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Storytelling: How organization of narratives is (not) affected by linguistic skills
Edited by Ute Bohnacker and Natalia Gagarina
[Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 12:4] 2022
► pp. 479–508

How do age, language, narrative task, language proficiency and exposure affect narrative macrostructure in German-Swedish bilingual children aged 4 to 6?

ORCID logo | Uppsala University
ORCID logo | Uppsala University

Previous studies show mixed findings concerning whether higher-order story structure (macrostructure) is similar across bilinguals’ two languages. It is not known how macrostructure is influenced by general language proficiency and amount of exposure. The present study investigates these issues in 46 German-Swedish bilingual 4- to 6-year-olds. Narratives were elicited in both languages with two picture-based tasks from the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) in the telling mode. We investigate to what extent the language of elicitation (Swedish vs German) influences bilingual children’s macrostructure (story structure, episodic complexity) and explore effects of narrative task, age, narrative length, expressive vocabulary and estimated language exposure, both separately and combined, on macrostructure in the respective language. Results show that macrostructural skills developed measurably with age from 4 to 6 years in both languages, with no task effects. Story structure scores were higher in the majority language Swedish than in German and developed differently with age. The effect of narrative length on story structure was similar in the two languages. Language exposure did not have any significant effect. Macrostructure scores were significantly affected by expressive vocabulary in German only. Generally, the results may be linked to slightly higher language proficiency in Swedish.

Keywords: German, Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN), story structure, Swedish, vocabulary
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1An overview of narrative macrostructure (story structure)
    • 2.2Factors influencing children’s production of story structure
  • 3.Aims, research questions and predictions
  • 4.Methods
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Materials
    • 4.3Procedure
    • 4.4Coding and analysis
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Story structure score
    • 5.2Narrative length and vocabulary knowledge
    • 5.3Effects of age, narrative length, expressive vocabulary knowledge and estimated daily input on the story structure score
    • 5.4Episodic complexity
  • 6.Discussion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 January 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.20020.lin
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