Page 27 - Literacy Based Speech Language Therapy Activities Digital Version
P. 27
Improving Story Narratives of Diverse Children
How does the grammar of each language affect story
telling?
Differences in narrative type extend past what is purely influenced by culture. Grammatical
variations can also be dictated by rules or sentiments of a host language. A study of Spanish and
English highlights a multitude of these differences. Morphologically, English conveys variations in
meaning by manipulation of word order. To accomplish the same task, Spanish relies on the
inflection of the morphemes. Syntactically, Spanish will employ verb forms not often used in
English to show conditionality or actions that have continued from the past. Spanish also enjoys
more flexibility in word order. With the large culmination of differences, Silliman and colleagues
(2002) noted that the application of Spanish or English monolingual norms to a group of bilingual
children would be inappropriate, whether for research, educational, or clinical purposes.
Should different criteria exist for evaluating narratives
of English and Spanish speakers?
Current research suggests that enough cultural, morphological, and syntactic differences exist
between English and Spanish that separate narrative criteria should be formed for each language. In
the same way that standardized test scores are inconclusive when testing non-mainstream
populations, the norms that have been developed to evaluate narrative discourse are culturally biased.
Education on narrative differences and the development of new standards need to take place.
Otherwise, as Heath (1982) suggests, “evaluators who are unfamiliar with narrative style may
misinterpret or fail to value the stories of children from diverse backgrounds.”
Elicitation of narratives is a popular tool used by speech language pathologists to gain information on
language abilities. Criteria have been established that can differentiate between productions that are
typical of normal or language delayed children. However, research indicates that children who learn
English as a second language may demonstrate patterns that are equivalent to language impaired
children. The high number of Spanish-speaking children in special education programs qualifies this.
If educational and therapeutic practices wish to use narrative development as criteria for evaluating a
child, then they have to take into account how the development occurs in each language (Silliman,
Bahr, Brea, Hnath-Chisolm, and Mahecha, 2002).
16
www.bilinguistics.com
