Language I: Acquisition, LSRW Pedagogy and Grammar in Use
Language I (30 marks) assesses how children acquire language, how listening, speaking, reading and writing are taught, and how grammar and comprehension are handled in the primary classroom. It is normally attempted in the medium of instruction.
Core ideas
- Acquisition vs learning: acquisition is subconscious and meaning-driven; learning is conscious and rule-focused. Krashen's input hypothesis stresses comprehensible input slightly beyond the learner's current level.
- Order of skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing - oral work precedes literacy.
- Reading methods: synthetic phonics builds sounds into words; analytic phonics starts from whole words; the whole-language approach immerses children in meaningful text. Skimming is fast gist-getting, scanning is locating a specific fact, intensive reading is close study, extensive reading is wide and pleasurable.
- Writing: process approach - pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, publishing; move from controlled to guided to free writing.
- Multilingualism: NCF 2005 treats the home language as a resource. Code-switching and code-mixing are normal strategies, not defects, and the three-language formula supports L1 maintenance.
- Grammar: taught inductively through use before terminology is introduced.
Worked example
A Class II child writes "I goed to school yesterday". Reasoning: this is an overgeneralisation error - the child has internalised the regular past-tense rule and applies it to an irregular verb. It is developmental evidence of rule construction, not carelessness. The teacher responds with rich exposure, modelling "went" in context, and later guided comparison, rather than red-penning every instance.
Traps that cost marks
Equating acquisition with learning; treating code-switching as a sign of weakness; assuming phonics is the only valid method; setting only literal comprehension questions when the passage tests inference; and confusing skimming with scanning.