George Essay

'Young readers should be corrected whenever they make a mistake' 

Reading is a vital quality children need to learn. Without learning to read as a child they will be restricted for their whole life. We need reading everyday of our lives, whether that is in school or when we leave and go into work or even when we are learning other things like driving we need to be able to read directions and signs.

In the transcript between George ad his Mother George makes quite a few mistakes whilst reading and his Mother uses multiple different techniques to help him not just correcting. One technique she uses is positive reinforcement. Examples of this are when George corrects himself from saying 'we never' we need'. Once he has corrected himself his mother says 'that's it'. Another example is when she helps him sound out sand bags and once he gets it right she says 'well done' and when he struggles with it again she breaks down the compound word and when he gets it right she says 'good boy'. This technique works with Georges reading because later on in the transcript he reads the word sandbags without having to sound it out at all. This relates to Skinner's theory. Skinner believes that children learn through three different techniques, Positive reinforcement,  negative reinforcement and punishment. He does not believe that children should be just corrected when they make a miscue but they should be praised when they get it right.

There is hardly any incidents where George's mother just corrects him. The only time she does within the transcript is toward the end when George says 'the floods made' and his mother interrupts him to correct him by saying 'may'. She may have done this so that George would not loose his flow of reading and be able to just carry on without spending his time correcting himself. To an extent this does work as he straight away continues to read and corrects himself by starting off with saying 'may'. He has understood what she meant. However this does not mean that he will remember this in the future as it has not been solidified in his mind as he is juts repeating what she has said but might not be taking it in.

Bruner believes in the interactionist approach. He believes that children learn from their parents interacting with them. We can see this in the George transcript when his Mother asks him questions about what he is reading. Examples of this are the Mother asking 'whats happening(.) what do you think's happening.' and 'what are they doing with the sandbags' This is helpful in Georges learning because he then has to recount what he has been reading about and remember the words he has already read. We can see this is helpful as George explains the story to his mother but also asks questions such as 'but he isn't letting them get inside is he' he is interacting with his mother and learning more about what is happening in the story. This means that George understands the words that he is reading. This therefore supports Bruners view that children need interaction not just correcting.

Overall it seems children need more than just corrections. They learn from interacting with their parents and being reinforced with what they are saying whether that is praise or negative reinforcement. By just correcting a child you are not building up their memory or their confidence.