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A Comp ar ative S t udy of the Language Use d by New Z e a l and Chil dren of Europ e an and of S amoan Descent Aged 6 Ye ars 1 0 Mon ths to 8 Ye ars in Conversation with an Adu l t .
A disse rtation p resented in p artial f u l f ilment of the requirements for the degree
of D octor o f Philosophy in Language
Ful l n ame Year
at Massey University
ISOBEL MARY MOYN I HAN 1 9 7 9
ABS TRACT
The rese arch represents an attempt to estab l ish some normative data fo r the oral language performance of n at ive-
Engli s h speaking children aged 6 years 10 months to 8 y e ars in conversation with an adul t , and by examining the
performance of S amo an children in the same age-group to determine those areas whi ch discriminate most strongly between the performances of both groups .
Chi ldren were interviewed indivi dually and the
conve rsations re corded over a thirty-minute period . T apes were transc ribed on the s ame day as the re cording , and the
data quanti f ied according to the procedures of Deve lopmental Sentence An aly s i s� , whi ch estab lishe d a rank-order for e a ch group . A mo re de tailed analysis o f the data was then made in order to iden t i fy those are as of devel opment and/or o f uncer tainty whi ch were common t o both groups , and those whi ch appeare d only , or mainly , among the Samo an chi ldren .
The statisti c al analysis , b ased on the deve lopmental weighting of syn tactic i tems , (DSS scores ) indicated that whe re errors were spec i fi c to the S amoan children they
occurred in structures described as e arly- deve loping among
iii
native-Eng lish speaking chi ldren . At the higher deve lopmental leve ls , the performance of Samoan ch ildren above the 5 0 th
percentile (for that group ) was simi lar to that o f the i r Eng l ish speaking age-mates . The c l assifi cation of e rror- patterns also distinguished between ' growth errors '
(whe re performan ce was characterized by over-general i z ing
.
or by substitution , for examp le ) , and ' de ficien cy errors '
� Lee , L . L . and Ko enigsknecht 19 7 4 ,· Deve lopmen tal Sen·ten c e
Ana lysis .
(where morphemes an d syntactic items were omit ted} , the latter occurring more consistently among the S amo an chi ldr en .
I n addition , a general indic at ion of l anguage deve lopment in re l ation to chronological age was derived by comp aring the D S S scores of the S amoan chi ldren falling b e low the 2 5 th p e r centile for that group with those ob tained by younger chil dren at the 5 0 th percenti le point for each one-ye ar interva l from age 4 to age 6 . In the absen c e
of New Zealand D S S norms for these age- leve ls , i t was necessary to use those derived from a study of Ame ri c an chi ldren (Lee 1 9 7 4 } , but the resul ts are in ac cord with other New Zeal and-b ased studies ( S e e 0 . 1 , Introduction )
whi ch have noted the " two-ye ar gap " appearing around age 7 among Po lynesian chi ldren when thei r achievement on a
varie ty of me asures and tests is comp ared with that o f their P akeha age-mates . In the present study , the " g ap "
ranged from about 2 0 months at the 2 5 th p ercenti l e ( for the Samoan group } to over 4 1 mon ths at the l O th percenti le .
The gene ral in tention has been to sharpen the focus for teachers wishing to deve lop compensatory l anguage
programmes so that effort may be di rected to those speci f ic areas where non- native speaking chi l dren appe ar to h ave
missed a devel opmental stage in the i r acquisition of Eng lish . The f indings also suggest that diffi culty with certain
syn tactic structures , semantic con cepts , and p hono logi c al rea l i z ations is a function of age-l evel and the l anguage-
.
situat i on for b oth groups o f sub j ects rather than o f the e thni c background of the S amoan g roup .
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I should l ike to expr ess my thanks to the fol lowing indiv i dua ls and institutions :
to my Chief S upervisor , Dr . N . R . Watts , for his advice , encouragemen t , and un fa i l ing patience ; also to
Dr . D . H . Bray , Assoc iate Supervisor , for his guidanc e , and to Mr. B . Natusch for helpful suggestions on
phonologi c a l no tation ;
V.
to Professo r J . Dunmore , Head o f the Depar tmen t o f Modern L anguages , Massey Un ive rsity , for his assistanc e with admin ist ra tive pro cedur es ;
t o Christchurch Teachers ' Co l l e ge Council for granting l eave to enab le me to ful f i l the requi rements for
f ul l - time study and research ;
to the Canterbury and New Plymouth Educat ion Boards and D istrict S en ior Inspectors of P r imary Schoo ls for
a l l owing me a ccess to schoo ls to carry out the research ; to the Principa ls, S en ior Teac hers of Junior Cl asses , and cl assroom teachers who co- operated so wi l l ingly in the se lection of chi ldren and in providing fac i l i t ies for the interviews ;
to my co l l eagues at Chr istchurch Teachers ' Co l l e ge : in the Engl ish Department , for shar ing my previous
l ec tur ing and other responsib i l ities ; and in the Aud io
Visua l Departmen t fo r assistan ce with reco rding and reprographi c proc edures ; in the Mathematics Department for assistanc e with the processing o f stat istical data ; in the Library for obt aining books on Inter- loan , and fo r the ir assistance in tracing publ ication deta i l s ;
to Pro fesso r Laura Lee , Northwestern Un iversi ty , I l l ino i s , fo r her int erest i n the resear ch , and for her permission
( and that of the publ ishe rs , Nor thwestern Un iversity P re ss) to dup l i cate the DST and DS S Charts from
Deve lopmental Sentence Ana lysis ( 1 974 ) , pp . 86- 87 and 1 3 4 - 1 3 5 ;
to Dr . Mar garet Mac l a gan , Speech Ther apy Department , Christchur c h Teachers ' Co l l ege , for introduc ing me to Pro fessor Lee ' s wo rk in the field of deve lopment a l sentence ana lysis ;
to Mrs . G . Lamb who typed , and re-typed , the dr a f ts o f th e fina l d issfirtation and Tab l es ; to Mrs . A . Hughey who typed the bibl iography , the l ist of Appendices , and
completed the lay-out of F i gure 1 ; to Mrs . Wi l l i amson , Engl ish Department , University of Canterb ury who typed the phonet i c symbo ls ( the co-operat ion of Pro fessor D . Davy , Head of the Engl ish Depar tment in providing th e faci l i ty is a l so grateful ly acknowl edged ) .
Above al l , I am indebted to the chi ldren , both S amoan and Pakeha , who tal ked so freely and spontaneously in the presenc e o f an unfamili ar adult with a tape
r e co rder . They came from the fol lowing schoo ls : ( in alphab e t i cal order )
Addington Aranui B amford Bishopdale
Chr ist church East E l mwood Norma l F re evi l l e
Isl eworth
Linwood Avenue
Mary Imma culate Convent Phi l l ipstown
S t . Anne Convent
S t . Bernadette Convent S t . James
S t . Joseph So ckburn S po tswood S preydon Sydenham Vo gel town Wa inon i Wa irakei Wa ltham
West Spreydon Wools ton
..
..
Chr istchurch
11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11
New P lymouth Chr istchurch
11
New P lymouth Chr istchurch
11 11 11 11
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS Ab s tr act
Acknowledgements o.
0 . 1
INTRODUCTION
A review o f recent re s e ardQ
PART ONE: THE DES I GN
Chapter 1 . P urpos e and P ro ce dures 1 . 1
1 . 2 1 . 3 1 . 4 1 . 5 1 . 6 1 . 7
P rimary Aims
Method an d Instrument S ub j e cts
Defini tion o f Terms P ro ce dure s
T r ans crip tion and S coring
Modi ficat ions of DS S P rocedures PART TWO : THE ANALYS IS
Chap ter 2 . 1 2 . 2 2 . 3 2 . 4 Chap te r
3 . 1 3 . 2 3 . 3 3 . 4
3 . 5 3 . 6 3 . 7 3 . 9 3 . 1 0
2 .
3 .
S t atis tical An aly s e s
Developmental S entence S cores (DS S ) Wei ghted Deve lopmental S cores in the DSS Cate gori es
Number of En trie s in the DSS Categories C on c lus ions from St at is tical An alyses
Detailed An aly s i s of P erfo rmance in Each of the DSS C ategories
P rocedure
I n de fin i t e P ronoun and Noun Modi fier C ategory
P e rs onal P ronoun C ategory Main Verb Category
3 . 4 . 1 Ve rb I n f l e ctions at Levels 1 an d 3 . 4 . 2 V-ed1 and V- ed2 Forms of Lexi c a l
Verbs at Lev�ls 2 , 7 and 8 3 . 4 . 3 Verb Forms at Leve ls 7 and 8 3 . 4 . 4 Ve rb Fo rms at Leve ls 4 and 6 3 . 4 . 5 Errors in Tens e S equence 3 . 4 . 6 Conc lus ions
S e condary Ve rb C ategory Negative Category
Conj un ction C ate gory
In terrogative Revers a l and Wh -Questions C ategory
Con c lus i ons from DS S Category Ana lyses
2
p age iii
V
1 6 1 7
2 5 2 6 2 7 3 2 3 4 3 6 3 7 3 9
4 5 4 6 4 8 5'B 6 9
7 8 7 9 8 0 8 5 9 2 9 3
9 7 1 0 6 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 6 1 1 9 1 2 4 1 3 0 1 3 8 1 4 1
(,;:hapter 4 .
4 . 1 4 . 2 4 . 3
4 . 4 4 . 5 4 . 6 4 . 7 4 . 8 4 . 9
Chapter 5 .
Conc lus ion
APPENDIX I I . l
I . 2 I . 3 I . 4
I . 5
Deta i l ed Analys i s o f Performance in Ar eas not covered by DS S Categor ies S entence Point Scores and the OTHER Categor i e s
Vocabul ary
Prepos itions and Adverbs : Def initions and C l a s s i f ic ation Procedures
4 . 3 . l S imp le Prepo s i tions 4 . 3 . 2 Complex Prepo s i tions 4 . 3 . 3 Prepos itiona l Adverbs 4 . 3 . 4 Verb + Particl e ( s ) 4 . 3 . 5 Adverbs
4 . 3 . 6 C l a s s i fication according to Linguis tic Level s
4 . 3 . 7 Error- Patterns at the Syntactic Level
4 . 3 . 8 Error-Patterns at the Syntac tic/
S emantic Leve l s P ronunc ia tion
I ndef inite and De f in i te Arti c l es Redundant Subj ect
Noun Inflec tion
Word-Order , Ambiguity , etc .
Conc lus ions from Detai led Ana lyses Ri ta: A Record of Progre s s in Ora l Language Performance (Apr i l 1977 to Augu s t 1978 )
S t imu lus material s DSS Chart
Addi t ions and al terations to DS S Chart D i f f erences in DSS s cores and in mean we ighted developmental score in the Ma in Verb c ategory resul ting from the scoring o f e l l ipted verbs for NG and SG subj e c t s A hypothetical corpus of twenty-five s entenc e s i l lustrat ing Deve lopmenta l S entence S coring
APPENDIX IT I I . l
I I . 2
A compar i son table showing percen t i l e po ints on DSS mea sure for U S subj ects a t 6 yea r s 6 month s and for NG and SG subj ects of mean age 7 year s 5 months D i f ferences in increment ·between NG and SG subj ects , us ing the US scores at age 6- 6 a s bases
1 4 3
1 4 4 1 5 0 1 6 3 1 6 4 1 6 5 1 6 6 1 67 1 6 8
1 7 0 171
• 1 7 6 1 9 1 2 07 2 1 0 2 1 1 2 1 5 2 1 5
2 1 8 2 4 5
2 5 3 2 6 0 2 6 1
2 6 4
2 6 5 2 6 6
2 67
2 6 7
I I . 3
I I . 4
I I . 5
Group means for we ighted deve lopmenta l s cores in s i x DSS ca tegor ies with rank
order for US subj ects aged 6 - 0 to 6 - 1 1 and for NG and SG subj e c ts aged 6 - 1 0 to 8 - 0 S G subj e c t s in DSS r ank-order , with DSS
and P . A . T . Li stening Comprehens ion percen t i l e s (where ava i labl e ) and teacher s ' comments
(where suppl ied )
DSS scor e s and mea sures for 2 0 New Plymouth NG subj ects of mean age 7 - 4
APPENDIX I I I
I I I . l DS T Chart B ib l i ography
2 6 8
2 6 9
2 7 1
2 7 4 2 7 5 2 7 6
Chapter 2 T able 1
Tab l e 2
T ab le 3
Tab l e 4
T ab le 5
T ab l e 6
Tab le 7
Tab le 8
Chap ter 3 Tab le 9
LIS T OF TABLES
Rank- order of DSS s cores , an d percentiles for NG and S G sub j ects , with group means' and s tan dard deviations s hown for male
and female sub j ects comb ined and s ep arate ly . Group means for weighted deve lopmen t a l
s cores i n the DS S c ategories , with c ategory r ank- order , for NG and SG s ub j ects .
Dis crimin ant funct ion of DS S c ategories , with rank- order , b ased on intergroup
dif ference s between weighted deve lopmental s cores , omi tting Interrogative Reve rs a l and Wh-Ques tion categories .
Dis criminant function of DS S c ategories , w i th rank-order , b ased on in tragroup
dif feren ces between weighted deve lopmental s cores for the top and bo ttom five s ub j e cts , omittin g Interrogative Reve r s al and
Wh-Ques tion categories .
Intragroup di fferences between male and female s ub j ects in weighte d deve lopment a l s cores , e xcluding Interrogative Revers a l and Wh-Q uestion c ategorie s .
Dis crimin ant funct ion of DSS categorie s , w i th rank order , b ased on intragroup
diffe rences between me an frequency for the top and bo ttom five s ub j ects , in c luding Interrogat ive Revers al and Wh-Ques tion c ategori e s .
Group totals for n umb er of entries in
e ach DSS category expre s s e d as a percen tage of total entries in the eight catego ries toge ther with rank-order o f frequen cy·. Group me ans and s t andard devi ations for Deve lopmental S en tence S core s (DS S ) , Wei ghted Deve lopmental S core (WDS ) , and number of entries (F ) for NG and S G sub j ects .
.
Error- types and f requency in the Inde finite P ronoun and Noun Modi f ier category· for NG
and SG s ub j ects .
page
4 7
5 0
5 2
5 3
5 7
6 0
6 2
6 8
8l
T ab l e 1 0 Tab l e l O A
T ab le 1 1
T ab le 1 2
T ab le 1 3 T ab le 1 4
Tab l e 1 5
Tab le 1 6
T ab le 1 7
Tab l e 1 8
Tab l e 19
T ab le 2 0
T ab l e 2 1
Tab l e 2 2
Tab le 2 3
Error- types and frequen cy in the P e rs onal P ronoun category for NG s ub j e cts .
Error- type s and frequency in the Personal P ronoun c ategory for S G s ub j ec ts , with e rror-pe rcentages for NG and SG .
Details of error-types in the M ain Verb c ategory at Leve ls 1 and 2 for NG and S G sub j e ct s .
Vari at ions in �e p rin cip a l p arts o f irregul ar verb s .
The s even irregul ar verb - c l as s es .
Error- p atterns in regul ar and irregular lexi cal verbs at Leve l 2 ( s imple p as t tens e ) for N G and S G s ub j e cts . · Error - frequency in th e s imp le pas t tens e o f regul a r and i rregular verb s clas s i fi ed under OMIS S ION and OVER-GENERALI Z ING . In ciden ce of over-generali z ing the ·e d morpheme on the s imp le pas t tense o�
irregu l ar verbs among NG and SG sub j e cts with DSS s cores f al ling above the 5 0 th
percen t i l e poin t .
Error-p atterns in V-ed2 forms at Leve ls 7 and 8 in the Main Verb c ategory for NG an d SG sub j ect s .
Analy s i s of error-p atterns in the
components of Leve l 7 verb s among NG and SG s ub j e cts .
Mean f requen cy of entries at Leve ls 4 and 6 in the Main Verb c ategory for NG and S G s ub j ects i n groups o f ten according to DS S ran k-order .·
Errors in the verb - forms at Leve ls 4 and 6 by NG and SG s ub j e cts .
Frequency of tens·e-s equen ce erro rs in co- ordin ate and s ubordinate cl aus e s for NG an d S G sub j e cts .
Numb e r of entries and percen tage of error at a l l Levels in t he Main Verb category for �G an d S G s ub j e cts .
Type and frequen cy of error in the S econdary Verb c ategory at a l l deve lopmen tal Levels fo r NG and SG s ub j e cts .
8 6
8 7
9 4
9 7 9 8
1 0 0
1 0 5
1 0 5
1 0 7
1 0 8
1 1 2
1 1 3
1 1 4
1 1 8
1 2 2
T ab le 2 4
T able 2 5
Tab le 2 6
Tab l e 2 7
Tab l e 2 8
Tab le 2 9
Tab le 3 0
Tab le 3 1
Chap te r 4 . Tab l e 3 2
Tab l e 3 3
Tab l e 3 4
Number o f entries an d o f e rrors at e ac h deve lopmental Level i n the S e condary Verb c ategory fo r NG and SG s ub j e cts . Frequen cy of entries in the Negative category s hown for NG and SG sub j e ct s a t Leve ls 1 , 4 , 5 , with Level 7 entries shown for groups of ten s ub j e cts
according to DSS rank-order and as a percentage of tota l entrie s .
Type and frequency of e rror in the
Con j unction c ategory at e a ch deve lopmen tal Leve l for NG s ub j ects .
Type an d frequency of e rror in the
Con j un ction category at e ach deve l opmental Level for SG s ub j e cts .
F requency of entr ies at Leve ls 5 , 8 and at 3 and 6 combined and their e xpre s s i on as pe r cen tages of total entries in the
Conj un ction category for NG and SG s ub j e cts . Frequency of entr i es at Leve ls 5 and 8 in the Con j unction category s hown fo r NG and S G s ub j e c ts in groups of ten ac cordin g to
1 2 3
1 2 9
1 3 4
1 3 5
1 3 7
DSS r ank-orde r . 1 37
Numb e r of errors e xpressed as a p ercen tage o f entries at Leve ls 5 and 8 , and at 3 and
6 comb ined for NG and S G s ub j ects . 1 3 7 Me an weighted deve lopmental score per s ub j ect
and per entry in the Interrogative Revers a l and Wh-Question c ate gories for NG a n d S G
s ub j e c ts . · 1 3 9
Total number o f S enten ce P oints received fo r 5 0 s cored ut terances by every f ive
s ubj e c ts , mean s cores for every ten s ub j ects
and g roup me ans . 1 4 5
Intra- group di s criminant fun ction o f Sentence Point s cores . Number of correct s en tences e xp re s sed as a p e rcentage of tot al s en tences
s c ored for NG and SG s ub j e cts . 1 4 6 Numb e r o f e rro rs by NG and S G s ub j e c t s in
c ategories not c overed b y DSS , toge ther with r ank- orde r o f categories in des cending
f requency . 1 4 8
T ab le 3 5 T ab le 3 6
Chapter 5 T ab le 37
Tab l e 3 8
T ab l e 3 9
Tab l e 4 0
Group me ans for e rrors in DS S and OTHER c ategories ove r 50 s cored utterances . P ronun ci ation e r ror-typ es an d frequency in the complete l anguage s amp les f rom NG and S G s ub j e c ts .
Re cord o f progres s ive reduct ion in l anguage-de l ay by s ub j e c t S G40 from 10 March to 10 Augus t 1 9 7 8 as meas ured by comp aring s u c ces sive DSS with the
5 0 th p e r centile poin t s cores for e ar lier age - l eve ls as shown in Lee 1974 ( 1 6 7 } . Mean s cores ob tained from a l l s corab le utte r an ces ; from fifty s cored utte r an ces
(DS S } ; and from the fifty highe s t s coring utter an ces by s ub j ect S G 4 0 over the period f rom 2 2 Apri l 1 9 77 to 10 Augus t 1 9 7 8 .
Re cord o f deve lopment in the eight DS S grammatical categories f rom lO March 1 9 7 8 to 1 0 Augus t 1 97 8 and S en ten ce Point
s core s over that period for sub j ect S G4 0 ( Ri t a } .
Numb e r o f entrie s and of at tempts a t each of the deve lopmental Leve ls of the eight DSS c ategories from lO March 1978 to 1 0 August 1 9 7 8 for s ub j e ct S G40 ( Ri t a } .
1 4 8
1 9 3
2 3 6
2 37
2 3 9
2 4 2
F i gure 1
Figur e 2
Figure 3
Figur e 4
LIST OF F I GURES
Percentile po ints for SG subj ects at age 7- 5 and for American
chi ldren f rom age 4 - 0 to 6 - 6 ,
with approximate language delay in months for SG subj ects below the
page
5 0 th percen t i l e po int . 7 1
Po s ition i n fami ly o f the top and
bottom ten SG s ubj ects 7 3
A model fo r the c l a s s i fication and des cription of errors in the use of prepos i tions, adverbs, and partic les in mult i-word verb s a t
syntac tic, s emantic, and phono logical
l evel s . 17�
Error-typ e s and d i s tr ibution in the s ub-category of c l ausal adverbs
( Time ) for NG and SG s ubj ects . 1 8 7
DSA*
DSS*
ESL
GCE
LARSP
LAS S
NG
P . A . T .
SG
us
LI S T OF ABBREVIATIONS
Developmenta l S entence Analys i s .
Devel opmenta l S entence S coring ( the method ) , or Developmental S entence Score ( the resul t
in numer ical form) .
Eng l i sh as a Second Language
A G rammar of Contempo rary Engl ish ( Quirk et a l . 197 3 )
Lan guage As s e s sment , Remedia tion and S c reening Pro cedures ( Crysta l et a l . l 97 6 ) Lin gui stic Ana l y s i s o f Speech Samp l e s ( Engler et a l . l97 3 )
Normative Group ( chil dren of nat ive-Eng l i s h
speaking parents )
Progre ss ive Achi evemen t Tests ( New Zealand Co uncil for Educa tional Re search )
S amoan Group ( children with at l e a s t one S amoan parent )
Un ited States ( chi ldren in Lee and Koeni gsknecht 1 974 )
* Abbrevi at ion s used in Le e , L . L . and Koen igsknecht,R.
( 1 974 ) Deve lopmen tal S entence Ana lys i s .
