Sunday, May 10, 2009

ENGA1 Language Development essay questions

As this is the start of a new specification, there has only been one "proper" essay question set on this topic so far, but many of the old spec's child language questions might be reworked (or recycled - it is the 21st century) into something suitable for the new spec.

Here's a list of loads of previous questions from the AQA A spec and in days to come we'll have a look at how you might approach these if they were set on the ENGA1 paper.

  1. Discuss the ways in which young children up to the age of four learn words and their meanings.
  2. Give examples of how children develop their ability to use the sounds of English. What do your examples reveal about the nature of children’s language acquisition?
  3. To what extent do children learn language by copying the language that is spoken to them?
  4. Give examples of how children learn to use the grammar of English. What do your examples reveal about the nature of children’s language acquisition?
  5. To what extent do children acquire language by actively working out its rules?
  6. To what extent is it appropriate to describe children’s early uses of language as wrong or incorrect?
  7. To what extent do children learn language through imitation? Give examples of sounds, vocabulary, grammar and meaning.
  8. How important is the interaction between children and adult speakers in the process of children’s language acquisition?
  9. What have you discovered about the nature of language acquisition from the ways children develop their grammatical skills?
  10. It has been suggested that children’s language acquisition is a more interesting process than the simple imitation of adult speech.
  11. What have you found interesting about the ways children acquire language?
A plan for answering question 4 (grammar acquisition) can be found here on the Teachit website, if you want to have a look at some approaches to it.

To use Teachit links you'll have to register on their site first, but it's still free. Go here, register, log in then follow the link above.

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