Exam Question Write Up (complete)

Referring in detail to the texts and relevant ideas from language study, explore what these texts show about literary development Throughout both of the texts it becomes obvious that when spelling polysyllabic words, the children favour using phonemic spelling cues. For example, in text D the child spells 'others' as 'overs' and 'doesn't' as 'dosen't'. These miscues make it clear that the child is using phonemic cues, as 'dosen't' can easily be split audibly into three simpler syllables. Similarly, the child in Text C spells the noun 'colloseum' as 'coliseum', another transcription of individual syllables. However, while the child in Text C only uses these techniques in polysyllabic, complex lexis, the child in Text D uses these cues in vocabulary with just two syllables, and it can be assumed that the child in Text C is more confident and perhaps more proficient at orthography. One skill in the area of orthography that the child in Text D excels in is self-correction. Throughout Text D the child has corrected grammar (with the capitalisation of 'On') and attempted to correct his spelling of 'wobbled' towards the end of the text. This awareness carries over into Text C, in which the child attempts to correct the noun 'performance' but fails in achieving correct spelling and is evidently aided by the teacher. Self correction implies a high level of awareness of their own writing, most likely encouraged by teachers. Both of the texts conform to Perrera's ideas of literacy development, focussing on chronological order. Evidence of this can be found when the children reference specific times such as '10.06' or '2.30' and use chronological connectives like 'the next' and 'then'. Perrera theorises that children write chronologically because texts are easier to understand, however the styles of writing in these two text may also be due to the purposes. The children have specifically been told to write a 'recount' of their school trips. The chronological writing may have been a combination of the two, the purpose and the simplicity, on the one hand conforming to a no doubt pre-taught structure and on the other writing in a way that makes the information easier to understand. Arguably, the teachers could have chose recount form for the tasks consciously to aid the children's' progress within the activity. In Text D, the child writing shows awareness of the Text's purpose through the use of deixis. During the beginning of the text the child refers to 'Class 3', a term that only makes sense to someone closely involved with the child or the school. To an outside reader, the term 'Class 3' can only be used to infer or guess at information. This shows that the child is aware of who will be reading the text (teachers or parents) and can adjust their language accordingly. Genre and text awareness is evident in Text C, when the child follows a set form for a recount piece, writing a clear conclusion. By starting the conclusion with 'overall' the child reveals knowledge of typical writing form and the ability to adjust their work to conform to requirements. The two children show advanced, if subconscious, knowledge of genre, purpose and audience. In terms of grammar, the child writing in Text C is clearly further along in their literacy development, using complex, three clause sentences with parenthesis and showing understanding of speech marks by quoting '"okey dokey down you come'" with the use of full and correct speech marks. These two examples are clear evidence of proficiency and skill in language, making use of more difficult ad complex grammatical structures and techniques. In contrast, Text D could be classed as inconsistent, with sporadic capitalisation of nouns and childish use of exclamatives. For example, Text D capitalises 'Dad' and 'Young', two nouns, but leaves the noun 'mum' without capitalisation. While this may simply be due to a lack of understanding over capitalisation rules, it may also be down to the similarity between capital 'M' and a lower case 'm'. In letters like 'd' and 'D' there is a clear difference, and the lack of this difference may have led to confusion on the part of the child. Both children show clearly that they fall into Kroll's third stage of writing: differentiation. In Text D, the use of sentence structure and repetition reveal an in depth knowledge of literary technique. The child writes that 'we didn't go by car, we didn't go by bus, and we didn't go by coach'. The repetition of 'we didn't' is clearly used to attempt to build suspense, and shows that the child clearly differentiates between speech and writing. As well as this, the form of the sentence and the repetition of the words used makes the style almost reminiscent of popular children's books such as 'we're going on a bear hunt'. If this is the case, the child may have picked up on structural techniques used in other texts and mimicked them within their own writing, a very advanced skill. This is actually evidenced throughout Text D, which implements a lot more dramatic literary devices. For example, the child uses an ellipsis during the sentence 'some other residents were there...piped wagtails'. This shows that while the child may struggle in grammatical and orthographical areas, they excel in making their writing engaging by implementing advanced techniques not seen in Text C, which reads in a more factual way. Kroll's stages and in particular differentiation are still present in Text C, if a little less obviously. The use of adjectives like 'brilliant' and 'cute' add to the descriptiveness of the piece to an extent not typically found in speech. The use of empty adjectives like 'cute' could also be used to make inferences about the gender of the writer, based on Lakoff's theory of girls using more empty adjectives to display emotion and enthusiasm. In terms of graphology, the two texts show a combination of similarities and differences. One of the key similarities is the layout and the structure. Because both texts C and D have a heading outlining the task (for example, 'writing a recount text about Aladdin') it can be inferred that this teaching technique is commonly used to develop literacy skills in children. The use of