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Child Language Development

3 dot points across 3 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do children acquire spoken language, through what stages, and what do their errors reveal about the system they are building?

Spoken language acquisition: the phonological, lexical, grammatical and pragmatic stages of spoken development and the features that mark each.
An Edexcel A-Level English Language (9EN0) answer on spoken language acquisition: phonological development, the holophrastic, two-word, telegraphic and post-telegraphic stages, overextension and underextension, virtuous errors, and the growth of pragmatic competence, with Halliday's and Nelson's frameworks.
13 min answer →

What theories explain how children acquire language so fast, and how do you weigh the evidence between them?

Theories of language acquisition: behaviourism (Skinner), nativism (Chomsky), cognitivism (Piaget) and social interactionism (Bruner and Vygotsky), with the evidence for each.
An Edexcel A-Level English Language (9EN0) answer on theories of language acquisition: behaviourism (Skinner), nativism (Chomsky and the LAD), cognitivism (Piaget), and social interactionism (Bruner and Vygotsky), with the evidence, criticisms and how to synthesise them in data analysis and essays.
13 min answer →

How do children learn to write and to read, and what do their spelling and writing samples reveal about each stage?

Written language development: Kroll's stages of writing, the development of spelling, and how children learn to read.
An Edexcel A-Level English Language (9EN0) answer on written language development: Kroll's stages of writing, the move from phonetic to conventional spelling (Gentry's stages), the growth of genre and cohesion, and the phonics, whole-word and psycholinguistic approaches to reading.
13 min answer →