Little Evie Transcipt Analysis Essay

Introduction

From the transcript it does appear that Evie is already a confident and developed language user, perhaps in the telegraphic stage. Evie thrives in a creative, playful and known environment, able to develop skills currently within her zone of proximal development. Evie shows widely developed social skills, particularly friendly conversational skills, encouraged by a seemingly familiar family figure.

(Perhaps also include disucssion around the observers paradox)

Paragraph 1:
Within the first paragraph I would discuss Nelson’s local topics, predominately focused on nouns to show how Evie, through conversation centred around her environment, is encouraged to develop her spoken language.

An example of this is how Evie’s grandmother uses Evie’s toys to act as a conversational topic, perhaps because it is likely that Evie has a good range of lexis relating to these topics.

Paragraph 2:
Discuss how Evie’s grandmother uses many features of child directed speech to support and encourage Evie towards  a child led discourse, linking this to previous exploration into local topics. This would include discussion around Bruner’s theory of interaction, with positive guidance through modelling and reformulation.

‘We’ll take a picture of tigger,’ – within this quote, Evie’s grandmother expands upon Evie’s utterance (‘picture of tigger’), which gives Evie a complete, grammatically standard form to learn from. This is also an example of positive reinforcement and friendly encouragement, as the Grandmother shows that Evie’s language has clear meaning.   

Paragraph 3:
Paragraph 3 would then further develop Bruner’s interactionalist view by drawing upon Vygotski’s theory of the zone of proximal development, and how it can be expanded through scaffolding. This would then include the grandmother’s prompting and cloaked imperative.

‘How many? Count them’ By the use of both an open, although restricted, interrogative and an imperative that appears to be playful in meaning, may show that Evie’s grandmother is able to exercise her power to encourage Evie’s language use.

‘What’s that?’ Evie’s grandmother uses prompts, like this one, to further encourage Evie to use language within this relaxed, familiar environment.

Paragraph 4:
Within this paragraph I would comment upon power asymmetry within the transcript. As the authority to reward praise and reinforce is usually held by the power participant, it is interesting that, at many points in the transcript, Evie appears to be the most powerful. This could be explored further through the differences between instrumental and influential power, is Evie given power to encourage her to develop language confidently?

‘We want cat in the picture,’ – inclusive pronouns may indicate that the grandmother is reducing the power asymmetry by appearing to be on the same level of status as Evie. This may also be a way for Evie’s grandmother to exercise influential power.   

Paragraph 5:

Within the transcript, we see Evie and her grandmother interacting in an imaginative, creative environment. This may be because the grandmother wants to encourage many uses of language, for example the imaginative function that Halliday theorised.

‘he’s nice and dry’ – by being imaginative with the toys, Evie is able to expand upon her lexical use in a fun, creative way. 

Paragraph 6:
When considering Evie’s confident language, it is important to address her use of non-standard pronunciation and grammatical construction. This would include any virtuous errors within the transcript and, perhaps linking this to a stage of development, i.e. the telegraphic stage.

An example of this would be the multiple variations of pronunciation for the word ‘kangaroo,’ – shows that Evie is still unsure of some lexical pronunciations, but is encouraged towards a more standard form.