Assignment 1 “ How Language Works Essay Example

Assignment 1 â€Å" How Language Works Essay ASSIGNMENT 1 â€Å" HOW LANGUAGE WORKS To maintain confidentiality, the learner I have selected for this assignment will be referred to as John. John is a 30 year old single male, living at home with both parents. He has a full time job in a distribution centre, employed as a forklift truck driver. He has worked in this field for the last 12 years and in this particular company, for 3 years. John was born in Coventry and has a brother who is two years older. During early years at school, John and his brother, were described by teachers, as disruptive and badly behaved and both were excluded from normal classroom activities, spending much of the school day isolated from classmates and working alone. John remembers this well and said that being excluded from the classroom at his first school damaged his confidence greatly. At that young age, he was unable to explain to the teachers that he could not understand. Whenever he tried, he was accused of being naughty. We will write a custom essay sample on Assignment 1 â€Å" How Language Works specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Assignment 1 â€Å" How Language Works specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Assignment 1 â€Å" How Language Works specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer When John was 7 years old his parents moved to Bedworth, Warwickshire and John started at a new school. Within weeks, the teachers identified that there was a problem with both brothers and they began assessments, including dyslexia testing. Support was put into place and improvements in behaviour were soon seen. John was diagnosed as dyslexic when he was 11 years old, which coincided with moving up to secondary school. He had made good progress at junior school, with the additional support that had been provided and this continued throughout his secondary education. John was provided with a teaching assistant and additional resources, that were available to him. Rice (2004:11) states that the term dyslexiaâ„ ¢ is problematic; there are many definitions, with varying degrees of overlapâ„ ¢. He argues that it is not particularly helpful for teachers to distinguish between those who are dyslexic and those who are ordinary poor readersâ„ ¢. John remembers his secondary edu cation as being a very positive experience. He did suffer at the hands of bullies and was often called names. Ultimately, this led to some confrontations when he was 15 years old, but the school dealt with the issues and his final year at school was good, resulting in John gaining three GCSEâ„ ¢s at grade D. It is interesting to note that his father was diagnosed as dyslexic in 2002 after years of believing he was just did not do well at school. In everyday life, John explained that he uses avoidance tactics in situations where he needs to read. At work, during team briefings there are often information sheets handed out. John will joke that he canâ„ ¢t be bothered to read it right now, or puts it in his bag to read later. Only his superior is aware of his dyslexia and John has requested that the information remains confidential. He explained that he does not want to become an easy target for some of his colleagues and fears if they know he is dyslexic, he will either be subjected to constant jokes about being stupid or treated with pity. John enjoys fishing a great deal and is very knowledgeable. He spends a much of his free time doing solitary activities and freely admits that he prefers his own company. From the initial assessments that were carried out earlier in the year, John is working entry level 3 at text, sentence and word level. ORAL SKILLS John has a very strong regional midlands accent and typical dialect associated with the area. He has a naturally loud voice and speaks clearly with some nasal sounds. I noticed in our discussion preparation sessions John is able to tailor his speech to the audience. He appears to be less formal in the general class environment speaking in normal everyday language including localised slang, but was able to adapt his speech to suit a more formal discussion environment. There are variations in Johnâ„ ¢s speech and he uses local dialect such as ainâ„ ¢t (am not) inâ„ ¢it (isnâ„ ¢t it) and pronunciations are local such as, wonâ„ ¢t/donâ„ ¢t pronounced as wunt/dunt. However, he refrains from including the localised slang when he is speaking formally. Jean Aitchison said We human beings are odd compared with our nearest animal relatives. Unlike them, we can say what we want, when we want. All normal humans can produce and understand any number of new words and sentences. Humans use multiple options of language often without thinking. But blindly, they sometimes fall into itsâ„ ¢ traps. They are like spiders who exploit their webs, but themselves get caught in the sticky strands (2012, The University of Warwick) John is a pragmatic speaker. The language he uses is appropriate to the audience and his verbal communication is good. He uses body language and expression to accompany his speech. His pitch changes accordingly, throughout the conversation and he uses variable tones of voice. Openings of conversations include the exchange of greetings and John is aware of speech etiquette, an example of which is turn taking. During conversations, John will ask questions and whilst the answer is being given, will make back-channel noises such as uh-huh. He also responds non-verbally by nodding or shaking his head if he does not agree. I noticed that the head shaking comes before a verbal response when he is not in agreement with something. He does not pause often when speaking and could best be described as a transactional speaker, he provides information with clarity, therefore he is also a referential speaker. TEXT LEVEL For the purpose of this assignment, I had asked John to write approximately 200 words including a little about himself and his interests (Appendix 1) I know that John does not have a lot of confidence in writing and that he found this very challenging. It would be unclear as to what purpose the text serves or to the audience it is meant for had I not had prior knowledge of the reasons for the text. It has been presented as a small self-portrait of oneâ„ ¢s hobbies or even life, the informal style and the fact that the text does not fully converge on any specific topic, makes it rather difficult to predict the audience and the purpose. It is also clear in the text that John is not too intent to write, as is seen in the last paragraph; but obviously is proud of his own self at being able to finally write a full descriptive essay about his activities and hobbies. This along with the fact that he is attending college to increase his knowledge and overall understanding of reading and writing, further makes the indication that he is just learning and has obviously improved a lot since. John completed the text in an informal language and style therefore it is appropriate for the purpose and the audience. COHESION AND COHERENCE Although the content of text is by far cohesive, it lacks coherence to a very large extent. Initially the text spoke about fishing and Johnâ„ ¢s hobbies and interests in photography and film. The three main topics are connected but are hardly coherent as they lack any specific aim. The jumpy transitions from the description of fishing as a weekend past time, to watching films, especially the abrupt jump to the talk about pets are rather incoherent and in parts lacks cohesiveness. A number of connectives have been used like so that, I do take, so etc. that adds to the cohesiveness and clarity of the text, although in some places the usage is not really required. Referencing has been hardly used. John uses the word fishing repetitively as also in the instances where he uses the word film twice and the phrase a lot of pets. The lexis and register of the text is clearly identified from words like mate, carp-fishing, we go, sunsetâ„ ¢s and sunrises etc. The over-usage of linking devices and the lack of referencing and the typical use of lexis and register make the text forcefully cohesive while it lacks the essential element of coherence. SENTENCE LEVEL The structure of the sentences is very flawed and has a childish nature. The syntax has no regard to tense (I am watching films, we got a lot) or to grammar and formation (e.g. birds lotâ„ ¢s of birds). The sentences lack punctuation a number of times and in few places are punctuated erroneously. The sentence type is declarative throughout and the usage of compound sentences is not seen much. John uses small simple sentences like I do a lot of fishing. Thatâ„ ¢s carp-fishing. The use of clauses is absent in some places and in others misplaced. The absence can be clearly seen in the large number of simple sentences that could have been clubbed into a compound one using a suitable clause; instances such as the description of fishing, three sentences and pets, a number of jumbled up simple sentences. In places like so that means I load, Friday morning before work, which is etc. the clauses manage to clearly explain the meaning, though the usage seems to be flawed and overly done at times. WORD LEVEL The learner seems to have mastered English morphology of forming words using differences in tense from their root words. The authorâ„ ¢s lexis and vocabulary seems to lack in the essential smaller details of English language such as the usage of determiners, conjunctions and prepositions. At placed like fishing and shooting, trapping, etc. small words like, and have been misplaced. John appears to belong from an educated background yet one from where the use of correct grammar or vocabulary both in spoken and written language is not much stressed. From the last paragraph it is also evident that John does not write or read a lot. Obviously, this is because of his dyslexia. There is also some confusion with homophones and in tis particular text, he confuses to. His spoken pronunciation affects the spelling in places where the words have been spelled as they have been spoken; enjoy has been misspelled as injoy, straight as straet, chicken as chicking and course as cores. Although, John has mastered some aspects of English, his inflectional morphology clearly suffers where all the plurals have been written as with an apostrophe. Small improvements in these areas of morphology and uses of conjunction etc. as well as spellings will help John to use more complex statements, increase text quality and remove some useless features of his text. PROGRESSION John has been attending literacy and numeracy classes at college for four years. He passed Adult Literacy level 1 in 2010 and was working towards level 2 but unfortunately was unable to take the exam before the qualification changed. John came to the group expecting to take Functional Skills level 2 but now realises that the qualification is very different to the previous adult literacy certificate and has now accepted that level 1 is a more realistic goal for this academic year. Each individual dyslexic learner is different and will display a different set of strengths and weaknesses, and we therefore cannot provide a complete definition for dyslexia that will reflect the difficulties of every learner (Rice, 2004). Because of his dyslexia, John has always felt that he is being held back and he is extremely focused on learning to read and write more effectively. One of the primary difficulties in dyslexia, is that of phonological processing. One theory suggests that dyslexic learners experience difficulties with phonological representations in their working memory and research supports that this is the case (Mortimore, 2003). Mortimore (2003) also reports that dyslexic learners do not seem to use phonological mnemonics ¦as readily as othersâ„ ¢, that they have difficulty maintaining phonological information using rehearsal or repetitionâ„ ¢ and that they do not spontaneously attach verbal labels to picturesâ„ ¢. I feel it is important for John to revisit phonics and have introduced a resource to him that includes pictures. Initially he was apprehensive about using it but having had chance to evaluate, he realises it is a useful tool and is happy to continue using it. John needs to be able to identify the phonological sounds in order to develop his understanding of decoding words. The learning programme should be well structured and include explicit teaching of phonology and phonics as well as exposure to a range of texts. The focus for Johnâ„ ¢s progress should not just be on his literacy needs, but consideration must be made of his emotional and cognitive needs, life skills and coping strategies. There are obvious issues with tenses and punctuation and these will form part of group session work with additional hard copy resources. Chappel and Walker (2001) found that three strands of provision were necessary to help adults with dyslexia: a structured language programmeâ„ ¢, life skillsâ„ ¢ and coping strategiesâ„ ¢. There is also the opportunity to work on inflections and homophones to add clarity to the learning. I will be introducing some repetitive writing patterns for John to work through over the coming weeks and the aim is for him to work on constructing more complex sentences, concentrating particularly on cohesion and coherence. I also think that focus should be out on text, the structure and chronological texts, use of paragraphs and how meaning is built. Now that John is more comfortable in the group, reading will be in the form of both paired and group work. John works particularly well with a specific member of the class he attends and I aim to pair them together. Teachers should work with learners to investigate which teaching approaches work best. To this end, they must ensure that students learn to name their experiences and develop their voices. This is particularly important for dyslexic students, who have long complained that their descriptions if learning are ignored, as if irrelevant to the teaching process. If teachers will only listen, students will explain the nature of their dyslexia and then methods can be generated accordingly. (Nora Hughes, 2010) Appendices Appendix 1 â€Å" Learner text REFERENCES: Mortimore, T, 2003. Dyslexia and learning style: a practionerâ„ ¢s handbook, 2nd ed. London: Whurrs Publishers pp.110/264 Rice, M, 2004. Developmental dyslexia in adults: a research review. London: NRDC pp. 113 Nora Hughes Irene Schwab (2010). Teaching Adult Literacy. London: The Open University. Pp. 324 325. The University of Warwick (2012). Spoken discourse. In: Day 3, November 7th 2012, Warwick University. pp. 7. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Geert E. Booij., The Grammar of Words: An Introduction to Linguistic Morphology, 2nd ed., Oxford Univ. Press, 2007. Jones A., 1998, Why Are Logical Connectives Sometimes Detrimental to Coherence, Chapter 12. Halliday, M.A.K; and Ruqayia Hasan., 1976: Cohesion in English. London: Longman. (function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "https://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })() Thornbury S., Methodology: Coherence and cohesion, Available at: http://www.onestopenglish.com/support/ask-the-experts/methodology-questions/methodology-coherence-and-cohesion/154867.article