6
Section B: Child language acquisition
Question 2
Read the following texts, which are transcriptions of two parts of a conversation between India
(age 1 year and 10 months) and her mother. They are at home, playing with some toy monkeys
and other toy animals.
Analyse ways in which India and her mother are using language in this conversation. In your
answer, you should refer to specific details from the transcriptions, as well as to ideas and
examples from your wider study of child language acquisition. [25]
Part A
India: all /lelaʊ/
Mother: its a colourful bench isnt it (2) green (.) purple and yellow
India: [indecipherable speech sounds]
Mother: the monkeys are going to be piled up now are they↗ <India piles the
monkeys up> (5) oh well done (2) thats a big tower of monkeys (.) <the 5
monkeys fall down> oh (.) crash
India: oh↘
Mother: and again (5) well done (2) how many monkeys are there↘
India: /wʌ/ (.) /t/ (.) three four /dɒmiːz/
Mother: is it big↗ (.) big tower↗ (.) one (.) two (.) three (.) four 10
India: /t/ (.) three four
Mother: one two three four (.) thats right↗
India: mama weeee [laughs]
Mother: oh no the monkeys are going to jump on the sofa are they↗
India: mummy jump jump jump 15
Mother: oh monkeys jumping everywhere (.) jump jump jump (.) careful you dont
throw them so they get lost
India: mummy jump jump (.) wow (.) /dæt/ get that
Mother: you want me to get it↗
India: jump jump jump down oh uh like /e/ oh uh like her 20
Mother: like her↗ (.) monkeys (.) what are monkeys eating↘
India: a nana
Mother: yeah it is a nana isnt it (.) how many monkeys are on the table↘
© UCLES 2023 9093/32/M/J/23
7
India: MORE
Mother: there arent any more (.) thats (.) thats the number that there are (.) do you 25
want to put them back in the bag↘
India: no
Part B
India: /æməlz/ little bye bye
Mother: bye animals (1) see you later (3) wheres he driving to then↗
India: a /haʊ/↘ [India sings to herself] bye bye /æməlz/ (1) bye bye mummy 30
Mother: bye bye india <India tries to place toys in a toy car> are they both going in
the car are they↗
India: /dɒn/ fit mummy
Mother: do you want me to help you↗ (2) pass it here then↘ (1) yeah (1) theres two
men in the car now 35
India: brum brum brum (1) car (1) /b/ (.) /æməlz/ /wɒʔ el/ mummy
Mother: what else↗ (1) weve got the white tiger (1) weve got the tiger (.) weve got
the horsie
India: /dɔːtʃiː/ (.) /dɔːtʃiː/ (.) /dɔːtʃiː/ (.) /dɔːtʃiː/ (.) /dɔːtʃiː/
Mother: where have the lion cubs gone↗ 40
India: /dɔːtʃiː/
Mother: oh your horsie (.) you want to get your horsie out↗
TRANSCRIPTION KEY
(1) = pause in seconds
(.) = micropause
underlined = stressed sound/syllable(s)
// = speech overlap
[italics] = paralinguistic features
<italics> = contextual information
UPPER CASE = words spoken with increased volume
°word° = words spoken with decreased volume
↗ = upward intonation
↘ = downward intonation
/wɪv/ = phonemic representation of speech sounds
© UCLES 2023 9093/32/M/J/23 [Turn over
8
REFERENCE TABLE OF International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) PHONEMIC SYMBOLS
(RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION)
1 Consonants of English 2 Pure vowels of English
/f/ fat, rough / iː / beat, keep
/v/ very, village, love /ɪ/ bit, tip, busy
/ɵ/ theatre, thank, athlete /e/ bet, many
/ð/ this, them, with, either /æ/ bat
/s/ sing, thinks, losses /ʌ/ cup, son, blood
/z/ zoo, beds, easy / aː / car, heart, calm, aunt
/ʃ/ sugar, bush /ɒ/ pot, want
/ʒ/ pleasure, beige / ɔː / port, saw, talk
/h/ high, hit, behind /ə/ about, sudden
/p/ pit, top / ɜː / word, bird
/t/ tip, pot, steep /ʊ/ book, wood, put
/k/ keep, tick, scare / uː / food, soup, rude
/b/ bad, rub
/d/ bad, dim 3 Diphthongs of English
/g/ gun, big / eɪ / late, day, great
/ tʃ / church, lunch / aɪ / time, high, die
/ dʒ / judge, gin, jury / ɔɪ / boy, noise
/m/ mad, jam, small / aʊ / cow, house, town
/n/ man, no, snow / əʊ / boat, home, know
/ŋ/ singer, long / ɪə / ear, here
/l/ loud, kill, play / eə / air, care, chair
/j/ you, beyond / ʊə / cure, jury
/w/ one, when, sweet
/r/ rim, bread
/ʔ/ uh-oh
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© UCLES 2023 9093/32/M/J/23
