Article published in:
Narrative Inquiry
Vol. 25:1 (2015) ► pp. 70–90

Discourse organization in parent-led narratives

Storytelling in Basque and Spanish

| University of the Basque Country
| University Studies Abroad Consortium
| Beit Berl Academic College in Kfar Saba and Hebrew University of Jerusalem
This article analyzes parent narratives in Basque and Spanish by means of a story aimed at boys and girls between ages of 3 and 8 in order to investigate the similarities and differences in the narrative input provided by parents, paying attention to structural and organizational features in terms of their narrative forms and functions. We used a quantitative methodology that recorded the frequencies of the different variables under study: narrative length, structure, cohesion (connectors and verb tense), and the types of interaction between adults and children in both languages. The results show differences in narrative input relative to the age of the child and the language used. With older children, parents used a less interactive style in both Basque and Spanish. Furthermore, there are differences in narrative structure as a function of the age of the child: with the 3–4 year olds, more clauses were used to explain the details of the action taking place outdoors. Finally, narratives in Basque made greater use of temporal connectors, while narratives in Spanish used more subordinating connectors.
Keywords: Storytelling, linguistics, communicative interaction, education, parent-child interaction, parents as teachers
Published online: 19 February 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.25.1.05etx
References
Almgren, M., Idiazabal, I., & Manterola, I
(2009) Euskararen ikaskuntza H1 eta H2 gisa 5 eta 8 urte bitartean. Euskera, 54(2-1), 683–721.Google Scholar
Beaugrande, R., & Dressler, W
(1997) Introducción a la lingüística del texto. Barcelona: Ariel.Google Scholar
Bennett-Kastor, T
(2002) The “frog story” narratives of Irish-English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 5(2), 131–146. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Berman, R.A., & Slobin, D.I
(1994) Relating events in narrative: A crosslinguistic developmental study. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Blum-Kulka, S., & Snow, C.E
(2004) Introduction: The potential of peer talk. Discourse Studies, 6(3), 291–306. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bonilla, S
(2005) Estudio preliminar. In R. Beaugrande & W. Dressler (Eds.), Introducción a la lingüística del texto (pp. 7–69). Barcelona: Ariel.Google Scholar
Bruner, J.S
(1987) Life as narrative. Social research, 54(1), 11–32.Google Scholar
Burns, S.M., Griffin, P., & Snow, C.E
(1999) Starting out right: A guide to promoting children’s reading success. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Cazden, C.B
(1991) El discurso en el aula: el lenguaje de la enseñanza y del aprendizaje. Barcelona: Paidós.Google Scholar
Cenoz, J
(2009) Towards multilingual education. Basque educational research from an International Perspective. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Vol. 721. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Goikoetxea, N
(2008) Hizkuntzen arteko elkar eragina EAE-ko hezkuntza eleanitzean. BAT Soziolinguistika aldizkaria, 681,149–154.Google Scholar
Hemphill, L., & Snow, C.E
(1996) Language and literacy development: Discontinuities and differences. In D. Olson & M. Torrance (Eds.), Handbook of education and human development (pp. 173–201). London: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ibarretxe-Antuñano, I
(2004) Language typologies in our language use: The case of Basque motion events in adult oral narratives. Cognitive Linguistics, 15(3), 317–349. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kupersmitt, J., & Berman, R.A
(2001) Linguistic features of Spanish-Hebrew children’s narratives. In L. Verhoeven & S. Strömqvist (Eds.), Narrative development in a multilingual context (pp. 277–319). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, M
(1969) Frog, where are you? New York, NY: Dial Press.Google Scholar
Melzi, G., & Caspe, M
(2005) Variations in maternal narrative styles during book reading interactions. Narrative Inquiry, 15(1), 101–125. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Minami, M
(2011) Telling stories in two languages. Multiple approaches to understanding English-Japanese bilingual children´s narratives. Charlotte, North Carolina, NC: Information Age Publishing.Google Scholar
Minami, M., & Shibatani, K
(2000) Narrating a frog story: The acquisition of narrative by second-language learners. The 12 World Congress of Applied Linguistics , Tokyo, CD-ROM Proceedings.
Paztoriza de Etchebarne, D
(1975) El arte de narrar: oficio olvidado. Buenos Aires: Guadalupe.Google Scholar
Ryan, S.A
(2000) The value of early literacy and parental involvement. Unpublished master’s thesis, Biola University, La Mirada, CA.Google Scholar
Slobin, D.I
(1996) From “thought and language” to “thinking for speaking”. In J. Gumperz & S. Levinson (Eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity (pp. 70–96). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stavans, A., & Goldzweig, G
(2008) Parent-child-adult storytelling. Commonalities, differences and interrelations. Narrative Inquiry, 18(2), 230–257.Google Scholar
Stavans, A
(1996) Development of parental narrative input. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 6(3), 253–280. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2001) Trilingual narratives: Relating events in three languages. In L. Verhoeven & S. Strömqvist (Eds.), Narrative Development in a Multilingual Context (pp. 340–372). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gobierno Vasco-Eusko Jaurlaritza
(2012) V Encuesta Sociolingüística. Vitoria: Gobierno Vasco. Viceconsejería de Política Lingüística.Google Scholar
Wells, G
(1986) The meaning makers: Children learning language and using language to learn. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Quasthoff, Uta & Juliane Stude
2021. Children’s narrative interactions. Narrative Inquiry 31:1 ► pp. 147 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 april 2022. 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.