The purpose of this assignment is to develop your skills in locating, interpreting and applying developmental theory and research focused on children's speech, language and cognition.
Literature Review (1500 words)
For the literature review component, you will chooseONE of the topics outlined below. The literature review should incorporate the following sections:
• Introduction: A brief but clear statement about the importance of speech/language in children's development, followed by specific information about your chosen topic and an outline of the review.
• Literature Review: A review of relevant work done by others. Detail twokey studies that have contributed to knowledge about the topic in recent years.
• References: A reference list prepared in accordance with the guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA).
A literature review provides an integrated discussion of literature relevant to your chosen topic. For this assignment, you should be accessing scholarly works including journal articles from the databases that report on empirical research, as well as textbooks and book chapters related to your chosen topic (not newspaper or magazine articles). A video on database searching prepared by Sarah Howard (Librarian) has been uploaded to the Blackboard site under the Assessment tab.
You should discuss the literature, not just present an overview of the topic. Typically, when completing a literature review, you will access more references than for a general essay. A literature review tells a ‘story' about your topic over time and highlights recent studies as part of the discussion (see the Support Sheet for an example).
Various techniques may be employed for organising the literature review. Subheadings may be used, dealing with each of the major issues or constructs to be investigated. Subheadings make it easier for the reader to follow the literature review, and should act as your guide for both the searching and writing process.
Choice of Topics
1. The Structural Components of Language
Guiding question: How do the structural components of language develop in the early years? Investigate the development of phonology, morphology and syntax.
2. Language in a Social Context
Guiding question: How do expressive and receptivelanguage skills develop in the early years and what is the influence of the social context?
Investigate children's semantic and pragmatic development.
3. Cognitive Development: Information Processing Perspectives
Guiding question: How do information processing skills develop in the early years? Investigate children's memory development and the use of memory strategies including rehearsal, organisation and elaboration.
4. General Knowledge: Concepts, Categories and Scripts
Guiding question:How do children develop increasing knowledge about the world in the early years? Investigate the development of concepts, categories and scripts.
Transcript Analysis (500 words)
A language transcript is provided for you to decode and interpret. In the interpretation column, decode the transcriptusing your knowledge of the structural components of language (phonology, morphology and syntax), and the use of language in a social context (pragmatics and semantics). Write a more detailed interpretation of the transcript that builds on your decoding and link your key points with relevant scholarly literature to support your findings about the children's competencies. The transcript outlines a play scenario between three children. It would be appropriate to decode for each child and to include comments about each of their capacities in your detailed interpretation.To support this task, we will be practicing decoding techniques in the tutorials each week.