Feedback on the comparison of the banana and healing robot transcripts

I've commented on all the ones that came in on time, so browse through people's blogs and learn what you can from others and the marking I've done on their essays.

Particular props to the following:

Joe C http://englishlanguageblogjoe.blogspot.co.uk/

Olivia F http://oliviaenglishlanguage.blogspot.co.uk/

Callum http://cjones1402.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Erin http://erinslanguageblog.blogspot.co.uk/

I am waiting for a couple more that came in via email to be posted to the blogs then I can add them in. As you can see, even students getting the top marks in a group have plenty of room for improvement, which is exactly as it should be - everyone should have targets that stretch them and As (A*s particularly) are quite hard to get in English Language because you need quite a lot of historical knowledge to do really well in Language Change, for instance.

Don't just read the A-grade(ish) ones though - read everything you can to spot the kind of areas you need to improve in too, as well as what to aspire to. 

A few general points:

• people comparing numbers of interrogatives for instance forgot to take into account that the transcripts are different lengths, so calculate interrogatives as a percentage of utterances to allow for comparability

 

• knowledge of stages is generally shaky - research which non-standard features are typical at the telegraphic stage and which more complex features are indicative of children entering the post-telegraphic stage (Zach is clearly in the telegraphic stage in the banana transcript but is showing some signs of development into post-telegraphic by the robot transcript)

 

• try to contrast theorists in the light of data - to what extent does something in the data link to Chomsky's ideas but contradict Skinner's, for instance?

 

• offer alternative interpretations of why a non-standard usage (never say mistake) might be occurring e.g. "frough" might be local accent (even if I don't use it, he went to nursery where many of the staff use a strong Bristolian accent) or it might be (more likely) an immature articulation - research at what stages clear enuncuation of different phonemes develops

 

• use a clear topic sentence that connects or contrasts the two texts - this is vital in the comparison task and in the investigation too

 

•  use more terminology - crowbar it in wherever you can!

Generally, I was very pleased with the ones I had but it wouldn't matter to me if they needed much more work - I can help you if you hand something in but I can't if you don't and the grades for the reporting cycle (Gateway 6) that is soon going to be available to parents on the portal slipped where I couldn't see the learning that had taken place in CLA last term, as did the effort level - you have to meet all deadlines to even get a 2!