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Once upon a time in Bearland': Longitudinal development of fictional narratives in South African children
Willenberg, Ingrid
Willenberg, Ingrid
Author
Abstract
Children’s narrative skills have been widely studied in North America, but there is a paucity of African research. Within South Africa’s diverse socio-cultural context, this study of mixed-race children explored the development of narrative production and the influence of home background variables. Using the Bear Story picture prompt, this longitudinal study investigated the fictional oral narrative skills of 70 English-speaking children in kindergarten and Grade 3. Four key findings emerged: first, with age, narratives increased in lexical diversity, macrostructure elements and written discourse features. However, there was no increase in evaluation, thus highlighting the complexity and nonlinear nature of narrative development. Second, early book reading experiences in the home were positively associated with Grade 3 narrative macrostructure. Third, there were no associations between narrative abilities and maternal education or mothers speaking a first language other than English, underscoring the importance of parental behaviours above factors such as education and language background. Finally, contrary to expectations, the findings suggest more similarities than differences between these children and their peers in other contexts.
Keywords
Child language, cross-linguistic, home literacy, language development, narrative, narrative development, parental book reading, South Africa, stories
Date
2017
Type
Journal article
Journal
First Language
Book
Volume
37
Issue
2
Page Range
150-167
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Education
Faculty of Education and Arts
Faculty of Education and Arts
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Open Access Status
License
File Access
Controlled