Effect of a Group-Based Narrative Language Training in Typically Developing Turkish-Dutch Children

Area of Science:

• Child Language Acquisition
• Bilingualism Studies
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Bilingual children often require additional support for school language acquisition to prevent learning difficulties.
• Improving narrative skills in the school language can enhance overall language abilities.
• This study focuses on Turkish-Dutch bilingual children, a population that can benefit from targeted language interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the efficacy of a narrative intervention in improving school language abilities in typically developing bilingual children.
• To assess the impact of the intervention on both general (expressive, receptive) and specific (narrative) language skills.
• To determine if narrative intervention can be an efficient approach for second language development in bilingual children.

Main Methods:

• A single-arm early efficacy study involving 19 Turkish-Dutch bilingual children aged 6-9.9 years.
• A 10-week, once-weekly, 1-hour group-based narrative intervention in Dutch, using a test-teach-retest design.
• Assessment of expressive, receptive, and narrative language abilities at baseline and post-intervention.

Main Results:

• Participants showed significant improvement in producing story structure elements after the intervention.
• No significant changes were observed in microstructure narrative measures.
• Expressive and receptive language scores significantly increased post-intervention.

Conclusions:

• The narrative intervention demonstrated effectiveness in enhancing the school language development of bilingual children.
• The findings support the use of narrative-based approaches to boost second language acquisition.
• This intervention offers a promising strategy for supporting bilingual children's academic success.