Students' production of narrative and AAE features during an emergent literacy task

This study examined child production of narrative features and of African American English (AAE) during a wordless storybook oral narrative task.

Participants were 30 AAE-speaking African American kindergarten and 1st grade students from low- and mid-socioeconomic status homes. Story grammar (SG), story literary technique (SLT), and AAE features were examined.

Young AAE-speaking students used a variety of SG narrative features to develop the plot in their oral stories. Students also used multiple SLT elaborative features, though some techniques were used more frequently than others. The total SLT score positively predicted the total SG score, and the individual SLTs of adverbs or adjectives, references to the main theme, and character interactions were positively correlated with the total SG score. AAE-feature production rates did not predict the total SG score. However, several individual AAE features served specific narrative functions, with the preterite had, zero past tense, zero preposition, fitna/sposeta/bouta, and double marking features often being used to relay complicating actions within the narratives.

Young children used both AAE and elaborative features in their narratives. Particular AAE features facilitated plot development, and the use of more elaborative features positively predicted higher narrative development scores.