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John Field
University of Reading Teaching Psycholinguistics. University of Essex, 20th June 2008
Education that liberates consists of acts of cognition, not transferrals of information Paulo Freire (1921-1997)
Pragmatics
Cognitive linguistics
Historical linguistics?
Language background Awareness of form (products of language) Difficulty with the notion of process Lack of basic psychological concepts: memory, attention, representation Psychology background Understanding of models Limited language awareness (e.g. phrase structure) Limited linguistic terminology (word classes etc)
Possible topics
Animal communication Language evolution Brain lateralisation and localisation Critical period Vocabulary storage Introduction to impairment Child language and CDS Bilingualism
Some use mixed data and methods They are often not representative of more central issues in PL because they use less rigorous methods. They do not have the same career relevance as topics related to processing (applications to education media law management etc.) They may lead students to write at a simplistic level in terms of theory, argument and supporting evidence.
Students rely initially upon secondary sources. But original attributions must be made: e.g. Rosch,
1973, Levelt, 1989.
Problem: many secondary sources are designed for psychologists (exceptions: Altmann, 1997, Whitney,
1998, Aitchison, 2003a, 2007, Field 2003, Steinberg & Sciarini, 2006).
Use a set of accessible readings: one per topic, edited if necessary. Examples, Field 2003, Section D Insist on students checking terms and theory in introductory reference sources when writing assignments (e.g. Field, 2004, Aitchison, 2003b)
Task sheet with introductory explanations and exercises based on: Samples of data for analysis (e.g. transcript, dysgraphic spelling errors); Graphics or tables summarising data; Language activities followed by reflection on the processes involved; Powerpoint. Explanatory text and graphics Answer sheet, handed out at the end of the session and summarising issues that have arisen
Lexical
/ri:d/
/ri:d/
Neighbours
GEAD NEAN SOAT PIVE FOWN HEAF WIRT
head dead read bead mean bean lean clean coat goat boat live give five drive down town grown known leaf sheaf deaf dirt shirt
Conclusions on sound-spelling
Word-matching in English seems to use: Whole-word matches YACHT Grapheme-phoneme rules HOSPITALITY Analogy LIGHT Digraphs EE SH TH Note that children may not have an awareness of phonemes before learning to read in L1 (Morais et al., 1979)
Developmental dyslexia
Phonological dyslexia Cannot decode non-words Recognises complete irregular words Surface dyslexia Decodes non-words Reports irregular words phonically Uses a single analogous match (PINT/MINT)
A small-scale project
Study the execution errors of five of your fellow students. First, ask them to do a brief typing test, copying a page from a book. Time them. When they write their next essay, ask them to turn on the Track Changes facility. Get them to print out their final draft, showing all the changes they have made. Analyse their errors. Look especially for phonologically based errors and errors which suggest that the subject has developed an automatic key stroke sequence that is incorrect. Check for the position on the keyboard of wrong sequences of letters. Compare the percentages of different types of error among your five subjects. Then check against typing speed and decide if that is a factor or not.
Assignment
Meaning building. How does a listener or reader achieve a fuller understanding of a piece of input by bringing additional meaning to bear? What decisions need to be made in building a complete representation of what the speaker or writer intended? You should support your comments by reading aloud to 3-4 subjects the three-part taxi-driver story from the Worksheet, and asking them after each part to tell you what they have understood. Record their retellings and comment on the inferences they made and the points that they seem to think are important.