Development of Early Child Narratology

Development of Early Child NarratologyAimsI aim to evaluate how the structure and composition of early child narratology develops and evolves with age.To conduct this evaluation I go forth approach topical anesthetic primary schools for examples of short communicatory schoolbooks written by Key stage 1 pupils (4-7), to serve as falsifiable information.I will assess these texts by employing the six part Labovian narrative model and analysing the presence and frequency of narrative components, evaluative temporal indicators and markers.BackgroundThis guinea pig builds on many other works as the Labovian model is now frequently used to assess narratology in children, (see Kernan, 1977 Eaton, Collis and Lewis, 1999). The idea of linguistic and narrative ontogenesis in children is also a popular issue. One study that specifically charts the evolution of child narrative with age is Telling stories of experiences Narrative increment of unfledged Chinese children a study by Chien-J uChang in which childly Chinese children were visited in their homes at age 3 years and 6 months and then at 3 month intervals for the next 9 months. Their individual development in three key areas (narrative structure, evaluation, and temporality) was evaluated with the conclusion that Chinese children, generally speaking, include more narrative components, evaluative information, and temporal markers in their narratives over time. However, the growth patterns and rates of change for each child on each narrative measure vary.HypothesisMy shot is that as a child is introduced to more narrative texts, and comes to identify narrative components, that he or she will employ them more frequently and more quick in their own narratives.Thus, I openinge that there will be a marked increase both in the inclusion of these features in individual narratives and in the cohesion between the narratives of the evaluated children (their similarity to each other) in the older age ranges, as they adapt and adhere to literary and narrative norms. I consider that there will be a greater proliferation of linguistic devices and conventions, as well as more narrative components, in the older childrens narratives.Although I will not specifically be studying the effects of ethnicity or socio-economic background I believe that these factors will skew the data slightly as my supposition centres on the fact that the children will construct been exposed to similar volumes and types of narrative material. This may well not be the cocktail dress for pupils from a different heathen background or a less affluent family environment.DataThe data I will use for this investigation will be collected from local and, hopefully, schools which are more widely distributed throughout the country, to give a representative sample of empirical data.I will approach the schools to provide short texts from any early years age group so that I have approximately 50-100 short texts from pupils aged from 4 to 7 with a similar repress for each age group.I will specify that I would like work from a cross section of abilities, genders, ethnicities, and socio-economic and cultural backgrounds so as to have a representative sample of narratives for an age range. I will also request that the gender, ethnicity and socio-economic group be specified for each child included in the study as, although I am not directly studying the consequences of these factors on the narratives, it would be informative and useful to see if they affect the cohesion of the data in any way.All texts will be included as an appendix to the final extended essay and the appropriate permissions will be obtained from the schools and, if necessary, from the parents of the children whose work is used.methodological epitomeAs previously defined I will employ the Labovian 6 part narrative model to assess the texts.This will be both a quantitative and qualitative analysis as it will deal not only with the evolution in th e number of narrative components in each text but also their function and type.The results of the analyses will be presented in tabulated form. Initially I will fill in a table to give the main(prenominal) characteristics of each narrative and then tabulate the overall results.An example of a narrative text and a simplified table are given as an appendix.My work so farI have investigated a number of studies covering similar subject areas and approached schools in my local area to see if they would be willing to provide samples of work The response so far is encouraging.I have also obtained some examples of writing from neighbourhood children and analysis of these texts seems to back my hypothesis thus far. Naturally I will be unsure until I study the larger volumes of empirical data foreseen by my study.TimescaleOwing to the complexity of obtaining the data and analysing it, this project will be quite time consuming. I believe I will require one month to obtain the work and the co nglomerate permissions and a further month to analyse the texts and tabulate the results. I will then need a further two weeks to present my conclusions, draft and obligate the final copy.Annotated BibliographyApplebee, Arthur 1978. The Childs Concept Of Story Ages Two To Seventeen. Chicago University of Chicago Press.This book defines the interaction of children and stories. Various chapters discuss the stories told by primary school children, their brass instrument and motivation as well as childrens responses to stories and story telling. It also contains a number of appendices giving information about the methods for data collection and analysis employed by Applebee throughout his investigations.Chang, Chien-Ju 2004 Telling stories of experiences Narrative development of young Chinese children Applied Psycholinguistics, 25 83-104 Cambridge University PressThis presents a study in which young Chinese children were visited in their homes at age 3 years and 6 months and then at 3 month intervals for the next 9 months and their individual development in three key areas (narrative structure, evaluation, and temporality) assessed.Gutierrez Clellen, V. F., Quinn, R. (1993). Assessing narratives of children from diverse cultural/linguistic groups. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 24, 2-9.This article discusses the issues surrounding cultural and ethnic background and the blow on a childs narrative development. This supports my claim that linguistic and narration conventions are learnt and states narrative contextualization processes are culture-specificKernan, K. T. (1977). Semantic and expressive elaboration in childrens narratives. C. Mitchell-Kernan and S.Ervin-Tripp (Eds.), Child Discourse. New York Academic Press, 91-102.This paper was presented at the Child Discourse Symposium at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association (Mexico City, Mexico, November 1974) and presents a speculative and ground breaking discussion of childrens narrative discourse and the acquisition of discourse competencies.Labov, William., and Waletzky, Joshua. 1967. Narrative analysis oral versions of personal experience. Essays on the Verbal and optical Arts, ed. June Helm, 12-44. Seattle University of Washington Press.Seminal and scholarly text discussing the basics of narrative analysis detailing the six point model, etc.Pena E. D., Gillam R. B., Malek M., Ruiz-Felter R., Resendiz M., Fiestas C., and Sabel T. Dynamic Assessment of School-Age Childrens Narrative major power An Experimental Investigation of Classification Accuracy J Speech Lang Hear Res, October1,2006 49(5) 1037 1057.This article provides useful and information about analysing the macrostructural and microstructural aspects of language form and content (in this case in narratives given by first and second grade students describing a picture book.)Appendix one example narrative (direct transcript)On Saturday, Daddy, Mummy, Jamie and me went to the park to go on the swings. It was really cold so Daddy bought me and Jamie a hot chocolate to warm us up. It was really funny because Jamie dropped his down his jumper and had to unwrap Daddys jumper. It was to(sic) big for him and he looked really funny. I went on the swings and the roundabout and the slide and then Jamie and me sat on one side of the sea(sic) precept while Daddy sat on the other. Mummy took pictures of us. thus we went to the sweet shop and bought some jelly babies. They are my Mummys favourite and I like them to(sic). Then we went home and watched ice age 2 and then we had tea. Then we went to bed. We all had a lovely day and Daddy said it was nice that me and Jamie didnt prognosticate at each other.Jenny, age 6Example tabulationTable 1 Labovian conceptsTable 2 Common markers Used by the child in her narrative