Talk:Psycholinguistics/Development of Speech Production

Peer Review
Overall, the chapter is in very good condition, presenting relevant purpose of the topic with critically analyzed information. However, there are certain aspects that must be considered. I will be writing my thoughts on this discussion page starting from the first section of the chapter and will make my way through each section by giving feedback on certain parts that can be better developed.

The introduction states its purpose strongly by posing related questions about the topic and by explaining how these questions will be answered later on in the chapter. By doing so, it is grabbing the reader’s attention and giving a clear hypothesis. There are several grammar mistakes however that should be fixed and there are also problems with some of the sentence structures. When asking a question, for example, instead of saying "What affects a child's first words such that 'doggie' usually comes before 'hand'", the author can say "What influences the words a child will use first such as 'doggie' which is usually learned before 'hand'?". In prelinguistic speech production section, the word ‘vocalization’ in the first sentence is used twice, causing repetition. Choice of another word can make the sentence sound much better. It is important to remember that once a sentence starts with a past tense it should continue in that same tense, so it will flow better and be consistent. For example in "many researchers have documented this development and suggest growth...", ‘suggest’ should be rewritten as ‘suggested’ so that the sentence will not interfere with the reading flow.

In the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th stages, certain sentences are confusing and the order of these sentences can be changed so they make more sense. For example, ‘Stage 2’ is lacking punctuation marks such as commas. The sentence as follows, "Furthermore, infants reduce their crying and laughing or giggling occurs" can be changed to "At this stage, infants reduce their crying, laughing, and giggling occurs". In this case, the reader is having trouble interpret the content of the essay, hoping that this is what the author is trying to say, which means then there is a problem with the organization of that sentence. Another example, in section "Stage 3", the sentence starting with "they show a desire to explore and develop new sounds, and many of their vocalizations are vowel-like", can be reversed and say instead "Many of their vocalizations are vowel-like, and they show a desire to explore and develop new sounds". Since next sentence start with "These sounds..”, it now flows much better. In section "Stage 4" there is a lot of new terms introduced however, they are all missing the essential quotation marks that come with them. The "reduplicated babbles" and the "veriegated babbles" for example both need quotation marks. Lastly, in the "5th stage" section, a researcher called "Papaelion" is mentioned but is not cited, so it is compulsory to include references to each new researchers and studies.

In Phonological Development’ section, one of the sentences mention "theories about patterns and rules children and infants use, while developing their language" however; the paragraph does not continue to define these theories. By doing so, it leaves a question mark on the reader as they are expecting to learn and get more feedback about these theories. In ‘Patterns of Speech’ section, the author is using relevant authoritative sources and giving great examples which make it easier for the reader to understand the section. There are again, however, certain structural problems causing confusion in some sentences. In the first sentence for example, "Infants will develop their speech production slightly differently, depending on their personalities and personal development" does not sound proper and therefore, should be changed to "...slightly different from one another, depending on their personality and their personal development".

The ‘Factors affecting Development of Phonology’, the body part of the chapter, is well backed up with powerful evidence. The research here for example shows how social feedback facilitates an infant’s rapid phonological learning. The ‘Words and Referents’ section of the chapter also have very strong sources reflecting contrasting viewpoints of different research done on the same subtopic, showing a critical analysis of all the given information. The body part of the chapter contains the major expected elements and describes them in detail.

There are mainly grammar errors on the ‘First Words’, ‘Vocabulary Spurt’, ‘over/ underextension’, and ‘Learning and Making New Words’ section that the author should pay attention to again. The author in these sections used a variety of different sources making the point for each section. In the ‘over/underextension’ section however, the sources need to be stated more clearly so that the reader knows exactly which study is related to which researcher. The ideas are original and the author is without a doubt delivering the thesis statement. The logical flow, meaning the effective use of transition statements and linking them, can be better developed. The transitions between sentences and paragraphs have to be clear, but the overall discussion of the researcher’s findings is well supported, which keeps the reader’s interest on the chapter. (76.11.66.75 03:25, 28 February 2011 (UTC))