View
213
Download
0
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
Copyright is owned by the Author of the thesis. Permission is given for a copy to be downloaded by an individual for the purpose of research and private study only. The thesis may not be reproduced elsewhere without the permission of the Author.
A Comp arative S t udy of the Language Used by
New Z e a l and Chil dren of European and of
S amoan Descent Aged 6 Ye ars 1 0 Mon ths to
8 Ye ars in Conversation with an Adu l t .
A disse rtation presented in p artial fulfilment
of the requirements for the degree
of Doctor o f Philosophy in Language
Ful l n ame
Year
at Massey University
ISOBEL MARY MOYNI HAN
19 7 9
ABS TRACT
The research represents an attempt to estab l ish some
normative data for the oral language performance of native-
Engli s h speaking children aged 6 years 10 months to 8 y e ars
in conversation with an adul t , and by examining the
performance of S amoan children in the same age-group to
determine those areas which discriminate most strongly
between the performances of both groups .
Children were interviewed individually and the
conversations re corded over a thirty-minute period . T apes
were transcribed on the s ame day as the re cording , and the
data quantif ied according to the procedures of Deve lopmental
Sentence Analys i s�
, which estab lished a rank-order for e a ch
group . A mo re de tailed analysis o f the data was then made
in order to identify those are as of development and/or o f
uncertainty whi ch were common t o both groups , and those
which appeared only , or mainly , among the Samoan chi ldren .
The statistic al analysis , b ased on the deve lopmental
weighting of syn tactic items , (DSS scores ) indicated that
whe re errors were spec i fic to the S amoan children they
occurred in structures described as e arly-developing among
iii
native-English speaking chi ldren . At the higher deve lopmental
leve ls , the performance of Samoan ch ildren above the 5 0 th
percentile (for that group ) was simi lar to that o f their
Eng lish speaking age-mates . The c l assifi cation of e rror-
patterns also distinguished between ' growth errors '
(where performance was characterized by over-general i z ing .
or by substitution , for examp le ) , and ' de ficiency errors '
� Lee , L . L . and Koenigsknecht 19 7 4 , · Deve lopmental Sen·tence
Analysis .
(where morphemes and syntactic items were omit ted} ,
the latter occurring more consistently among the Samoan
chi ldr en .
In addition , a general indication of l anguage deve lopment
in rel ation to chronological age was derived by comparing
the D S S scores of the S amoan chi ldren falling be low the
2 5 th percentile for that group with those ob tained by
younger chil dren at the 5 0 th percenti le point for each
one-ye ar interval from age 4 to age 6 . In the absence
of New Zealand DSS norms for these age- leve ls , it was
necessary to use those derived from a study of Ameri c an
chi ldren (Lee 1 9 7 4 } , but the resul ts are in accord with
other New Zeal and-b ased studies (See 0 . 1 , Introduction )
which have noted the " two-ye ar gap " appearing around age 7
among Po lynesian children when thei r achievement on a
variety of measures and tests is comp ared with that o f
their P akeha age-mates . In the present study , the " gap "
ranged from about 2 0 months at the 2 5 th percentile ( for the
Samoan group } to over 4 1 months at the l O th percenti le .
The general intention has been to sharpen the focus
for teachers wishing to develop compensatory l anguage
programmes so that effort may be directed to those speci f ic
areas where non- native speaking chi ldren appear to h ave
missed a devel opmental stage in the i r acquisition of Eng lish .
The f indings also suggest that difficulty with certain
syn tactic structures , semantic con cepts , and p honologic al
reali z ations is a function of age-l evel and the l anguage-.
situation for b oth groups o f sub j ects rather than o f the
ethnic background of the S amoan g roup .
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I should l ike to express my thanks to the fol lowing individua ls and institutions :
to my Chief S upervisor , Dr . N . R . Watts , for his advice , encouragemen t , and un fa il ing patience ; also to Dr . D . H . Bray , Assoc iate Supervisor , for his guidance , and to Mr. B . Natusch for helpful suggestions on phonologi cal no tation ;
V.
to Professor J . Dunmore , Head o f the Department o f Modern Languages , Massey University , for his assistance with administra tive procedures ;
t o Christchurch Teachers ' Co l l ege Council for granting l eave to enable me to ful f i l the requirements for ful l - time study and research ;
to the Canterbury and New Plymouth Educat ion Boards and District Senior Inspectors of P r imary Schools for a l l owing me access to schoo ls to carry out the research ;
to the Principa ls, S enior Teachers of Junior Cl asses , and classroom teachers who co-operated so wi l l ingly in the selection of chi ldren and in providing fac i l i t ies for the interviews ;
to my co l l eagues at Chr istchurch Teachers ' Co l lege : in the Engl ish Department , for shar ing my previous l ectur ing and other responsib i l ities ; and in the AudioVisua l Department for assistan ce with recording and reprographi c procedures ; in the Mathematics Department for assistance with the processing o f stat istical data ; in the Library for obtaining books on Inter- loan , and fo r the ir assistance in tracing publ ication deta i l s ;
to Pro fessor Laura Lee , Northwestern Universi ty , I l l ino i s , for her int erest i n the research , and for her permission ( and that of the publ ishers , Nor thwestern Un iversity
Press) to duplicate the DST and DSS Charts from Developmental Sentence Ana lysis ( 1 974 ) , pp . 86- 87 and 1 3 4 - 1 3 5 ;
to Dr . Margaret Maclagan , Speech Therapy Department , Christchurch Teachers ' Co l l ege , for introduc ing me to Pro fessor Lee ' s work in the field of developmental sentence ana lysis ;
to Mrs . G . Lamb who typed , and re-typed , the dra f ts o f the final d issfirtation and Tab l es ; to Mrs . A . Hughey who typed the bibl iography , the l ist of Appendices , and completed the lay-out of F igure 1 ; to Mrs . Wi l l i amson , Engl ish Department , University of Canterbury who typed the phonet i c symbo ls ( the co-operation of Pro fessor D . Davy , Head of the Engl ish Depar tment in providing the faci l i ty is also grateful ly acknowl edged ) .
Above al l , I am indebted to the chi ldren , both S amoan and Pakeha , who talked so freely and spontaneously in the presenc e o f an unfamiliar adult with a tapereco rder . They came from the fol lowing schools : ( in alphabetical order )
Addington
Aranui
Bamford
Bishopdale
Christchurch East
E l mwood Norma l
F reevil le
Isl eworth
Linwood Avenue
Mary Imma culate Convent
Phi l l ipstown
S t . Anne Convent
S t . Bernadette Convent
S t . James
S t . Joseph
Sockburn
Spo tswood
S preydon
Sydenham
Vogeltown
Wa inon i
Wa irakei
Wa ltham
West Spreydon
Wools ton
..
..
Chr istchurch 11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
New P lymouth
Chr istchurch 11
New P lymouth
Chr istchurch 11
11
11
11
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abs tr act Acknowledgements
o. 0 . 1
INTRODUCTION
A review o f recent re s e ardQ
PART ONE: THE DES I GN
Chapter 1 . Purpos e and P ro ce dures
1 . 1 1 . 2 1 . 3 1 . 4 1 . 5 1 . 6 1 . 7
P rimary Aims Method and Instrument S ub j e cts Definition o f Terms P ro ce dures Trans cription and S coring Modi ficat ions of DSS P rocedures
PART TWO : THE ANALYSIS
Chap ter
2 . 1 2 . 2
2 . 3 2 . 4
Chapter
3 . 1 3 . 2
3 . 3 3 . 4
3 . 5 3 . 6 3 . 7 3 . 9
3 . 1 0
2 .
3 .
S tatis tical Analyses
Developmental S entence S cores (DSS ) Weighted Deve lopmental S cores in the DSS Cate gori es Number of Entries in the DSS Categories C on clus ions from St atistical Analyses
Detailed Analys is of P erformance in Each of the DSS C ategories
P rocedure Inde finite P ronoun and Noun Modi fier C ategory P e rs onal P ronoun Category Main Verb Category 3 . 4 . 1 Verb Inflections at Levels 1 and 3 . 4 . 2 V-ed1 and V- ed2 Forms of Lexi c a l
Verbs at Lev�ls 2 , 7 and 8 3 . 4 . 3 Verb Forms at Leve ls 7 and 8 3 . 4 . 4 Verb Forms at Levels 4 and 6 3 . 4 . 5 Errors in Tens e S equence 3 . 4 . 6 Conclus ions S econdary Verb Category Negative Category Conj unction Category In terrogative Revers a l and Wh-Questions C ategory Conclus ions from DS S Category Ana lyses
2
p age iii
V
1 6
1 7
2 5
2 6 2 7 3 2 3 4 3 6 3 7 3 9
4 5
4 6
4 8 5'B 6 9
7 8
7 9
8 0 8 5 9 2 9 3
9 7 1 0 6 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 6 1 1 9 1 2 4 1 3 0
1 3 8 1 4 1
(,;:hapter 4 .
4 . 1
4 . 2 4 . 3
4 . 4 4 . 5 4 . 6 4 . 7 4 . 8 4 . 9
Chapter 5 .
Conc lus ion
APPENDIX I
I . l I . 2 I . 3 I . 4
I . 5
Deta iled Analys i s o f Performance in Areas not covered by DS S Categor ies
S entence Point Scores and the OTHER Categories Vocabulary Prepos itions and Adverbs : Def initions and C l a s s i f ication Procedures 4 . 3 . l S imple Prepo s i tions 4 . 3 . 2 Complex Prepo s itions 4 . 3 . 3 Prepos itiona l Adverbs 4 . 3 . 4 Verb + Particl e ( s ) 4 . 3 . 5 Adverbs 4 . 3 . 6 C l a s s i fication according to
Linguistic Level s 4 . 3 . 7 Error-Patterns at the Syntactic
Level 4 . 3 . 8 Error-Patterns at the Syntac tic/
S emantic Leve l s Pronunc ia tion I ndef inite and Def inite Articles Redundant Subj ect Noun Inflection Word-Order , Ambiguity , etc . Conc lus ions from Detai led Ana lyses
Ri ta: A Record of Progres s in Ora l Language Performance (April 1977 to August 1978 )
Stimulus material s DSS Chart Additions and alterations to DSS Chart Differences in DSS scores and in mean weighted developmental score in the Ma in Verb category resul ting from the scoring o f e l l ipted verbs for NG and SG subj ects A hypothetical corpus of twenty-five s entences i l lustrat ing Deve lopmenta l Sentence Scoring
APPENDIX IT I I . l
I I . 2
A compar i son table showing percentile po ints on DSS measure for US subj ects at 6 years 6 month s and for NG and SG subj ects of mean age 7 year s 5 months
Differences in increment ·between NG and SG subj ects , us ing the US scores at age 6- 6 as bases
1 4 3
1 4 4
1 5 0
1 6 3 1 6 4 1 6 5 1 6 6 1 67 1 6 8
1 7 0
171
• 1 7 6 1 9 1 2 07 2 10 2 1 1 2 1 5 2 1 5
2 1 8
2 4 5
2 5 3 2 6 0 2 6 1
2 6 4
2 6 5
2 6 6
2 67
2 6 7
I I . 3
I I . 4
I I . 5
Group means for weighted deve lopmenta l s cores in six DSS ca tegories with rankorder for US subj ects aged 6- 0 to 6 - 1 1 and for NG and SG subj e c ts aged 6 - 1 0 to 8 - 0
S G subj ects in DSS r ank-order , with DSS and P . A . T . Li stening Comprehens ion percentiles (where ava i labl e ) and teacher s ' comments (where suppl ied )
DSS scores and mea sures for 2 0 New Plymouth NG subj ects of mean age 7 - 4
APPENDIX I I I
I I I . l DS T Chart
B ib l iography
2 6 8
2 6 9
2 7 1
2 7 4
2 7 5
2 7 6
Chapter 2
T able 1
Tab l e 2
T ab le 3
Tab l e 4
T ab le 5
T ab l e 6
Tab le 7
Tab le 8
Chapter 3
Tab le 9
LIS T OF TABLES
Rank- order of DSS s cores , and percentiles for NG and SG sub j ects , with group means' and s tandard deviations s hown for male and female sub j ects combined and s eparate ly .
Group means for weighted developmen tal s cores in the DS S categories , with c ategory r ank- order , for NG and SG s ub j ects .
Dis criminant funct ion of DS S categories , with rank-order , b ased on intergroup dif ferences between weighted deve lopmental s cores , omi tting Interrogative Revers a l and Wh-Ques tion categories .
Dis criminant function of DSS categories , with rank-order , b ased on in tragroup dif ferences between weighted deve lopmental s cores for the top and bottom five s ub j e cts , omitting Interrogative Reversal and Wh-Ques tion categories .
Intragroup di fferences between male and female s ub j ects in weighted deve lopment a l s cores , excluding Interrogative Revers a l and Wh-Question categorie s .
Dis crimin ant funct ion of DSS categorie s , with rank order , b ased on intragroup diffe rences between mean frequency for the top and bottom five sub j ects , inc luding Interrogat ive Revers al and Wh-Ques tion c ategories .
Group totals for number of entries in each DSS category expressed as a percentage of total entries in the eight categories together with rank-order o f frequen cy· .
Group means and s t andard devi ations for Deve lopmental S entence S cores (DSS ) , Weighted Deve lopmental S core (WDS ) , and number of entries (F ) for NG and S G sub j ects .
.
Error- types and f requency in the Indefinite P ronoun and Noun Modifier category· for NG and SG s ub j ects .
page
4 7
5 0
5 2
5 3
5 7
6 0
6 2
6 8
8l
T ab l e 10
Tab l e lOA
T ab le 1 1
T ab le 1 2
T ab le 1 3
T ab le 1 4
Tab l e 1 5
Tab le 1 6
T ab le 1 7
Tab l e 1 8
Tab l e 19
T ab le 2 0
T ab l e 2 1
Tab l e 2 2
Tab le 2 3
Error- types and frequency in the Pers onal P ronoun category for NG s ub j e cts .
Error- types and frequency in the Personal P ronoun c ategory for S G s ub j ects , with e rror-pe rcentages for NG and SG .
Details of error-types in the Main Verb c ategory at Levels 1 and 2 for NG and S G sub j e cts .
Vari ations in �e p rin cipal p arts o f irregul ar verb s .
The seven irregul ar verb - c l as ses .
Error-patterns in regul ar and irregular lexical verbs at Leve l 2 ( s imple p as t tens e ) for N G and S G sub j ects .
·
Error - frequency in the simp le pas t tens e o f regular and i rregular verbs clas s i fied under OMISS ION and OVER-GENERALI Z ING .
In ciden ce of over-generali z ing the ·e d morpheme on the s imp le pas t tense o� irregular verbs among NG and SG sub j e cts with DSS s cores f al ling above the 5 0 th percentile poin t .
Error-p atterns in V-ed2 forms at Leve ls 7 and 8 in the Main Verb category for NG and SG sub j ects .
Analy s i s of error-p atterns in the components of Level 7 verb s among NG and SG s ub j e cts .
Mean f requency of entries at Leve ls 4 and 6 in the Main Verb category for NG and S G sub j ects in groups o f ten according to DSS rank-order . ·
Errors in the verb -forms at Levels 4 and 6 by NG and SG s ub j ects .
Frequency of tens·e-s equen ce errors in co-ordinate and s ubordinate cl aus es for NG an d S G sub j e cts .
Number of entries and percen tage of error at all Levels in the Main Verb category for �G and S G s ub j e cts .
Type and frequen cy of error in the S econdary Verb c ategory at all deve lopmental Levels fo r NG and SG s ub j e cts .
8 6
8 7
9 4
9 7
9 8
1 0 0
1 0 5
1 0 5
1 0 7
1 0 8
1 12
1 1 3
1 14
1 1 8
1 2 2
T able 2 4
T able 2 5
Tab le 2 6
Tab l e 2 7
Table 2 8
Tab le 2 9
Tab le 3 0
Tab le 3 1
Chap ter 4 .
Tab l e 3 2
Tab l e 3 3
Tab le 3 4
Number o f entries and o f e rrors at e ach deve lopmental Level in the S e condary Verb c ategory for NG and SG s ub j e cts .
Frequency of entries in the Negative category shown for NG and SG sub j e cts at Leve ls 1 , 4 , 5 , with Level 7 entries shown for groups of ten sub j e cts according to DSS rank-order and as a percentage of tota l entrie s .
Type and frequency of e rror in the Con j unction category at each deve lopmental Leve l for NG s ub j ects .
Type and frequency of e rror in the Con j unction category at e ach devel opmental Level for SG s ub j ects .
Frequency of entries at Leve ls 5 , 8 and at 3 and 6 combined and their e xpre s s i on as percentages of total entries in the Conj un ction category for NG and SG s ubj ects .
Frequency of entries at Levels 5 and 8 in the Conj unction category s hown for NG and S G sub j ects in groups of ten according to
1 2 3
1 2 9
1 3 4
1 3 5
1 3 7
DSS r ank-order . 1 37
Numb e r of errors e xpressed as a p ercen tage o f entries at Levels 5 and 8 , and at 3 and 6 comb ined for NG and S G sub j ects . 1 3 7
Me an weighted deve lopmental score per s ub j ect and per entry in the Interrogative Revers al and Wh-Question c ate gories for NG and SG s ub j e c ts .
·
1 3 9
Total number o f S entence P oints received fo r 5 0 s cored utterances by every f ive s ubj ects , mean s cores for every ten s ub j ects and g roup me ans . 1 4 5
Intra-group dis criminant function o f Sentence Point s cores . Number of correct s en tences e xpre s sed as a p e rcentage of total s en tences s c ored for NG and SG sub j ects . 1 4 6
Numbe r o f errors by NG and S G s ub j ects in categories not c overed by DSS , together with rank-order o f categories in des cending frequency . 1 4 8
T ab le 3 5
T ab le 3 6
Chapter 5
T ab le 37
Table 3 8
T able 3 9
Tab l e 4 0
Group means for e rrors in DS S and OTHER categories ove r 50 s cored utterances .
P ronun ci ation e r ror-types and frequency in the complete l anguage s amples f rom NG and S G sub j ects .
Record o f progres s ive reduction in l anguage-delay by s ub j ect S G40 from 10 March to 10 Augus t 1 9 7 8 as meas ured by comparing succes sive DSS with the 5 0 th percentile poin t s cores for e ar lier age - l eve ls as shown in Lee 1974 ( 16 7 } .
Mean s cores ob tained from all scorab le utter an ces ; from fifty s cored utte r an ces (DSS } ; and from the fifty highest s coring utter an ces by s ub j ect S G 4 0 over the period from 2 2 Apri l 1 9 77 to 10 Augus t 1 9 7 8 .
Record o f deve lopment in the eight DS S grammatical categories f rom lO March 1 9 7 8 to 1 0 Augus t 197 8 and S en tence Point s core s over that period for sub j ect S G4 0 ( Ri t a } .
Number o f entrie s and of attempts at each of the deve lopmental Levels of the eight DSS c ategories from lO March 1978 to 10 August 1978 for sub j e ct S G40 ( Rita} .
1 4 8
1 9 3
2 3 6
2 37
2 39
2 4 2
F igure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
LIST OF F I GURES
Percentile po ints for SG subj ects at age 7- 5 and for American chi ldren from age 4 - 0 to 6 - 6 , with approximate language delay in months for SG subj ects below the
page
5 0th percen t i le po int . 71
Po s ition in fami ly o f the top and bottom ten SG subj ects 7 3
A model for the c l a s s i fication and des cription of errors in the use of prepos i tions, adverbs, and partic les in mult i-word verbs at syntactic, semantic, and phono logical l evel s . 17�
Error-types and distribution in the sub-category of c lausal adverbs ( Time ) for NG and SG subj ects . 1 8 7
DSA*
DSS*
ESL
GCE
LARSP
LAS S
NG
P . A . T .
SG
us
LI S T OF ABBREVIATIONS
Developmenta l Sentence Analys i s .
Developmental Sentence Scoring ( the method ) , or Developmental Sentence Score ( the resul t in numer ical form) .
Engl i sh as a Second Language
A G rammar of Contemporary Engl ish ( Quirk et a l . 197 3 )
Language As s e s sment , Remediation and S c reening Procedures ( Crysta l et a l . l 976 )
Lingui stic Analysis o f Speech Samples ( Engler et a l . l97 3 )
Normative Group ( chil dren of native-Eng l i shspeaking parents )
Progre ss ive Achievement Tests ( New Zealand Council for Educa tional Research )
Samoan Group ( children with at least one S amoan parent )
Un ited States ( chi ldren in Lee and Koenigsknecht 1 974 )
* Abbrevi at ion s used in Lee , L . L . and Koen igsknecht,R. ( 1 974 ) Deve lopmental Sentence Ana lys i s .
Recommended