Serbian version of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN)

Ljiljana Jeličić,Alexandra Perovic,Ivana Bogavac

doi:10.21248/zaspil.64.2020.573

Abstract

   This paper provides the background to the process of translation and piloting of the Serbian version of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (LITMUS- MAIN), Multilingvalni Test za Procenu Narativa (MTPN). Our review of the sparse research literature on Serbian children’s narrative abilities reveals a need for a well- designed narrative instrument, which will enable researchers and practitioners to assess the production and comprehension of narratives in children of a wide age range, typically and atypically developing, monolingual and bilingual, crucially allowing for cross- linguistic comparisons. We encountered two kinds of challenges during the process of translation and adaptation of the instrument from English into Serbian. The first concerned the lack of established Serbian technical terminology needed to describe test administration to the future users of the test: researchers and practitioners working in different disciplines such as linguistics, psychology, Speech and Language Therapy. The second challenge concerned the translation of linguistic structures required to produce a successful rendition of the narrative: in contrast to English, but in line with other Slavic languages, Serbian relies heavily on verbs marked for perfective aspect in story-telling. Our discussion of preliminary data from four Serbian monolingual children, aged 5;5-10, demonstrates that MTPN is a successful tool in assessing narrative abilities in children acquiring Serbian.  

Highlights

The Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings – Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (LITMUS-MAIN, hereafter MAIN) is a new instrument developed to assess the production and comprehension of narratives of multilingual children (Gagarina et al, 2019)
We describe the process of translation and piloting of Serbian MAIN with four children, two typically developing (TD), aged 5;5 and 10;6 and two with previous diagnoses of dyspraxia and articulatory difficulties, resolved, aged 6;8
To assess children’s language production and comprehension, Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) in Serbia use one of two instruments developed for screening for language impairment in monolingual Serbian children, neither of which have been standardised, and which are rarely used in research

Summary

Introduction

The Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings – Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (LITMUS-MAIN, hereafter MAIN) is a new instrument developed to assess the production and comprehension of narratives of multilingual children (Gagarina et al, 2019). Serbian is the official and majority language in Serbia, and one of the recognized official or minority languages in the Western Balkans: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Kosovo. It is used amongst the large Serbian diaspora, from North America and Europe to Australia and New Zealand. We discuss examples of representative structures from our translation of the stories used in the narrative elicitation and give a brief overview of the results of the four children with whom two stories from Serbian MAIN were piloted: the story ‘Cat’ in the telling mode and the story ‘Dog’ in the retelling mode.

Background

Translating and adapting MAIN into Serbian

Technical terminology

Piloting of Serbian MAIN

Findings

Concluding remarks