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Article published In:
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. 446–478

Macrostructure in narratives produced by Lebanese Arabic-French bilingual children

Developmental trends and links with language dominance, exposure to narratives and lexical skills

| Saint Joseph University of Beirut
| Saint Joseph University of Beirut
| UMR1253 iBrain University of Tours

Studies of macrostructure in bilingual children investigated potential age and language effects, without systematically taking into account bilingualism factors such as language dominance, exposure to narratives, and general language abilities. These issues were addressed in a study of macrostructure production by 69 bilingual Lebanese Arabic-French children aged 4–9. The children were administered the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives in the tell mode and a standardized conceptual vocabulary test. Parental questionnaires were also used to gather information on language exposure and use. Age effects and limited effects of language were found for all measures of macrostructure production (story structure, structural complexity and use of internal state terms). Significant correlations arose between these measures, vocabulary scores, and age, and between structural complexity scores and language dominance. Regression analyses revealed the predictive role of vocabulary in the development of macrostructure. These results are compatible with the idea that macrostructure is not language dependent. They also suggest that minimal language skills are needed for expressing macrostructure. The limited impact of bilingualism factors could stem from the fact that French and Lebanese Arabic are majority languages in Lebanon, meaning that the children had received continuous exposure to both languages, including within the school system.

Keywords: narrative macrostructure, bilingualism factors, vocabulary, Lebanese Arabic, French
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Development of macrostructure production bilingual children
    • 2.1Measuring macrostructural skills
    • 2.2Macrostructure skills in bilingual children
      • 2.2.1Previous findings on story structure in MAIN studies
      • 2.2.2Previous findings on structural complexity in MAIN studies
      • 2.2.3Previous findings on ISTs in MAIN studies
      • 2.2.4Potential impact of bilingualism factors and language proficiency
  • 3.The study
  • 4.Method
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Materials
      • 4.2.1Conceptual vocabulary task (ELO-L)
      • 4.2.2Parental questionnaire (PaBiQ)
      • 4.2.3Exposure to narrative questionnaire
      • 4.2.4MAIN
    • 4.3Procedure
    • 4.4MAIN Measures
      • Story structure
      • Story structure complexity
      • Internal state terms
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Participants and descriptive statistics
    • 5.2Story structure
    • 5.3Story structure complexity
    • 5.4Use of ISTs
    • 5.5Impact of bilingualism factors and vocabulary
  • 6.Discussion and conclusion
    • 6.1Research question 1: Story structure
    • 6.2Research question 1: Story structure complexity
    • 6.3Research question 1: ISTs
    • 6.4Research question 2: Effects of language dominance, exposure to narratives and language proficiency on macrostructure performance
    • 6.5Limitations and future steps
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 7 September 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.20035.fia
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