Purpose The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of culture on the creative and stylistic features children employ when producing narratives based on wordless picture books. Method Participants included 60 first- and second-grade African American, Latino American, and Caucasian children. A subset of narratives based on wordless picture books collected as part of a larger study was coded and analyzed for the following creative and stylistic conventions: organizational style (topic centered, linear, cyclical), dialogue (direct, indirect), reference to character relationships (nature, naming, conduct), embellishment (fantasy, suspense, conflict), and paralinguistic devices (expressive sounds, exclamatory utterances). Results Many similarities and differences between ethnic groups were found. No significant differences were found between ethnic groups in organizational style or use of paralinguistic devices. African American children included more fantasy in their stories, Latino children named their characters more often, and Caucasian children made more references to the nature of character relationships. Conclusion Even within the context of a highly structured narrative task based on wordless picture books, culture influences children’s production of narratives. Enhanced understanding of narrative structure, creativity, and style is necessary to provide ecologically valid narrative assessment and intervention for children from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Purpose The goals of this study were to evaluate the impact of short-term phonological awareness (PA) instruction presented in children’s first language (L1; Spanish) on gains in their L1 and second language (L2; English) and to determine whether relationships exist between vocabulary size, verbal working memory, and PA in Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs). Method Participants included 25 kindergartners who received PA instruction and 10 controls. A 2-way within-subjects repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to evaluate gains. Relationships between PA gains, Spanish and English vocabulary, and memory, as measured using nonword repetition and experimental working memory tasks, were analyzed using correlation and regression analyses. Results Results indicated significant and equivalent gains in both languages of children in the experimental group and no gains in the control group. Spanish vocabulary size was significantly related to PA gains in both languages and was more strongly related to English gains than was English vocabulary size. The memory tasks predicted gains in each language in distinct ways. Conclusion Results support the conclusion that PA instruction and strong vocabulary skills in an individual’s L1 benefit PA development in both the L1 and L2. Results also indicate that dynamic relationships exist between vocabulary size, storage and processing components of working memory, and PA development in both languages of ELLs.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to test Bedore and Leonard’s (1998) proposal that a verb morpheme composite may hold promise as a clinical marker for specific language impairment (SLI) in English speakers and serve as an accurate basis for the classification of children with and without SLI beyond the preschool level. Method The language transcripts of 50 school-age children with SLI (Mage = 7;9) and 50 age-matched typically developing peers (Mage = 7;9) were analyzed. Following the Bedore and Leonard procedure, three variables were measured: mean length of utterance in morphemes (MLU-morphemes), a noun morpheme composite, and a finite verb morpheme composite. Results Overall findings indicated that neither grammatical morpheme composite alone adequately discriminated the groups at this developmental level. Combining the noun and verb grammatical morpheme composite measures with MLU-morphemes resulted in good discriminant accuracy in classifying subgroups of the youngest children with and without SLI in the school-age sample. Conclusions We did not find that verb morphology alone served as a useful clinical marker of SLI in school-age children. Potential explanations for these findings and ideas for future research are discussed.

The current study was designed to compare the English nonword repetition accuracy in 7-year-old monolingual English, Korean–English bilingual, Chinese–English bilingual, and Spanish–English bilingual children. The relationships among nonword repetition accuracy, vocabulary, phonological awareness, and phonotactic probability in each group of children were also examined. The results indicated significant differences among the groups’ accuracy of consonants and vowels by syllable length. Different correlational patterns emerged among nonword repetition accuracy, vocabulary, and phonological awareness. Theoretical and clinical implications for the use of nonword repetition tasks for children from various linguistic backgrounds are discussed.

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