English language development in primary school children 7/8 year-olds

Abstract

This short study commences with a general overview of language development in its early stages, together with some of the major theories of first and second language acquisition. It also records the results of two sets of interviews conducted with ninety-four children in Year 3 and in Year 4. The children's speech is analysed on two levels, namely the word-level and the sentence-level. Each level is divided into categories. The word-level categories are dealt with individually in this study, whilst the sentence-level is analysed as a whole. The results show that an overall language development did take place. Some interesting points regarding the children's speech are also considered in the concluding chapter.