"And they had a big, big, very long fight:" The development of evaluative language in preschoolers' oral fictional stories told in a peer-group context

Date
2021-04
Advisor
Instructor
Source Title
Journal of Child Language
Print ISSN
0305-0009
Electronic ISSN
1469-7602
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Volume
49
Issue
3
Pages
1 - 30
Language
English
Type
Article
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract

This study examined the development of evaluative language in preschoolers' oral fictional narratives using a storytelling/story-acting practice where children told stories to and for their friends. Evaluative language orients the audience to the teller's cognitive and emotional engagement with a story's events and characters, and we hypothesized that this STSA context might yield new information about the early development of this language, prior to elementary school. We analyzed 60 stories: the first and last story told by 10 children in each of three preschool classrooms (3-, 4-, and 5-year-old classes) that used STSA throughout the school year. Stories were coded for evaluative expressions and evidential expressions. Five-year-olds used significantly more evaluative language than did 3-year-olds, and children at all ages used significantly more evaluative language at the end than at the beginning of the year. The number of stories told throughout the year explained unique variance in children's evaluative language growth.

Course
Other identifiers
Book Title
Keywords
Evaluative expressions, Evidential expressions, Oral fictional stories, Peer-group context, Preschoolers, Storytelling/story-acting practice, Subjectivity
Citation
Published Version (Please cite this version)