VIRGIN PLAY ADVERT - PRACTICE P E E ANALYSIS:

The above advert is for Virgin games and is aimed at young adults, between the ages of 18 and 28 (approximately), with an interest in gambling/casino based games. Virgin selects their audience by using subject-specific lexis in the field of gambling. Examples of this include 'Play blackjack. Play the big spinning wheel thing.' and 'Play a pair of twos like you're holding a straight'. However, the target audience of budding gamblers is very broad and this advert caters specifically to 2 types of people that would be interested. The first audience are typical festival-goers (as this is where the text is consumed) that are down for a bit of fun and are familiar with using the internet and are comfortable exploring new things;however they aren't experienced gamblers who would be familiar with all the details or slang. The use of high frequency lexis within the lexical field of gambling, such as 'blackjack', causes the reader to gain an understanding of the types of games online and appeals to them as it isn't too specialist and comes off as a bit of 'fun'. Hedging around the term 'roulette' by saying 'Play the big spinning wheel thing' also connotes relaxed gaming with no experience needed. The second audience consists of those with prior knowledge and practice of gambling. These people are dedicated players and Virgin appeals to them through the use of low frequency lexis. 'Play a pair of twos like you're holding a straight' connotes skill and through using this phrase, Virgin is attempting to pull in experienced players. 

The reason for this links back to Virgin's branding and the reputation they wish to maintain. They aim to draw in a large audience through selling the gaming site as 'fun', laid back and rewarding. The use of the imperative 'play in your pants' connotes a lazy yet relaxed gaming experience that is just for pleasure. However, Virgin are a £5.5 billion company therefore they also want to come off as classy. When most people think of gambling, the first things that come to mind are Vegas and tuxedos. Virgin plays to this by juxtaposing 'play in your pants' with 'play in your tux'. This caters to those dedicated players as they aren't likely to be interested in a gaming site full of amateurs; they'll want the best and Virgin are aiming to be the best.

CHILDHOOD BOOKS - MY EXPERIENCE AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON CLA:

When we take a trip down memory lane and think back to our favourite bedtime stories when we were younger, what's likely to come to mind are tales of adventure and friendship that are summarised with a moral life lesson. We can recall bright colours and characters with unique attributes, mystical lands and protagonists greeted by conflict, tales of wizards, beasts and talking animals. These stories appeal to a child's imagination and teaches them the awe-inspiring universes it's possible to escape to via literature. But these texts play a pivotal role in the language development of the children who are consuming them and act as a blueprint for their debut in the world of language and speech. 

When asked to delve into my childhood I felt welcomed by nostalgia and greeted by my fictional friends I'd experienced a lot with. One of the first set of books I can remember reading when I started school were the Oxford Reading Tree stories featuring Biff, Chip, Kipper and their dog Floppy. These books perfectly fit the conventions for young children's literature as they featured repetition, large pictures and were based on topics that would engage children. They also offer books on phonics, so parents are able to maintain the standard of support in school but at home. The blurb of one of these books reads 'created by reading experts and based on current teaching practise, the lively stories, humorous illustrations and clear progression will ensure your child succeeds'. The stripped back and relaxed nature of these books are what, in my opinion, makes them triumphant. By sticking to the same characters there's familiarity so the child can focus on the language and plot rather than gaining perspective on the characters and their role in the story. 

It's also a common trait, according to Todorov, for any story/narrative to follow the same structure. This structure consists of 5 parts: equilibrium - the happy and normal start, disruption - a problem or dilemma arises, realisation - when the characters acknowledge the problem, restored order - when the conflict is resolved, second equilibrium - when all is set back to normal. Children's books often follow this structure, especially educational books designed for language development. This is because all young children need in order to engage with a story is a basic plot line and any twists or cliff hangers wouldn't be effective. We also have to think back to the primary purpose of the book and that's to evoke language development. 

D-O-G, dog, C-A-T, cat, F-I-SH, fish. This is the simple structure we are familiar with when it comes to children learning pronunciation and it's also the area that requires the most attention. Illustrations can aid this process as children can recognise the image and speak the word it's associated with, however understanding letters and the sounds they produce individually as well as together is a tough lesson. A common confusion that leads children to making mistakes is the similarity between certain letters visually. Letters like, b, d, p and q all feature a circle with a line but the variation between them is where the line is. Lower case f and t look similar and so do j and i. These complications make it very hard for children to distinguish between each letter and thus they mix the sounds they make. In schools this is avoided by teaching little rhymes or phrases such as: b sees d and the word bed looks like a bed.

Source: http://www.theschoolrun.com/common-phonics-problems-sorted

Blends also cause a problem in phonetic development as suddenly the individual sounds make a totally different sound when put with another letter. Even as a teenager, I've noticed when a friend of mine is reading or if I'm reading aloud I slow down before attempting to pronounce a new word and think of it in relation to other similar looking words to make an educated guess at the pronunciation. And this is the same approach young children take. Experience and practise are key to mastering blends and as the child gains confidence in spotting a particular phoneme they will eventually be able to guess blends correctly without any hints. 

COMPARISON OF ZACH TRANSCRIPTS:

Over the course of 13 months we can see a clear difference between the language use by Z and a number of theories could be used to explain this development. In the first transcript (drawing a banana), Z has a mean length utterance of around 5 morphemes. This suggests he is in the later multimorpheme stage of development that involves utterances forming based on local topics and items within close proximity to them. This is displayed in the transcript many times as Z talks about his ‘little pad’ as well as what ‘Daddy’ has for dinner. The conversation between H and Z takes on a question and answer approach, mainly focused on closed questions that evoke short answers such as ‘what have you eaten today?’ ‘bananas’. Open questions rarely feature throughout the transcript as Z is carrying out an activity and therefore interrogatives from H are based on that activity. For example: ‘you think it goes there?’, ‘where is your little pad?’. This will impact Z’s mean length of utterance as the typical response to a closed question is between 2 and 4 morphemes. Therefore, based on the context of the transcript, Z’s language use is limited and not every aspect of his linguistic ability have been given an opportunity to be displayed.

                         

In the second transcript, which is 13 months on, the mean length of utterance is 6.3. This indicates a development but due to the structural features of what Z says, he doesn’t move out of the later multimorpheme stage. This transcript is full of longer utterances giving a commentary on what Z is doing, however many false starts occur and the utterances are more of a stream of consciousness rather than fully calculated and functioning sentences. For example: Z says ‘an I’m sitting here (.) to (.) for waiting (.) to get (0.5) better (.) for it (0.5)’ and although we understand what Z means as we have background knowledge of the context, this sentence is very disjointed and not fully operative. In spite of this, Z is unwell and most likely distracted from his train of thought and this reflects in his speech. In terms of lexis, Z uses non-standard language throughout the text. In reference to the cardboard robot he is building, Z says ‘it got lots of hurt all the way down’. The use of the word ‘hurt’ in replacement of a word for ‘injuries’ is again a common trait used by children; which is typically evolved from when they’ve learned what it means to hurt themselves and then they over generalise this rule and use it as an adjective. This overgeneralisation could be explained by Chomsky’s language acquisition device (LAD). Chomsky said that children are hard-wired with a perception of syntax and word order and that they learn language rules via watching others talk. This explains mistakes such as adding the suffix –ed to all verbs although it isn’t always correct. (Eg: ‘walk’ becomes ‘walked’, but ‘run’ becomes ‘ran’ and not ‘runned’. According to Chomsky, Z has developed an understanding for the use of the dynamic verb hurt based on the way the verb cut can be used as an adjective.

The grammatical content of all the utterances in each transcript is mainly correct with some pronunciation issues. The phoneme ‘th’ (θ – the voiceless dental fricative) is incorrectly pronounced by Z ‘frough’ instead of ‘through’ and ‘fings’ instead of ‘things’. This is a commonly made mistake by children up to the age of 8 years old and the voiced and voiceless dental fricatives are typically the last phoneme learnt. This error is corrected through modelling and support from the parent. This is evident in the transcript as H repeats what Z has just said but in the correct way, in an attempt to reinforce the correct pronunciation. This supports Lev Vygotsky’s theory the ‘zone of proximal development’. Vygotsky views interaction with able people as the best way to aid learning. The modelling shown in the transcript displays this perfectly as whenever Z is struggling with a word or phrasing, H repeats it back to him the right way and she only does this when there’s an issue. This method is very effective as it gives the learner help when they seek it and doesn’t spoon feed them too much. In the second transcript, the support (or scaffolding) is required a lot more but not it isn’t used in the same way. Modelling features a lot less in the robot transcript and instead H guides what Z is saying by paraphrasing and then asking ‘is that what you’re saying?’ or ‘it’s gotta take some time to heal, has it?’. This method pushes the conversation along and gives encouragement but doesn’t provide a direct correction for Z to learn from meaning he may not be benefitting or learning much about language from this technique.

According to Piaget, children between the ages of 1 and 6 years old are in the preoperational stage of development and rely on role play to learn as they haven’t developed a logical mind yet. Z adheres to this rule as the whole of the second transcript is a role play/game and the language featured in it supports this. Throughout the text, Z uses declaratives to inform H of what he wants to do and how the ‘robot’ is doing. This is typical of a child at this stage according to Piaget as they haven’t developed an understanding of how things look from another person’s point of view and so Z feels the need to explain everything he is doing. The repetition and emphasis of ‘wait an wait an wait’ is also evidence for Z being in this stage as he feels the need to exaggerate what he is talking about so that others understand. It’s unlikely that Z – at his age – would be able to use repetition as a rhetorical device as this is very complex and beyond the multimorpheme stage. This idea of egocentrism is applicable to child cognition and thus it impacts on the child’s language choices.

MADE IN CHELSEA TRANSCRIPTS:

KEY:

(.)   = STANDARD PAUSE, WHERE A COMMA WOULD GO IN A SENTENCE

(0.5)  = LONGER PAUSE, ROUGHLY TIMED

[DIALOGUE]  = INTERRUPTIONS, ON TOP OF ONE ANOTHER, OVERLAPPING

((ACTION))  = AN ACTION THAT GIVES CONTEXT

DIALOGUE:::  = ELONGATED WORD PRONUNCIATON FOR EMPHASIS

DIALOGUE  = EMPHASISED/STRESSED WORD IN THE SENTENCE

DIA-DIALOGUE  = STUTTERING/FALSE START

DIALOGUE…  = WHEN THE UTTERANCE FADES OUT OR TRAILS OFF

(EPISODE 1 SEASON 12 6:15)

PROUDLOCK AND JAMIE: catching up on the events in France involving a falling out between J's girlfriend and best friend

P:   Yeah (.) boy:::

J:   What took you so long (.) beast?

P:  Oh hey boy (.) bring it in bro!

J:  ((groaning)) I had a leg day (.) boy

P:  ((laughter)) Ah (.) it’s so good to see you man (1) talk to me

J:   Oh no (.) you talk to me

P:  Oh mate (.) your lid’s looking very natural ((laughter)) (0.5) that’s good to see (0.5)

    [is that from France?]

J:  [So is yours… mate!]

P:  Is that [France?]

J:              [So is yours!] ((laughter))

P:  Is that from the sunshine in France? (0.5) mate it must have been [ really sunny ] there!

J:                                                                                                                         [((laughter))]

P:  I mean (.) that is… can I touch it?

J:  Yeah man! (0.5) but you’re back for good now (.) right?

P:  I’m back man (.) yeah… It’s good to see you (.) can’t wait to meet your girlfriend

J:  Exciting (.) mate (.) she’s stayed with me every single night (.) pretty much

P:  So (.) sin-since coming back from France

J:  She’s there (.) she’s always there [which is sweet]

P:                                                             [So you guys] (.) you guys have been spending pretty much every day together (.) right?

J:  Pretty much (.) yeah                     

P:  So (.) I mean (.) I mean what’s the situation with um (.) with Mytton?

J:  (1) Haven’t really seen him (.) it ended up (.) you know (.) Mytt throwing a party and umm     me not going and just (.) chilling with Frank and saying (.) umm ‘’look, I owe it to you’’ (.) you know?

P:  So was she almost being (.) like (.) ‘’look, it’s either me [ or…’’]

J:                                                                                                    [Yeah]

P:                                                                                                   [or him] (.) At the end of the day (.) you can’t spec- (.) choose between the two of them (.) you’ve gotta like solve (.) the         [situation…]

J:  [no no]

P: and they need to come to some sort of (0.5) you know (.) understanding and just put it all to bed

J: Yeah (.) I agree

P: You should probably just meet up with Mytton man (.) and just speak to him         

J:  Yeah (.) and if- if everything in France is forgotten and we’re like (.) good (.) then fine

(EPISODE 1 SEASON 12 3:25)

BINKY, ROSIE AND LOUISE: catching up about the night before

L: I’ve prepared a hangover feast!

B: What (.) a bit of toast with Marmite on?

R: Thank you Porg::

L: Yeah (.) tea and toast

B: Thanks Porglet::

R: It’s needed after last night

B: Um (.) yeah (.) did you have fun?

R: Yeah (.) You had a lot of fun

B: I’ve never seen you slutdrop so much

R: You were slupdropping all over the shop!

B: I know (.) [you have to] when you’re really good at something (.) you have to show it off

R:                  [Yeah] fair enough

B: And (.) teach other people (0.5) who saw Ollie playing tonsil tennis last night?

R: Yeah

L: He looks so cute

R: Ollie looks [happy]

L:                      [yeah]

B: This is Nick

R: Ok

B: His new (.) squeeze

L: Yeah (.) he seems very normal

B: Ollie just needs a bit of proper (.) sex

L: You’re [obsessed with sex!]

B:             [Well no (.) I’m not] sex-obsessed

L: Do you think about it every three seconds (.) like most guys?

B: ((slight sigh)) yeah (.) probably ((laughter))

L: ((laughter)) like now ((clicks fingers))

B: So do you two! (.) are you mad? (.) you’re having sex with Ryan (.) throughout the day (.) every day (0.5) [hence why we never see you anymore!]

L:                              [but it’s not all::: the time::]

B: Louise?

R: Majority

L: Sometimes (.) like (.) more than most people ((laughter)) maybe

B: ((phone vibrates))

R: JP?

L: What?

B: He keeps calling (.) messaging

L: Evidently

R: What (.) Wh-what are your thoughts?

B: I just don’t know

R: Yeah

B: Um:: (0.5) I have to see him at some point (1) I’m off to go and see Ollie now (.) and [meet Nick] with him (.) asking him 21 questions

R: [Have fun!]

B: Lovely seeing you (.) little ones

L: Enjoy

B: Thanks for the soggy toast and tea (.) ta-ta ((leaves))

R: Didn’t realise they were in touch

L: I know

(EPISODE 1 SEASON 12 32:15)

BINKY. ROSIE AND LIV: talking about France and then Binky's situation

B: Liv had a fantastic time in France

R: I heard

B: She wa-she was hungry for it and she..

R: You got fed ((laughter))

B: She got fed big time

R: I haven’t seen Francis in (.) so long (.) and then I hear that you are hooking up (.) with him

L: [No it was…]

B: [She stole him off Toff] (.) really good friend you are (.) well done ((laughter))

L: I’m not friends with Toff!

B: ((laughter)) I’m joking

L: Actually (.) being here is a bit (.) awkward (.) ‘cause I keep seeing her (0.5) and Jess and I were friends in the beginning (.) but we’re not anymore (.) because she’s sort of like (.) Team Toff and all this crap

R: Yeah (.) have you seen JP today?

B: Yeah (.) it is obviously (.) weird seeing him an-and us not talking (.) but he’s just respecting what I’ve asked him to do (.) I’ve asked for time (.) I’ve asked for space

R: But I think you deserve so much better (.) I think even if he promised you the world (.) he still wouldn’t be able to give you what you wanted

L: [This is what…]                               

R:[I think he’ll] turn around now and say ‘’Oh (.) you can go out as much as you want (.) I’ll be a super chilled boyfriend (.) let’s hang out with your friends more’’ (0.5) but whenever people say they’re gonna change they change for all of (.) like (.) twenty minutes (.) [and then it’s back to…]

L:                 [that’s true]

R: And I don’t think you should even (.) [give him a chance]

B:                                                                   [no (.) listen (.)] I haven’t made a decision yet (.) it’s not like I [know what I’m doing]

L:                    [don’t (.) like (.) rush…]

R: Don’t rush to make the decision

B: That’s exactly what I’m not doing (.) I’m not rushing (.) so don’t worry

R: Good

B: Ok?

R: Yeah