THE DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS OF PERSONALITY NARRATIVE COMPETENCE DETERMINATION

The article presents and analyzes results of the development of diagnostic tools of narrative competence of personality. Empirical study of formation of the narrative competence is carried out on methodological basis of post-non-classical psychology, according to which a personality is considered as an author of oneself, who has a potential for self-regulation and self-development. Within the psychological hermeneutics, narrative competence has been articulated as an ability of personality to identify and interpret narrative statements of the Other, that is to discover narratives in sociocultural and personal discourses and based on them to generate their own narrative constructs. The structural model of narrative competence as a dynamic configuration of pre-semantic, semantic and meta-semantic levels of understanding and generation of narrative expressions by personality is characterized; this model in turn became a basis for developing psycholinguistic diagnostic tools. The author proposed a method for determining formation levels of narrative competence of personality, which involves selection of texts meeting certain criteria for processing; development of diagnostic tasks for these texts; algorithm for determining a certain formation level of narrative competence of respondents depending on their results of proposed tasks. According to the results of approbation of the diagnostic technique, three main and two transitional levels of narrative competence of respondents have been identified. The algorithm for determining of these levels is presented in the form of a structural mathematical model, the validity of which is confirmed by correlations with expert evaluation. The main advantage of the proposed psycholinguistic tools for determining the formation levels of narrative competence of personality is the possibility of its application for diagnostics of respondents based on their processing of fiction texts without restrictions as for the language they speak.

NARRATIVE COMPETENCE FORMATION OF FUTURE FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS THROUGH THE CONTEXTUAL LEARNING IMPLEMENTATION

The article presents the contextual learning in foreign language educational process.Reveals its’ importance for future foreign language teachers preparation. The author considers peculiarities of professional activity contexts and its role in narrative competence formation. Narratives created by students are the most common forms of verbal communication, realized at different levels of communicative activity, depending on the situation and context.Narrative competence formation in the process of contextual learning is possible through problem-based tasks that arespeciallyorganized by the teacher and provide active interaction of students, their joint activity in finding solutions to the presented problem content. The articleprovides examples of problem situations that reveal the methodological aspect. Prospects for further research of contextual learning and its importance in the process of future foreign language teachers’ narrative competence formationaresuggested.

A qualitative study of clinical narrative competence of medical personnel

Background Medicine practiced with narrative competence is called narrative medicine, which has been proposed and used as a model of humane and effective medical practice. Despite the in-depth discussions of narrative medicine, the study of narrative competence in literature is limited; therefore, this study aims to explore the dimensions and connotations of the clinical narrative competence of medical personnel. Methods This qualitative study used in-depth interviews to collect participants’ experience and perspectives regarding narrative competence, followed by thematic analysis of the transcripts. Through purposive sampling, this study successfully recruited 15 participants (nine males and six females in 2018–2019) who were engaged in narrative medicine or medical humanity education from different medical schools and hospitals across Taiwan. The authors performed manual thematic analysis to identify the themes and concepts of narrative competence through a six-step theme generation process. Results There were four major themes of narrative competence generalized and conceptualized: narrative horizon, narrative construction (including narrative listening, narrative understanding, narrative thinking, and narrative representation), medical relationship (including empathy, communication, affiliation, and inter-subjectivity), and narrative medical care (including responsive care, balanced act, and medical reflection). These four themes were further integrated into a conceptual framework and presented in a diagram. Conclusions Cultivating narrative competence in medical education can complement traditional biomedical orientation. Regardless of their treatment orientation, narrative medicine-informed health practitioners may take advantage of their multi-dimensional narrative competence, as presented in this article, to enhance their awareness and preparation in different areas of competence in medical services. In addition, the results of this study can be used as a framework for the development of the behavioral indicators of narrative competence, which can be taken as the basis for medical education curriculum design.

The Narrative Competence of Bilingual Jamaican Creole– and English-Speaking Preschoolers

Purpose The purpose of this study is to characterize narrative competence of typically developing bilingual children using Jamaican Creole (JC) and English. Method Story comprehension and fictional storytelling tasks in JC and English were completed by 104 bilingual preschoolers aged 4–6 years. Story comprehension was analyzed using inferential story comprehension questions representing Blank's Question Hierarchy. Fictional storytelling was analyzed using the Monitoring Indicators of Scholarly Language framework for narrative macrostructure and microstructure. Results Story comprehension was significantly correlated within each language, but only questions from Level 4 of Blank's Question Hierarchy showed significant correlations between languages. Fictional storytelling was significantly better in English than in JC for macrostructure (total score, internal response, plan, consequence) and microstructure (total score, adverbs, elaborated noun phrases). Story complexity in JC and English was significantly correlated. In terms of developmental effects, children's macrostructure and story complexity appear to be better at 4 years than 5 years, with English outperforming JC. Furthermore, age correlated with story comprehension in JC. Conclusion Comparison of narrative competence in bilingual children provides much needed insights into language development, with examination of JC and English bilinguals representing an understudied bilingual context.

Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) adapted for use in Dutch

This contribution provides an overview of the current state of affairs with respect to the Dutch version of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN). We describe properties of the Dutch MAIN, the creation of the Dutch MAIN, and the results of recent research with this new instrument to measure narrative competence.

Italian adaptation of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives

This paper presents the Italian version of the Multilingual Assessment tool for Narratives (MAIN), describes how it was developed and reports on some recent uses of MAIN within the Italian context. The Italian MAIN has been used in different research projects and for clinical purposes; results have been presented at conferences and in peer reviewed papers. The results indicate that MAIN is an appropriate assessment tool for evaluating children’s narrative competence, in production and comprehension from preschool age (5 years) to school age (8 years) in typical language development, bilingual development and language delay/disorders.