This document discusses evaluating how children's language skills develop from years 4 to 8 through an experiment involving having children retell a story or describe something they've made. It would analyze the complexity of sentences, vocabulary usage, and details in descriptions, while accounting for individual differences in abilities, backgrounds, and whether English is a first language. Previous research has looked at language and literacy development among 8 to 10 year olds.

1. Child Language Acquisition
How children change their language and
grammar and make it more sophisticated
with age. The influences other variables
have on this development.

2. What Could I Look At?
• I could test various groups of students from Yr4-Yr8
by reading them a story and asking them each to tell
it back to me in their own words or describe
something they have made etc. I would record the
experiment and create a transcript to evaluate.
• I would have to account for the fact that the children
would have different levels of creativity, English
language skills and learning capabilities and would
mention this in my evaluation.

3. What Would I Base My Results On?
• Initially, I would look at their use of varied sentences
and the structure of the story they are retelling. Also
their use of adjectives and detail in descriptions and
actions and the variety and level of sophistication of
their vocabulary. I would compile a list of different
example words and categorise them and use this as a
key for the rest of my results.
• I would also look at anomalies and variables like the
children's backgrounds and their previous education
levels as well as whether English is their first language
and how this effects their spoken language skills.

4. Previous Evidence In This Area
• http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources
/article/language-literacy-among-8-10-year-olds
• http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/6955/1/7386-DCSF-8-
13%20plan.pdf