Narrative Discourse in Arabic-Speaking Adolescents: Micro- and Macrostructural Analyses

This study examined narrative retelling in Palestinian Arabic-speaking adolescents to characterize micro- and macrostructural discourse patterns within a diglossic context. Forty-two typically developing seventh-grade students (mean age = 12.7 years) listened to fables presented in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and retold them in Palestinian Arabic (PA), the participants' variety of Spoken Arabic (SA). Narratives were analyzed at the microstructural (verbal productivity, lexical diversity, syntactic complexity) and macrostructural (story grammar and coherence) levels. Results revealed substantial individual variability, with retellings ranging from brief, telegraphic accounts to extended narratives integrating causal links and evaluative commentary. Story grammar scores were generally high, although references to characters' internal states were infrequent. Verbal productivity was positively associated with story grammar, and story grammar showed a strong association with coherence. In contrast, lexical diversity and syntactic complexity were not positively related to coherence. These findings describe typical patterns and ranges of narrative performance in Arabic-speaking adolescents and demonstrate that strong macrostructural organization and coherence can be achieved even in relatively short narratives. This highlights the importance of accounting for diglossic language contexts and discourse conventions when assessing narrative abilities and designing culturally responsive assessment tools.