OCR A Level English Language Year 2: CLA Booklet 3: Meaning development -lexis, semantic & pragmatic

This resource is Number 3 in a series of course booklets for the Child Language Acquisition Unit (CLA) in OCR A Level English Language designed to be used by students in class. This is a unit normally covered in Year 2 of the A level. [Also available is a series of 15 booklets for Year 1 of the A level on which this work builds.]

This booklet focuses on how babies develop their understanding and production of meanings.
Lexis: the first categories of lexical items that children commonly first produce and the rate at which they do so.
Semantics: the semantic development of children and how children develop connections between lexical items and make errors of over and under extension. It explores significant theorists working in the field of semantic development (Jean Aitchison, Jean Piaget, Eve Clark) and outlines children’s common semantic milestones.
Pragmatics: how children have to master understanding and producing pragmatic meanings in (eg) politeness, humour and sarcasm and conversational norms.

The booklet also explores Halliday’s types of meaning that children initially make and briefly covers Child Directed Speech (CDS) as an aspect of the LASS (Language Acquisition Support System) in case any students are exploring this for their NEA [as the board does not credit detailed analysis of the language made by any adult in the exam transcript.] The booklet also contains several ideas for investigations into CLA for the NEA.

The booklet contains both subject content and language examples for students to analyse. Exercises can be worked on by students individually or collaboratively and in class or at home. The booklet also contains a revision glossary for the theories and terminology which links to Quizlet flashcards.

The booklet is also accompanied by a series of videos (not professionally made) that can be used by teachers new to teaching the specification to help them prepare for lessons in advance as they contain suggested solutions to exercises. The playlist of these videos is included in the resource bundle.

NB: Specifications do change from time to time so please ensure that specification information, detail and guidance is relevant at the time of teaching.