Research Project 2 Language Errors

 

This class project exposes you to the kinds of errors that children make when they are acquiring language. Pair up with another student in the class. One of you will act as the experimenter, while the other will act as the observer. Test two different children, one 3 to 4 years of age, the other 7 to 8 years of age. In order to test the two children, you will need to clear this through the human subjects review board at your school and get a signed informed consent form from the children's parents.

The children will receive three different tasks evaluating their understanding and use of the passive construction. Present an act-out task, an imitation task, and a production task. The task and sentence descriptions follow. Use the accompanying data sheets to record observations. Then answer the questions that follow.

 

1. Act-out task: Have several objects available, a toy car and truck, a toy doll, a toy horse, cow, dog, and cat. Read the sentences below one at a time, and have the child act out the sentences with the toys.

2. Imitation task: Present each of the sentences below to each child, and have the child repeat the sentences back to you.

3. Production Task: Perform the actions in each of the sentences below with the toys for the child. Ask the child to tell you what happened, starting with the first noun in the sentence. For instance, for item e roll the car along so that it hits the truck, and then ask the child to tell you what happened beginning with the truck.

 

 

a.    The car hit the truck.

b.            The dog was kicked by the cat.

c.             The boy was bitten by the dog,

d.            The boy hit the cat.

e.             The truck was hit by the car.

f.            The cow stepped on the horse;

g.             The cat kicked the dog.

h.            The cat was hit by the boy.
i.             The dog bit the boy.

j.     The Horse was stepped on by the cow.

 

Task                       Child 1                    Child 2
                         Sex____Age____      Sex____Age___

Act-out task

Sentence a

Sentence b

Sentence с

Sentence d

Sentence e

Sentence f

Sentence g

Sentence h

Sentence i

Sentence j

 

Imitation task

 

Sentence a

Sentence b

Sentence с

Sentence d

Sentence e

Sentence f

Sentence g

Sentence h

Sentence i

Sentence j

 

Production task

 

Sentence a

Sentence b

Sentence с

Sentence d

Sentence e

Sentence f

Sentence g

Sentence h

Sentence i

Sentence j

 

Questions

 

1.What did the 3- to 4-year-old child do on the act-out task? The imitation task? The production task? Was performance on one task better than on the others? If so, which? What sorts of errors appeared in the act-out task? What about the imitation task? The production task? Were the errors similar in the various tasks?

2.What did the 7- to 8-year-old child do on the act-out task? The imitation task? The production task? Was performance on one task better than on the others? If so, which? What sorts of errors appeared in the act-out task? What about the imitation task? The production task? Were the errors similar in the various tasks?

3.    Compare the two children. What differences if any did you see on their performances on these three tasks? How would you account for the differences? What is the nature of language learning that seems to be occurring during this time?

4. What criticisms could be leveled at the procedures you used in this demonstration? For example, do you think each task should have had different questions?

 

Chapter 9

Research Project 1 Parten's Play Styles

This project is an observational study of children's play. Pick a partner from the class and go to a neighborhood playground. Observe two children, one about 3 years old, the other about 5 years old for 10 minutes each. Determine for each child the amount of time spent in each of Parten's categories of play. Compare the differences as a function of age. Use the following data sheet for recording your observations. After making your observations, answer the questions that follow.

One student should act as observer, the other as recorder. Enter the amount of time each child spent in each type of play for the 10-minute observation period. Then calculate the percentage of time spent in each category for the time period.

 

DATA SHEET

                                                                                                                                                                      

Category                                                     Child 1                                              Child 2

                                               Sex___Age____                  Sex __ Age    

 

Unoccupied play

Solitary play

Onlooker play

Parallel play

Associative play

Cooperative play

 

Questions

 

1. For the 3-year-old child, in what category was the largest amount of time spent? What category of play was the least frequent?

2. For the 5-year-old child, in what category was the largest amount of time spent? What category of play was the least frequent?

3. What were the differences between the children in the kinds of play in which they engaged? To what do you attribute this difference? (Use information about cognitive, physical, and social development to answer this question.) Are there variables besides age that could account for the differences you observed?

4. How do your findings compare with those of Parten and Barnes?

 

Research Project 2 Altruism-Empathy Observations

In this exercise you will observe two children playing on a playground for 20 minutes each and note any evidence of altruism or empathy. One child should be about 2 years of age, the other about 5.

Make observations and record any behavior relevant to altruism or empathy you see (you may see both operations m the same situation). Record observations in the spaces provided and answer the questions that follow.

 

DATA SHEET

 

Child 1                         Sex ____ Age;

 

Child 2                         Sex      Age

 

Questions

 

1. How many instances of empathy did you observe in the 2-year-old? In the 5-year-old?

2. How many instances of altruism did you observe in the 2-year-old? In the 5-year-old?

3. What seems to be the developmental progression in empathy and altruism from 2 to 5 years of age? How would you account for this? Could your data be explained on the basis of Individual differences rather than on the basis of developmental changes? Why or why not?

 

Chapter 10

 

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