Sponsor
Portland State University. Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences
First Advisor
Maria Kapantzoglou
Term of Graduation
Spring 2022
Date of Publication
6-6-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (M.S.) in Speech and Hearing Sciences
Department
Speech and Hearing Sciences
Language
English
Subjects
Storytelling ability in children, Bilingualism in children
DOI
10.15760/etd.7941
Physical Description
1 online resource (v, 36 pages)
Abstract
Bilingual children of the same age may have different narrative skills depending on the quantity and quality of their experiences in the two languages. Thus, children's storytelling skills can vary depending on children's oral proficiency in each language. The present study examined the effects of oral proficiency on story structure in forty 5- to 7-year-old Spanish-English speaking children using Spanish and English samples from story retelling tasks. Language proficiency was measured as continuum of performance using the Spanish-English Language Proficiency Scale (SELPS; Smyk et al., 2013). To estimate the effects of Spanish and English proficiency on story structure, linear regressions were conducted across the two languages on five dependent variables: total number of elements, number of complete episodes, initiating events, actions, and outcomes. In Spanish, results indicated that language proficiency accounted for the variability in all story structure measures except initiating events and actions. In English, language proficiency accounted for the variability in all dependent variables except story outcomes. Findings indicate language proficiency effects on story structure when working with bilingual children. Therefore, story structure scores should be interpreted with caution, taking into account children's proficiency level in each language.
Rights
In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/38141
Recommended Citation
Magallon, Jenny, "The Effects of Language Proficiency on Narrative Macrostructure in Spanish-English Bilinguals" (2022). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 6071.
https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.7941