blogger

i've created myself a wordpress blog, and im gonna try myself out as a proper blogger

mainly i'll be blogging about random stuff to begin with, and there'll be a focus on linguistics but..

this blog will still be my go-to for me to voice my problems and my wordpress will be a more audience-focused blog - i just want to see where it goes!

see ya round

all talk and no action

it's been a long while since I visited my own blog.. usually I don't read what happens after I post something.. but right now I'm feeling pretty shitty and I don't really feel like talking to anyone about it because I always get the same answers.

yes, I'm still in that stupid 'complicated situation' with my relationship. it's putting a large weight on my shoulders and my lack of commitment to this blog is probably making it worse. I know I say I post here where ben can't (won't) look but.. sometimes I wish he would just take a second to think and be more caring.

I managed to spill out some feelings to him over text the other day. I got so sick of him last week (and he got sick from the flu) that I stopped talking to him for what seemed like forever - but was, in actual fact, only two days or something. I managed to explain to him that he's actually grown into something I really hate over this 3 and a half years: arrogant, obnoxious, self-indulgent and a massive slob. I'm not after a six-packed health freak, but in all honesty I don't want someone who doesn't give a shit about their appearance... it's actually got the point where I don't want to be close to him anymore. I don't want to share a bed with him because I wish he would take care of himself better. He could be so much more of a better person if he wasn't so hell-bent on being the alpha male amongst his friends.

I really hate his friends, but it's not something you should judge the quality of your relationship on. Sometimes, though, I can't help but feel disappointed that they don't accept me and you spur on the annoying and sometimes hurtful comments thrown my way by them. Sure, I can laugh off a few insults and maybe play along, but I don't appreciate just being the butt of all the jokes - and neither do you.

Oh, what's that? You think I always take the piss out of you? You hate it when Brandon and I take the mick cus you're losing that game of chess?

I also managed to tell him that when I get upset and he does make the effort to listen and cuddle me, the thing he does where the tells me it'll be okay and then doesn't really give me the opportunity to keep talking - even if I'm repeating myself, talking makes me feel better. When he shushes me, it's nice but he's suppressing the rest of those feelings that have built-up in my heart for a long time, which then gets added to the next time you refuse me respect.

He doesn't take me seriously. When we argue, he laughs in my face. I can't say anything that affects him in the slightest because he just doesn't care.

I spoke about things outweighing other things and, this weekend more than any other, I have noticed that I am happier without him than I am with him. When I'm in lessons talking to other people I generally have a good time and even manage to forget about him. However, I still get those slight butterflies and finding you when I'm looking for you - be it in the corridors or even just on skype - still makes me smile. That's probably what's making it so hard to let go, even when I know I need to.

I'm always toying with the idea of leaving him, and I've formulated this plan that it'll be so easy to break up with him as soon as we leave school so I can get over it during the holidays and have a fresh start for uni. But is this just stalling? Is this just me trying to blindly hold on to what we don't have any more?

I know that the answer to those questions is yes, but I can't make my heart believe it. I don't need help. I need courage.

some thoughts for once

ive come to the conclusion that i dont think im suitable to be anyone's girlfriend.

as i posted before, im still coming to a difficult decision about my relationship.. it's full of things i want and things i don't want. obviously, the cuddles, being looked after and having someone who theoretically should be there when i need him are all bonuses (the latter only being a bonus in a small number of situations). but the arrogance, the bullying (can i call it that, really?), the whole not really being very good at making me feel worth anything thing? im not sure what outweighs what.

i said i'd give it a week after the holiday and.. frankly.. nothing's changed and he said that it would. i was hoping for more enthusiasm about me as a person but i still always feel pretty rubbish about myself because of the lack of interest in my personality from my boyfriend.. when i bring this up with him, though, of course there's nothing wrong - oh lyn youre funny, even funnier than my friends, and youre my best friend and i like spending time with you - but then i feel like they're just words to get out of the situation of talking seriously about our relationship. he never asks me if i want to do anything with him, he would spend time with his friends or with no one at all, i'm at his house and he just sits on his computer in a call with his friends and he thinks thats totally okay.. - i can't go to his house without taking my own laptop because otherwise i'd just get ignored and then be bored.

ive just been thinking in general about myself and ben as a pair.. him being so arrogant and obnoxious and me being somewhat insecure and unsure about myself (who isn't?) and awkward and clingy and just too.. bleh. of course i have friends, duh, but only a few because i cant get to that level where i can be myself with anyone anymore who isn't already my best friend. i can be a bit of an attention seeker when i want to be, and very much a bitch when i want to be.. and i'm just a clingy person and ben usually says im being selfish.. and, thinking rationally, well, why wouldn't he say that? i must be clingy and selfish to some degree, at least.

so that's my thought process of not really being girlfriend material.


obviously im writing this in my blog to avoid arguments. i'll get complaints about being moody all the time and always throwing a strop when i dont get what i want (which he does too but refuses to admit cus he's too arrogant and he's the best and everyone else is retarded) and being selfish and to stop pestering him and for me to just go away. i feel guilty for ever crying about anything, which is annoying. so yeah. im not sure what else to say, really. i just wanted to get some thoughts down on this rather than bring them up with ben and have an argument and hear him laugh at me because im being pathetic or whatever.

meh. bye.

decisions

what do you do when youre bored with your life and you really hate it?

it's been a while

so.. it has been ages since I updated my blog.. the last two posts were just my language investigation cus my friend wanted to have a look, izzit

i'm gonna write this here but not say it to anyone officially in case it never happens.. i'm definitely thinking of breaking up with ben. it's been too long and too much of a struggle emotionally to be his girlfriend. i get pushed around and don't really get anything out of the relationship anymore except someone to sleep beside on the weekends.. but i dont even enjoy being around him anymore. he takes no pride in his appearance and nowadays he just digusts me, really.. he's arrogant and obnoxious and everything i wish he wasn't so.. this should have been done sooner, really.

we're going on holiday for two weeks to tenerife, so this is what i have been waiting for. after the holiday, i will make my decision. and i really hope the holiday sucks, so that it's not as hard as it would be if it was great.

language investigation draft 2

An Investigation into the Differences in Written Language in Young Deaf People and Young Hearing People

Language acquisition and development is a process that Chomsky thinks comes innately to humans through a device called the LAD – Language Acquisition Device. His theory states that babies are born with the knowledge of basic rules of language structure and that humans come with an innate ability to pick up language. However, what happens if the child suffers from a disability that hinders their ability to hear the language around them?

For my language investigation I will be analysing the differences in written language in deaf people compared to hearing people. My investigation will consider grammar, lexis and cohesion. Being deaf puts a person at a huge disadvantage in terms of learning both written and spoken language because they cannot pick up information through being immersed within the language environment, especially if they were born deaf or lost their hearing at a very young age.

This disadvantage means that learning language is extremely difficult for them because the children often cannot hear themselves, let alone the person talking to them. Teaching the child(ren)  words and concepts of life are often a slower process when compared to a hearing child who is more aware of their surroundings. Piaget's theories on language acquisition are mainly focused around "cognitive development" - the language they learn being controlled by the development of thinking. This means that the child would have to understand the concept in order for them to be able to correctly use the phrase: e.g. children who use phrases such as "more than" must have grasped the concept of it before they were able to use it in an utterance. I wish to challenge this theory in my investigation.

AimsI will be looking at the lexis and grammar used by a young deaf person and then will compare it to that of a hearing person of a similar age.

MethodologyMy case study will centre around my sister who had meningitis when she was almost a year old and became deaf as a result of it. She received a cochlear implant that allows her to hear in one ear but she mainly relies on lip reading and, in earlier stages of life, sign language. She picked up spoken and written language at a later age than hearing children through speech therapy and she received special help at school from specialised departments for deaf children. Her main form of communication with friends out of school was instant messaging because she did not need to rely on speaking and listening in order to converse. This provides an interesting case to test the theories mentioned above. Catherine has provided me with a diary that she kept from 2007 to present day and I will compare it to one of my own (from 2008 to 2010). I will be comparing them throughout the investigation, looking for both differences and similarities, along with points that prove or disprove theories of child language acquisition from Chomsky and Piaget.

Expectations
I expect that the language she uses will differ from my own (which is what I will be comparing her data to), especially grammatically because she could not pick up sentence structure and other language features from listening to people at a young age when she relied heavily on sign language and lip reading. This ties into Bruner’s theory of a Language Acquisition Support System (LASS) – Catherine relied heavily on direct interaction with her support system, which made her language acquisition process slower than a child who is able to pick up language from their LASS independently. I also expect that this means her vocabulary and understanding of concepts will be more limited than my own, meaning that perhaps some things she writes may not make sense because she does not understand the concept before trying to use the word.

Analysis

GrammarThe most obvious difference between Catherine’s diary entries and my own is the use of grammar. Catherine’s grammar is less developed than my own and almost seems childlike. She mixes up tenses in sentences a lot which takes away from the coherence of the sentence: ‘I’m going on my own because mum couldn’t come as she has work to do!’ This agrees with Chomsky’s theory that children are born with a basic knowledge of language structure because she knows to put the verbs in the right places but because she does not understand the concept of tenses as well as we do, she often gets it wrong.
The data proves that Catherine understands the concept of prepositions and where to put them in a sentence, but she perhaps doesn’t quite understand the meaning of some prepositions or which ones to use in which context. For example, she wrote, ‘I started to write this of age 11 yrs old.’ The use of the preposition ‘of’ (instead of ‘at’) shows that she recognises that a preposition should be used but she uses the wrong one. This also occurs in the first diary entry where she writes, ‘helps each other of learning about deaf’, proving that this is not an anomaly. This somewhat agrees with Piaget’s theory of understanding the concept before using the phrase, but she doesn’t quite fully understand which preposition to use, disproving it to some degree.
My own diary entries show a pretty much fully developed understanding of how to use language, and shows confidence in when to use plurals and singular words. However, Catherine sometimes mixes hers up, putting plurals where it should be singular: ‘1 months’, ‘had an ears damaged’. This once again challenges Piaget’s theory; the use of the plural in this case may suggest that she does not understand the concept of plurals, but she has seen people use plurals before (maybe in literature or in other people’s writing – proving Bruner’s theory of the LASS because she has acquired this concept of language from social conditions) and tried to use them in her own way. This relates to the theory of imitation – that children learn language through imitation, but this theory has been found incorrect. However, Catherine has imitated what she has seen/heard other people write/say and used it without understanding the meaning, so it shows that it is possible to learn words through imitation but the child would need to be taught the meaning of the word.
In Catherine’s 2009 diary entries, she has shown a major development in her grammar, not getting too many prepositions wrong, and her sentence structure is often very cohesive. However, it is evident that she has picked up the concept of the word ‘though’ (a subordinating conjunction) but doesn’t quite understand it. She uses it a lot when she doesn’t need to, causing her to sound like she’s contradicting herself: ‘we took funny pictures on webcam. Really funny, though.’ This sentence is not entirely coherent because the ‘though’ suggests that the first part of the sentence is negative or of lesser importance/relevance to the second part, but her intentions are to write about how funny the activity was, which she states in both parts of the sentence. This clearly suggests that she does not understand the meaning of the word but has perhaps heard/seen it from other people and has tried to use it in her own way. This is an example of Vygotsky’s theory of social interaction having an impact on language acquisition. His theory of the More Knowledgeable Other, which is, in this case, her peers using the word ‘though’, is proved here as Catherine has taken influence from them.

Lexis   The lexis that I use in my diary entries is very well developed, choosing more adventurous adjective and adverbs (for a child of 12) such as ‘violently’ and ‘immensely’. Such words are not evident in Catherine’s diary entries. Instead, she uses quite basic modifiers for an 11 year old: ‘cool’, ‘lovely’. This may be because Catherine’s first language was British Sign Language (BSL) and, because she did not become deaf until around 2 years of age; she was not exposed to learning BSL from birth. Sign language takes more effort than speaking (coordinated movement of hands, arms, body and face) and so the ‘articulation of individual signs is about 1.5 times slower than for words’.^[4] This could suggest that, because, as proven by Scarborough and Dobrich (1990), children who are delayed in experimenting with language at a young age develop slower than normal, Catherine’s lack of developed vocabulary is down to starting to learn language at a later age, and having to be taught it rather than experimenting with it as a baby. This could also link in to Lenneberg’s theory of the Critical Period – the window of time in which a child ‘readily’ learns language and any attempts to learn language after this timeframe may be unsuccessful or impossible. Catherine’s late start in language acquisition makes her language development slower because she missed about three years of her ‘critical period’.
   Catherine, at the time of these diary entries, was clearly influenced by language in society changing around her. She often communicated with her friends via instant messaging when she wasn’t at school and the result of this is evident in her diary entries from the beginning. She uses phonetic spelling and number homophones: ‘cuz’ and ‘2moz’. This shows that she understands the concept of these techniques and this is probably because she had first-hand experiences of using these, since she was using instant messaging so often. She also uses slang words, like ‘innit’ which suggests that she has acquired the language of her generation through immersion and reinforcement from her peers, supporting Skinner’s theory that children learn language through reinforcement. She also uses it in the right context, suggesting that she fully understands the concept of slang and the meanings of the words. This agrees with Chomsky’s theory of having an innate ability to pick up language, and also with Piaget’s theory of understanding the concept in order to use the phrase. Slang is not used in my own diary entries (except the use of the initialism ‘btw’ although this could have just been used to save time rather than because of my idiolect) and this could be because of differences in our surroundings – slang may be part of Catherine’s sociolect and not mine, we went to different schools, etc.
   There are more spelling mistakes in Catherine’s entries than my own, suggesting a slower development of language acquisition. She writes down ‘differculty’, which is a phonetic spelling, which is something you might expect to see in a child of a younger age who is still learning how to spell; more specifically in the ‘Consolidation Stage’ of writing development, which a child should normally reach at 6 – 8 years old. The phonetic spelling also supports the theory that starting to learn language at a later age means learning language at a slower rate, again supporting Lenneberg’s concept of the ‘Critical Period’ – because she missed a few years of her critical period, she learns language at a slower rate.

Conclusion and Evaluation

   My original hypothesis for this investigation was that there would be significant differences in the level of language used in deaf and hearing people because of the disability barrier of deaf children not being able to acquire language from their surroundings as naturally as hearing children, challenging Bruner’s LASS and Vygotsky’s theory of social interaction having an impact on language development. I collected my data from old diary entries of my sister and compared them to some of my own.
   Following close observation of the diary entries, it is very clear that there are differences and a number of theories can be applied as explanations for these. Some theories were confirmed and some were disproved. For example, the existence of an innate ability to learn language (Chomsky’s LAD) was demonstrated but his theory of children being born with the knowledge of basic language structure can be debated because Catherine showed awareness of certain sentence structures but not others (e.g. Subject/object/verb was often correct but she was unsure about prepositions). However, the theory was supported with my own diary entries because, by age 12, I had developed knowledge of a wide range of sentence structures. Other theories were supported, such as Lenneberg’s theory of the ‘Critical Period’ (Catherine’s slower rate of language development as a result of missing a few years of her critical period) and some were challenged, like Piaget’s theory of understanding the concept before actively using the language.
   Throughout the investigation, it was clear that learning language at a later age puts you at a major disadvantage and has repercussions in later years. Catherine’s level of language is one that you might expect to find in a child of a younger age (typically seven or eight years old) rather than one that is about to start secondary school. However, there are many variables during the time that could have affected the results. For example, her level of education would have been slower than my own (despite sharing a ‘language acquisition support system’ during infancy) and there have been changes in education on the whole since 2008 – for example, styles of teaching are very different today as they might have been four years ago, meaning that some of this data could be anomalous or outdated. For instance, nowadays teachers are putting more emphasis on learning phonics than they used to increase reading ages of children and improve their language development faster. Another reason this data could be anomalous would be because I didn’t compare it to any other case studies or data of other deaf children.
   In conclusion, it is clear that a deaf child’s language is not as well developed as a hearing child’s. This is because the deaf child is unable to be completely immersed in the language and must be manually taught some aspects of language that children would otherwise pick up themselves through their peers, parents and carers (LASS). As well as learning language at a slower rate, in this particular case study, Catherine started learning spoken and written English  at a later age than normal children (British Sign Language was her first language) and the effects of this prove the theory that learning language at a later age affects your language development for your whole life and that children who learn language later – in any context (disability, bad parenting, etc.) – develop slower than other children, as well as proving Lenneberg’s theory of a ‘Critical Period’.

my language investigation

This looks like one helluva post but it's my first draft of my English Language investigation cus I have a friend and my sister who want me to put this on my blog so here ya go.. basically, it's about the differences in mine and my sister's writing because she's deaf and i'm not. I will post the data first (catherine's diary and then mine) and then the investigation itself and then bibliography :)

Age: 11                                                                                 Tuesday 25^th December 2007 CHRISTMAS DAY

To Diary,

I am Catherine Mae Joynson and I started to write this of age 11 yrs old. I’m deaf by cochlear implant. I’m an artist, active, I’m good at Science, Art, Design Technology, Maths, English, Physical Education or more but I thought I was hard for me… I have a deaf group which is called NDCS (National Deaf Children Society) which does helps each other of learning about deaf / hard hearing. I had hearing aids before I was 3 yrs. It doesn’t work for me. I don’t born deaf, I born normal, but then I was 3 months, my mum found out that I had an ears damaged, that’s why. I’m deaf. I can lipread, I find differculty at hearing without lips. I’ll tell you more soon, I’m totally tired now, got to go for sleep.

Love,
           Cathy..x

Friday 11^th January 2008
Dear Diary,
  Hi. In my dance lesson today was fine…. I’ve just made a new club in Learning Support called ‘Knitting Club.’ It’s like you knit a scarf or hat or some others. Cool, innit. It’s been boring today except dance and science and I.C.T. Lol. I’m feeling so tired right now. zzzz … my niece might come to my home 2moz or on Sunday, not sure. But I want them to cuz I love my niece, She’s like 1 months old. She loves me. Cuz when I first saw her, I went like ‘Hello! Hello, hello!’ and she smiles at me and she seems she’s trying to say hello but she almost can say it. She can mime saying ‘hello! Thats so cute and clever! I think her first word would be ‘hello or ‘yeah’ Lol!

Cathy
xxx

Monday 21^st July 2008
Dear Diary,
      Hey! Sorry for a while! 2 more days to go! Woo! I can’t wait for a holiday to Brighton! But one awful news, tomorrow, after skool, I have a metting with Gary Webster, Mrs Mcdonald and Madame Ellis Maduit about MP3 player on French Listening! Aargh! I’m going on my own because mum couldn’t come as she has work to do! I’m scarced! *Gulps* Anyway, umm… Yeah… I have nothing to say, really! Ooh, I went to Wicksteed Park, didn’t I? It was so cool!! And the Prizegiving went well! Not bad. I spent the prize on Michael Morpurgo books! Haha! Called ‘Dear Olly’ and ‘The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips’ They’re so cool the stories were lovely! See ya

Cathy
xx

Friday 2^nd January 2009
    Dear Diary,
       Happy New Year! Sadly, we have lost our last guinea pig, clear Frisky. She was like Spirit, same death. Laura, my friend lost a hamster on Xmas day, dear star. Today was the good day, funny evening. I was on the laptop with Lyn, we took funny pictures on webcam. Really funny, though. I just been London for a night two days ago, good night. We went to the cinema, watched Madagascar 2 Escape To Africa. It’s a funny, family movie. I like it, though. I just got a new laptop three days ago. Then we got the internet the next day, before we went to London. Xmas was good. I loved my presents especially my UGG Slippers!

Cathy
xx

Sunday 4^th January 2009
  Dear Diary,
     My sister is going back to school tomorrow. I’m going back on Tues, which includes Thomas. Today was a good day. I typed a lot of my story called “The War” and I’ve written like 16 pages. Also known as “The Dome” written by Rachel Day. We didn’t finish but we’re still typing. At the mo, I’m watching Top Gear. And that is the funny episode. I like comedy, funny real episodes. Including Top Gear! To be honest, I don’t know what to say. I just saw an episode about the killing bees attack in football match in Spain. It was full of millions of bees attacking. The footballers were lying down, covering themselves in their clothes. Most of the audience ran away. Ouch….

Cathy
xxx

Wednesday 9^th December 2009
   Dear Diary,
      I am seriously sick of everything! Mum’s still worse and it’s making my life miserable! Can’t everyone understand?! I truly wish everything was realistic, so undramatic!
      Shantel says there’s a final hearing whether her father could take her and sisters to live with him in Southampton. She hasn’t seen her dad for 4 years, until now. It’s what she wants, I’m fine with that. If she is gonna leave, how can I cope with that? ‘Cause then I have no friends to hang out with. I’m not used with hanging out with Chloe and Charlotte. Miss McD. (my teacher of the deaf) says I’m strong and has loads of friends, well she’s wrong. I just feel I can’t take it anymore. I just want to pray that God could give me the solutions!
       I felt the possible of ‘yes’ for Shantel’s wish in Southampton. Hell’s are coming to me.
      I’m so sick of Lyn, bossing me around. Not doing some things I politely ask her to. I’m getting sick of this.
     I feel like stabbing myself or run away. I relly need to sort this out! – Cathy

Monday 30^th March 2010
    Dear Diary,

Reading back in the few last pages just reminds me of these moments. Also, I have tears in my eyes, because of that.
    I think family life is getting worse. I just had an argument with mum, she was complaining about how much mess Lyn and I had made (but it’s not even real messy!) It’s just like she only cares about her own self and the stupid house. Err, hello? It’s her who just raised us up, then just ignore us and concentrates on her own life.
   I just met her boyfriend, Trevor. He seemed nice, also I absolutely love his dog, Ziggy!
   I just don’t want to be hurt anymore, she’s just like a useless mother who doesn’t know about teenagers – internet, fashion, online games, hanging out, high schools.
  Now she just said “I’m sick of this! You do your own washing, ironing, whatever!”
  She didn’t even know how to stop shouting than just talk – it just hurts my ears! I’m not a slave! Why would she expect us to be perfect at keeping everything clean?! We’re not housekeepers yet! We are growing, we’re teenagers!
  Dad, I just need you.
                                       - Catherine.

Monday 28^th June 2010
     Dear Diary,
               Today was okay. Only Shantel weren’t there. She was an accident, broke her collar bone by elipsy fits thingy. She keeps getting these fits since like couple of months ago, she fell off the chair, hit her above eye. That’s what caused her fits. Well, as long she can be okay for a while…
     I had Beth and Megan today… Everything’s calm. Hottest weather, I begin to hate summer, they suffer my body temperature. I prefer Winter, it’s easy that way, get your blanket, you’re warm long enough. Lyn’s gone to Berlin for week, a tidy bedroom for me! She keeps things messy, making me feel like Cinderella.
                                                                                Hahaha J

                                                - Catherine

Monday 22^nd August 2011
      Dear Diary,
           Yo!
Just starting to get used to my life, just learnt that I will get good and bad times. Feeling happy that I’ve got an appointment to Nottingham tomorrow to discuss my interest in bilateral implant which I’ve wanted for months. I hope I get one soon, my hearing’s been shit. Also, I want the new upgrade called Nucleus 5, the Freedom’s really gay.
   Been to london to meet Rachek and it was fantastic. Got to meet Tom for the first time. Then deaf camp, can’t tell you how much I miss it now. So much easier that I can understand people. Braved myself and let my confidence out, and apparantly got myself populated by the group. Feeling proud but can’t bring it at school, obviously because they’re not deaf.
    Life’s becoming normal for once.
     Ouch, my hand’s so sore. Explains my fucked handwriting.
                - CathyMae ♥

Friday 16^th March 2012
    Dear Diary
  Looking back to past, it’s funny how you change within a few years. Mad world. Recently, I’ve decided to accept life. Yes, it is hard but only you can do is, waste your life with whatever you want to do. My life goal, is to achieve a photography career and see what happens next.
    I’ve noticed how my life changed. I’ve finally sorted out myself. I’ve met a couple of friends and I’ve became more friends with Chloe now. Life’s going well so far, I guess. I’m in my final GCSE’s year and only I’m struggling in English and History. Apart from that, I guess I’m coping fine. English is my main concern because I obviously need them for my A Level Film Studies in Northampton College in this September. I seriously can’t wait for college life. Something new in my education life, finally.

                                - CathyMae.

                                                                                                                                                Saturday 18^th October ‘08
Dear diary,
      I went to my niece’s birthday party today. She was 1yr old on the 15^th, and Wej wanted to have a small family party for Louise. Danny was glued to his Gamecube, playing Super Mario Sunshine on it and asking me to win loads of levels and shine sprites for him. He kept telling me I was his ‘favourite Lyn!’J He’s only 5.
     I am coming to the end of my first week of holiday. My school has different holidays to the other schools, so it’s just me in the house alone until I either have to pick up Thomas or Catherine comes home and I have to do my paper round. Because of this, I have gotten into reading Doctor Who books. I have a major collection of them. But, funnily enough, I have read all of them! I hate the way you buy a book, read it then never touch it again. Mostly. But I went shopping this morning and bought three new ones: Forever Autumn, Wetworld & Sick Building. I love them.
     My hand hurts from not writing this much in nearly a week now. I must exercise – hehe!
     I have been hooked up on The Sims 2 recently, too. I made the Smudge family – me, Toni & Danielle – and Lilac (Toni) got the flu and was coughing quite violently and it was pretty funny!
     I cough too. I have a really bad cough. Its going away though. I have a cold as well, which isn’t going away and probably won’t go away till next month!
     Andrew texted me this afternoon, said he saw me up town. He suggested we should all meet up and go to the cinema or something. He said he’d ring me. :O
     Ha, I’m running out of things to write about. I must send one of my immensely long emails round again! And I must ask Kaisie if I can borrow her Chronicles of Ancient Darkness book. I need to read it before the next one comes out!
     Over and out!

                                                                                                                                                Monday 27^th October ‘08
Dear diary,
     Not much to write really except that I have started writing a sequel to my friend’s story – The Dome. Her story is 72 or so pages long. I wrote some of it & there are very funny parts in it!! Rachel says I am very good at writing stories and describing things.
     I got a worker agreement sheet from my shop today. Luckily it doesn’t say anything about age except from you cannot be over 16. It has to be signed by my mum & my headteacher. Mum said she’s going to write a note with it saying the pay is stingy. :P
     We got split into sets for science today. I am in a fast track group with Tayler & Jess. Our table is funny but Joe thinks I fancy Tayler, Jess is just weird and not many people like Bhargav – except for boffs like Tayler. I don’t fancy him, btw. J
     I went to Leicester with Toni & bought loads of things in Primark & WH Smith on Thursday.
     I have an ALAN test in maths in 3 weeks time. I took one last year but failed by 1 mark. :O I have to retake it.
     The government have decided to take away SATs & ALAN tests and replace them with ‘Functional Skills.’ Its stuff like how to use a checkbook, and how to handle maths in everyday life. The main thing is that it’s non-algebra -> so I’m happy!
     Anyway my hand hurts big time. Talk soon! X

                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                Sunday 6^th Sept. 09
Ohai diary! ^-^
     Long time no talk! Like, honestly, long time! I’ve started GCSEs now. I chose 3D Art, Music, Drama & German. I have near enough the same timetable, except I’m in like, different groups and such in different lessons.
     There isn’t really much to write about. Theatre group is going well – Love is all you need went amazing. I got a part in From this Moment and should be getting the DVD for it soon, when Ken decides to bring it in. Now we’re half way doing a play called The Boyfriend written by Sandy Wilson. I got the part of Dulcie, which is quite good as I have a duet with Ken who plays Lord Brockhurst.
      Sasha and I have our own Youtube account now. ItWasMyButton. But lately things between Sasha and I have not been so good. She thinks I spend too much time with my boyfriend Ben.
     Ben’s lovely. He loves me and I love him. We’re going strong.
     It’s midday atm so not much is happening. My laptop just overheated so I’ve stood it in front of the fan to cool down. Its such a pain when it does this, but it only does it on my account. and Thomas’ – apparently. Thomas wrote that haha.

                                                                                                                                                5^th March 2010
Dear diary,
     Long time no talk. I am currently on the plane to Hannover, Germany. “Ten minutes to landing,” he says. “Ten minutes.” More announcements – fasten your seatbelts, make sure your seats are upright, fold up your tables.
     As part of an exchange trip, I am now nine minutes away from being totally removed from my tiny, fluffy comfort zone. I am now to be plunged into the deep end – staying with a family I do not know. Everyone else on this flight had their partner stay at their house in October. I’m staying with Toni’s penpal, Louisa, because they obviously didn’t click at all when she came to stay.
     The plane is dipping, levelling, morphing. My ears are popping continuously – ugh, I hate flying. The flight was only an hour and a half.
     Kate and Kirsty are panicking because the cabin lights have dipped. The plane is rocking. I need to swallow continuously or else it feels like my head will explode. Of course I’ll look back on this and laugh. “This is stupid,” I’ll laugh as I read.
     But right now…
     Ugh.
     Louisa says we’re going to an ice hockey match on Sunday, swimming on monday. She told me to bring sports clothes as well. I will try and make myself not seem like a boring person. I brought my drawings with me, and then there’s extra paper in this should I want to draw.
     Flying makes me sleepy.
     I wish Ben was here.
     When we go to Berlin, the flight will be easy. I’ll sit next to him and he’ll hold my hand.
     I thought they gave you sweets for landing. They do on Brunei airlines, We’re about to hit the ground.
     This is tense, because I can’t see a thing…
     I want to live.
     I’m alive. And it’s snowing.

 

An Investigation into the Differences in Written Language in Young Deaf People and Young Hearing People

   In normal children, language acquisition and development is a process that Chomsky thinks comes innately to humans through a device called the LAD – Language Acquisition Device. His theory states that babies are born with the knowledge of basic rules of language structure and that humans come with an innate ability to pick up language. However, what happens if the child suffers from a disability that hinders their ability to hear the language around them?

   For my language investigation I will be analysing the differences in written language in deaf people compared to hearing people. My investigation will consider grammar, lexis and cohesion. Being deaf puts a person at a huge disadvantage in terms of learning both written and spoken language because they cannot pick up information through being immersed in language, especially if they were born deaf or lost their hearing at a very young age.

   This disadvantage means that learning language is extremely difficult for them because the children often cannot hear themselves, let alone the person talking to them. Teaching them words and concepts of life are often a slower process than it would be with a hearing child who is more aware of their surroundings. Piaget's theories on language acquisition are mainly focused around "cognitive development" - the language they learn is controlled by the development of thinking. This means that the child would have to understand the concept in order for them to be able to correctly use the phrase: e.g. children who use phrases such as "more than" must have grasped the concept of it before they were able to use it in an utterance. I also wish to challenge this theory in my investigation.

Aims
   I will be looking at the lexis and grammar used by a young deaf person and comparing it to that of a hearing person of a similar age

Methodology
   I will conduct a case study about my sister who had meningitis when she was almost one year old and became deaf because of it. She received a cochlear implant that allowed her to hear in one ear but she mainly relies on lip reading and, in earlier stages of life, sign language. She picked up spoken and written language at a later age than hearing children through speech therapy and she received special help at school from specialised departments for deaf children. This provides an interesting case to test the theories mentioned above.

Expectations
   I expect that the language she uses will differ from my own (which is what I will be comparing her data to), especially grammatically because she could not pick up sentence structure and other language features from listening to people at a young age when she relied heavily on sign language and lip reading. I also expect that this means her vocabulary and understanding of concepts will be more limited than my own, meaning that perhaps some things she writes may not make sense because she does not understand the concept before trying to use the word.

Analysis

Grammar
   The most obvious difference between Catherine’s diary entries and my own is the use of grammar. Catherine’s grammar is less developed than my own and almost seems childlike. She mixes up tenses in sentences a lot which takes away from the coherence of the sentence: ‘I’m going on my own because mum couldn’t come as she has work to do!’ This agrees with Chomsky’s theory that children are born with a basic knowledge of language structure because she knows to put the verbs in the right places but because she does not understand the concept of tenses as well as we do, she often gets it wrong.
   Also, Catherine understands the concept of prepositions and where to put them in a sentence, but she perhaps doesn’t quite understand the meaning of some prepositions or which ones to use in which context. For example, she wrote, ‘I started to write this of age 11 yrs old.’ The use of the preposition ‘of’ (instead of ‘at’) shows that she recognises that a preposition should be used but she uses the wrong one. This somewhat agrees with Piaget’s theory of understanding the concept before using the phrase, but she doesn’t quite fully understand which preposition to use, disproving it to some degree.
   My own diary entries show a pretty much fully developed understanding of how to use language, and shows confidence in when to use plurals and singular words. However, Catherine sometimes mixes hers up, putting plurals where it should be singular: ‘1 months’, ‘had an ears damaged’. This links, once again, into Piaget’s theory and disproves it; the use of the plural in this case may suggest that she does not understand the concept of plurals, but she has seen people use plurals before (maybe in literature or in other people’s writing) and tried to use them in her own way. This relates to the theory of imitation – that children learn language through imitation, but this theory has been found incorrect. However, Catherine has imitated what she has seen/heard other people write/say and used it without understanding the meaning, so it shows that it is possible to learn words through imitation but the child would need to be taught the meaning of the word.
   In Catherine’s 2009 diary entries, she has shown a major development in her grammar, not getting too many prepositions wrong and her sentence structure is often very cohesive. However, it is evident that she has picked up the concept of the word ‘though’ but she doesn’t quite understand it. She uses it a lot when she doesn’t need to, causing her to sound like she’s contradicting herself: ‘we took funny pictures on webcam. Really funny, though.’ This sentence is not entirely coherent because the ‘though’ suggests that the first part of the sentence is negative, but here she says the same thing in both parts of the sentence. This clearly suggests that she does not understand the meaning of the word but has perhaps heard/seen it from other people and has tried to use it in her own way.

Lexis
   The lexis that I use in my diary entries is very well developed, choosing more adventurous adjectives (for a child of 12) such as ‘violently’ and ‘immensely’. Such words are not evident in Catherine’s diary entries. Instead, she uses quite basic words for an 11 year old: ‘cool’, ‘lovely’. This may be because Catherine’s first language was British Sign Language (BSL) and, because she did not become deaf until around 2 years of age, she was not exposed to learning BSL from birth. Sign language takes more effort than speaking (movement of hands, arms, body and face) and so the ‘articulation of individual signs is about 1.5 times slower than for words’.^[4]  This could suggest that, because, as proven by Scarborough and Dobrich (1990), children who are delayed in experimenting with language at a young age develop slower than normal, Catherine’s lack of developed vocabulary is down to starting to learn language at a later age, and having to be taught it rather than experimenting with it as a baby.
   Catherine, at the time of these diary entries, was clearly influenced by language in society changing around her. She often communicated with her friends via instant messaging when she wasn’t at school and the result of this is evident in her diary entries from the beginning. She uses phonetic spelling and number homophones: ‘cuz’ and ‘2moz’. This shows that she understands the concept of these techniques and this is probably because she had first-hand experiences of using these often, since she was using instant messaging so often. She also uses some slang words, like, ‘innit’ which suggests that she is aware of the language of her generation. She also uses it in the right context, suggesting that she fully understands the concept of slang and the meanings of the words. This agrees with Chomsky’s theory of having an innate ability to pick up language, and also with Piaget’s theory of understanding the concept in order to use the phrase. Slang is not used in my own diary entries (except the use of the initialism ‘btw’ although this could have just been used to save time rather than because of my idiolect) and this could be because of differences in our surroundings – slang may be part of Catherine’s sociolect and not mine, we went to different schools, etc.
   There are more spelling mistakes in Catherine’s entries than my own, suggesting a slower development of language acquisition. She writes down ‘differculty’, which is a phonetic spelling, which is something you might expect to see in a child of a younger age who is still learning how to spell. This supports the theory that starting to learn language at a later age means learning language at a slower rate.

Conclusion and Evaluation

   My original hypothesis for this investigation was that there would be significant differences in the level of language used in deaf and hearing people because of the disability barrier of deaf children not being able to acquire language from their surroundings as naturally as hearing children. I collected my data from old diary entries of my sister and compared them to some of my own.
   Following close observation of the diary entries, it is very clear that there are differences and a number of theories can be applied as explanations for these. Some theories were confirmed and some were disproved. For example, the existence of an innate ability to learn language (Chomsky’s LAD) was demonstrated but his theory of children being born with the knowledge of basic language structure can be debated because Catherine showed awareness of certain sentence structures but not others (e.g. Subject/object/verb was often correct but she was unsure about prepositions). However, the theory was supported with my own diary entries because, by age 12, I had developed knowledge of a wide range of sentence structures.
   Throughout the investigation, it was clear that learning language at a later age puts you at a major disadvantage and has repercussions in later years. Catherine’s level of language is one that you might expect to find in a child of a young age rather than one that is about to start secondary school. However, there are many variables during the time that could have affected the results. For example, her level of education would have been slower than my own and there have been changes in education on the whole since 2008 – for example, styles of teaching are very different today as they might have been four years ago, meaning that some of this data could be anomalous or outdated. Another reason this data could be anomalous would be because I didn’t compare it to any other case studies or data of other deaf children.
   In conclusion, it is clear that a deaf child’s language is not as well developed as a hearing child’s. This is because the deaf child is unable to be immersed in the language and must be manually taught some aspects of language that children would otherwise pick up themselves. As well as learning language at a slower rate, in this particular case study, Catherine started learning spoken and written English (British Sign Language was her first language) at a later age than normal children and the effects of this prove the theory that learning language at a later age effects your language development for your whole life and that children who learn language later – in any context (disability, bad parenting, etc.) – develop slower than other children.

Bibliography

1.       http://comeflywithme18.hubpages.com/hub/Theorists-on-child-language-acquisition

2.       http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/prepositions-list.htm

3.       http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Revision:Child_Language_Acquisition_-_Speaking#Theory_1:_THE_IMITATION_THEORY

4.       http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/g.morgan/SIGN%20SLI%20BJDP.pdf

5.       http://jslhr.asha.org/cgi/content/abstract/33/1/70