Paper 3 Section B

 In the transcription, it is a five-year-old, Raina, having a conversation with her mother while they are walking in the countryside. Raina is shown comfortable speaking with her mom and assumes she understands what she is talking about. The mother is helping Raina speak and finish her sentences, while they look at the nature outdoor they are witnessing on their walk. The mother tries to get Raina to focus on specific objects on their walk. “See the butterfly,” “look over in that tree.” The mother is try to give visuals for Raina to focus on and is giving her guidance throughout. 

Raina is five years old so her language stage would be preoperational. In Jean Piaget's theory, children aged from two to five years old understand the world around them through certain language and images in their heads. Children are able to play however, can’t understand someone else's point of view or logic and comprehension of a certain situation. This explains why Raina was so fascinated with the fact of going on the field after her mother said no. She then replies back with “WHY. WHY.” Unable to understand the issue, she then demands to go to a different field. Throughout her mom offers her personal guidance.

Language Acquisition can be supported in transcription. The LASS system focuses on older adults trying to teach a young child a language. Raina’s mother throughout is shown trying to teach her the language and its rules of it. She is trying to get Raina to understand her surroundings while on the nature walk. “Birdie” “sea” and “trees,” are all the objects Raina’s mother focuses on and tries to grab her attention to. Her mother has a more teaching approach to her child and is trying to make her acknowledge the area around her. 

The stage Raina is in for child language acquisition is the post telegraphic stage. This stage starts off at 3 years old and is when the remaining words are being acquired appropriately. The mother is playing the role of consistently asking Raina questions to get her to think. “Do you think there's a lot of birdies in there?” The mother is trying to teach Raina new information while keeping her fully interested and getting her attention for each question.

There are many conventions used in the transcription that fit the role of an unscripted conversation. In the extract, there are many micropauses within the mother’s sentences. She does this in order to catch her breath, as well as being able to still keep Raina’s attention on what she is saying. Speech overlap also commonly occurs and Raina interrupts her mother on multiple occasions. This shows Raina is eager to answer her mother’s questions before she has even finished. One example can be when Raina’s mother is talking about a bird, “He can’t fly can he” “I think he can.” As well as many underlines in certain words in the extract which are stressed sounds and syllables. These include “skip this way” “go in this field” and “over there” Each of the underlined words has to do with the locations in which Raina wants to go. She is very certain and specifically wants to go to these locations. Raina is very sure of herself in what she is saying and confident in her responses. 

Lastly, the text also includes upward and downward intonations. This can make the parts of speech sound more positive and or negative. Such as when Raina asks “what” and “where” it is in a downward intonation in comparison to the mother’s comments which are much more upward. Such as, “chase it” and “see it.” This shows that the mother is trying to encourage Raina to look at her surroundings and she is very enthusiastic about it.