Monday, 28 September 2015

Coursework Ideas


I am currently choosing between two ideas for my investigation. My first idea is something to do with children’s language- I’m thinking about how a 2 years olds’ language supports the stage that they should be in. For this idea I’m considering linking the hypothesis from Skinner that says that “children acquire language based on behaviourist reinforcement by linking words to meanings.” I feel like this will be an interesting theory to explore and test, considering more people believe Chomsky who is his opposite, although I don’t completely believe in his theory. I am planning to collect at least three recordings (and then turned into transcripts) to see if they support my hypothesis. I will attempt to get the child to talk about different subjects that I know they will respond positively too so that the recordings aren’t too similar. I think that one of the only difficulties is that as it is a child that I am testing, he (the child) might not want to cooperate.

The sample data that I have collected show me that he definitely has some grammatical mistakes and errors like mispronounced words, so I will have something to talk about and investigate.

I am considering using additional data but am not sure what and how to link it to my investigation.

As mentioned before there will definitely be difficulties, like the child not cooperating. But I will overcome this by recording at a time that his parents have said he’s at his most talkative. Another difficulty is that I could be subconsciously biased as the child is a relation of mine. I will have to make sure, from my peers, that I don’t do this. I will also handle this in my analysis/evaluation by mentioning what went wrong and why it went like this. In addition, I’ll explain what I could have done instead to have made it work.

 

My second idea for my investigation is to do with children reading. I’m not sure what hypothesis to test for this idea. I’m thinking maybe Uta Frith’s theory; “she proposed that the earliest stage, which she termed the logographic stage, involves children being able to recognise written words on the basis of remembering certain key characteristics of the printed word.” I am planning to collect at least three, maybe four, recordings of the child (5 years old) reading. I will get probably 2 books that the child recognises and maybe 1 or 2 books that the child doesn’t recognise. I think that it’ll be interesting to see if the child will already say the words on the next page before turning the page. I also think that it will be good if the child doesn’t know a book and attempts to read it.

My sample data shows that the child can read quite well. However she takes a while to read and takes a lot of pauses between longer words compared to words like “in” and “is”. I think I could maybe include additional data like a questionnaire to either the child or the parents to see how well they think she can read and when she started reading etc.

I will come across difficulties/issues like the child not being willing to cooperate, like in the first idea.  And perhaps that the child can read quite well and so there might not be many mistakes. In the evaluation, I will do exactly like my first idea, I’ll explain what went wrong, why and what I would do to change it.

 

I’m not sure what my media text will be about but it will be linked to my coursework idea, something linked to children’s language or reading. I think the question that I have is which idea do I do, I think I’m leaning towards the first idea.

1 comment:

  1. Some very good evaluation of these ideas. Two considerations - remember not to say errors/mistakes as we try to focus on what they can do and it is best to try and get data from situations that are as close to natural as possible to avoid the observer's paradox and to be ethical in not imposing on your young subjects or leading them to feel under pressure to perform. Remember children shouldn't be at particular stages by particular ages so you don't want to measure them against what they 'should' be able to do but rather say that what they can do seems to indicate they are at or between particular stages and suggest why in context. Have another think about how you could collect data.

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