NARRATIVE COMPETENCE: A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF STORYTELLING IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN
Abstract
The aim of this research is to determine the characteristics of storytelling in preschool children. The study included 60 children, aged four, five and six years. The characteristics of the narration of a story on the macrolinguistic and microlinguistic plane were assessed by applying the Comic story task (Kostić, Vladisavljević & Popović, 1983).
The results of the macrolinguistic structure of storytelling showed that focus in four and five-year-olds is in describing the introductory event and the activities leading to a goal. In contrast, with six-year-old children story patterns exist at a cognitive level, since the elements of the comic story are consistently described in just slightly less than half of the them.
The results of the microlinguistic structure of storytelling showed that the four-year-olds stories predominantly contain simple sentences, while simple-extended and dependent-complex syntactic constructions dominate in the stories of five-year-olds. In contrast, there is a tendency in six-year-olds to use complex (consecutive, dependent) sentences. Storytelling in children develops gradually over the preschool period, so instructions for storytelling is important for all children, especially for those at risk for or with language learning impairments.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Acredolo, L., & Goodwyn, S. (2000). Baby minds: Brain-building games your baby will love to play. New York: Bantam Books.
Agosto, D. E. (2016). Why storytelling matters: unveiling the literacy benefits of storytelling. Children and Libraries, 14(2), 21-26. DOI: 10.5860/cal.14n2.21
Akhtar, N., Jipson, J., & Callanan, M. A. (2001). Learning words through overhearing. Child Development, 72, 416-430. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8624.00287
Allen, M. S., Kertoy, M. K., Sherblom, J. C., & Pettit, J. M. (1994). Children's narrative productions: a comparison of personal event and fictional stories. Applied psycholinguistics, 15(2), 149-176. DOI: 10.1017/S0142716400005300
Berman, R. A., & Slobin, D. I. (1994). Relating events in narrative: a crosslinguistic developmental study. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Bishop, D. V. M., & Edmundson, A. (1987). Language-impaired 4-year-olds: distinguishing transient from persistent impairment. Journal of speech and hearing disorders, 52(2), 156-173. DOI: 10.1044/jshd.5202.156
Botting, N. (2002). Narrative as a tool for the assessment of linguistic and pragmatic impairments. Child language teaching and therapy, 18(1), 1-21. DOI: 10.1191/
ct224oa
Bruner, J. (1985). Narrative and paradigmatic modes of thought. In E. Eisner (Ed.), Learning and teaching the ways of knowing (pp. 97-115). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Cassell, J., & Ryokai, K. (2001). Making space for voice: Technologies to support children’s fantasy and storytelling. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 5(3), 169-190. DOI: 10.1007/PL00000018
Collins, F. (1999). The use of traditional storytelling in education to the learning of literacy skills. Early Child Development and Care, 152, 77-108. DOI: 10.1080/
Craig, S., Hull, K., Haggart A., & Crowder, E. (2001). Storytelling: Addressing the Literacy Needs of Diverse Learners. Teaching Exceptional Children, 43(5), 46-51. DOI: 10.1177/004005990103300507
Eder, D. J. (2007). Bringing Navajo storytelling practices into schools: The importance of maintaining cultural integrity. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 38(3), 278-296. DOI: 10.1525/aeq.2007.38.3.278
Ellis, B. F. (1997). Why tell stories? Storytelling Magazine, 9, 21-23.
Engel, S. (1999). The stories children tell: making sense of the narratives of childhood. New York: Freeman.
Farrell, C. H., & Nessell, D. D. (1982). The effects of storytelling: An ancient art for modern classrooms. San Francisco: San Francisco Education Fund
Farmer, L. (2004). Using technology for storytelling: Tools for children. New review of children's literature and librarianship, 10(2), 155-168. DOI: 10.1080/1361454042000312275
Gallas, K. (2003). Imagination and literacy: A teacher’s search for the heart of learning. NewYork: Teachers College Press.
Genishi, C., & Dyson, A. H. (2009). Children, language, and literacy: Diverse learners in diverse times. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Griffin, T. M., Hemphill, L., Camp, L., & Wolf, D. P. (2004). Oral discourse in the preschool years and later literacy skills. First language, 24(2), 123-147. DOI: 10.1177/0142723704042369
Hardy, B. (1978). Narrative as a primary act of mind. In M. Meek, A. Warlow, & G. Barton (Eds.), The cool web (pp. 12-23). New York: Atheneum.
Halliday, M., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman.
Haven, K. & Ducey, M. (2007). Crash course in storytelling. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
Hudson, J. A. & Shapiro, L. R. (1991). From knowing to telling: children’s scripts, stories and personal narratives. In A. McCabe & C. Peterson (Eds.), Developing narrative structure (pp. 89-136). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Kim, S.Y. (1999). The effects of storytelling and pretend play on cognitive processes, short-term and long-term narrative recall. Child Study Journal, 29(3), 175-191.
Kostić, Đ., Vladisavljević, S., & Popović, M. (1983). Testovi za ispitivanje govora i jezika. Beograd: Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva.
Lawrence, J. F., & Snow, C. E. (2011). Oral discourse and reading. In M. L. Kamil, P. D. Pearson, E. B. Moe & P. P. Afflerbach (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (pp. 320-337). New York: Routledge.
Leondar, B. (1977). Hatching plots: genesis of storymaking. In D. Perkins & B. Leondar (Eds.), The arts in cognition (pp. 172-191). Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.
Liles, B. Z. (1987). Episode organization and cohesive conjunctives in narratives of children with and without language disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 30(2), 185-196. DOI: 10.1044/jshr.3002.185
Loizou, E., Kyriakides, E., & Hadjicharalambous, M. (2011). Constructing stories in kindergarten: Children’s knowledge of genre. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 19(1), 63-77. DOI: 10.1080/1350293X.2011.548939
Machado, J. M. (2013). Early childhood experiences in language arts: Early literacy. 10th edition. United States: Wadsworth Cengage learning.
Maguire, J. (1985). Creative storytelling: Choosing, inventing, and sharing tales for children. New York: The Phillip Lief Group, Inc.
Makin, L., & Whitehead, M. (2004). How to develop children’s early literacy: A guide for professionals carers and educators. London: Paul Chapman publishing.
Marshall, E. (2016). Counter-storytelling through graphic life writing. Language Arts, 94(2), 79-93.
Mathias, B., (2006). The art of the storyteller. In T. P. Bicknell, and F. Trotman, (Eds.). How to write and illustrate children’s books and get them published (pp. 234-256). Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest Books.
McCabe, A., & Rosenthal, P. R. (1994). Assessment of preschool narrative skills. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 3(1), 45-56. DOI: 10.1044/1058- 0360.0301.45
Miller, S., & Pennycuff, L. (2008). The Power of Story: Using Storytelling to Improve Literacy Learning. Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives in Education, 1(1), 36-43.
Miller, J. F. (1981). Assessing language production in children. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Merritt, D. D., & Liles, B. Z. (1989). Narrative analysis: clinical applications of story generation and story retelling. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 54(3), 438-447. DOI: 10.1044/jshd.5403.438
Minami, M. (1996). Japanese preschool children’s narrative development. First language, 16, 339-363. DOI: 10.1177/014272379601604805
National Reading Panel. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Ninio, A., & Bruner, J. (1978). The achievement and antecedent of labeling. Journal of Child Language, 5, 1-14. DOI: 10.1017/S0305000900001896
Norris, J. A., & Hoffman, P. R. (1990). Language intervention within naturalistic environments. Language, Speech, and Hearing in Schools, 21, 72-84. DOI: 10.1044/0161-1461.2102.72
Palmer, B. C., Harshbarger, S. J., & Koch, C. A. (2001). Storytelling as a constructivist model for developing language and literacy. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 14(4), 199-212.
Pankratz, M. E., Plante, E., Vance, R., & Insalaco, D. M. (2007). The diagnostic and predictive validity of the renfrew bus story. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 38(4), 390-399. DOI: 10.1044/0161-1461(2007/040)
Peck, J. (1989). Using storytelling to promote language and literacy development. The Reading Teacher, 43(2), 138-141.
Peterson, C., & McCabe, A. (1983). Developmental psycholinguistics: three ways of looking at a child’s narrative. New York: Plenum.
Phillips, L. (2000). Storytelling: The seeds of children's creativity. Australasian journal of early childhood, 25(3), 1-5. DOI: 10.1177/183693910002500302
Rahmani, P. (2011). The efficacy of narrative therapy and storytelling in reducing reading errors of dyslexic children. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 29, 780-785. DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.11.305
Roth, F. P. (2009). Children’s early narratives. In Paula M. Rhyner (Ed.), Emergent Literacy and Language Development: Promoting Learning in Early Childhood (pp. 153-192). New York: The Guilford Press.
Roth, F. P., & Spekman, N. J. (1986). Narrative discourse: Spontaneously generated stories of learning-disabled and normally achieving students. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 51, 8-23. DOI: 10.1044/jshd.5101.08
Ryokai, K., Vaucelle, C., & Cassell, J. (2003). Virtual peers as partners in storytelling and literacy learning. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19(2), 195-208. DOI: 10.1046/j.0266-4909.2003.00020.x
Snow C., Burns M., & Griffin, P. (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: Brooks Publishing.
Stein, N. L., & Glenn, C. G. (1975). An analysis of story comprehension in elementary school children: a test of a schema. American Journal of Educational Research, 3(9), 1091-1097. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-9-5
Strickland, D. S., & Morrow, L. M. (1989). Emerging readers and writers/oral language development: Children as storytellers. The Reading Teacher, 43(3), 260-261.
Sugimoto, M. (2011). A mobile mixed-reality environment for children’s storytelling using a handheld projector and a robot. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 4(3), 249-260. DOI: 10.1109/TLT.2011.13
Sutton-Smith, B. (1986). The development of fictional narrative performance. Topics in Language Disorders, 7, 1-10.
Tabors, P. O., & Snow, C. E. (2001). Young bilingual children and literacy development. In S. B. Neumann & D. K. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook of early literacy research (pp. 159-191). New York: Guilford Press.
Tabors, P. O., Beals, D. E., & Weizman, Z. O. (2001). “You know what oxygen is?”: Learning new words at home. In D. K. Dickinson & P. O. Tabors (Eds.), Beginning literacy and language (pp. 93-110). Baltimore: Brookes.
Trabasso, T., Stein, N. L., Rodkin, P. C., Munger, M. P., & Baughn, C. (1991). Knowledge of goals and plans in the on-line narration of events. Cognitive Development, 7, 133-170.
Trabasso, T., & Nickels, M. (1992). The development of goal plans of action in the narration of a picture story. Discourse processes, 15(3), 249-275. DOI: 10.1080/01638539209544812
Trousdale, A. M. (1990). Interactive storytelling: Scaffolding children’s early narratives. Language Arts, 67, 165-173.
Wells, G. (1985). Language development in the pre-school years. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Westby, C. (1991). Learning to talk—talking to learn: Oral–literate language differences. In C. S. Simon (Ed.), Communication skills and classroom success (pp. 181-218). San Diego, CA: College Hill.
Westby, C. (1994). The effects of culture on genre, structure, and style of oral and written texts. In G. Wallach & K. Butler (Eds.), Language and learning disabilities in school-age children and adolescents (pp. 180-218). New York: Macmillan.
Whitehurst, G. J., & Lonigan, C. J. (1998). Child development and emergent literacy. Child development, 69(3), 848-872. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1998.tb06247.x
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22190/TEME200222001G
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
© University of Niš, Serbia
Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND
Print ISSN: 0353-7919
Online ISSN: 1820-7804