The word ‘Nice’ has changed its lexical field radically over the years since it evolved. It derived from the Latin Nescius with the original meaning of ‘ignorant’ the word began life in the 14th century as a term for “foolish” or “silly”.

It soon embraced bad qualities, such as wantonness, extravagance, cowardice and sloth.

In the middle Ages it took on the more neutral attributes of shyness and reserve.

Society’s admiration of such qualities in the 18th century brought on the more positively charged meanings of “nice” we know today, with the positive connotations that it carries comparing to the history of the words connotations.

Lineation:

The use of Tony Ross’s children’s book ‘I want a cat’ lineation is interesting. The way the lineation is divided up shows how books can help children at the early stage of reading.  At the beginning of the extract the writer uses a short sentence ‘On Monday Jessie went to school.’  This sets the scene and a picture in the child’s imagination. But by breaking the sentences from each other, allows the child to pause and departs them from the picture they had from the previous sentence to the new subject that is about to be read. The use of the adverbial clause ‘he shouted so loudly’ is separated to allow the child space for a micro pause, while elongating the word ‘so’ allowing them to have time to find the next sentence for vocal reading which helps the child to read fluently. 

Evie Transcript - Area's to include.

Evie aged 2 years and 7 months is expected to be at the telegraphic stage of her child development, meaning that she is still in the process of learning social skills as well as her politeness strategies.  Strategies such as these are seen to be learnt from the caregiver(s), in this case Evie’s Grandmother (who is likely to be the powerful participant), through a number of techniques such as: Recasting, child directed speech and Interaction.  The interaction takes place in her grandmother’s home, allowing Evie to develop on her readymade skills and her skills in her zone of proximal development in a comfortable and known environment for her. 

Child Directed speech: G: ‘who else shall we take a picture of?’ Evie’s Grandmother Uses prompts, which is child centred on Evie’s activities – encouraging Evie to develop her speak without it appearing as a demand. This gives Evie a chance express her wants, which is an essential element needed for child language development as illustrated by Hallidays 1 of 7 functions: ‘Personal’. Evie’s grandmothers approach; helps Evie to move towards condensing her zone of proximal development in a way which will help her to graduate from the telegraphic stage and be able to give more precise answers like: ‘a picture of (.) picture of tiger’ which is more precise than the previous answer ‘some more’ – Through Grandma’s recast extension of ‘things’ shows Evie the word that was missing, without degrading her self confidence.

Power:  Even though Evie’s Grandmother is expected to be the most powerful participant in the interaction, it could be argued that Evie is, as the all speech from the conversation is revolved around Evie. But this does not mean that Evie’s Grandmother has lost power completely by the Child Led Discourse, because in parts of the text she enforces it when needed: ‘How many? Count them’

Phonological development: The many attempts of pronouncing the word ‘Kangaroo’

Zone of Proximal development: The difficulty in pronouncing plurals: ‘he’s’ – through the use of Skinners operant conditioning theory, Evie is able to pronounce plurals, through imitation from her Grandmother.