Document Type : Original Articles

Authors

1 Department of Speech and Language Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation, Zahedan University of Medical sciences, Zahedan, Iran

2 Department of Speech and Language Therapy, University of Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 Mentor, Kerman Welfare Organization, Kerman, Iran

4 Department of Speech and Language Therapy, Ali Ibn Abi Talib Hospital, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran

5 Speech and Language Pathologist, Zahedan, Iran.

6 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.

Abstract

Background: To date, with rapid increase of bilingual children, more attention about different patterns of the bilingual children narratives is needed. The aim of this study was to compare microstructure level of narratives generated by typical developing kindergarten children who were bilingual in Persian and Balochi with monolingual Persian speakers.Method: Thirty Persian-speaking monolingual and thirteen available bilingual children (aged 48 months old) participated in this study. Children’s story telling was audio-recorded and analyzed using the Persian-NAP (Narrative Assessment Protocol) guidelines. Results: All of the NAP indicators include of group structure, phrase structure, modifiers, noun and verbs didn’t show significant difference between monolingual and bilingual children (0.06≤p≤0.5).Conclusion: We didn’t find different performance in the five NAP indicators between bilingual and monolingual children. It may be suggested that the different patterns of creating phrases and sentences in two languages don’t affect the grammatical use of them in second language. 

Keywords

  1. Justice LM, Bowles R, Pence K, Gosse C. A scalable tool for
  2. assessing children’s language abilities within a narrative context:
  3. The NAP (Narrative Assessment Protocol). Early Childhood
  4. Research Quarterly. 2010;25(2):218-34.
  5. Fivush R, Nelson K. Parent–child reminiscing locates the
  6. self in the past. British Journal of Developmental Psychology.
  7. ;24(1):235-51.
  8. Wang Q, Fivush R. Mother–child conversations of emotionally
  9. salient events: exploring the functions of emotional reminiscing in
  10. European-American and Chinese families. Social Development.
  11. ;14(3):473-95.
  12. Petersen DB, Gillam SL, Gillam RB. Emerging procedures in
  13. narrative assessment: The Index of Narrative Complexity. Topics
  14. in Language Disorders. 2008;28(2):115-30.
  15. Justice LM, Bowles RP, Kaderavek JN, Ukrainetz TA, Eisenberg
  16. SL, Gillam RB. The index of narrative microstructure: A
  17. clinical tool for analyzing school-age children’s narrative
  18. performances. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.
  19. ;15(2):177-91.
  20. Melzi G, Schick A, Bostwick E. Latino children’s narrative
  21. competencies over the preschool years. Actualidades en
  22. psicologia. 2013;27(115).
  23. Gutierrez-Clellen VF. Narratives in two languages: Assessing
  24. performance of bilingual children. Linguistics and Education.
  25. ;13(2):175-97.
  26. Gagarina N, Klop D, Kunnari S, Tantele K, Välimaa T, Balčiūnienė
  27. I, et al. MAIN: Multilingual assessment instrument for narratives:
  28. Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft; 2012.
  29. Minami M. Culture-specific language styles: The development of
  30. oral narrative and literacy: Multilingual Matters; 2002.
  31. Nakhshab M, Arabpour M, Kazemi Y. Narrative assessment
  32. methods in children: a systematic review. J Res Rehabil Sci.
  33. ;10 (5):704-19.
  34. Paul R, Norbury C. Language Disorders from Infancy Through
  35. Adolescence-E-Book: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing,
  36. and Communicating: Elsevier Health Sciences; 2012.
  37. Han JJ, Leichtman MD, Wang Q. Autobiographical memory
  38. in Korean, Chinese, and American children. Developmental
  39. psychology. 1998;34(4):701.
  40. Minami M, McCabe A. Rice balls and bear hunts: Japanese and
  41. North American family narrative patterns. Journal of Child
  42. Language. 1995;22(2):423-45.
  43. Minami M. Telling good stories in different languages: Bilingual
  44. children’s styles of story construction and their linguistic and
  45. educational implications. Narrative Inquiry. 2008;18(1):83-110.
  46. Cauz J. Iran Languages Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; 2017
  47. /20/2017]. Available from: https://www.britannica.com/place/
  48. Iran/Languages.
  49. Thompson I. Balochi washington: The Technology
  50. Development Group; 2016 [8/20/2017]. Available from: http://
  51. aboutworldlanguages.com/balochi.
  52. languages in Iran Shiraz, Iran: Iran Traveling Center; 2015
  53. /20/2017]. Available from: http://www.irantravelingcenter.
  54. com/languages-in-iran/.
  55. Gardner-Neblett N, Pungello EP, Iruka IU. Oral narrative skills:
  56. Implications for the reading development of African American
  57. children. Child Development Perspectives. 2012;6(3):218-24.
  58. Qasemi M, Nakhshab M, Alineghad B, Shafiei M, Tazhibi M.
  59. Description of particular language structures in normal 4-yearolds’
  60. narrations and their sex-related differences according
  61. to Narrative Assessment Protocol (NAP). J Res Rehabil Sci.
  62. ;8(4).
  63. F S. Shangul va Mangul va Habe Angur. Tehran: Miamin; 2011.
  64. Montrul S, Potowski K. Command of gender agreement in schoolage
  65. Spanish-English bilingual children. International Journal of
  66. Bilingualism. 2007;11(3):301-28.
  67. Iluz-Cohen P, Walters J. Telling stories in two languages:
  68. Narratives of bilingual preschool children with typical and
  69. impaired language. Bilingualism 2012 15(1):58-74.
  70. Gutierrez-Clellen V, Simon-Cereijido G, WAGNER C.
  71. Bilingual children with language impairment: A comparison
  72. with monolinguals and second language learners. Applied
  73. Psycholinguistics, Cambridge University Press. 2008;29(1):3–19.
  74. Cleave PL, Girolametto LE, Chen X, Johnson CJ. Narrative
  75. abilities in monolingual and dual language learning children
  76. with specific language impairment. Journal of Communication
  77. Disorders. 2010;43(6):511-22.
  78. Gutierrez-Clellen VF, Simon-Cereijido G, Erickson Leone
  79. A. Code-switching in bilingual children with specific
  80. language impairment. International Journal of Bilingualism.
  81. ;13(1):91-109.
  82. Rezzonico S, Goldberg A, Mak KK-Y, Yap S, Milburn T, Belletti
  83. A, et al. Narratives in Two Languages: Storytelling of Bilingual
  84. Cantonese–English Preschoolers. Journal of Speech, Language,
  85. and Hearing Research. 2016;59(3):521-32.
  86. Hipfner-Boucher K, Milburn T, Weitzman E, Greenberg J,
  87. Pelletier J, Girolametto L. Narrative abilities in subgroups of
  88. English language learners and monolingual peers. International
  89. Journal of Bilingualism. 2015;19(6):677-92.
  90. Uccelli P, Paez MM. Narrative and vocabulary development
  91. of bilingual children from kindergarten to first grade:
  92. Developmental changes and associations among English and
  93. Spanish skills. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in
  94. Schools. 2007;38(3):225-36.