The relationship between narrative microstructure and macrostructure: Differences between six- and eight-year-olds

Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate age-related differences in narrative abilities at the macrostructural and microstructural levels and to examine which microstructural aspects explain narrative macrostructure at ages six and eight. Oral narratives were elicited from 89 Croatian monolingual children using the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN). At the microstructural level, the measure of lexical diversity D, clausal density, and mean length of clause were assessed. Macrostructure was assessed using the standardized MAIN scoring procedure. We found differences between the two age groups in lexical diversity, clausal density, and macrostructure, with eight-year-olds scoring higher on all measures. Variance in the macrostructure was explained to a significant extent by lexical diversity in the case of six-year-olds, and by both lexical diversity and clausal density in the case of eight-year-olds. Our results suggest that six-year-olds rely mostly on lexical abilities when telling a story, while eight-year-olds also draw on syntactic abilities.

Text complexity and variety factors in narrative retelling and narrative comprehension among Arabic-speaking preschool children

“…Similar results were reported in former research using narratives elicited from LITMUS-MAIN in other languages (e.g. Altman et al, 2016; Košutar et al, 2022; Lindgren, 2019). The very poor macrostructure skills observed in our sample might reflect children’s poor experience with storytelling and with informal literacy in general.…”

Acquisition of narrative macrostructure: A comprehensive overview of results from the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives

“…Studies including older children show more mixed results. For example, in a study of Croatian-speaking monolinguals (N=89), Košutar et al (2022) found a significant difference between ages 6 and 8, whereas Gagarina (2016), in a study of Russian-German bilinguals found no significant difference between children in Grade 1 (aged 6;5-7;5) and Grade 3 (aged 7;11-10;6). Similarly, Fiani et al (2022) found no significant difference between Lebanese Arabic-French bilinguals aged 6-7 and 8-9, and Yang et al (2023), in their study of Kam-Mandarin Chinese bilinguals aged 5 to 9 (N=55), found no effect of age.…”

“…The majority of the studies using MAIN have focused on age 4 to 7, i.e., children attending preschool and/or the first grades of primary school, depending on the school system of the country (e.g., Altman et al, 2016;Boerma et al, 2016;Bohnacker et al, 2020;Bohnacker & Lindgren, 2021;Fichman et al, 2022;Haddad, 2022;Kapalková et al, 2016;Kunnari et al, 2016;Lindgren, 2018;Öztekin, 2019;Peristeri et al, 2020;Roch et al, 2016;Wehmeier, 2020), with fewer studies including children aged 8 or above (e.g., Fiani et al, 2020Fiani et al, , 2022Gagarina, 2016;Košutar et al, 2022;Lindgren, 2022;Peristeri et al, 2020;Tribushinina et al, 2022;Tsimpli et al, 2016;Yang et al, 2023). Relatively many previous studies using MAIN analysed data from participants of different ages without including age as a variable in the study (e.g., Altman et al, 2016;Blom & Boerma, 2020;Boerma et al, 2016;Fichman et al, 2022;Kunnari & Välimaa, 2020).…”

Age and task type effects on comprehension and production of narrative macrostructure: storytelling and retelling by Swedish-speaking children aged 6 and 8

“…Only a smaller number of studies using MAIN included 8year-olds or older children and their results are more mixed, both for story comprehension and story structure (e.g., Gagarina, 2016;Fiani et al, 2020Fiani et al, , 2022Košutar et al, 2022;Lindgren, 2022;Tribushinina et al, 2022). Most relevant here are studies investigating children aged 6 to 8, the age groups included in the present study.…”