to take a language as a GCSE?

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/aug/20/why-drop-students-langauge-gcses-teachers-views
This article explores the issue of less and less pupils wanting to take a language as as GCSE.

The Guardian- ban on tackling analysis

Text A is an online article from The Guardian, informing people about banning tackling in school rugby. The audience are people who read The Guardian and possibly parents of children. I would argue that these people are middle class due to the fact that The Guardian is a professional newspaper, which is always written to a high standard. To add to that, the newspaper is online so you would need a computer to access it.



Text B is an online forum, where people can express their views on Text A. The audience are also guardian readers. However, instead of just reading the article, they also get the chance to comment on it and express their own views and opinions and discuss the article.



Text A contains a range of occupational lexis such as Ministers, chief medical officers, children's commissions. These are all authoritative figures/positions of authority, which highlights the formality of the article.



Text B contains a range of colloquial lexis such as 'can't hack it', 'drivel'. This language highlights that the text is a forum of informal register.

The Guardian- exclamation mark rules

http://www.theguardian.com/education/shortcuts/2016/mar/07/new-exclamation-mark-rules-proof-the-government-wants-to-penalise-enthusiasm

Top 20 words in English

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03hbx0s
Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright guide us through the top 20 words in English

• Common- The, be, to, of, and
• Highlights- With, I, you, have
• Not interesting words
• No nouns, very few verbs
• Grammatical 
• And comes out at 'um' very often
• There's a reason they're forgettable- because you process them faster
• They are very important, hold language together and express meanings
• All english
• Anglo Saxon words