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Narrative discourse in bilingual children: language and task effects
Christine E Fiestas1, Elizabeth D Peña
1Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Texas at Austin, 78712-1089, USA. christine_fiestas@juno.com
Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools
|June 12, 2004
Summary
Language and narrative task type significantly impact story production in bilingual children. Eliciting narratives requires careful consideration of both factors for accurate assessment.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Developmental Psychology
- Bilingualism
Background:
- Bilingual children's language development is complex.
- Assessing narrative skills in bilingual children requires understanding language-specific influences.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate how language and elicitation method affect narrative production in Spanish-English bilingual children.
- Compare narrative complexity and productivity across languages and tasks.
Main Methods:
- Twelve Spanish-English bilingual children (4-7 years) produced narratives using a wordless picture book and a static picture, in both languages.
- Analyzed story grammar, narrative elements, productivity, grammaticality, and cross-linguistic influence.
Main Results:
- Narrative complexity was similar across languages for the book task.
- Spanish narratives had more attempts/initiating events; English had more consequences.
- Bilingual children showed language-influenced utterances, particularly in the book task.
Conclusions:
- Language and narrative task type are crucial for eliciting complex and productive narratives from bilingual children.
- Findings highlight the need to consider linguistic context in narrative assessment.
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