Language Sample Analysis

Language Sampling

• Verbatim recording of the child’s utterances and partner’s utterances, as well as the context

• It is transcribed and analyzed

• Way to get information on a child’s language skills

  • It can be used as an evaluation measure to assess the current language skills of a client

who are involved?

• child/client

• parents/guardians/representative

• SLPs

• recorders (sometimes)

where does it happen?

* natural context
* home
* school
* playground

why is it important

• to track the development of the child

• provides a present measure of the child’s ability to use language

• to get their level of:

  • comprehension skills

  • vocabulary

  • utterance link

  • language function

  • narrative skills

  • second language influence

  • cultural differences

second language influence

what language a child uses depending on who they talk to

how do we get it?

• engage in conversations

• engage in play

• doing activities of daily living

environment

before sampling: it is important to set up the _______ and ask the parents/caregivers what their favorite toys, objects, and activities are

conversation

before sampling: plan to use these things to elicit more ________ from the child

activities

before sampling: plan on various _______ on how to make sure that the child will be engaged in getting language sampling

transcribe, utterances

after sampling: after recording, you ________ it

* write down the ________ of the child with the context (what the people they interacted said, what happened around them)

language form

shape of what if actually said or signed (Lahey, 1988)

phonology, morphology, syntax

3 categories of language form

phonology

• categorization of the sounds of language

• includes segmentals and supra-segmentals

segmentals

includes phonemes like **p, b, m** which would form syllables

rhythmic segments

when the syllables combine, they produce ______ ______, makig up the prosody of language, making up the different words

siprasegmentals

stress, intonation, pause

intonation

rise and fall of syllables

pause

• pattern of pause time between segments

• reason why we know the difference between words

morphology and syntax

focus of language sampling

morphosyntax

• content words

• function words

• inflection

content words

• major building blocks

  • carry the meaning of sentences

• open class words

• can stand on itself

• can be added to other morphemes

substantive content words

nouns or objects in the world

relational content words

verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc.

noun

N

n:prop

proper noun

v

verb

mod

modifiers

qw

question words

num

numerals

exist

existential

qn

quantifier

neg

negator

aff

affirmative

function words

• little words

  • they glue the content words to make them grammatically sound

• their meaning depends on the content words that they connect

  • they are separate words but they need to rely on the content words that they bring together

con

connectives

pro

Pronoun (personal and demonstrative pronouns)

ptl

particle

ptl:mrk

particle - case markers

lin / -lin

particle - linker

qm

question marker

v:aux

auxilliary/helping verbs

con

connectives

det

determiner

inf

infinitive marker

*to (+V)*

prep

prepositions

co

communicator

b

babbling

root

root

unk

unknown

inflection

• bound to the words (e.g., noun, verbs, adj) they connect to

• may also provide different functions

  • in morphemes, “s” may denote plurality or possession or present tense

• in tagalog, affixes are used to denote aspects of verbs

• in tagalog, transitivity can also be used to denote different meanings

aspects of verbs (Tagalog)

• imperfective

• perfective

• contemplative

• infinitive

perfective

past tense

imperfective

nangyayari pa lang

contemplative

mangyayari pa ang

step 1 in analysis of morphology

determine the word class and codes of each morpheme of the utterance and use a bar line (|) to separate them

step 2 in analysis of morphology

use a plus sign (+) to combine them together

syntax

• governs the overall structure of a sentence (Owens, 2012)

• arrangement of words according to the meaning relations among them (lahey, 1988)

Tagalog

predicate initial language

* verbs are prioritized or first

step 1 of analysis of syntax (verbal construction)

identify its transitivity

step 2 of analysis of syntax (verbal construction)

identify the grammatical role of constituents

step 3 of analysis of syntax (verbal construction)

add plus signs (+) in between the constituents

step 1 of analysis of syntax (non-verbal construction)

identify the non-verbal predicate

step 2 of analysis of syntax (non-verbal construction)

identify the accompanying constituents

agent (case markers)

transitive: marked by ng or ni

subject (case markers)

intransitive: marked with ang or si

object (case markers)

transitive: marked with and or si

agent (pronouns)

transitive: ko, niya, mo, nita, namin, ninyo, natin, nila, nito, niyan, niyon

object (pronouns)

transitive: ako, siya, kita, ka, kami, tayo, kayo, sila, ito, iyan, iyon

subject (pronouns)

intransitive: ako, siya, kita, ka, kami, tayo, kayo, sila, ito, iyan, iyon

affixes (transitive)

• -in

• ni-

• i-

• -an

affixes (intransitive)

• -um

• m-

• mag-

• nag-

transitive constructions

have an AGENT (A) and/or an OBJECT (O)

agent

doer of the action

object

• also called as the patient

• receives the action

intransitive constructions

have a SUBJECT (S)

subject

source of action and the most affected entity resides in the same entity (Nolasco, 2010)

obl

oblique

oblique constituents

can be attached to either constructions

oblique

• adds another information in an utterance

• can express the setting of an activity or event (e.g., location, time, purpose, direction, manner)

topicalization

* refers to a movement of a non-verbal constituent in front of an utterance to denote a special pragmatic function

step 1 of analysis of syntax (verbal utterances that don’t start with a verb)

identify its transitivity and constituents

step 2 of analysis of syntax (verbal utterances that don’t start with a verb)

follow the sequence of arguments in the construction

step 1 of analysis of syntax (complex construction)

break down the contruction into their sub-constituents

step 2 of analysis of syntax (complex construction)

analyze each sub-constituent

step 3 of analysis of syntax (complex construction)

code (+C) if a connective is present and (+N) if not

arg

argument

und

unidentifiable

x

constructions that do not form the syntactic structure of an utterance

xxx

non-word forms, babbling, uintelligable forms, interjections

mean length utterance

MLU

calculating MLU

no. of morphemes / total no. of utterances

language content

• meaning (semantics) represented by language

  • evolving, continuous over the life-span

  • as we gain new experiences and as we become exposed to new concepts our vocabulary expands

• defined by categorization, as compared to language topics

language topics

more specific, talks about a particular subject

language categories

more broad, usually separated in different groups

categories of language

• object knowledge

• object relations

• event relations

object knowledge

tangible objects

object relations

• somehow relate to object knowledge

• relate and connects to one another

step 1 analysis of language content

identify the utterance type

step 2 analysis of language content

identify the content category