Creative and Stylistic Devices Employed by Children During a Storybook Narrative Task: A Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract

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.

Assessment of Structure Dependent Narrative Features in Modeled Contexts: African American and European American Children

“…Our findings are similar to those reported by deVilliers (2004), Celinska (2009) and Gorman et al, (2012) who elicited narratives from children using a modeled context to minimize potential cultural differences that may impact narrative feature use. Using a modeled elicitation context it is reasonable to expect similar microstructure and macrostructure elements to be present in the narratives of AA and EA children, with the exception of Plan.…”

“…It is well-known that the provision of a model decreases the likelihood of bias in assessment for culturally and linguistically diverse populations (Laing & Kamhi, 2003;Lidz & Pena, 1996). This study and others have shown that a modeled narrative elicitation context yields similar stories that contain similar macrostructural and microstructural elements for AA and EA children regardless of the age level sampled (Gorman et al, 2012). However, our findings suggest there may be even less cultural variation in microstructure making it a better "indicator" of narrative "integrity" than macrostructure, which may be more susceptible to the influence of cultural schema or knowledge (Curenton & Justice, 2004).…”

“…It is possible that differences observed in the use of macrostructure (story elements) or microstructure (including literate language features) within and across groups are mediated by elicitation context. Because of a potential elicitation confound, structured picture sequences and modeled elicitation contexts have been suggested as a more "dialect neutral" context for the assessment of the structural integrity of a narrative (Celinska, 2009;deVilliers, 2004;Gorman et al, 2012;Seymour, Roeper, de Villiers, de Villiers, 2005).…”

Meaning-making from wordless (or nearly wordless) picturebooks: what educational research expects and what readers have to say

“…Chen and Pan, 2009) • linguistic and cognitive abilities of children from different language and /or cultural back grounds (since most of these are conducted in the US they usually concern either Spanish, Chinese or African American children) (e.g. Gorman et al, 2011) • home/family literacy research and intervention (e.g. Caspe, 2009) • creative writing (e.g.…”

Dialect-Neutral Indices of Narrative Cohesion and Evaluation

“…Therefore, stories from children who are growing up in different cultures may differ and may require assessment that is culturally sensitive. Although some recent work has focused on narrative development in children with Hispanic and African American (AA) backgrounds (Champion, 2003;Fiestas & Peña, 2004;Gorman, Fiestas, Pena, & Clark, 2011;Gutierrez-Clellen & Quinn, 1993), most developmental research on narratives has been conducted on populations from European American (EA) backgrounds (Gee, 1986;Hester, 1996). Best practices have not yet been established for assessing narratives from a broader range of children, including AAs (Champion, 2003).…”