Language assessment
In making the linguistic assessment of CG language, it is important to have knowledge on the standardized English language or rather the most accepted English dialect. There are three major patterns that are important including pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. In making assessment though it is also crucial to have a good understanding of the background of the person to which assessment is being made. This is because people from different background are likely to speak in different dialects of English (Hudley and Mallinson, 2010). These dialects are as a result of the first language influence or influence from the dialect spoken by majority that someone associates with. This is to mean that what is termed as the standard or correct language may actually not reflect what is termed as the correct language to a different group. There also exists some accepted code of behavior in language which can measure maturity.
Pronunciation can simply be defined as the utterance that someone makes during speech, it involves a way of speaking a word most in an accepted way that can be understood. The words need to be properly articulated in such a way that all the sound present in that words come out well.
CG’s pronunciation is fair as demonstrated in the audio tape provided. He occasionally leaves out some important terms when pronouncing words within a sentence. For example in pronouncing the word ‘just’ sound ‘t’ cannot be heard. The eventual word that can be had is ‘jus’. The same applies to the word ‘pudding’ where CG leaves out letter’ g’ hence saying ‘puddin’ and ‘working’ pronounced as ‘workin’. In all of these examples the last letter of the word is not pronounced. This problem of living out the last sound of a word is largely attributed to the autistic condition that CG has.
While saying words in a sentence CG sometimes skips some words and instead add something such that someone is forced to listen very keenly before understanding. For example, in one sentence recorded in the audio he says ‘mmm a machine’ instead of ‘we used blender’. It is almost as though some words which seem to be challenging to pronounce are simply skipped or replaced with non-sensible words. The voice control during pronunciation of words is also challenging to CG. In most cases CG will find it very hard to control the volume of his voices such hat his voice is usually raising and falling in the wrong place and it has some mechanical quality.
Grammar majorly deals with language use and the rules applicable for that language in dealing with word structures (morphology) and syntax. Grammar exists in many forms including case grammar, cognitive grammar, construction grammar, mental grammar among others. For grammar to be perfected correct punctuation has to be done and arrangements of verbs, nouns, pronounce and premises within a sentence should be applied according to the language used.
Cg’s sentence punctuation is not so good as indicated in his flow of speech. There are instance when he stops his conversation as if making a full stop then he continues with the same sentence again for example CG says ‘because you make Mr. Loven. Because you tell him’. In the Standard English language a sentence cannot be started by ‘because’.
The arrangement of words used by CG is also not correct when analyzed using the Standard English language grammar. For example in one sentence he say ‘you make a lie instead of you are lying (or you are saying a lie). This can be attributed to his background which has Spanish as his first language. In Spanish, the sentence construction significantly differs from the English language, for example pronounce are mostly used at the beginning of the sentence. ‘Lebaron el dinero’ in Spanish is interpreted as ‘They stole the money from her’. The word ‘Her’ is used at the beginning of the sentence in Spanish where as in English it is actually the last word in the sentence.
CG’s Vocabulary Assessment
Vocabulary simply means the general wordings of a language. Vocabularies should be specific to the content and the choice of word used in mentioning something should always have the same interpretation to those who are listening. There are several mistakes that can be analyzed from CG’s conversation. To start with CG uses the word ‘smooth’ instead of ‘smoothie’. This confusion can cause a lot of distortion in the meaning of a sentence if the recipient of the information is unaware of the challenge that CG has. If for instance CG is sent to a shop to buy smoothie and instead of asking for smoothie he tells the shopkeeper that he wants smooth then it will be very challenging for them to understand each other.
Some of the other vocabulary mistakes that smoothie makes involves using abbreviations which is not standard for example ‘gonna’ instead of ‘going to’; ‘jusgoot’ instead of ‘he is alright; ‘nah’ instead of ‘don’t’ and so forth. The use of ‘gonna’, ‘wanna’, ‘nah’, is common with some informal speech by the colloquial English in America. Most probably the neighbors or either people who are close to CG often use those vocabularies and CG just got influenced by them.
CG’s Language behavior
CG’s language behavior is relatively good given that he has an autistic condition and he is just in his second grade. For example he is able to say ‘excuse me’ before explain what he really wants even when he has a different idea from Y. The use of words such as please, sorry, excuse me and thank you usually provides a good connotation in language. At least CG uses one of these words at some point during the conversation.
Politeness in language can easily be analyzed by allowing one person to finish talking before jumping into conclusions or saying something different. CG is quite able to take turns in the conversation and he also demonstrates some level of understanding. Due to this the conversation is able to flow without deviating to a completely different topic.
CG is however not able to give detailed information in a narrative way. He finds it difficult to use complex sentences and usually uses jus single words as a summary of everything that he wants to say. For example CG would say ‘mmm machine’ instead of saying ‘we used a blender’. This challenge could be due to the autistic condition which challenges one’s ability to comprehend language.
Conclusion
CG is a child with high discipline and with a potential to excel in language despite of the autism condition that he has. Compared to other students within the same grade CG’s grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary is below the average. He is however doing very well compared to students with autism in the same grade and with constant training he is bound to improve.
Reference
Charity, Hudley and Mallinson . (2010). Understanding English Language Variation in US Schools. US: Multicultural Educational Series
