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Language Sample 1

The document analyzes a video of a 4-year-old girl named Josie having a conversation with her parents in a restaurant. It transcribes and analyzes 15 of Josie's utterances to calculate her mean length of utterance (MLU) and determine what stage of language development she is at according to Brown's stages. The analysis finds that Josie's MLU of 7.73 places her in the post stage V level, which is typical for a child her age of 4 years old.

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62 views

Language Sample 1

The document analyzes a video of a 4-year-old girl named Josie having a conversation with her parents in a restaurant. It transcribes and analyzes 15 of Josie's utterances to calculate her mean length of utterance (MLU) and determine what stage of language development she is at according to Brown's stages. The analysis finds that Josie's MLU of 7.73 places her in the post stage V level, which is typical for a child her age of 4 years old.

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Language Sample Assignment

I analyzed the video called Just some casual dinner conversation with a 4-year old
(Palonen, 2016). Her name is Josie. She is sitting in a restaurant with her family and it telling her
parents about the doll she wants from Santa. She seems very comfortable in the setting. I do
not know how Josie acts otherwise but I am pretty confident in saying this is her normal state.
Josie is not acting shy or silly, she is simply content to be there. She is very engaged in the
conversation and stays on the topic even with distractions such as the waitress and the plates.
Therefore, I would classify this as a valid sample.

Josie’s Utterances: One utterance is defined as speech preceded and followed by a silent pause.
The numbers in parentheses are the morphemes in the utterance.
1. “So it’s kinda wide but her legs her legs are filled are filled with um white spots and
white stuff and um black stuff” (22)
2. “So I really want it because I want it to copy me” (12)
3. “Yea, it’s a doll that copies” (8)
4. “So if you say something it says something” (9)
5. “Like it says whatever you say” (7)
6. “I already did” (3)
7. “It would say… I would say banana and then it would say banana I saw it on TV so that’s
why I really want it” (False start… 23)
8. “No.. I… it… I” (1 because No is the only meaningful unit here)
9. “Elizabeth Elizabeth” (1)
10. “Elizabeth or Emily” (3)
11. “I would give it… I would give it Elizabeth O’Terro Elizabeth O’Terro um Elizabeth
O’Terro Emily Emily Emily Wollet” (False start and repetitions… 8)
12. “It costs a lot of money” (7)
13. “Like 5, no like 10 dollars” (7)
14. “Or maybe 50” (3)
15. “Mom, here” (2)
Mean Length Utterance (MLU) Calculation:
Total Morphemes: 116
Total Utterances: 15

Morphemes ÷ Utterances = MLU


116 ÷ 15 = 7.73
Brown’s Stage(1973): Post Stage V

Examples of Linguistic Structures from Post Stage V:


1. Past tense modal forms: In utterance 11, Josie says, “I would give it Elizabeth O’Terro.”
2. 'so' as a conjunction: In utterance 7, she says, “I saw it on TV so that’s why I really want
it.”
3. 'and' in a list or series: In utterance, Josie lists a description of the doll: “... white spots
and white stuff and um black stuff.”
4. Infinitives incorporated into sentence: In utterance 2, Josie says, “I want it to copy me.”
5. Correct forms in 'ask/tell' constructions: Josie’s dad asks, “How much does this doll
cost?” and she replies, “It costs a lot of money.”

Brown’s Post V stage is typical for children over the age of 4. Josie’s age is listed as 4
years old but is not more specific in terms of how many months into her fourth year. I would
conclude her expressive language to be age-appropriate. The lowest MLU for Post Stage V is 5.3
and Josie’s MLU was 7.73. She is well into this stage of language development but seeing that it
is the final stage, she still has room for growth.
I found this assignment very interesting and I enjoyed doing it. I watched the video once
through to become familiar with Josie before taking down any utterances. On the initial
viewing, I was very impressed by her expressive language and thought for sure she would be
advanced for her age. When I went back and listened to one of her utterances at a time, I
realized she had a lot more mistakes (mostly repetitions and false starts) than I had initially
realized. These small mistakes did not occur to me upon first listening. Perhaps the mistakes did
not register with me because her intelligibility was 100% and I could always understand her.
Also, I listen to kids so often, it is possible I glaze over their mistakes that don’t change the
meaning of their speech. Josie’s expressive speech is age-appropriate - that also could be why it
didn’t register with me at first because I have heard other four-year-olds speak with similar
proficiency. In the future, I know this is a relatively quick way to gauge where my students are.
In the classroom, I could easily take an audio recording of authentic speech and listen to it after
school to determine how concerned I should be with a student’s language development. After
completing this assignment, I now know to be more aware when listening to expressive speech,
especially if I have a concern.
References

Brown, R. (1973). A first language: The early stages. London: George Allen & Unwin.

Palonen, E. (2016, September 18). Just some casual dinner conversation with a 4-year old.

Retrieved December 13, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEOrun-YiDc

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