Transcript of Spoken Interaction with a Critical Commentary - Essay Example

Transcript of Spoken Interaction with a Critical Commentary Transcription is the term that defines methodical illustration of utterances in written form. Phonetic transcriptions display phonetic and phonological characteristics of speech. Transcriptions help to analyze various sounds in speech. It helps researchers to determine a child’s sound abilities. Most natural discourse involves an adult and a child. The linguistic feature of the transcript below is phonology awareness, which involves analysis of sound patterns to come up with meanings. Many children learn to produce sounds, but cannot relate the sounds to the meanings of words. Other children are able to merge sounds to formulate words. The informant is a three-year-old girl. The dialogue took place on a farm in the countryside. The adult and the child were having a conversation about what they saw as in the farm. The adult is a distant relative of the child. They talked about the animals, plants and fruits, which they saw. Child and adult are taking a walk in a country side farm. Adult: Do you love the countryside? 1. Child: Yes. Adult: Why do you love the countryside? 2. Child: Because I see many animals. Adult: Which animal have you seen? 3. Child: Fen. Adult: Where did you see the fen? 4. Child: (laughs) It’s not fen its fen! Adult: Ooh! It’s hen? 5. Child: Yes! Adult: So where did you see the hen? 6. Child: (pointing towards the hen) There. Adult: Which other animal have you seen? 7. Child: I saw a babbit. Adult: What is a babbit? 8. Child: (shouts) No! Its babbit. Adult: Rabbit. 9. Child: (Claps) Babbit. Adult: Who is that? 10. Child: Dowboy. Adult: Dowboy? 11. Child: (irritated) No! I did not say dowboy, I said dowboy! Adult: Ooh! Sorry. That is a cowboy. 12. Child: Yes! Adult: (pointing to an orange tree) Which fruits are these? 13. Child: Oranges. Adult: Do you like their taste? 14. Child: Yes! (pause) I want. Adult: How many do you want? 15. Child: Tree. Adult: The whole tree? 16. Child: (raising three fingers) No tree. Adult: You mean number three? 17. Child: Ya! Adult: Ok! There you go. 18. Child: This one is big and this one is small. Adult: Yes! But why are they different? 19. Child: One is old and one is young. Adult: OK! Do you see these plants in the city? 20. Child: No! I see many cars and houses. Adult: Ok! Let us go to the bee hives. 21. Child: No! I want to go to see animals. Adult: You love animals, right! 22. Child: I like. Adult: Which animals do you like? 23. Child: I like popopotomas. Adult: Popopotomas! 24. Child: (laughs) you can’t say popopotomas! Adult: Hippopotamus? 25. Child: Yes! Mum said it is popopotomas. Adult: What else did your mum tell you? 26. Child: Nothing! Adult: Ok! Can we go back to the city? 27. Child: (shrugs) Nooo! Adult: Can we o back to mummy? 28. Child: Yes. Commentary Children listen to various sounds to learn their languages. They learn to differentiate various sounds, and to divide the speech into meaningful units to enable them to come up with words and sentences. Children also have to learn to extract a word from a speech sequence, and to understand the meaning of the word. They also learn to distinguish different sounds to understand the meanings of words with the same sounds. Some children may learn the meaning of words, but are unable to produce the correct sounds in their speech. Phonological awareness is the capability to concentrate on the elements of sound in speech. It also involves manipulation of sound elements such as syllables and phonemes. The awareness may include matching, fusion and study of spoken words. Child phonology describes the phenomena in children’s language. The descriptions of these aspects and developmental patterns are not sufficient to come up with a proposition of attainment of phonology. There are two dimensions of phonological awareness; the first deals with the magnitude of the sound unit, while the second looks into the nature of manipulation of sound units. The second dimension also involves a child’s ability to manipulate sounds. Some children substitute sounds with those ha are easy to pronounce. Phonological awareness involves recognition of the tiniest sounds in any form of speech. Phonemic awareness is the most difficult aspect for many children. Most of them omit phonemes in their speech. Manipulation occurs in different forms, for example, children may substitute sound units. They may also blend sounds to make words, split words to create smaller units. Researches on the acquisition of verbal communication follow up children’s initial utterances, the order of the emergence of language and faults they contain. Phonological awareness leads to successful reading and spelling skills. Adults may also teach children about phonological awareness, but they should provide appropriate instructions. There is no order for acquisition of phonological awareness, so children should not force children to master one level to move to the next. Identification of sound units should be progressive. During the initial stages of phonological awareness, children should learn to deal with large units of sounds. Awareness of syllables begins in the early stages of development. Breaking words into syllables may not be easy for children; therefore, children take long to gain the skill. They learn to develop their onset-rime awareness after the syllable recognition. Syllables have small units called onsets and rimes. Consonant sounds that come before vowels, for instance, s is the onset in sat, which has one syllable. Syllable such as an, and on do not have onsets because no consonant sounds appear before the vowel. Some children may add or omit consonant sounds to such words. An become han, while window may change to indow. The rime unit appears in all syllables. Rimes are the vowels and other sounds that follow them in a syllable, for instance, the rime in sat is at. Phoneme awareness complicates the phonological awareness of a child because it involves manipulation of minute units of sound. Phonemic awareness is the last stage of phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is essential because written languages consist of a record of sounds. Individuals have to listen to the sounds of words to put down symbol that characterize those sounds. The awareness also helps children to recognize letter combinations that make up words. A child should have the ability to reflect on the sounds of language to understand the sense of the written code. The early years of childhood, are appropriate for children to explore and play with words. Adults should ensure that children engage in activities that enhance phonological awareness. Activities such as singing, storytelling and dramatization are forms of play that increase the speed of phonological awareness. Frequent occurrence of sound facilitates production of phonological properties. The naturalistic approach is one of the research study methods that help to study and record children’s utterances (Hoff 2012, p. 72). The hypothesis of this phonological awareness research was children may be aware of the meanings of words but are not able to produce the correct sounds. The researcher had to acquire naturalistic data to make significant conclusions. The informant of the research was a three year old girl who had the ability to understand the meanings of words, but could not produce appropriate sounds. The girl was the most appropriate informant because she was obedient and cooperative unlike other three year old children. The researcher needed only one informant to collect detailed information on the phonological awareness of the child. The researcher had to present a letter of consent to the parents of the child to sign. The researcher then took the child to a countryside farm, which had various aspects of discussion. The child resided in the city, so she was fascinated by the countryside life, and had a lot to talk about. An adult engaged in a conversation with the girl to determine her phonological awareness. The adult had to repeat some of the child’s words to avoid ambiguity during transcriptions. Naturalistic data requires a lot of time to record; therefore, the researcher had to lengthen the conversation to acquire substantial data to test the hypothesis. The conversation had to be recorded to enable the researcher to transcribe the data. The researcher used a video camera to collect the data. Digital recording was the most efficient method of data collection because it is fast and accurate. The method enables the researchers to keep up with the speed of speech production. The diary technique does not include the child’s sign language, which helps researchers to understand the child’s language. The researcher used a digital video, which had quality audio. It enabled the examiner to analyze the child’s facial expressions and a wide scope of the utterances. The camera captured the movements of the child’s mouth to determine phonetically related sounds. The digital audio ensured efficient visual analysis of sound waves and accurate phonetic transcriptions. The camera’s microphone jack was supplemented by a separate microphone to enhance the audio recording. The microphone collected the child’s speech signal; the recorder took the microphone signal from the microphone and recorded it to a digital file. The headphones enabled the listener to assess the speech. The equipment had appropriate specifications that enabled investigator to collect physical properties. The efficiency of the equipment ensured quality transmission and reception of auditory signal. The child wore wireless microphones to avoid restriction of movement, and to maintain a constant distance. Reliable computations required a set of efficient computational tools. The transcriber wrote an annotation for the target word of the adult speaker. The target word is written in regular orthography. The transcriber used the narrow transcription because it incorporated the phonetic detail. The method also ensured phonetic exactness of sound production. The transcription process involved three audiences the transcribers, analysts and readers. Transcription involved capturing the sequence of events in a written medium. Transcribers identified what every speaker said, the person they talked to, the manner and circumstances of their speech. Distinctions should be moderate, for instance, they should be neither too fine nor too coarse. Individuals should read transcripts easily. Recordings are significant in studies that seek to discover a child’s phonological awareness because humans cannot recall all the events that occur in an interaction. The aim of all discourse studies is to get the features of interaction. Aspects such as rate of speech and position of pauses cannot be identified by physical properties. Coding helps discourse researchers to combine dissimilar items for close examination. It also provides a more interpretive description of theoretical frameworks. Transcription systems record aspects, which are selected for a language study. Researchers choose transcription systems that will answer the necessary study questions. The systems also assist to modify sign language n accessible form. Computerized transcription systems have to be efficient to deal with different audiences. Transcribers should be able to connect transcripts to recordings to enhance the navigation process. Transcribers should also have the chance to listen to utterances as many times as they wish. Organized encoding and analysis of visual language data should be enhanced by projects that relate transcripts to digitized audio recordings. Transcription as well as coding systems are grouped into sub domains such as intonation contour and pause length. There are also categories that characterize each domain, for example, a pause may be long or short. Each domain has a contrast set with categories that must follow three principles. A category must meet the requirements of each section of interaction. Categories should be exhaustive; therefore, each category should fit all the relevant aspects of data. The categories should also provide relevant distinctions in a research question. Symbol interpretation is also significant in transcriptions. Punctuation marks are essential when interpreting symbols although they may not meet the same requirements for all projects. They may delimit units or indicate different categories. Computer manipulations enhance encoding of similar instances. Uniform computer retrieval requires methodical encoding. Human beings understand that words such as cuz and cause have the same meaning but computers do not. A researcher who tries to search data that has one of the variants may get misleading results. Such risks can be minimized by equivalence tables, which are exterior to the transcript. Normalization of tags that are placed inside texts also reduces the risk. Transcribers should make comprehensive record of word forms. They should also check and include variants in search commands. Closely related information such as syllable stress should be close to each other. There should be clear distinctions of codes that have different information to give the readers a clue of what they expect from a text. This increases the speed of reading an also reduces false ascriptions. Events should be chronological, prior events should appear on the first page. Information that interprets utterances should appear before those that describe the relevance of information. Circumstances of data collection and the speakers’ relationships should appear at the top of transcripts. Variations of circumstances and activities come before the utterances. Few symbols should mark coded distinctions to reduce irrelevant aspects in the transcript. Systematic encoding enhances the flexibility of reformatting for various research purposes. Data may be shared by different research groups that have varying goals; therefore, reformatting is essential. Reformatting consumes less time because researchers do not have to carry out other researches of the same aspects. The symbols in coding systems should be clear. The real world referent should be definable and should relate consistently and reliably. Transcriptions are modifications of raw data. They may not represent the actual raw data because recordings may have errors. Variations in transcriptions may vary levels of analysis. Efficient transcriptions should make the most of computer technologies that search and assemble coded utterances. Researchers should easily read through transcripts to understand the data and to formulate hypothesis that require close testing. Addition of annotations requires line by line reading. Readability helps to reduce mistakes in data entry. It also assists researchers to check errors in data. Transcriptions are biased because they depend on a transcriber’s descriptive characteristics and modes of information display. Transcribers may also choose the information, which they want to preserve. Transcripts may vary according to researchers preferences. The research process had various problems. Selecting a unique method of determining the phonological awareness of a child was difficult. The task as a researcher-generated elicitation task, so the researcher because the researcher wanted to name the things she saw. The researcher did not want to use the toy play or book reading methods to obtain data. The researcher had to make several considerations to decide make conclusions on the most appropriate informants. Children do not go through the same development stages; moreover, finding an appropriate informant was tedious because most children were disobedient and not willing to engage in any conversations. The parents of the informant were not comfortable with the research venue. They did not want their child to go to the countryside to carry out the research. They took longer than expected to sign the letter of consent, so the researcher had to reschedule the day of the research. The research process was to take one day, but circumstances increased the number of days. On the other hand, the child wanted her dog to go along with her; therefore, the research expenditure had to be reviewed. The dog had to go wherever the child went; consequently, the dog interfered with the recording session. The pet distracted the child’s attention and tampered with recording equipment. The research was to take place in the morning, but the weather was not friendly. The research had to take place in the afternoon to get quality sound and pictures. The researcher had to inform the informant’s parent that the child would not arrive at the expected time. The child was afraid to talk because of the people around her. Determining the length of the session was difficult because the child’s concentration was unpredictable. The researcher had to reassure her to collect quality data. The choice of setting was difficult because the researcher needed a quiet place that had various aspects of discussion. The child had to see objects that words with different sounds. Finding an appropriate farm was difficult. Most farmers were not willing to offer their farms. Children alter the forms of their sign language as they obtain them. Parameters such as hand orientation, facial expressions that accompany their sign language and hand orientation, are different from those forms produced by adults. This also created setbacks because the adult could not relate the meanings of the child’s combinations. The child distorted the sequence of the signs because she had poor motor control. There were also several setbacks during the phonetic transcription. Transcriptions depend on transcriber’s judgments. The transcriber had to get a different transcription of the data to ensure accuracy. Determination of accuracy was difficult because the transcribers had different methods of transcription. The transcriber could not detect distorted sounds; therefore researchers took a long time to understand the meanings of the sounds. The guest transcriber had different transcriptions, so another transcription had to be made by a third transcriber to determine the abilities of the child. The researcher did not expect any validation of the transcriptions. The validation mode enabled transcribers to detect discrepancies. The researcher did not check the sound system prior to the data collection. The battery failure and poor connections led to poor audio quality, which created difficulties during transcriptions. The next research will require sufficient preparation that will cater for unexpected outcomes. The researcher will choose a location that is close to the informant’s area of residence, to avoid trouble with parents. The distance also affects the child’s concentration, since some become homesick. The researcher may also invite the informant’s parents during the session to prevent the child from feeling lonely. Parents know how to deal with their children, so they may help to maintain the child’s concentration. The informant’s parent may also act as the adult in the conversation to make the dialogue more natural. The choice of the location will be restricted to minimal transport costs. Careful choice of informants will decrease costs incurred by pets and other insignificant aspects. The researcher will carry out an indoor research to avoid harsh weather conditions. The conversation may also take place under a shade or on a balcony, in case the research deals with outdoor objects or creatures. The researcher will also choose and other areas apart from the countryside the venue had many setbacks. The letter of consent will be presented early enough to avoid rescheduling research dates. Early presentation will give the parents ample time to make their decisions. The researcher will also have enough time to look for alternatives, in case parents refuse to sign the letter. Children will be convinced not to carry their pets. Informants who insist on carrying their pets will not participate in the study. The researcher will allocate extra time for the sessions. Hidden cameras will be appropriate for data collections since children may not stay in one position. The recorders may also attach cameras on a child’s garment for accurate data collection. The child was afraid of expressing herself because the research team had unfamiliar individuals. The research team will be introduced to the child before the recording session to make the child feel comfortable. The researcher will also reassure children prior to recording sessions, to lessen the fears of the child. The recording time will be minimal because a child’s concentration is unpredictable. Researches that will take place in the countryside will require sufficient arrangements with farm owners. Farm owners and parents should understand the purpose of the study to avoid suspicions (Hoff 2012, p. 73). Adults who take part in conversations should understand various aspects of child languages (Hoff 2012, p. 74). Children get irritated when adults do not understand their language. The researcher will check the sound systems before data collection to enhance the quality of sounds. The researcher will collect a backup audio to decrease transcription problems. The connections should be intact to avoid problems caused by the systems. Transcribers should use the same systems to avoid ambiguity. References Top of Form PECCEIBottom of Form , S. (2006). Bottom of Form Child Language: A Resource Book for Students. New York, Routledge. Page 72-74. Read More