Language Analysis Assignment
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School
Utah State University *
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Course
3500
Subject
Linguistics
Date
Jan 9, 2024
Type
docx
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2
Uploaded by hkalehuawehe
Hannah Kalehuawehe
Language Analysis Assignment
COMD 3200
Summary
I collected a language sample from a 4-year-old English speaking preschooler named
Alex. Alex is my nephew, and we have a close relationship and talk on a weekly basis. He speaks
English at home and at school. As Alex attends preschool, he is reaching new language
milestones on a daily basis. The language skills of preschoolers advance as their grasp of form,
content, and usage become more polished, and they gain a deeper understanding of language. In
our session, Alex demonstrated his proficiency in language through the use of phonology,
morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.
Phonology pertains to the language rules governing the sounds that form words and
syllables. The development of phonology involves a child’s grasp of phonemes relevant to their
native language. A child who is between 4-5 years of age should have mastered most consonant
sounds including: /p/, /b/, /m/, /n/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /f/, /s/, /y/, /h/, /z/, /l/, and /v/. According to the
sample I collected, Alex demonstrated his ability to produce these age-appropriate sounds. Not
all of the sounds were heard during our session, so with the help of Alex’s mom, I asked
additional questions where he was able to produce those sounds in each word. Throughout the
preschool years, a child’s awareness of the sound structures of phonemes, phonological
awareness, steadily improves. Since I speak with Alex so frequently, I have noticed that his
phonological awareness has increased over the last year and his mother agrees. Typically,
children around this age can segment sentences into words, identify and produce rhymes, blend
phonemes to form words, and manipulate phonemes by adding, deleting, or rearranging them
with words. Alex is demonstrating age-appropriate phonological skills across these areas.
Morphology refers to the rules governing the internal structure of words. The
development of morphology equips children with the skills for grammatical inflection, including
elements like the plural and possessing “-s” as well as verb tense variations like the past tense
“-ed” contributing to vocabulary growth. Alex demonstrated proficient in using contractions in
his speech; for instance, he appropriated used “can’t” a few times throughout our session. He
also applies the plural and possessive “-s” as evidenced by his usage of terms like “triceratops”,
“dinosaurs”, and “tails”. He also involves the use of pronouns, especially “they”, several times
during our interaction.
Syntax involves the language rules that dictate the internal arrangement of sentences. As
children become more proficient in sentence structure, their utterances tend to lengthen. On
average, children around Alex’s age have a mean length of utterance (MLU) of 4.0 with a range
of about 3.75-4.5. Alex’s MLU was 3.8 which puts him in the typical range for his age. Alex’s
utterances varied in length with his longest utterance having a morpheme count of 8 and his
shortest being 1. He had several utterances between the 5-8 range.
Semantics pertain to an individual’s understanding of the meanings of words and their
internal lexicon, with relevance to syntax comprehension. Alex’s mother described how reading
nightly and watching certain television shows has contributed to the enhancement of Alex’s
lexicon. During our discussion, his mom highlighted Alex’s robust comprehension skills and
rapid acquisition of new words. She emphasized that Alex has four older siblings that often use
new words around him. He asks, “what’s that?” to clarify what new words mean and often
repeats the words that he hears. For a child between the ages of 4-5 years old, their semantic
skills advance beyond labeling and identifying nouns in their surrounding environment. It could
include describing the function of an object and identifying objects that go together. Based on my
conversations with Alex and his mother, Alex is demonstrating age-appropriate skills in these
areas.
Pragmatics involve using language as a social instrument. Preschool-aged children use
language for understanding, engagement, and structuring interactions. Alex seems to exhibit
pragmatic skills that align with his age group. Although I did contribute a lot of dialogue and
kept asking questions to keep the conversation going, Alex remained actively engaged in his
responses throughout the session. Typically, in conversations with children that are Alex’s age,
the interaction tends to be one-sided, with the adult predominantly leading the discussion with
minimal input from the child. In our conversation, Alex asked me questions and he often asks
clarifying questions in his day-to-day interactions.
My assessment of Alex’s language development is that he is progressing at the same rate
as other 4-year-old children on average. During the session, I found it easy to use parallel talk
and ask direct questions but struggled with using self-talk and using descriptions. Although I
asked a lot of direct questions vs. open-ended questions, Alex’s responses to my direct questions
were rarely just one-word answers. He would either repeat phrases that I had used or build on
what I asked. I took the majority of the lead during our conversation by asking questions to keep
it going. I think it helped that I am Alex’s aunt, and he is comfortable with me. He is usually a
more reserved child and may not have responded as much to a stranger. I allowed Alex to explore
with the dinosaurs which also helped keep our conversation going. If I had asked more open-
ended questions or used more descriptive talk, that may have contributed to a higher MLU for
Alex.
I learned a lot from this assignment. I enjoyed the conversation that I had with Alex and
was happy to recognize that I already use a lot of parallel talk with ease. I think this stems from
being a classroom teacher for the last 5 years. It also helped me gain more knowledge in
phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics and re-reading certain chapters in the
textbook helped to clarify my understanding of each one. I am excited to continue building on
this knowledge as I practice more and become more confident in performing more assessments
like these in the future.
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