Calculate and comment on the mean length of utterance Include your workings Calculate and comment on
... In order to determine Joanna’s mean length of utterance the number of words she uses in the complete sample must first of all be calculated . ... In the sample provided Joanna used a total of 163 words and so her mean length of utterance is 3.3 words per utterance. Workings; 4+4+3+4+1+6+4+4+2+4+1+4+5+1+3+4+3+3+4+4+3+4+2+3+2+4+3+3+2+5+4+2+3+3+3+4+2+3+3+4+2+4+4+3+2+4+4+4+4+2= 163. ... The results received from Joanna’s mean length of utterance testing imply that her expressive language is delayed a fair amount. For a child of 4;06 years the expected mean length of utterance is approximately 4.0 words per utterance however, at the same age Joanna is only producing an average of 3. ... It should be kept in mind that a mean length of utterance is perhaps not an accurate measure of a child’s grammatical competence. Occasionally, a child will produce sentences that exceed her mean length of utterance considerably. ... Mean length of utterance can be used as a guide as it provides us with approximate information regarding a child’s stage of language development, relative to other children. ... Workings; Number of words produced in total = 163 Number of different words produced = 61 Type token ratio = 61 / 163 Type token ratio after being converted to a decimal = 0. ... This supports the results from her mean length of utterance testing in that she appears to have a language delay of ! ... Although some aspects of Joanna’s language are still at this level it is unlikely that she is still producing this particular error as she correctly used the word man to refer to her Father in the utterance Daddy a funny man.