scholarly journals The development of narrative skills in monolingual Swedish-speaking children aged 4 to 9: a longitudinal study

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Josefin LINDGREN
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
Story Comprehension ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Story Structure ◽  
Narrative Skills

Abstract This longitudinal study investigated the development of oral narrative skills in monolingual Swedish-speaking children (N = 17). The MAIN Cat/Dog stories were administered at four timepoints between age 4 and 9. Different narrative aspects were found to develop differently. In story comprehension, the children performed high already at T1 (4;4) and were at ceiling at T2 (5;10), whereas story structure developed significantly until T4 (9;4). Narrative length and syntactic complexity reached a plateau at T3 (7;4). Referent introduction was not mastered until T4. The results suggest that general conclusions regarding the development of narrative skills depend on the specific aspects studied.

scholarly journals Effects of a Story Grammar Intervention With Repeated Retells for English Learners With Language Impairments

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhonda D. Miller ◽  
Vivian I. Correa ◽  
Antonis Katsiyannis
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Language Impairments ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Story Grammar ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
Narrative Skills ◽  
Multiple Probe

This study investigated the effects of a narrative intervention that employed repeated story retells and a Story Grammar Marker on the oral narrative skills of Spanish-speaking English learners with language impairments. Four third- and fourth-grade students participated in the study. Using a single-case multiple probe across participants design, the authors measured three dependent variables: narrative organization skills, narrative productivity, and syntactic complexity. As a result of the intervention, stories became more cohesive and scores for narrative organization increased by approximately 7 points from baseline to intervention across participants. Smaller effects for narrative complexity and syntactic complexity measures were noted. Implications for future research and for practice are provided.

Joke telling, humor creation, and humor recall in children with and without hearing loss

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Evangeline E. Nwokah ◽  
Sandra E. Burnette ◽  
Kelly N. Graves
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
Appropriate Use ◽  
Story Structure ◽  
Narrative Skills ◽  
Use Of Time ◽  
Children With Hearing Loss ◽  
Narrative Ability

AbstractChildren with and without hearing loss were compared on their joke-telling and humor-related oral narrative skills. They were asked to tell a joke, create a funny story, and describe a funny movie they had seen. The ability to use humor in language creatively or in recall, the appropriate use of time reference in verbs, and the sequencing of story schema are advanced language skills for children. The conceptual and language skills of humor could be impacted if children do not hear some of the subtleties of language. Results revealed children with hearing loss used shorter and less complex utterances in jokes. They were significantly more likely to produce knock-knock jokes than other types such as riddles, and the knock-knock jokes were at a pre-joke stage. Children with hearing loss also produced funny stories that were less complex. They scored lower on story structure, total narrative ability, and Applebee's story schema. They were less likely to report bathroom humor as the funny part of a joke, story, or movie. This suggests that some aspects of the development of verbal humor may be impacted by hearing loss even among children mainstreamed in regular schools.

scholarly journals Macrostructural organization of adults’ oral narrative texts

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 190-208
Author(s):  
Natalia Gagarina ◽  
Ute Bohnacker ◽  
Josefin Lindgren
Keyword(s):  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
Story Structure ◽  
Maximum Score ◽  
Narrative Skills ◽  
Internal States ◽  
Qualitative Measure ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Universal Nature

This study investigates macrostructure in elicited narratives of 69 monolingual German-, Russian- and Swedish-speaking adults. Using the LITMUS-MAIN (Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives), and its Baby Goats and Baby Birds stories, story structure and story complexity, concerning episodic organization, were examined across the 3 languages. As theoretical underpinnings, a multidimensional model of macrostructure was used. This model includes analyses of story structure (SS), in which a narrative merits a maximum score of 17, based on the occurrence of five types of macrostructural components (Internal states as initiating event and as reaction, Goal, Attempt and Outcome), and of story complexity (SC), which measures combinations of Goals, Attempts and Outcomes within one episode. The highest attainable complexity is the GAO-sequence, when a Goal, Attempt and Outcome are produced within the same episode. The results for SS were similar for German, Russian and Swedish, where adults included 11-12 components per story. A more detailed analysis of the individual components revealed striking similarities across the 3 languages, both for frequently used and seldom occurring components. SC did not differ significantly across languages nor across stories, whilst for SS, a slight difference between the two stories was found. We interpret this finding as story complexity (a qualitative measure of macrostructure) being of a more universal nature. Furthermore, our results indicate that caution is warranted when conclusions about children’s narrative skills are to be drawn on the basis of the MAIN Baby Goats and Baby Birds stories.  

Macrostructural Narrative Skills of Monolingual and Simultaneously Bilingual Preschoolers

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 233-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carina Marie Wehmeier
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Story Comprehension ◽  
Story Structure ◽  
Narrative Skills ◽  
Picture Story

Abstract. This article compares the development of macrostructural narrative skills of monolingual and simultaneously bilingual preschoolers in telling a picture story. It also addresses the connections between macrostructural narrative skills, receptive and productive language skills (LiSe DaZ), and auditory perception and processing skills (HASE). The narrative skills were collected using the Baby Birds picture story of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (LITMUS-MAIN) and analyzed regarding the macrostructural components of story structure, story complexity, and story comprehension. This contribution includes data from 229 monolingual and 76 simultaneously bilingual children. The comparison of the three age groups (4;6 – 4;11, 5;0 – 5;5, 5;6 – 5;11 years) indicates significant developmental increases in the performance of monolingual children regarding story structure, story complexity, and story comprehension, while no clear age trends are apparent for the simultaneously bilingual children. Correlations are found for the story structure and story comprehension of monolingual and simultaneously bilingual children with individual receptive language skills and language-processing skills.

scholarly journals A Narrative Evaluation of Mandarin-Speaking Children With Language Impairment

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Hao ◽  
Li Sheng ◽  
Yiwen Zhang ◽  
Fan Jiang ◽  
Jill de Villiers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Narrative Skills ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Ambient Language ◽  
Comparable Performance

Purpose We aimed to study narrative skills in Mandarin-speaking children with language impairment (LI) to compare with children with LI speaking Indo-European languages. Method Eighteen Mandarin-speaking children with LI (mean age 6;2 [years;months]) and 18 typically developing (TD) age controls told 3 stories elicited using the Mandarin Expressive Narrative Test (de Villiers & Liu, 2014). We compared macrostructure-evaluating descriptions of characters, settings, initiating events, internal responses,plans, actions, and consequences. We also studied general microstructure, including productivity, lexical diversity, syntactic complexity, and grammaticality. In addition, we compared the use of 6 fine-grained microstructure elements that evaluate particular Mandarin linguistic features. Results Children with LI exhibited weaknesses in 5 macrostructure elements, lexical diversity, syntactic complexity, and 3 Mandarin-specific, fine-grained microstructure elements. Children with LI and TD controls demonstrated comparable performance on 2 macrostructure elements, productivity, grammaticality, and the remaining 3 fine-grained microstructure features. Conclusions Similarities and differences are noted in narrative profiles of children with LI who speak Mandarin versus those who speak Indo-European languages. The results are consistent with the view that profiles of linguistic deficits are shaped by the ambient language. Clinical implications are discussed.

Macrostructure in the narratives of Indonesian-Dutch bilinguals

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Tribushinina ◽  
Mila Irmawati ◽  
Pim Mak
Keyword(s):  
Internal State ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Input Current ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Story Structure ◽  
Narrative Skills ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Cross Lingual ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract There is no agreement regarding the relationship between narrative abilities in the two languages of a bilingual child. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that such cross-language relationships depend on age and language exposure by studying the narrative skills of 32 Indonesian-Dutch bilinguals (mean age: 8;5, range: 5;0–11;9). The narratives were elicited by means of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) and analysed for story structure, episodic complexity and use of internal state terms (ISTs) in the home language (Indonesian) and majority language (Dutch). The results demonstrate that story structure scores in the home language (but not in the majority language) were positively related to age. Exposure measures (current Dutch/Indonesian input, current richness of Dutch/Indonesian input, and length of exposure to Dutch) did not predict the macrostructure scores. There was a significant positive cross-language relationship in story structure and episodic complexity, and this relationship became stronger as a function of length of exposure to Dutch. There was also a positive cross-lingual relation in IST use, but it became weaker with age. The results support the idea that narrative skills are transferable between languages and suggest that cross-language relationships may interact with age and exposure factors in differential ways.

Modeling the Relationships between Language Skills and Sentence Comprehension among Chinese Junior Elementary Graders

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-116
Author(s):  
Xiao-Yun Xiao ◽  
Connie Suk-Han Ho
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Narrative Skills ◽  
Syntactic Skills ◽  
Reading Measures

The present study examined the contributions of vocabulary knowledge, syntactic skills, and oral narrative skills to sentence reading comprehension among Chinese junior elementary school children. Various language and reading measures were administered to 85 Chinese normally-achieving children at Grades 2 and 3 in Hong Kong. Results showed that vocabulary knowledge and oral narrative skills contributed significantly to word order skills, an important syntactic skill in Chinese. Vocabulary knowledge contributed to word recognition directly and contributed to sentence comprehension indirectly through word recognition and syntactic skills; and syntactic skills contributed to sentence comprehension directly. These findings suggest that while vocabulary knowledge is important for Chinese word reading, syntactic word order plays a central role in Chinese sentence comprehension. The implications of these findings for our theoretical understanding of the Simple View of Reading, as well as reading instruction, will be discussed.

scholarly journals Early language development in preterm children without neurological damage: a longitudinal study

F1000Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 2169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Micaela Capobianco ◽  
Luca Cerniglia
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Preterm Children ◽  
Verbal Skills ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Linguistic Categories

Children born at a very low gestational age, even those without neurosensory damages, are at risk of linguistic disorders. This longitudinal study aimed at analyzing communicative and language abilities in preterm children during their second year of life, through a standardized questionnaire, with particular attention to the communicative and language abilities that predict the first verbal skills. Our results showed that preterm children are slower than full-terms in language acquisition particularly at earlier stages of development. The differences between the two groups of children was significant only at 16 and 18 months. Preterms use more simplistic linguistic categories for longer than full-terms, with regards to lexicon composition and syntactic complexity. This different pattern could involve more qualitative, rather than quantitative, aspects of developmental processes that characterize language acquisition in preterms and full-term children.

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