Cover not available
Article published In:
Narrative Inquiry
Vol. 29:1 (2019) ► pp.50–81

Personal narrative skills of Urdu speaking preschoolers

| University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
| University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
| University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
| University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

The present study aimed to explore the personal narrative skills of Urdu speaking preschoolers, aged between 4 and 5 years. The study also aimed to investigate the gender differences in narrative skills, and relationship and the predictive association between macro- and microstructure skills. A total of 80 preschoolers were recruited using two-stage sampling (convenience and purposive). After screening the participants for intellectual functioning, three personal narratives were collected from each participant. The results revealed non-significant differences on the basis of age and gender. A significant correlation was found between the macro- and microstructure skills in children. NDW (number of different words), TNW (total number of words), and MLU (mean length of utterance) were revealed as significant predictors of macrostructural competencies in children. This was the first research that highlighted the narrative skills of Urdu speaking preschoolers. Hence, the patterns identified might help in extending the theory and research in this field.

Keywords: personal narrative, narrative skills, Urdu language, preschoolers
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Types of narrative analyses
    • Mean length of utterance (MLU) and total number of utterances
    • Lexical diversity
    • Cohesion
  • The relationship between macro- and microstructural analyses
  • Rationale and aims of the current study
  • Method
  • Narrative elicitation procedure
  • Assessment measures
    • Macrostructure analysis
    • Microstructure analysis
      • Cohesion
      • Lexical diversity (LD)
      • Mean length of utterance (MLU) and total utterances (TU)
  • Results
    • An inter-rater reliability analysis of narrative analyses, to determine agreement between two individual examiners
    • Narrative analyses
    • Statistical analyses
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Implications
  • Limitations and future suggestions
  • References
Published online: 2 July 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.17063.ham
References
Adams, C.
(2002) Practitioner review: The assessment of language pragmatics. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43(8), 973–987. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Allen, M. S., Kertoy, M. K., Sherblom, J. C., & Pettit, J. M.
(1994) Children’s narrative productions: A comparison of personal event and fictional stories. Applied Psycholinguistics, 15(2), 149–176. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Applebee, A.
(1978) The child’s concept of story: Ages two to seven. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Araújo, K., & Befi-Lopes, D. M.
(2004) Extensão média do enunciado de crianças entre 2 e 4 anos de idade: Diferenças no uso de palavras e morfemas [Mean extension of the statement of children between 2 and 4 years of age: Differences in the use of words and morphemes]. Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Fonoaudiologia, 91, 156–63.Google Scholar
Arif, H., & Bol, G. W.
(2008) Counting MLU in morphemes and MLU in words in a normally developing child and child with language disorder: A comparative study. Dhaka University Journal of Linguistics, 1(1), 167–82.Google Scholar
Barra, G., & McCabe, A.
(2013) Oral narrative skills of Chilean preschool children. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 32(4), 367–391. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bauer, P. J., Stennes, L., & Haight, J. C.
(2003) Representation of the inner self in autobiography: Women’s and men’s use of internal states language in personal narratives. Memory, 111, 27–42. Retrieved from [URL]
Benson, S. M.
(1997) Psychological causation and goal-based episodes: Low-income children’s emerging narrative skills. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 12(4), 439–457. Retrieved from [URL]
Berman, R.
(1988) On the ability to relate events in a narrative. Discourse Processes, 11(4), 469–499. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Berman, R., & Slobin, D.
(Eds.) (1994) Relating events in narrative: A crosslinguistic developmental study. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bishop, D. V. M.
(2004) Expression, Reception, and Recall of Narrative Instrument (ERRNI). London, Harcourt Assessment.Google Scholar
Bishop, D., & Donlan, C.
(2005) The role of syntax in encoding and recall of pictorial narratives: Evidence from specific language impairment. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 23(1), 25–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bloome, D., Champion, T., Katz, L., Morton, M., & Muldrow, R.
(2001) Spoken and written narrative development: African American preschoolers and storytellers and story-makers. In J. Harris, A. Kamhi & K. Pollock (Eds.), Literacy in African American communities (pp. 45–77). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Brown, R.
(1973) A first language: The early stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buckner, J. P., & Fivush, R.
(1998) Gender and self in children’s autobiographical narratives. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 12(4), 407–429. Retrieved from [URL]
Champion, T.
(1998) “Tell me somethin’ good”: A description of narrative structures among African American children. Linguistics and Education, 9(3), 251–286. Retrieved from [URL]
Craig, H. K., Washington, J. A., & Thompson-Porter, C.
(1998) Average C-Unit lengths in the discourse of African American children from low-income, urban homes. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 411, 433–444. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Davis, P. J.
(1999) Gender differences in autobiographical memory for childhood emotional experiences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 761, 498–510. Retrieved from [URL]
De Fina, A., & Georgakopoulou, A.
(2015) (Eds.), Handbook of Narrative Analysis. Malden, MA: Wiley. DOI logoGoogle 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(3), 699–720. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ely, R., & McCabe, A.
(1993) Remembered voices. Journal of Child Language, 20(3), 671–696. Retrieved from [URL]
Fiestas, C. E., & Peña, E. D.
(2004) Narrative discourse in bilingual children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 35(2), 155–168. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Finestack, L. H., Palmer, M., & Abbeduto, L.
(2012) Macrostructural narrative language of adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome or fragile X syndrome. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 21(1), 29–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez-Clellen, V. F., Restrepo, M. A., Bedore, L., Peña, E., & Anderson, R.
(2000) Language sample analysis in Spanish-speaking children: Methodological considerations. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 31(1), 88–98. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hallgren, K. A.
(2012) Computing inter-rater reliability for observational data: An overview and tutorial. Tutorials in quantitative methods for psychology, 8(1), 23–34. Retrieved from [URL]
Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R.
(1976) Cohesion in English. London: Longman Group.Google Scholar
Han, J. J., Leichtman, M. D., & Wang, Q.
(1998) Autobiographical memory in Korean, Chinese, and American children. Developmental Psychology, 34 (4), 701–713. Retrieved from [URL]
Heilmann, J., Miller, J. F., Nockerts, A., & Dunaway, C.
(2010) Properties of the narrative scoring scheme using narrative retells in young school-age children. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 19 (2), 154–166. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hoff, E., & Tian, C.
(2005) Socioeconomic status and cultural influences on language. Journal of Communication Disorders, 38(4), 271–278. Retrieved from [URL]
Hogan-Brown, A. L., Losh, M., Martin, G. E., & Mueffelmann, D. J.
(2013) An investigation of narrative ability in boys with Autism and Fragile X Syndrome. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 118(2), 77–94. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hughes, D., McGillivray, L., & Schmidek, M.
(1997) Guide to narrative language: Procedures for assessment. Eau Claire, WI: Thinking Publications.Google Scholar
Hutchison, D.
(2012) Gender differences in the macrostructural narrative language of second grade African American children (Undergraduate Thesis, College of Arts and Sciences). Retrieved from [URL]
Kao, S.
(2015) Narrative development of school children: Studies from multilingual families in Taiwan. Singapore: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kemper, S., & Edwards, L. L.
(1986) Children’s expression of causality and their construction of narratives. Topics in Language Disorders, 71, 11–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Klee, T.
(1992) Developmental and diagnostic characteristics of quantitative measures of children’s language production. Topics in Language Disorders, 12(2), 28–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Klee, T., Gavin, W. J., & Stokes, S. F.
(2007) Utterance length and lexical diversity in American- and British-English speaking children: What is the evidence for a clinical marker of SLI? In R. Paul (Ed.), Language disorders from a developmental perspective: Essays in honor of Robin S. Chapman (pp. 103–140). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Kulkofsky, S.
(2007) Narrative skills as a predictor of suggestibility and memory accuracy (Doctoral Dissertation, Cornell University). Retrieved from [URL]
Labov, W.
(1972) Language in the inner city. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Lai, W.-F., Lee, Y.-J., & Lee, J.
(2010) Visiting doctors’ offices: A comparison of Korean and Taiwanese preschool children’s narrative development. Early Education and Development, 21(3), 445–467. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liles, B.
(1993) Narrative discourse in children with language disorders and children with normal language: A critical review of literature. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 36(5), 868–882. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liles, B. Z., Duffy, R. J., Merritt, D. D., & Purcell, S. L.
(1995) Measurement of narrative discourse ability in children with language disorders. Journal of Speech, Language, & Hearing Research, 38(2), 415–425. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Losh, M., & Capps, L.
(2003) Narrative ability in high-functioning children with autism or Asperger’s syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 33(3), 239–251. Retrieved from [URL]
Lund, N. J., & Duchan, J. F.
(1993) Assessing children’s language in naturalistic contexts. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Mäkinen, L.
(2014) Narrative language in typically developing children, children with specific language impairment, and children with autism spectrum disorder (Doctoral Dissertation, University of Oulou, Finland). Retrieved from [URL]
Malvern, D., Richards, B., Chipere, N., & Durán, P.
(2004) Lexical diversity and language development: quantification and assessment. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McCabe, A.
(1997) Developmental and cross-cultural aspects of children’s narration. In M. Bamberg (Ed.), Narrative development: Six approaches (pp. 137–174). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Association.Google Scholar
McCabe, A., & Bliss, L. S.
(2003) Patterns of narrative discourse: A multicultural, life span approach. Boston: Pearson.Google Scholar
McCabe, A., Bliss, L. S., Barra, G., & Bennett, M.
(2008) Comparison of personal versus fictional narratives in children with language impairment. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 17(2), 194–206. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McCabe, A., & Peterson, C.
(1984) What makes a good story? Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 13(6), 457–480. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1991) Getting the story: A longitudinal study of parental styles in eliciting narratives and developing narrative skill. In A. McCabe & C. Peterson (Eds.), Developing narrative structure (pp. 217–254). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
McCabe, A., & Rollins, P. R.
(1994) Assessment of preschool narrative skills. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 31, 45–56. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McClure, M.
n.d.). Language arts. Retrieved from [URL]
Miilher, L. P., & Ávila, C. R. B.
(2006) Linguistic and narrative analysis in language development disorders. Pró-Fono Revista de Atualização Científica, 18(2), 177–188. Retrieved from. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Miller, J. F., & Chapman, R. S.
(1981) Systematic analysis of language transcripts [Computer software]. Madison: University of Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Minami, M.
(1994) Asian narratives (Report No. ED 372–652). Washington, D. C.: ERIC Clearing House on Language and Linguistics.Google Scholar
(2002) Culture-specific language styles: The development of oral narrative and literacy. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Muñoz, M. L., Gillam, R. B., Peña, E. D., & Gulley-Faehnle, A.
(2003) Measures of language development in fictional narratives of Latino children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services at Schools, 34(4), 332–342. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Norbury, C. F., & Bishop, D. V. M.
(2003) Narrative skills of children with communication impairments. International Journal of Communication Disorders, 231, 287–313. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peterson, C., & McCabe, A.
(1983) Developmental psycholinguistics: Three ways of looking at a child’s narrative. New York: Plenum Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pillemer, D. B., Wink, P., DiDonato, T. E., & Sanborn, R. L.
(2003) Gender differences in autobiographical memory styles of older adults. Memory, 11(6), 525–532. Retrieved from [URL]
Rice, M. L., Smolik, F., Perpich, D., Thompson, T., Rytting, N., & Blossom, M.
(2010) Mean length of utterance levels in 6-month intervals for children 3 to 9 years with and without language impairments. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53(2), 333–349. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Santos, M. E., Lynce, S., Carvalho, S., Cacela, M., & Mineiro, A.
(2015) Mean length of utterance-words in children with typical language development aged 4 to 5 years. Revista CEFAC, 14(4), 1143–1151. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Slosson, R. L., Nicholson, C. L., & Hibpshman, T. L.
(2002) (SIT-R3) Slosson Intelligence Test, Revised [Measurement Instrument]. Retrieved from [URL]
Strong, C.
(1998) The strong narrative assessment procedure. Eau Claire, WI: Thinking Publications.Google Scholar
Terry, N. P., Mills, M. T., Bingham, G. E., Mansour, S., & Marencin, N.
(2013) Oral narrative performance of African American pre-kindergartners who speak nonmainstream American English. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 44(3), 291–305. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
The MAPI Linguistic Validation Process
n.d.). Retrieved 5th March, 2016, from [URL]
Trabasso, T., & Nickels, M.
(1992) The development of goal actions in the narration of a picture story. Discourse Processes, 15(3), 249–275. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Uchikoshi, Y.
(2005) Narrative development in bilingual kindergarteners: Can Arthur help? Developmental Psychology, 41(3), 464–478. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Dam, F. J.
(Handbook of Narrative 2010) Development of cohesion in normal children’s narratives. Retrieved February 8, 2016, from Utrecht University Repository: [URL]
van den Broek, P.
(1997) Discovering the cement of the universe: The development of event comprehension from childhood to adulthood. In P. van den Broek P. Bauer & T. Bourg (Eds.), Developmental spans in event comprehension: Bridging fictional and actual events (pp. 321–342). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Wang, Q.
(2004) The emergence of cultural self-construct: Autobiographical memory and self-description in American and Chinese children. Developmental Psychology, 40(1), 3–15. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Westerveld, M. F., Gillon, G. T., & Miller, J. F.
(2004) Spoken language samples of New Zealand children in conversation and narration. Advances in Speech-Language Pathology, 6(4), 195–208. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Westerveld, M. F., & Vidler, K.
(2015) The use of the Renfrew Bus Story with 5–8-year-old Australian children. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 17(3), 304–313. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wieczorek, R.
(2010) Using MLU to study early language development in English. Psychology of Language and Communication, 14(2), 59–69. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wolf, D.
(1985) Ways of telling: Text repertoires in elementary school children. Journal of Education, 167, 71–87. Retrieved from [URL]
Woźniak, T.
(2006) Narrative discourse in Schizophrenia. Psychology of Language and Communication, 10(2), 61–88. Retrieved from [URL]
Yip, V., & Matthews, S.
(2006) Assessing language dominance in bilingual acquisition: A case for mean length utterance differentials. Language Assessment Quarterly, 3(2), 97–116. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Hamdani, Saboor & Saira Ambreen
2021. Data for the narrative skills of Urdu-speaking preschoolers. Data in Brief 34 ► pp. 106737 ff. DOI logo
Washington, Karla N., Carol Westby, Kristina Fritz, Kathryn Crowe, Rachel Wright Karem & Melanie Basinger
2021. The Narrative Competence of Bilingual Jamaican Creole– and English-Speaking Preschoolers. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 52:1 ► pp. 317 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 may 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.