Comparative Language Sample

By Jim Hetherman

This is a comparative analysis of two language samples.  James is a student with a specific learning disability in visual and auditory memory, and Jane is a student without a disability.  Numbers in parenthesis refer to item numbers on the applicable language sample. Transcript of James' Language Sample (PDF).  Transcript of Jane's Language Sample (PDF). 

Background Information on the Two Students

James is a 10-year-1-month-old male student in the fourth grade. He lives with his mother, stepfather, twelve-year old brother and two year old brother. He visits with his father once a week. With his mother, stepfather and father James speaks Spanish. With his brothers James speaks English and Spanish. Neither James's mother, stepfather or father graduated from High School. His mother is not employed outside the home. Both his father and stepfather work.

James was born in a large urban community and has lived there continuously. Starting in Pre-School, James has been enrolled in classes that offer English-only services. Since first grade up until about one-month ago, James had been receiving speech and language services. Speech and language goals focused on oral articulation. His recent annual assessment found James ineligible to continue to receive speech and language services because he had met his goals and speaks with an intelligibility rate of at least 80%.

James is a member of a Special Day Class for both fourth and fifth grade students. His recent annual assessment specified that James will continue his placement in the Special Day Class, but will be mainstreamed for language arts in a fourth grade class for one-and-a-half hours a day starting in the new school year (July 2002), and will be mainstreamed for lunch and special activities as well.

James's specific learning disability is visual and auditory memory. He reads at a third grade level, spells at a second grade level, and works at fourth grade level in math. In the area of vocational education, James has perfect recall of personal data, and is consistent at raising his hand in class when he needs help or has a question. If he could receive more help, praise and encouragement from his mother at getting his homework completed on time, consistently and neatly, his progress could be enhanced. James could also benefit from attendance at intersession. His mother is not planning on sending James to intersession because James does not want to go. James participates in no organized extra-curricular activities, except for attending church one a week.

Jane is a 10-year-3-month-old female student in the fifth grade. She lives with her mother and father in a suburban community. With her mother and father Jane speaks only English. Her mother is a stay at home mom, but prior to Jane's birth was employed in the aerospace industry. She holds a Masters Degree in Communication. Jane's father is employed as an engineer, and holds a Masters Degree in Engineering.

Jane receives good grades in school and participates in extra activities both inside outside of school. She participates in both team soccer and team softball when they are in season, and currently takes both piano and dance lessons. During the school year, Jane actively pursues extra in-school activities such as choir and drama. She has been able to take advantage of opportunities such as "take your daughter to work day", and last year spent the summer in Belgium with her mom and dad while her father was on a special assignment. This summer Jane is looking forward to going to France while her father is on another special assignment.

Communicative Use of Language

In the language sample, James used language primarily in order to provide information in response to specific questions. When he was in doubt about the question, he did not hesitate to ask questions and seek needed information (#'s 42, 119). James also used language to emphasize his personal participation in valued activities such a working hard. In #19 he pointed out that to be a Foursquare, he had to work hard. Again, anticipating his inclusion in additional general education classes next year, James said that he was looking forward to a requirement to "read a lot", "work a lot", and "do a lot of math" (#'s 67, 68). He seemed to be communicating that these were tough requirements, but he was up to the task. He attempted to convey his personal bonds with his classmate friends in #70, "I am going to miss my friends", when he goes to general education class next year. James was clearly using communication in an imaginative way when he described his favorite sports that he "participates in" by giving an Olympic-sized list (# 77). To clarify whether actually played all those sports, he answered directly in a whisper "yea" (#78). However, he clarified matters when asked again if he "ever played [hockey]" or is it something he wants to play. He responded, "I want to play" (#86). His imaginative use of language was evident again when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up. He, like many kids, responded "a policeman", but went much further when he told that the reason "why" he wanted to be a policeman was "to save the world" (#'s 89-91).

From this language sample, we can't know everything about James. When he describes his encounter with the policeman and shooting incident (#'s 92-102), it is not clear whether this is fact or imagination. Again, when James talks about his dreams, and movies that he has seen (#'s 103-135), it is not clear whether he is actually giving true information, or whether he has made much of it up: Did he see such a movie? Did he have that dream? Further investigation would be needed. James's final comment in the transcribed language sample is concerning where James would go if he could go anywhere in the world. This was clearly an opportunity for James to use his imagination.  His response may reflect his lack of exposure to much out of his own neighborhood (#157).

In the language sample, Jane also used language primarily in order to provide information in response to specific questions. One response was clearly in anticipation of being able to control others when Jane described the best part of being able to baby-sit for her next door neighbors (#8). She used her imagination on numerous occasions. In #9, she described what she thought actually would happen if she had to baby-sit the neighbor's kids. Also, she used her imagination to describe the bus that she would be taking (#11), and what her teacher's reaction would be if [the children] didn't show good table manners, the teacher would "throw-upon your plate" (#16). Jane imagines "messing-up" during a piano recital and "falling flat on her face" if she ever were to do figure skating (#53). She also used her imagination to describe what she wanted to do when she grew-up "to train big cats like flying tigers and leopards" (#56). Jane used language to bring out her personal values when she said regarding the special cube project "Yea, I made it for my teacher!" (#27). Jane was displaying her personal bond with her mother when she told of the reason she selected Paris as the place she would like to go "…my mom would want to go there" and "…that would make her happy, and when my mom's happy, I'm happy." (#54).

Communicative Content of Language

James appears to be a child with a very limited vocabulary. This situation is expected because his specific learning disability concerns visual and auditory memory: when James hears or sees new words, he has trouble remembering them. Consequently, he has difficulty recalling words unless those words were heard and used by him over a extended period of time. For example, when asked where he played with his baby brother, he responded, "fighting" and "he beats me up" (#'s 7, 8). He was not able to speak about other ways that he played with his baby brother because he couldn't recall the words to say it. He indicated that he spent sixty minutes a day reading (#76), yet he could recall very few books. He remembered "Goosebumps" (#26), apparently because he is reading in it now, but had to go back to "The Three Little Piggies" (#48), a book read to him as a very small child, when pressed for another book that he remembered. Another example about memory and recall deficiency is found when he was asked about the game board in "Goosebumps". He called it a "Chessboard" (#30), and then described it as "a little board" that "never breaks" (#32). James was not able to convey what this important part of this game looked like or what its function was other than "if you want to play with it you need big kids" (#33). Many of the topics James talks about have a common vein: they are violent, involve killing and other gruesome stuff. This limitation may be related to his disability. It's possible that he simply cannot recall the words to describe many of life's finer moments, so he talks about the things he has seen, the dreams that he has had, or the imaginations that he has that have made a lasting impression on him, and those happen to be filled with horror. James needs to make more progress in the area of memory; otherwise he may never achieve the semantic capabilities that will be needed at higher-grade levels and eventually adulthood.

Jane appears to be a child with at least an age-appropriate vocabulary. She did not seem to have any difficulty in finding the words she needed. For example she used "luxury" to describe the quality of the bus that she would be taking (#11), and recalled the names of the places, people and things in the play she was recently in, "Theseus and the Minotaur" (# 18-24). She also knew that when her teacher described what she would do if the kids didn't have good table manners ("she's going to throw-up on you") (#16), the teacher was using figurative language and would not actually do that (#17). Most of her concepts were concrete, but some related to her imagination and were more abstract. She certainly knew the relation between studying and grades (#41). In identifying her favorite sport that she has participated in, she correctly limited her response only to one that she has in fact played (#48). When projecting about a sport that she likes but hasn't tried, figure skating, she clearly identifies, with figurative language, what she thinks her performance would be if she did try it (#53). Yet she was not afraid to reach out and identify an activity of interest that she knew her parents would not suggest or pressure her to do "train big cats like flying tigers" (#56).

Grammatical Structure of Language

The surface structure of James's language is at the simple or complex level without grammatical errors 20% of the time. Including grammatical errors, James's language is at the simple or complex level 40% of the time. Further analysis shows that his simple structures without errors occur 16% of the time, while his complex structures without errors occur only 4% of the time. One or two word responses plus sentence fragments occurred 60% of the time. A 6.2 Mean Length of Utterance was calculated for this sample.

The sample shows that James uses the present progressive verb ending in words such as fighting, shooting, and dreaming (#'s 77,93, 103). He uses prepositions "in" and "on", and regular plurals. Although James did use past irregular verbs ("...the police came") [#94], he missed many other opportunities to do so ("...the bus came" rather than "…bus comes") [#59]. The sample shows improper use of past regular and uncontractible copula (#122). Contractible copula and auxiliary forms were not present. Although James uses many grammatical morphemes in his language, he has not mastered their use.

The surface structure of Jane's language is at the simple or complex level without grammatical errors 89% of the time. Including grammatical errors, Jane's language is at the simple or complex level 95% of the time. One-word or fragment responses occurred only 5% of the time. About half the time Jane used simple sentences, and 46% of the time she used complex structures. A 16.6 Mean Length of Utterance was calculated for this sample. She appears to have mastered grammatical morphemes.

Pragmatics

In the sample, James did not display any weakness in presuppositions. According to his teacher, in the classroom situation, he differentiates the way he speaks to his peers and the way he speaks to his teacher. He waited to hear the next question, and then he addressed it if he could. However, almost 40% of his responses were one-word responses. He often did not understand that by the type of questions being asked, the teacher was trying to elicit a longer conversational response.

Jane did not display any weaknesses in presuppositions either. In most cases, a short interviewer's question brought a substantial response, indicating that Jane did understand that by the type of question being asked, the interviewer was trying to elicit a longer conversational response. When complemented on making it into the honor choir, Jane politely responded (#35). Jane always stayed on the topic set by the interviewer.

Communicative Context of the Samples

James' language sample was taken in the classroom during recess and lunch. His special day class teacher took the sample. There were no other children, teachers or aids in the room at the time. The student knew that his language sample was being recorded. The relative privacy of the sample helped assure that the student could do his best to speak and structure his words and sentences without fear of embarrassment or intimidation from other students. The student's familiarity with his teacher as the interviewer helped the student be trusting with his content, without fear that the interviewer would react unfavorable to what he said.

Jane's language sample was taken in the family room of her own home. The parents were home at the time of the sample, but went upstairs, so that Jane would not be influenced directly by what her parents may think. Jane knew the interviewer well. The day before the sample was taken, Jane's mother emailed the interviewer with some bullet points that Jane might enjoy responding to-such as her upcoming outdoor ed trip, the play that she was in, and her honor choir.

Comparison of the Language Samples

The main difference between the two samples is that James has a specific learning disability and Jane has none. James's disability means that it is difficult for him to remember what he sees and hears. James indicates that he spends sixty minutes a day reading. It is obvious that he does not receive the benefit from that activity that Jane receives. Jane can remember and recall with relative ease, whereas James must struggle.

Both James and Jane have similar communicative use of language. Both used language to provide information. Both used language to emphasize personal values. Both used language in an imaginative way. James' disability, however, has created delays in his ability to express himself.

James has a tough time with semantics because he can't remember as much of what he sees and hears. Jane, on the other hand, seems to be able to find the words that fit her content requirement without much trouble.

James has difficulty in producing grammatically correct complex sentences because he can't remember as easily what he has seen and heard. Most of his expressions are simple one-word or fragment responses. Jane, on the other hand, used complete sentence form in almost all of her responses, almost all were grammatically correct, and almost half were complex structures.

James and Jane were very close on pragmatics, but the sample situation was rather narrow, and did not test either child's pragmatics in other than the interview situation. Jane was able to infer, however, that the interviewer was trying to elicit a longer, more complete response, whereas the interviewer had to work harder trying to get a language sample from James.

Each sample was taken privately in a setting familiar to each child. An interviewer known and trusted by each child took each sample. James was sampled in his classroom, during recess and lunch; while Jane was sampled on a Sunday afternoon in her own family room.

Jane's parents really push her to participate, read, study and learn, and provide her with numerous opportunities to grow outside of school. James's parents do not provide those same kinds of learning opportunities and incentives. Lack of adequate family support for learning, when combined with the learning disability, create a much more difficult situation for James.

Numbers in parenthesis refer to item numbers on the applicable language sample.
Transcript of James' Language Sample (PDF)
Transcript of Jane's Language Sample (PDF)