The Development of Syntactic Complexity in Thai Children’s Narratives

Abstract

This article aims to present two essential points. Firstly, syntactic complexity value is an indicator of language development of children, especially in relation to narratives due to maturation and increased cognitive development. Secondly, complexity is measurable and assessable. This article argues that syntactic complexity as numerically measured has benefits for studying the close development of children in different age groups in which differences of language pattern and innovation may not be readily discerned. In order for a more accurate comparison between different age groups, the information employed was narratives of Thai children in the CHILDES database, Thai Frog Story series. The age groups were divided into 4 tiers: 4, 6, 9 and 11 years old respectively. Each group contained ten children which were compared to ten adults. The study found that syntactic complexity of children’s narratives develops increasingly until it resembles to that of adults.

Understanding Plots in Storytelling: An Examination of 9- to 15-Year-Old Thai Children with Intellectual Disabilities

“…Narratives have been used as a measuring tool for language development in Thai and crosslinguistically for decades (Berman & Slobin, 1994;Piyapasuntra, 2019;Ratitamkul, 2010;Reese et al, 2012;Rungrojsuwan, 2019a;Rungrojsuwan, 2019b;StrӦmqvist & Verhoeven, 2004;Yangklang, 2003). Bliss et al (1998) proposed content-based criteria for narrative development called 'Narrative Assessment Profile' (NAP), including 1) topic maintenance, 2) event sequencing, 3) explicitness, 4) referencing, 5) conjunctive cohesion, and 6) fluency.…”

“…The second volume of article collection employing the 'Frog Story' database, edited by StrӦmqvist and Verhoeven (2004), contributed findings from other languages such as Basque, Japanese, Swedish, Thai, Tzeltal, and American Sign Language. In Thai, the Thai Frog Story database was developed in 2001 (Zlatev & Yangklang, 2001), and has been utilized by researchers in many syntactic and communicative aspects (Piyapasuntra, 2019;Ratitamkul, 2010;Rungrojsuwan, 2019a;Rungrojsuwan, 2019b;Yangklang, 2003;Zlatev & Yangklang, 2004).…”

“…Many aspects of the language development of typical Thai children have been examined, including phonetic and phonological development (Luksaneeyanawin, 1976;Onsuwan et al, 2020;Rungrojsuwan, 2003;Rungrojsuwan et al, 2004b;Tuaycharoen, 1977), lexical development (Rungrojsuwan, 2003;Rungrojsuwan, 2019b;Rungrojsuwan et al, 2004a;Tuaycharoen 1984), as well as syntactic and semantic development (Piyapasuntra, 2019;Ratitamkul, 2010;Yangklang, 2003). However, studies about language development of CID have yet to receive the attention of Thai researchers and educators.…”

The Development of Narrative Macrostructure of Thai Children

“…Global structure: the onset of the plot, unfolding of Berman & Slobin (1994) the plot, and resolution of the plot Macrostructure: orientation, complicating action, Labov & Waletzky (1967) evaluation, resolution, and coda (2003) examined the development of serial verb construction, while Piyapasuntra (2009) studied the development of syntactic complexity in Thai children's narratives. Phrases and clauses are basic units of these two studies.…”