A Developmental Study of Narrative Structure and Evaluative Devices

• Main Authors: Jo-wen Chang, 張若雯
• Other Authors: Der-Hwa Rau
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/73354949901960988117

碩士 === 靜宜大學 === 英國語文學系 === 89 === English Abstract This study suggests narrative abilities could be extended to examine the developmental phases across two dimensions: (a) overall narrative structure: the length of narrative and the employment of narrative elements (b) evaluative devices: sum total evaluative devices and proportion of each evaluative device. Forty-eight children participated in this study, ages ranging from four to seven. All the subjects were divided into four age groups. There were 12 children in each age group. The results and discussions are divided into five respects. First, the length of narrative generally increased with age, but boys and girls performed unequally across age groups. Second, the relative proportion of action drooped with age, countered by an inverse rise in the proportion of evaluation. We interpreted these results as suggesting that most children (especially the older ones in this sample) recognized that besides referential information, narratives should include evaluations in order to make their narratives worth telling. Third, children gradually acquired the ability to adopt a narrative stance, and use more and more evaluative devices in sharing personal narratives. Fourth, as for the use of different evaluative device, that age effect only emerged in the proportion of "frame of mind". Besides the comparisons of evaluative devices across age groups, from the large differences in the proportions of six different evaluative devices, we see children prefer certain evaluative devices over others. Furthermore, age trend differences were found in the application of each evaluative device. Fifth, children were able to use a larger variety of evaluative devices with advancing age. Sixth, there was an order of acquisition of evaluative devices. The implicational scale plots difficulty from easy (acquired first) to difficult (acquired later), showing frame of mind as the device hardest to acquire, followed by causal explanation, direct speech, negative qualifier, rhetorical devices, and lexical devices. This study has shed light on development shifts in the ability of Mandarin Chinese-speaking children to establish both referential and evaluative personal narratives. Then, too, we see how children attain evaluative function through a variety of distinctive devices. Given the fact that so little research has been done on Mandarin-speaking children''s personal narratives, this knowledge is important for understanding narrative development of these children.