Predicting Language Performance From Narrative Language Samples

Purpose: Analysis of narrative language samples is a recommended clinical practice in the assessment of children's language skills, but we know little about how results from such analyses relate to overall oral language ability across the early school years. We examined the relations between language sample metrics from a short narrative retell, collected in kindergarten, and an oral language factor in grades kindergarten through 3. Our specific questions were to determine the extent to which metrics from narrative language sample analysis are concurrently related to language in kindergarten and predict language through Grade 3. Method: Participants were a sample of 284 children who were administered a narrative retell task in kindergarten and a battery of vocabulary and grammar measures in kindergarten through Grade 3. Language samples were analyzed for number of different words, mean length of utterance, and a relatively new metric, percent grammatical utterances (PGUs). Structural equation models were used to estimate the concurrent and longitudinal relationships. Results: The narrative language sample metrics were consistently correlated with the individual vocabulary and grammar measures as well as the language factor in each grade, and also consistently and uniquely predicted the language factor in each grade. Standardized path estimates in the structural equation models ranged from 0.20 to 0.39. Conclusions: This study found narrative language sample metrics to be predictive, concurrently and longitudinally, of a latent factor of language from kindergarten through Grade 3. These results further validate the importance of collecting and analyzing narrative language samples, to include PGU along with more traditional metrics, and point to directions for future research. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.17700980

Kemampuan Menulis Teks Cerita pada Mahasiswa Program Sarjana Pendidikan Bahasa Indonesia Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan Universitas Bengkulu

The purpose of this study is to describe the ability to write story texts for students of the Indonesian Language Education Undergraduate Program FKIP Bengkulu University. The scope of this research covers aspects of (1) the suitability of the theme with the content, (2) the structure of the story text, (3) the choice of words (diction), (4) the use of story-style sentences, and (5) the Indonesian Language spelling and handwriting. This research uses descriptive method and quantitative approach. The research population was all students of the Indonesian Language Education Study Program FKIP Bengkulu University in the odd semester of 2018/2019 and the sample was purposive sampling, determining that there were 34 students in semester III-A. Collecting data uses test techniques and instruments in the form of instructions for writing stories with the theme of "love" and guidelines for assessing the ability to write stories based on five components, including content, text structure, diction, sentences, and mechanics. Data analysis used descriptive statistics to find the mean and determined qualitative results. The results showed that the ability to write story texts for the students of the Indonesian Language Education Undergraduate Program, FKIP Bengkulu University, was categorized as good. This is based on the score of all components with an average of 73.97. These results still require efforts to improve to be better. The results of each aspect of the ability to write story texts, namely aspects (1) the suitability of the theme with the content, good category (18.94), (2) story structure, good category (16.09), (3) accuracy of diction in good category (score 14 ,3), (4) narrative language style sentences are in good category (17.24), and (5) mechanics (BI spelling and handwriting) are in good category (7.32).

Speech Perception in Noise Predicts Oral Narrative Comprehension in Children With Developmental Language Disorder

We examined the relative contribution of auditory processing abilities (tone perception and speech perception in noise) after controlling for short-term memory capacity and vocabulary, to narrative language comprehension in children with developmental language disorder. Two hundred and sixteen children with developmental language disorder, ages 6 to 9 years (Mean = 7; 6), were administered multiple measures. The dependent variable was children's score on the narrative comprehension scale of the Test of Narrative Language. Predictors were auditory processing abilities, phonological short-term memory capacity, and language (vocabulary) factors, with age, speech perception in quiet, and non-verbal IQ as covariates. Results showed that narrative comprehension was positively correlated with the majority of the predictors. Regression analysis suggested that speech perception in noise contributed uniquely to narrative comprehension in children with developmental language disorder, over and above all other predictors; however, tone perception tasks failed to explain unique variance. The relative importance of speech perception in noise over tone-perception measures for language comprehension reinforces the need for the assessment and management of listening in noise deficits and makes a compelling case for the functional implications of complex listening situations for children with developmental language disorder.

Narrative Language and Possible Worlds in Postmodern Fiction. A Borderline Study of Ian McEwan’s The Child in Time

"Narrative Language and Possible Worlds in Postmodern Fiction. A Borderline Study of Ian McEwan’s The Child in Time. The present paper is a study of more traditional hermeneutics combined with a tinge of possible world modality, with the purpose of creating a thorough picture of narrative worlds and balancing it against the possible world system, with practical applications onto postmodern fiction, in Ian McEwan’s novel The Child in Time. The article focuses on exposing narrative language, worlds and characters, viewing them through Seymour Chatman’s perspective and slightly counterbalancing this approach with the possible world semantics system (as envisioned by Kripke, Lewis, Nolan, Putnam) for a diverse understanding of the inner structure and functioning of narrative text and fictional worlds. Keywords: possible worlds, possible-world semantics, narrative worlds, fictional worlds, narrative language, fiction, postmodern fiction, fictional characters "

An Evaluation of Expedited Transcription Methods for School-Age Children's Narrative Language: Automatic Speech Recognition and Real-Time Transcription

Purpose This study examined the accuracy and potential clinical utility of two expedited transcription methods for narrative language samples elicited from school-age children (7;5–11;10 [years;months]) with developmental language disorder. Transcription methods included real-time transcription produced by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and trained transcribers (TTs) as well as Google Cloud Speech automatic speech recognition. Method The accuracy of each transcription method was evaluated against a gold-standard reference corpus. Clinical utility was examined by determining the reliability of scores calculated from the transcripts produced by each method on several language sample analysis (LSA) measures. Participants included seven certified SLPs and seven TTs. Each participant was asked to produce a set of six transcripts in real time, out of a total 42 language samples. The same 42 samples were transcribed using Google Cloud Speech. Transcription accuracy was evaluated through word error rate. Reliability of LSA scores was determined using correlation analysis. Results Results indicated that Google Cloud Speech was significantly more accurate than real-time transcription in transcribing narrative samples and was not impacted by speech rate of the narrator. In contrast, SLP and TT transcription accuracy decreased as a function of increasing speech rate. LSA metrics generated from Google Cloud Speech transcripts were also more reliably calculated. Conclusions Automatic speech recognition showed greater accuracy and clinical utility as an expedited transcription method than real-time transcription. Though there is room for improvement in the accuracy of speech recognition for the purpose of clinical transcription, it produced highly reliable scores on several commonly used LSA metrics. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.15167355

Interventions Designed to Improve Narrative Language in School-Age Children: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analyses

Purpose The purpose of this systematic review with meta-analyses was to examine interventions that aimed to improve narrative language outcomes for preschool and elementary school–age children in the United States. Our goal was to examine peer-reviewed publications to describe the characteristics of these interventions and synthesize their overall effectiveness on narrative comprehension and production via meta-analysis. Method We searched electronic databases, examined previously published reviews, and consulted experts in the field to identify published studies that employed robust experimental and quasi-experimental designs. We included randomized controlled trials, studies with nonrandomized comparison groups, and single-case design (SCD) studies. We completed a qualitative synthesis of study factors for all identified studies and calculated meta-analyses for the studies that had sufficient data. All included studies were analyzed for risk of bias. Results Our systematic search yielded 40 studies that included one or more narrative language outcomes as part of their assessment battery. Twenty-four of the included studies were group design studies, including randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental designs, and the other 16 were SCD studies. Effect sizes were analyzed based on narrative production and comprehension outcomes. The meta-analyses of 26 studies indicated overall positive effects of the interventions, with effect sizes of d = 0.51 and 0.54 in the group design studies and d = 1.24 in the SCD studies. Conclusions A variety of effective interventions were found that improve narrative production and comprehension outcomes in children with diverse learner characteristics. Some common characteristics across these interventions include manualized curricula, opportunities to produce narrative language, verbal and visual supports, direct instruction of story grammar, and use of authentic children's literature. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.15079173

Las implicaciones sociales de la (des)cortesía en el lenguaje narrativo de los autores Nobel

En este trabajo se expone un análisis contrastivo a nivel pragma-lingüístico del lenguaje narrativo en dos novelas: Charla sobre el Nilo del escritor Nobel egipcio Naguib Mahfuz y Conversación de la Catedral del novelista peruano Mario Vargas Llosa. El análisis se centra en el acuerdo intuitivo notable entre estos dos autores Nobel, a pesar de la distancia cultural, lingüística y geográfica, en desviar el Principio de Cortesía de Geoffery Leech. En ambas novelas se ve claro el uso de fórmulas lingüísticas que rompen la Cortesía pragmática con el fin de lograr una profunda y concienzuda crítica social de la realidad egipcia y peruana en la época de los años cincuenta y sesenta. A través de la violación del principio pragmático, ambos autores ganadores del Nobel, objeto de este estudio, buscan exponer una dolencia mayor que afecta a la sociedad tanto egipcia como peruana, una descortesía hacia los ciudadanos que pertenecen a diversos sectores y clases sociales. En las dos novelas analizadas, los novelistas encontraron en la transgresión del Principio de Cortesía el mejor camino para presentar las inquietudes y los conflictos constantes del ser humano contra su propia sociedad. Así mismo, tanto Mahfuz como Llosa, exponen las mentalidades que sustentan la estratificación de la sociedad, con sus respectivos prejuicios, creencias e ideologías. PALABRAS CLAVE: pragmática, cortesía, literatura del Nobel, Naguib Mahfuz, Vargas Llosa. The social implications of (im)politeness in narrative language of the Nobel authors ABSTRACTIn this paper, a contrastive analysis is presented at a pragmatic linguistic level of narrative language in two novels: Talking on the Nile of the Egyptian Nobel writer Naguib Mahfuz and Conversation of the Cathedral of the Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa. The analysis focuses on the remarkable intuitive agreement between these two Nobel authors in deviating from the Geoffery Leech Politeness Principle. In both novels it is clear the use of linguistic formulas that violates the pragmatic politeness in order to achieve a deep and thorough social criticism of the Egyptian and Peruvian reality in the time of the fifties and sixties. Through the violation of the pragmatic principle, both Nobel authors, the objective of this study, seek to expose a greater ailment that affects both Egyptian and Peruvian society, an impoliteness towards citizens belonging to various sectors and social classes. In the two novels analyzed, the novelists found in the transgression of the Principle of Courtesy the best way to present the concerns and constant conflicts of the human being against his own society. Likewise, both Mahfuz and Llosa, expose the mentalities that support the stratification of society, with their respective prejudices, beliefs and ideologies. KEYWORDS: Pragmatics, politeness, Nobel`s authors, Naguib Mahfuz, Mario Vargas Llosa.