Abstract

AbstractThis study explores how intertextuality influences the narrative practices of young deaf children in two classrooms. Specifically, the study examines how variations in what texts are made available to juxtapose and variations in how texts are juxtaposed influence the narratives young deaf children produce. A major premise underlying these two purposes is that intertextual links are socially constructed by teachers and children. Data from each classroom was collected using ethnographic methods including participant observation 2.5 days per week in each classroom for six months, collection of classroom artifacts (e.g., student writing and drawing) and video recordings of select storytelling and story writing events. Data analysis involved transcribing the video recorded events, identifying potential instances of intertextuality in the transcripts and student written products, and coding for intertextual substance (the range of texts referenced) and intertextual process (how intertextual connections were constructed). Findings revealed two models of narrative practice in the classrooms: an individual model with a focus on a narrow range of narrative forms and structures aligned with formal curriculum and required assessments and a narrow range of potential intertextual connections; and, a shared model of narrative practice that involved a broader range of potential intertextual connections, social play, a focus on author‐audience relationships (where the audience were classroom peers) often eschewing formal narrative structures and forms, and the use of multiple modalities / sign systems. In one of the classrooms the individual model prevailed, while the shared model prevailed in the other. The findings suggest that over time deaf children, like hearing children, engage in, adopt, and adapt different classroom narrative practices dependent on the classroom social contexts of their production. The findings have implications for reconceptualizing narrative development and the assessment of spoken and written narratives.

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