A Secondary Data Analysis Examining Personal Narratives of Filipino Language Dominant 4:0-4:11Year Old Children in ECCD Monitored Day Care Centers in Metro Manila

Abstract

This study describes the parts of a narrative, structural pattern, narrative productivity (total number of words, total number of clauses, number of C-units), and mean length of C-units present on nineteen typically developing Filipino-Dominant 4 :0-4:11 year old children in ECCD-monitored day care centers in Metro Manila. Narrative samples were transcribed and then analyzed to identify narrative productivity, parts of narrative present and structural patterns presented by story theme and by all participants. The structural patterns have shown that children may already be in the transition phase from two-event to chronological narrative patterns, which is similar to the study of the personal narratives of 6-10-year-old African American children. Literature on Japanese and American children’s narratives showed similar results for the parts shown by the participants in this study, with an orientation-complicating action-resolution pattern. Among the participants, the average number of C-units produced was 8.13, the average number of words 34.11, the average number of clauses 7.73 and the average number of MLCUs 4.43. This study provided preliminary data on the personal narratives of Filipino children 4:0-4:11 years of age who may still be explored and further explored in future studies.