Richard Hudson Institute of Education London July 2009 2 Plan What is maturity as applied to writing How vocabulary correlates with maturity Why vocabulary correlates How syntax ID: 249758
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Slide1
1
Measuring maturity
Richard Hudson
Institute of Education, London
July 2009Slide2
2
Plan
What is
maturity
as applied to writing?
How
vocabulary
correlates with maturity.
Why
vocabulary correlates.
How
syntax
correlates with maturity.
Why
syntax correlates.
Implications for
teaching
.
Implications for
assessment
. Slide3
3
Plan
What is
maturity
?
How
vocabulary
correlates with maturity.
Why
vocabulary correlates.
How
syntax
correlates with maturity.
Why
syntax correlates.
Implications for
teaching
.
Implications for
assessment
. Slide4
4
Non-linguistic
maturity in writing
Age
of writer
KS1 – KS4
age 20 – 30 – 40 – 50 ….
Quality
of writing
as judged by experienced examiners
National Curriculum Level
GCSE grade Slide5
5
Less
linguistic maturity
He had just been in a horrible battle and he had killed lots of people. When he had finished his battle he was exhausted and he was tottering and came across a beautiful lady who was singing beautiful songs …
Sarah
,
Year 6
NC
Level 3Slide6
6
More
linguistic maturity
Giles Harvey, a former Eton pupil was one and a half times over the limit when he was involved in a head on crash while he was racing his BMW sports car.
Joanne
,
Year 9
NC
Level 7Slide7
7
Non-linguistic and
linguistic
maturity
How do we know what’s‘mature’ in
language
?
Ask what linguistic features tend to be
used
:
only by
older
writers
only in more highly valued writing
This avoids circularity.Slide8
8
Plan
What is
maturity
as applied to writing?
How
vocabulary
correlates with maturity.
Why
vocabulary correlates.
How
syntax
correlates with maturity.
Why
syntax correlates.
Implications for
teaching
.
Implications for
assessment
. Slide9
9
Measures of
vocabulary
Lexical
diversity
(
type/token
ratio)
Sarah: 0.66
Joanne: 0.84 (first 32 words)
Lexical
sophistication
(e.g. word length)
Lexical
density
(grammatical/lexical)
Errors
(e.g. spelling)
Nouniness
Nouniness?Slide10
10
Nouniness
What percentage of word
tokens
are nouns?
Noun = common or proper noun
Sarah: 15%
Joanne: 31%
Nouniness
increases
with maturitySlide11
11
Nouniness x maturitySlide12
12
Plan
What is
maturity
as applied to writing?
How
vocabulary
correlates with maturity.
Why
vocabulary correlates.
How
syntax
correlates with maturity.
Why
syntax correlates.
Implications for
teaching
.
Implications for
assessment
. Slide13
13
Why
is nouniness mature?
In 2007 I had no idea.
I now have some relevant data
thanks to Gwillim Law and Jasper Holmes
Conclusion: nouniness increases with maturity
because
…
Rarer
words tend to be nouns.
So nouniness is part of
sophisticationSlide14
14
Rarer words tend to be nouns
% of lemmas
frequency
Nouns increase share with raritySlide15
15
Nouniness x
task
Narrative
tasks produce
less
nouny writing.Slide16
16
Is this the same as
Nominality?
‘
Nominal
’ style favours:
noun, adjective, preposition
favoured by adult ‘
informational
’ writing
‘
Verbal
’ style favours:
verb, adverb, pronoun
favoured by adult ‘
imaginative
’ writing
Is
nominal/verbal ratio relevant to children
?
Sarah: 0.61, Joanne: 2.0Slide17
17
So what?
Mature writers use more
rare
words.
So they must have a
wider
vocabulary.
So their linguistic maturity can be measured in terms of:
word
frequencies
– how many rare words?
vocabulary
diversity
– type/token ratio.Slide18
18
Plan
What is
maturity
as applied to writing?
How
vocabulary
correlates with maturity.
Why
vocabulary correlates.
How
syntax
correlates with maturity.
Why
syntax correlates.
Implications for
teaching
.
Implications for
assessment
. Slide19
19
Two kinds of syntactic measure
General
e.g. Sentence length or T-unit length
Specific
e.g. apposition
Giles Harvey, a former Eton pupil
(written by Joanne)Slide20
20
General
measures
T-unit
length
T-unit = words in a main clause, including all subordinate clauses
Coordination
shows
im
maturity
and
: Sarah = 3, Joanne = 0
Subordination
subordinate clauses: Sarah = 2, Joanne = 2Slide21
21
But subordination is
mature
steady rise in KS1 and KS2
fall in best writers at KS3/4
(if you’re young)
subordinate clauses per 100 wordsSlide22
22
Specific
syntax
apposition
‘swapping places’
about three miles
down the road
a little town
called Sea Palling
was
preposition-initial relative clauses
the box I put it
in
whichSlide23
23
Plan
What is
maturity
as applied to writing?
How
vocabulary
correlates with maturity.
Why
vocabulary correlates.
How
syntax
correlates with maturity.
Why
syntax correlates with maturity.
Implications for
teaching
.
Implications for
assessment
. Slide24
24
Why?
General
syntactic measures
These show increasingly
complex
syntax.
Two possible
non-linguistic
reasons:
increasingly complex
ideas
increasingly powerful working
memories
.
Maybe complexity increases with age
throughout life
.Slide25
25
Why?
Specific
syntactic measures
These show increasingly
diverse
syntax.
One linguistic reason:
growth
of linguistic
knowledge
.
Assumption: we do
not
‘know the grammar of our language by age 5’!
There’s a great deal of grammar to be learned
at school
.Slide26
26
Errors
as signs of growth
… he seems a little excited by the encounter
of
aliens …
… he also described their difficulty
to
move …
…
it was now
that I was so disappointed I did not have a camera …[inappropriate]
The creature I estimate was surfaced at the most for one minute,
of which all
I had spent just staring at the creature, …Slide27
27
Plan
What is
maturity
as applied to writing?
How
vocabulary
correlates with maturity.
How
syntax
correlates with maturity.
Why
vocabulary correlates.
Why
syntax correlates.
Implications for
teaching
.
Implications for
assessment
. Slide28
28
How can
teachers
promote maturity?
Ignore
general
syntax
this depends on cognitive development
Focus on
specifics
:
vocabulary
specific syntax
Help learners to
notice
new patterns.
Teach new patterns
explicitly
.Slide29
29
Plan
What is
maturity
as applied to writing?
How
vocabulary
correlates with maturity.
How
syntax
correlates with maturity.
Why
vocabulary correlates.
Why
syntax correlates.
Implications for
teaching
.
Implications for
assessment
. Slide30
30
Assessment
of writing
Why not use
automated
assessment?
at least as a supplement to humans
All these measures can be mechanised
if
children use word processors.
Research
question:
Is the agreement between two humans better than between a human and a machine?Slide31
31
Conclusion
Maturity of language can be
defined
in relation to age and grading.
So it can be
measured
in terms of identifiable linguistic features.
Specific linguistic features can be
taught
.
They can also be
identified automatically
.Slide32
32
Thank you
This presentation is available at
www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/talks.htm