Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:27:48.209Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Children's use of evaluative devices in spoken and written narratives*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2016

ELISE DRIJBOOMS ,
MARGRIET A. GROEN  and
LUDO VERHOEVEN
ELISE DRIJBOOMS*
Affiliation:
Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen – the Netherlands
MARGRIET A. GROEN
Affiliation:
Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen – the Netherlands
LUDO VERHOEVEN
Affiliation:
Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen – the Netherlands
*
[*]Address for correspondence: Elise Drijbooms, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Montessorilaan 3, room A04·23a, P.O. box 9104, 6500 HE, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; tel.: +31 24 36 16 112; e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study investigated the development of evaluation in narratives from middle to late childhood, within the context of differentiating between spoken and written modalities. Two parallel forms of a picture story were used to elicit spoken and written narratives from fourth- and sixth-graders. It was expected that, in addition to an increase of evaluative devices with age, written narratives would exhibit a higher frequency and diversity as a result of the intrinsic differences between the two modalities. From a developmental perspective, the results showed that only few categories exhibited the expected increase with age. Qualitative analyses provided a fruitful method to illustrate developmental changes. The results further indicated that modality had the expected impact on the diversity, and on the frequency, of most categories of evaluative language. Specifically, markers of decontextualized language and categories with a high degree of syntactic complexity were prone to modality differences.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , July 2017 , pp. 767 - 794
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alamargot, D. & Chanquoy, L. (2001). Through the models of writing in cognitive psychology. Boston, Dordrecht, New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Allen, M. S., Kertoy, M. K., Sherblom, J. C. & Petit, J. M. (1994). Children's narrative productions: a comparison of personal event and fictional stories. Applied Psycholinguistics 15, 149–76.Google Scholar
Bamberg, M. & Damrad-Frye, R. (1991). On the ability to provide evaluative comments: further explorations of children's narrative competence. Journal of Child Language 18, 689–710.Google Scholar
Baynham, M. J. (1988). Narrative and narrativity in the English of a first generation migrant community. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Reading.Google Scholar
Bereiter, C. & Scardamalia, M. (1987). The psychology of written composition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Berman, R. (2008). The psycholinguistics of developing text construction. Journal of Child Language 35, 735–71.Google Scholar
Bishop, D. (2004). Expression, Reception and Recall of Narrative Instrument. London: Harcourt Assessment.Google Scholar
Burger, L. K. & Miller, P. J. (1999). Early talk about the past revisited: affect in working-class and middle-class children's co-narrations. Journal of Child Language 26, 133–62.Google Scholar
Carmiol, A. & Sparks, A. (2014). Narrative development across cultural contexts: finding the pragmatic in parent–child reminiscing. In Mathews, D. (ed.) Pragmatic development: trends in language acquisition research, 279–94. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Carvalho, J. (2002). Developing audience awareness in writing. Journal of Research in Reading 25, 271–82.Google Scholar
Chafe, W. L. & Danielewicz, J. (1986). Properties of spoken and written language. In Horowitz, R. & Samuels, S. J. (eds), Comprehending oral and written language, 61–93. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Chen, L. & Yan, R. (2011). Development and use of English evaluative expressions in narratives of Chinese–English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 14, 570–8.Google Scholar
Chung, S. & Timberlake, A. H. (1985). Tense, aspect and mood. In Shopen, T. (ed.), Language typology and syntactic description: grammatical categories and the lexicon, 202–58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Curenton, S. M. & Justice, L. M. (2004). African American and Caucasian preschoolers’ use of decontextualized language: literate language features in oral narratives. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 35, 240–53.Google Scholar
De Temple, J. M., Wu, H. F. & Snow, C. E. (1991). Papa pig just left for pigtown: children's oral and written picture descriptions under varying instructions. Discourse Processes 14, 469–95.Google Scholar
Dunn, L. & Dunn, D. (2007). The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, 4th ed. Minneapolis, MN: Pearson.Google Scholar
Dunn, L. M. & Dunn, L. M. (2005). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III-NL: Nederlandse versie Liesbeth Schlichting. Handleiding. Amsterdam: Harcourt Test Publishers.Google Scholar
Eaton, J., Collis, G. & Lewis, V. (1999). Evaluative explanations in children's narratives of a video sequence without dialogue. Journal of Child Language 26, 699–720.Google Scholar
Ely, R., MacGibbon, A. & McCabe, A. (2000). She don't care: negatives in children's narratives. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 46, 465–90.Google Scholar
Fey, M. E., Catts, H. W., Proctor-Williams, K., Tomblin, J. B. & Zhang, X. (2004). Oral and written story composition skills of children with language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 47, 1301–18.Google Scholar
Fox, R. (1991). Developing awareness of mind reflected in children's narrative writing. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 9, 281–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillam, R. B. & Johnston, J. R. (1992). Spoken and written language relationships in language/learning-impaired and normally achieving school-age children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 35, 1303–15.Google Scholar
Goodell, E. & Sachs, J. (1992). Direct and indirect speech in English-speaking children's retold narratives. Discourse Processes 15, 395–422.Google Scholar
Graham, S., Harris, K. R. & Olinghouse, N. (2007). Addressing executive function problems in writing: an example from the self-regulated strategy development model. In Meltzer, L. (ed.), Executive function in education, 216–36. New York, NY: Guilford.Google Scholar
Greenhalgh, K. S. & Strong, C. J. (2001). Literate language features in spoken narratives of children with typical language and children with language impairments. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 32, 114–25.Google Scholar
Haden, C. A., Haine, R. A. & Fivush, R. (1997). Developing narrative structure in parent–child reminiscing across the preschool years. Developmental Psychology 33, 295–307.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. (1979). Differences between spoken and written language: some implications for literacy teaching. In Page, G., Elkins, J. & O'Connor, B. (eds). Communication through reading: proceedings of the Fourth Australian Reading Conference, 37–51. Adelaide, SA: Australian Reading Association.Google Scholar
Holt, E. (2000). Reporting and reacting: concurrent responses to reported speech. Research on Language and Social Interaction 33, 425–54.Google Scholar
Hunt, K. W. (1966). Sentence structures used by superior students in grades four and twelve, and by superior adults. CRP 5-0313. Tallahassee, FL: Florida State University.Google Scholar
Kaderavek, J. N. & Sulzby, E. (2000). Narrative production by children with and without specific language impairment: oral narratives and emergent readings. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 43, 34–49.Google Scholar
Kantor, K. J. & Rubin, D. L. (1981). Between speaking and writing: processes of differentiation. In Kroll, B. and Vann, R. (eds), Exploring speaking–writing relationships: connections and contrasts, 55–81. Champaign, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.Google Scholar
Küntay, A. & Nakamura, K. (2004). Linguistic strategies serving evaluative functions: a comparison between Japanese and Turkish narratives. In Strömqvist, S. & Verhoeven, L. (eds), Relating events in narrative, vol. 2: typological and contextual perspectives, 329–58. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Kroll, B. (1981). Developmental relationships between speaking and writing. In Kroll, B. & Vann, R. (eds), Exploring speaking–writing relationships: connections and contrasts, 32–54. Champaign, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972). Language in the inner city: studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W. & Waletzky, J. (1967). Narrative analysis: oral versions of personal experience. In Helm, J. (ed.), Essays on the verbal and visual arts, 12–44. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Longobardi, E., Spataro, P., Renna, M. & Rossi-Arnaud, C. (2014). Comparing fictional, personal, and hypothetical narratives in primary school: story grammar and mental state language. European Journal of Psychology of Education 29, 257–75.Google Scholar
Losh, M., Bellugi, U., Reilly, J. & Anderson, D. (2000). Narrative as a social engagement tool: the excessive use of evaluation in narratives from children with Williams syndrome. Narrative Inquiry 10, 265–90.Google Scholar
Losh, M. & Capps, L. (2003). Narrative abilities in high-functioning children with autism or Asperger's syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 33, 239–51.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES Project: tools for analyzing talk. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Mason, R. (2008). The use of evaluative devices in the narrative discourse of young second-language learners. Dallas, TX: SIL International.Google Scholar
McCabe, A., Bliss, L., Barra, G. & Bennett, M. (2008). Comparison of personal versus fictional narratives of children with language impairment. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 17, 194–206.Google Scholar
Miller, P. J. & Sperry, L. L. (1988). Early talk about the past: the origins of conversational stories of personal experience. Journal of Child Language 15, 293–315.Google Scholar
Nippold, M. A. (2004). Research on later language development: international perspectives. In Berman, R. A. (ed.), Language development across childhood and adolescence (Trends in Language Acquisition Research (TILAR)) , 1–9. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Olson, D. R. (1977). From utterance to text: the bias of language in speech and writing. Harvard Educational Review 47, 257–81.Google Scholar
Olson, D. R. (1994). The world on paper: the conceptual and cognitive implications of writing and reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Özyildirim, I. (2009). Narrative analysis: an analysis of oral and written strategies in personal experience narratives. Journal of Pragmatics 41, 1209–22.Google Scholar
Perera, K. (1984). Children's writing and reading. London: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Peterson, C. & Biggs, M. (1998). Stitches and casts: emotionality and narrative coherence. Narrative Inquiry 8, 51–76.Google Scholar
Peterson, C. & Biggs, M. (2001). ‘I was really, really, really mad!’ Children's use of evaluative devices in narratives about emotional events. Sex Roles 45, 801–25.Google Scholar
Peterson, C. & McCabe, A. (1983). Developmental psycholinguistics: three ways of looking at a child's narrative. New York, NY: Plenum.Google Scholar
Purcell-Gates, V. (1991) Ability of well-read-to kindergartners to decontextualise/recontextualise experience into a written-narrative register. Language and Education, 5, 177–88.Google Scholar
Purcell-Gates, V. (2001). Emergent literacy is emerging knowledge of written, not oral language. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development 92, 7–22.Google Scholar
Purcell-Gates, V., Jacobson, E. & Degener, S. (2009). Print literacy development: uniting cognitive and social practice theories. London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rader, M. (1982). Context in written language: the case of imaginative fiction. In Tannen, D. (ed.), Exploring orality and literacy, 189–98. Norwoord, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Raven, J. C. (1956). Coloured Progressive Matrices, Sets A AB, B. London: H.K. Lewis and Co.Google Scholar
Ravid, D. & Berman, R. A. (2006). Information density in the development of spoken and written narratives in English and Hebrew. Discourse Processes 41, 117–49.Google Scholar
Ravid, D. & Tolchinsky, L. (2002). Developing linguistic literacy: a comprehensive model. Journal of Child Language 29, 419–48.Google Scholar
Reilly, J. (1992). How to tell a good story: the intersection of language and affect in children's narratives. Journal of Narrative and Life History 2, 355–77.Google Scholar
Reilly, J., Losh, M., Bellugi, U. & Wulfeck, B. (2004). ‘Frog, where are you?’ Narratives in children with specific language impairment, early focal brain injury, and Williams syndrome. Brain and Language 88, 229–47.Google Scholar
Reilly, J., Zamora, A. & McGivern, R. (2005). Acquiring perspective in English: the development of stance. Journal of Pragmatics 37, 185–208.Google Scholar
Roth, F. P. (2000). Narrative writing: development and teaching with children with writing difficulties. Topics in Language Disorders 20, 15–28.Google Scholar
Rubin, D. (1982). Adapting syntax in writing to varying audiences as a function of age and social cognitive ability. Journal of Child Language 9, 497–510.Google Scholar
Rubin, D. (1984). Social cognition and written communication. Written Communication 1, 211–45.Google Scholar
Sah, W. (2011). Emotion expressions and knowledge of story structure: a study of Mandarin-speaking children's narrative development. Taiwanese Journal of Linguistics 9, 67–110.Google Scholar
Scott, C. M. & Windsor, J. (2000). General language performance measures in spoken and written narrative and expository discourse of school-age children with language-learning disabilities. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 43, 324–39.Google Scholar
Shiro, M. (2003). Genre and evaluation in narrative development. Journal of Child Language 30, 165–95.Google Scholar
Strömqvist, S., Johansson, V., Kriz, S., Ragnarsdöttir, H., Aisenman, R. & Ravid, D. (2002). Toward a crosslinguistic comparison of lexical quanta in speech and writing. Written Language and Literacy 5, 45–67.Google Scholar
Sulzby, E. (1994). Children's emergent reading of favorite storybooks: a developmental study. In Ruddell, R. B., Ruddell, M. R. & Singer, H. (eds), Theoretical models and processes of reading, 244–80. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.Google Scholar
Sulzby, E. & Zecker, L. B. (1991). The oral monologue as a form of emergent reading. In McCabe, A. & Peterson, C. (eds), Developing narrative structure, 175–214. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Tager-Flusberg, H. & Sullivan, K. (1995). Attributing mental states to story characters: a comparison of narratives produced by autistic and mentally retarded individuals. Applied Psycholinguistics 16, 241–56.Google Scholar
Tannen, D. (1982). Oral and literate strategies in spoken and written narratives. Language 58, 1–21.Google Scholar
Tannen, D. (1989). Talking voices: repetition, dialogue, and imagery in conversational discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ukrainetz, T. A., Justice, L. M., Kaderavek, J. N., Eisenberg, S. L., Gillam, R. B. & Harm, H. M. (2005). The development of expressive elaboration in fictional narratives. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 48, 1363–77.Google Scholar
Umiker-Sebeok, D. J. (1979). Preschool children's intraconversational narratives. Journal of Child Language 6, 91–109.Google Scholar
van Beijsterveldt, L. M. & van Hell, J. G. (2009). Evaluative expression in deaf children's written narratives. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders 44, 675–92.Google Scholar
van Dongen, R. & Westby, C. E. (1986). Building the narrative mode of thought through children's literature. Topics in Language Disorders 7, 70–83.Google Scholar
Wennerstrom, A. (2001). Intonation and evaluation in oral narratives. Journal of Pragmatics 33, 1183–206.Google Scholar
Zevenbergen, A. A., Whitehurst, G. J. & Zevenbergen, J. A. (2003). Effects of a shared-reading intervention on the inclusion of evaluative devices in narratives of children from low-income families. Applied Developmental Psychology 24, 1–15.Google Scholar