Chapter published in:
Developing Narrative Comprehension: Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives
Edited by Ute Bohnacker and Natalia Gagarina
[Studies in Bilingualism 61] 2020
► pp. 31–60

Narrative comprehension in Lebanese Arabic-French bilingual children

| Saint Joseph University of Beirut , Lebanon
| Saint Joseph University of Beirut , Lebanon
| University of Tours, Inserm , France
This chapter examines the development of comprehension of macrostructure in narratives by 48 simultaneous bilingual Lebanese Arabic-French children aged 4–9. Fictional storytelling and narrative comprehension tasks were administered in both languages, using the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (Gagarina et al., 2012). The comprehension scores were compared across the two languages and analyzed in relation to age, macrostructure production scores, language dominance, expressive vocabulary, and a composite measure of exposure to stories. The results showed significant age effects on comprehension and no differences between languages, irrespectively of language dominance. Significant correlations were found between comprehension and production scores, between comprehension scores in both languages and exposure to stories in French, and between comprehension and expressive vocabulary. The results suggest that story comprehension is invariant across languages, meaning that a bilingual child carries over narrative abilities across languages even when one language is less dominant than the other. Nonetheless, the results also show that exposure to storytelling affects performance on macrostructure comprehension and that assessment of macrostructure comprehension requiring verbal answers necessitates minimal language proficiency.
Keywords: narratives, macrostructure, comprehension, Lebanese Arabic, French
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Lebanon’s multilingual context and the challenges for language assessment
    • 1.2Development of narrative comprehension
    • 1.3Factors involved in the development of narrative comprehension
  • 2.Objectives
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Materials
    • 3.3Procedures
    • 3.4Narrative measures
      • 3.4.1Comprehension
      • 3.4.2Production
        • 3.4.2.1Story structure
        • 3.4.2.2Structure complexity
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Development of narrative comprehension in Lebanese Arabic and French
    • 4.2Comparison of narrative comprehension in Lebanese Arabic and French
    • 4.3Development of comprehension skills in relation with the development of story structure and story complexity
    • 4.4Development of comprehension skills in relation with language dominance and with exposure to stories
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Development of narrative comprehension in Lebanese Arabic and French
    • 5.2Comparison of comprehension skills of children in both languages
    • 5.3Development of narrative comprehension in relation with production
    • 5.4Development of comprehension skills in relation with language dominance, expressive vocabulary, and exposure to stories
  • 6.Conclusion and clinical implications
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 December 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.61.02fia
References

References

Abou, S. J.
(1962) Le bilinguisme arabe-français au Liban. Essai d’anthropologie culturelle. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Akinci, M.-A., Jisa, H., & Kern, S.
(2001) Influence of L1 Turkish on L2 French narratives. In L. Verhoeven & S. Strömqvist (Eds.), Narrative development in a multilingual context (pp. 189–208). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Armon-Lotem, S., de Jong, J., & Meir, N.
(Eds.) (2015) Assessing multilingual children: Disentangling bilingualism from language impairment. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Berman, R. A., & Slobin, D. I.
(Eds.) (1994) Relating events in narrative: a cross-linguistic developmental study. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Bishop, D. V. M., & 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. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bitetti, D., & Hammer, C. S.
(2016) The home literacy environment and the English narrative development of Spanish-English bilingual children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 59(5), 1159–1171. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Boerma, T., Leseman, P., Timmermeister, M., Wijnen, F., & Blom, E.
(2016) Narrative abilities of monolingual and bilingual children with and without language impairment: Implications for clinical practice: A narrative as diagnostic tool. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 51(6), 626–638. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bohnacker, U.
(2016) Tell me a story in English or Swedish: Narrative production and comprehension in bilingual preschoolers and first graders. Applied Psycholinguistics, 37(1), 19–48. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Botting, N.
(2002) Narrative as a tool for the assessment of linguistic and pragmatic impairments. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 18(1), 1–22. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Boudreau, D.
(2008) Narrative abilities. Advances in research and implications for clinical practice. Topics in Language Disorders, 28(2), 99–114. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bruner, J.
(1990) Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bus, A. G., van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Pellegrini, A. D.
(1995) Joint book reading makes for success in learning to read: A meta-analysis on intergenerational transmission of literacy. Review of Educational Research, 65(1), 1–21. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cain, K.
(2003) Text comprehension and its relation to coherence and cohesion in children’s fictional narratives. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 21(3), 335–351. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Coelho, C. A., Liles, B. Z., & Duffy, R. J.
(1995) Impairments of discourse abilities and executive functions in traumatically brain-injured adults. Brain Injury, 9(5), 471–477. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Darwiche Jabbour, Z.
(2004) La francophonie au Liban et les défis de la mondialisation. Cahiers de l’Association Internationale des Études Françaises, 56, 17–33. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dickinson, D. K., & Smith, M. W.
(1994) Long term effects of preschool teachers’ book readings on low-income children’s vocabulary and story comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 29(2), 105–120. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dickinson, D., & Tabors, P.
(2001) Beginning literacy with language. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.Google Scholar
Fiani, R., Roch, D., & Henry, G.
(2016) Développement de la macrostructure du récit oral: Analyse de la trame narrative chez les enfants libanais âgés entre 5 et 9 ans à partir de l’outil “Frog, where are you” (Unpublished MA thesis). Saint Joseph University of Beirut, Lebanon.Google Scholar
Fiestas, C. E., & Peña, E. D.
(2004) Narrative discourse in bilingual children: Language and task effects. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 35(2), 155–168. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gagarina, N., Klop, D., Kunnari, S., Tantele, K., Välimaa, T., Balčiūnienė, I., Bohnacker, U., & Walters, J.
(2012) MAIN: Multilingual Asssessment Instrument for Narratives. ZAS Papers in Linguistics, 56. Berlin: Leibniz Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft.Google Scholar
(2015) Assessment of narrative abilities in bilingual children. In S. Armon-Lotem, J. de Jong, & N. Meir (Eds.), Assessing multilingual children: Disentangling bilingualism from language impairment (pp. 243–269). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gonzalez, J. E., & Uhing, B. M.
(2008) Home literacy environments and young Hispanic children’s English and Spanish oral language: A communality analysis. Journal of Early Intervention, 30(2), 116–139. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, T. M., Hemphill, L., Camp, L., & Wolf, D. P.
(2004) Oral discourse in the preschool years and later literacy skills. First Language, 24(2), 123–147. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez-Clellen, V. F.
(2002) Narratives in two languages: Assessing performance of bilingual children. Linguistics and Education, 13(2), 175–197. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Haddad, K.
(1997) Anatomie de la francophonie libanaise ou les visages linguistiques du Liban. Espace, populations, sociétés: Les populations du monde arabe – People of the Arab Middle East 1997(1), 65–72. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hoyek, S.
(2004) Le français dans l’enseignement scolaire et universitaire au Liban. Cahiers de l’Association Internationale des Études Françaises, 56, 49–56. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kapalková, S., Polišenská, K., Marková, L., & Fenton, J.
(2016) Narrative abilities in early successive bilingual Slovak-English children: A cross-language comparison. Applied Psycholinguistics, 37(1), 145–164. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Karlsen, J., Geva, E., & Lyster, S.-A.
(2016) Cognitive, linguistic, and contextual factors in Norwegian second language learner’s narrative production. Applied Psycholinguistics, 37(5), 1117–1145. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Khomsi, A.
(2001) ELO: évaluation du langage oral. Paris, France: ECPA.Google Scholar
Kunnari, S., Välimaa, T., & Laukkanen-Nevala, P.
(2016) Macrostructure in the narratives of monolingual Finnish and bilingual Finnish-Swedish children. Applied Psycholinguistics, 37(1), 123–144. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lassalle-Gharrios, J. & Marcoin, F.
(2011) La rencontre de l’enfant libanais avec le livre. Entre littérature pour la jeunesse française et francophone (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Université d’Artois, France.Google Scholar
Leclerc, J.
(2015) Liban dans l’aménagement linguistique dans le monde. Québec, CEFAN, Université Laval. Retrieved from http://​www​.axl​.cefan​.ulaval​.ca​/asie​/liban​.htm (17 June, 2020).
Leseman, P. P. M., Scheele, A. F., Mayo, A. Y., & Messer, M. H.
(2007) Home literacy as a special language environment to prepare children for school. Zeitschrift Für Erziehungswissenschaft, 10(3), 334–355. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Liles, B. Z.
(1993) Narrative discourse in children with language disorder and children with normal language: A critical review of the literature. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 36(5), 868–882. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lindgren, J.
(2018) Developing narrative competence. Swedish, Swedish-German and Swedish-Turkish children aged 4–6 (Studia Linguistica Upsaliensia 19). Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B.
(2000) The CHILDES Project: Tools for analyzing talk (3rd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Maviş, I., Tunçer, M., & Gagarina, N.
(2016) Macrostructure components in narrations of Turkish-German bilingual children. Applied Psycholinguistics, 37(1), 69–89. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, M.
(1969) Frog, where are you? New York, NY: Dial Press.Google Scholar
Norbury, C. F., & Bishop, D. V. M.
(2003) Narrative skills of children with communication impairments. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 38(3), 287–313. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Oakhill, J. V., Hartt, J., & Samols, D.
(2005) Levels of comprehension monitoring and working memory in good and poor comprehenders. Reading and writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 18(7–9), 657–686. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Oakhill, J. V., & Cain, K.
(2012) The precursors of reading comprehension and word reading in young readers: Evidence from a four-year longitudinal study. Scientific Studies of Reading, 16(2), 91–121. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
O’Neill, D. K., Pearce, M. J., & Pick, J. L.
(2004) Preschool children’s narratives and performance on the Peabody Individualized Achievement Test Revised: Evidence of a relation between early narrative and later mathematical ability. First Language, 24(2), 149–183. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Paris, A. H., & Paris, S. G.
(2003) Assessing narrative comprehension in young children. Reading Research Quarterly, 38(1), 36–76. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, B. Z.
(2002) Narrative competence among monolingual and bilingual school children in Miami. In D. K. Oller & R. E. Eilers (Eds.), Language and literacy in bilingual children (pp. 135–174). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Raven, J. C., Court, J. & Raven, J.
(1986) Raven’s coloured matrices. London: H. K. Lewis.Google Scholar
Reilly, J., Losh, M., Bellugi, U., & Wulfeck, B.
(2004) “Frog, where are you?” Narratives in children with specific language impairment, early focal brain injury, and Williams syndrome. Brain and Language, 88(2), 229–247. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Roch, M., Florit, E., & Levorato, C.
(2016) Narrative competence of Italian-English bilingual children between 5 and 7 years. Applied Psycholinguistics, 37(1), 49–67. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Shaaban, K. A.
(1997) Bilingual education in Lebanon. In J. Cummins & D. Corson (Eds.), Encyclopedia of language and education (Vol. 5, pp. 251–259). Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Sénéchal, M., & LeFevre, J.
(2002) Parental involvement in the development of children’s reading skill: A five-year longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 73(2), 445–460.Google Scholar
Sénéchal, M.
(2006) Testing the home literacy model: Parent involvement in kindergarten is differentially related to grade 4 reading comprehension, fluency, spelling, and reading for pleasure. Scientific Studies of Reading, 10(1), 59–87. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sparks, A., & Reese, E.
(2013) From reminiscing to reading: Home contributions to children’s developing language and literacy in low-income families. First Language, 33(1), 89–109. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Squires, K. E., Lugo-Neris, M. J., Peña, E. D., Bedore, L. M., Bohman, T. M., & Gilliam, R. B.
(2014) Story retelling by bilingual children with language impairments and typically developing controls. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 49(1), 60–74. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Stein, N. L., & Glenn, C. G.
(1979) An analysis of story comprehension in elementary school children. In R. Freedle (Ed.), Discourse processing: Multidisciplinary perspectives (pp. 53–120). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Thordardottir, E. T.
(2015) Proposed diagnostic procedures for use in bilingual and cross-linguistic contexts. In S. Armon-Lotem, J. de Jong, & N. Meir (Eds.), Assessing multilingual children: Disentangling bilingualism from language impairment (pp. 331–358). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Trabasso, T., & Nickels, M.
(1992) The development of goal plans of action in the narration of a picture story. Discourse Processes, 15(3), 249–275. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Trabasso, T., & Stein, N. L.
(1994) Using goal-plan knowledge to merge the past with the present and the future in narrating events online. In M. M. Haith, J. B. Benson, R. J. Roberts Jr., & B. F. Pennington (Eds.), The development of future-oriented processes (pp. 323–349). Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Tsimpli, I., Peristeri, E., & Andreou, M.
(2016) Narrative production in monolingual and bilingual children with specific language impairment, Applied Psycholinguistics, 37(1), 195–216. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tuller, L.
(2015) Clinical use of parental questionnaires in multilingual contexts. In S. Armon-Lotem, J. de Jong, & N. Meir (Eds.), Methods for assessing multilingual children: Disentangling bilingualism from language impairment. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Uccelli, P., & Páez, M. M.
(2007) Narrative and vocabulary development of bilingual children from kindergarten to first grade: Developmental changes and associations among English and Spanish skills. Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 38(3), 225–236. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
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. J. Bauer & T. Bourg (Eds.), Developmental spans in event comprehension and representation (pp. 321–342). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Van Dongen, R., & Westby, C.
(1986) Building the narrative mode of thought through children’s literature. Topics in Language Disorders, 7(1), 70–83. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Westerveld, M.
(2014) Emergent literacy performance across two languages: assessing four-year-old bilingual children. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 17(5), 526–543. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Zebib, R., Henry, G., Khomsi, A., Messarra, C., & Hreich, E.
(2017) Batterie d’Evaluation du Langage Oral chez l’enfant libanais (ELO-L). Beirut: Liban Tests Editions.Google Scholar
Zebib, R., Prévost, P., Tuller, L. & Henry, G.
to appear). Plurilinguisme et troubles spécifiques du langage au Liban. Beyrouth: Presses universitaires de l’Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth.
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Bohnacker, Ute & Natalia Gagarina
2020.  In Developing Narrative Comprehension [Studies in Bilingualism, 61], ► pp. 2 ff. Crossref logo
Bohnacker, Ute, Buket Öztekin & Josefin Lindgren
2020.  In Developing Narrative Comprehension [Studies in Bilingualism, 61], ► pp. 100 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 april 2021. 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.