Examining linguistic and discourse features in oral text production and their dimensionality

Abstract

Examining the dimensionality of oral discourse language skills in early childhood is crucial in informing theories of language and literacy development. This study examined the factor structure of linguistic and discourse features in oral text production for second graders. A total of 330 English-speaking second graders ( Mage = 7.33, 53% boys, 55% White) described three pictures in two discourse conditions. Children’s picture descriptions were transcribed verbatim and coded for a total of nine linguistic (e.g. elaborated noun phrase, clausal density) and discourse features (e.g. proper character introduction, perspective taking). Results from confirmatory factor analysis showed that a two-factor structure consisting of linguistic and discourse features factors provided the best fit to the data. Findings suggested that various linguistic and discourse features in oral text production can be best described as having two related but distinct factors.