Oral narrative skills: Explaining the language-emergent literacy link by race/ethnicity and SES.

Abstract

Although children's early language skills have been found to predict literacy outcomes, little is known about the role of preschool oral narrative skills in the pathway between language and emergent literacy or how these associations differ by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. The current study uses the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study to explore how language at age 2 is associated with narrative skills at age 4 and emergent literacy outcomes at age 5 for a nationally representative sample of children. Findings demonstrate that early language is associated with narrative skills for most children. Oral narrative skills were found to mediate the pathway between early language and kindergarten emergent literacy for poor and nonpoor African American children. Implications for children's literacy development and future research are discussed.

Moving Forward by Looking Back: Understanding Why Some Spanish‐Speaking English Learners Fall Behind

“…Producing a narrative requires the use of sequential and referential language, as well as an understanding of causal and temporal relationships, which are common factors in most children's books. Narrative language sample measures are highly correlated with literacy skills in monolingual and bilingual children, and improvements in narrative skills can lead to improvements in literacy (Gardner‐Neblett & Iruka, ; Gorman, Bingham, Fiestas, & Patton Terry, ). Furthermore, narrative language samples possess a range of unique properties: (a) they provide an accurate sample of expressive language skills; (b) have been shown to be predictive of literacy skills within and across languages (Miller et al., ); and (c) can be least‐biased depending on the materials used for narrative elicitation, considering the relevance and familiarity across cultures.…”

“…Furthermore, many EL students are also in classrooms with high student‐to‐teacher ratios and instructed by teachers who lack training in how to best serve EL children, all of which have been associated with gaps in academic achievement as compared to their monolingual English‐speaking peers (Fry, ; see Klingner & Soltero‐Gonzaléz, , for a review). Although EL children are more likely to come from environments considered to be at risk, many studies of EL, minority children have included participants that were not necessarily from low socioeconomic households (Gardner‐Neblett & Iruka, ; Gorman, ). This study uses a large‐scale, longitudinal sample of Spanish‐speaking EL participants more representative of the EL population in the United States to conduct analyses that will be more generalizable to the growing population of ELs nationwide.…”

Children’s narrative story stem responses: Contributions of executive functioning and language proficiency to relationship representations

“…Schick and Melzi () assert that narratives provide a medium for individuals to represent and make sense of their experiences. Oral narrative skills emerge as early as age 2 or 3; around age 6 children begin to form comprehensive and coherent narratives (Gardner‐Neblett & Iruka, ). Producing coherent oral narratives is a multifaceted process where an individual must “maintain the rough structure of the story… concentrate on the complete telling of one segment at a time, and nimbly shift between [segments]…” (Friend & Bates, , p. 3).…”

MAIN-testi kasutamine eesti laste jutustamisoskuse hindamiseks

“…Lauren R. Shapiro ja Judit A. Hudson (1991) on leidnud, et juba nelja-aastaselt ollakse võimelised kasutama juttude mõistmiseks ning esitamiseks alateadlikult jutuplaani (ingl story schema); lapsed hakkavad eristama jutustusi teistest tekstitüüpidest, näiteks kirjeldustest. Kui viieaastased lapsed kalduvad jutustusi lõpetama kulminatsiooni ning kokkuvõtteta, siis kuueaastaste laste jutustustes on olemas sissejuhatus, teemaarendus, kulminatsioon, lahendus, otsus ja lõpetus, mis viitavad võimele arendada ja luua terviklikku süžeed (Nelson 1996, Gardner-Neblett, Iruka 2015. Narratiive, mille loomise oskus on seotud nii üldise keeleoskuse kui ka vaimse arenguga, peetakse väga heaks kõnearengu taseme ja keeleliste võimete, hilisema lugemis-ja kirjutamisoskuse näitajaks ning akadeemilise edukuse ennustajaks (vt nt Adamka 2008, Bishop, Edmundson 1987, Chang 2004, Griffin jt 2004, Soodla 2011.…”

“…Seega on narratiividel otsene seos ka väikelapse keeleliste võimetega. (Gardner-Neblett, Iruka 2015, Hudges jt 1997, Lerkkanen 2007 Nii kirjalike kui ka suuliste narratiivide kogumiseks ja uurimiseks on mitmeid võimalusi. Makro-ja mikrostruktuur kui kaks eraldiseisvat, kuid vastastikus seoses olevat jutustuse tasandit iseloomustavad narratiiviloome oskust (Liles jt 1995), mistõttu tuleks narratiivide puhul analüüsida mõlemat.…”