Mohamed, Maleika (2021) Sparkle in the Narratives of Kindergarteners. Masters thesis, Concordia University.
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Abstract
Narratives play a significant role in communication and social interaction starting in early childhood. Narrative skills are also expected of children beginning in kindergarten and predict later literacy skills and academic outcomes. While much research has been devoted to the structure of children's stories, less attention has been devoted to their artfulness: the features of stories that make them sparkle and engage listeners. This study investigates how French-speaking children use artfulness in their narratives and how artfulness relates to language skill. Children (N = 91) in Quebec from two different kindergarten levels (K4 and K5, reflecting the age of kindergarten entry) were asked to tell a story using picture prompts from a published assessment tool. The stories were audiorecorded and transcribed, then coded for artfulness features (namely evaluation, appendages, and orientations), using a coding system adapted from Ukrainetz et al. (2005). The results showed that artfulness features, particularly evaluations, were used by all children. The older children (K5) included more artfulness features than the younger ones (K4), overall and within the subcategories of evaluation and appendages. The types of evaluations were also more varied in the older group. General language measures (the number and mean length of T-units, and the number of total and different words) were strongly correlated with the total number of artfulness features in the children's stories and the number and diversity of evaluations they included. I situate my results in relation to the rare studies of artfulness to date, discuss the implications of the findings, and outline directions for future research.
| Divisions: | Concordia University > Faculty of Arts and Science > Education |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
| Authors: | Mohamed, Maleika |
| Institution: | Concordia University |
| Degree Name: | M.A. |
| Program: | Child Studies |
| Date: | 30 August 2021 |
| Thesis Supervisor(s): | Pesco, Diane |
| Keywords: | Storytelling, oral narratives, artfulness, narrative skills, kindergarteners, preschool |
| ID Code: | 988932 |
| Deposited By: | Maleika Mohamed |
| Deposited On: | 29 Nov 2021 17:05 |
| Last Modified: | 29 Nov 2021 17:05 |
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