Story Grammar Elements Research Articles

From childhood to adolescence: the growth of narrative macrostructure in heritage bilingual English speakers

ABSTRACT Narratives are crucial for investigating children’s spontaneous language, offering insights into linguistic changes from early childhood to adolescence. Despite the known improvement in narrative skills with age, research focusing on bilingual children older than 8 is sparse. This study explores narrative macrostructure, episodic complexity, and internal state terms expressing feelings and thoughts among bilingual children in preschool, primary, and secondary school, focusing on English as a heritage language. Narratives were elicited from fifty-nine English-Hebrew bilinguals aged 5–14, divided into three age-groups, using Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (Gagarina, N., D. Klop, S. Kunnari, K. Tantele, T. Välimaa, I. Balcˇiūnienė, U. Bohnacker, and J. Walters. 2014. “MAIN: Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives.” ZAS Papers in Linguistics 56:1–156), with language exposure data collected from parent questionnaires. Analyses of story grammar elements and episodic complexity revealed significant age-related differences in narrative macrostructure, with older children demonstrating more complex and coherent narratives. The length of exposure to the societal language did not significantly predict narrative outcomes, suggesting that narrative quality is not solely dependent on societal language exposure duration. This study provides valuable baseline data for typical narrative development in bilinguals and could aid in identifying Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) in bilingual populations.

Disfluencies as a window to macrostructure performance in the narrative of bilingual children

Disfluencies mirror processes of speech production and when examined in both languages of bilingual children, can provide valuable information regarding their linguistic skills. The aim of this study is to characterize the rates and the types of disfluencies across episodes of a narrative as well as across different story grammar (SG) elements in participants’ home language (Russian) and societal language (Hebrew) as a reflection of narrative macrostructure skills. Twenty bilingual Russian-Hebrew children aged 60–78 months produced narratives in Russian and Hebrew using the wordless picture book Frog, Where Are You? (Mayer, 1969). Narratives were transcribed, divided into five episodes, and coded for main SG elements (Character + Setting, Initiating event, Internal response, Plan, Attempt and Consequence). Four types of disfluencies (silent pauses, filled pauses, repetitions, and self-corrections) were analyzed in relation to each SG element per episode in both languages. Overall children produced more SG elements in Russian with a finer analysis showing that Initiating Event, Character and Setting differed across languages while Attempt, Plan and Internal response were similar. Disfluencies significantly impacted macrostructure differently across languages such that in Russian, a high percentage of disfluencies was associated with higher production of Character + Setting and Plan, whereas in Hebrew it was associated with lower production of Attempt and Consequence. The present research suggests that disfluency has impact on macrostructure, and consequently on overall narrative quality differently across the languages. The theoretical contribution may shed light on the understanding of planning and formulation processes among bilingual children. The application of the results may relate to these processes impacting diagnosis and/or intervention protocols in bilingual children.

The Efficacy of Story Champs for Improving Oral Language in Third-Grade Spanish-English Bilingual Students With Developmental Language Disorder.

We investigated the efficacy of Story Champs for improving oral language in third-grade Spanish-English bilingual children with developmental language disorder (DLD). We implemented a concurrent multiple-baseline across-participants single-case design with four bilingual Spanish-English third-grade students with DLD. Treatment was carried out over 12 sessions with approximately two sessions per week. Maintenance sessions were conducted 1, 2, and 4 weeks postintervention. Participants were explicitly taught story grammar elements, causal and temporal connections, and modifiers within story retells and personal narratives. Dependent variables were story grammar, grammatical complexity, modifiers and listening comprehension within story retells, and story grammar and grammatical complexity within personal narratives. Outcome measures were assessed at the end of every baseline, intervention, and maintenance session using the Narrative Language Measures-Listening (NLM-L). Visual analyses for outcome measures suggested slight increases in scores on the NLM-L during intervention accompanied by marked variability. Within-case analyses of story retell performance suggested an intervention effect on story grammar for two participants and on grammatical complexity and modifier use for one participant. For personal narratives, within-case analyses of personal narrative performance suggested an intervention effect on story grammar for one participant. Overall, Story Champs demonstrated efficacy for improving story grammar use in story retells for three out of four participants. It did not show efficacy for improving grammatical complexity, modifier use, or listening comprehension within story retells, nor did it show efficacy for improving story grammar and grammatical complexity within personal narratives. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.26053033.

Comparing Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing Children's Oral Narratives Using Movies and Static Books.

Clinicians utilize various methods for narrative sampling, including oral assessments like story generation and retelling, often aided by visual aids. Assessing language skills in deaf/hard of hearing (DHH) children requires careful narrative technique selection. This comparative observational study investigates the narrative outcomes of story generation and retelling tasks in 21 DHH children, using both book and movie contexts. Most microstructural elements (except for the mean length of utterance) were similar across the book and movie conditions. Differences in word choice, such as the use of action verbs, were evident. Macrostructural differences between book and movie conditions were insignificant regarding story grammar elements. However, movies, being visually engaging, potentially enhance the inclusion of characters, settings, plot, and actions. This research illuminates narrative assessment considerations, emphasizing technology's role in enhancing options for assessment for DHH children.

Internal State Terms in the Narratives of Bilingual Children With Developmental Language Disorder: The Role of Microstructure and Macrostructure.

We examined the role of narrative microstructure (production of words and sentences) and narrative macrostructure (organization of events) in the use of internal state terms (ISTs) in narratives of bilingual children with developmental language disorder (DLD) in their school language (SL). Fifty-eight Russian-Hebrew bilingual preschool children aged 55-78 months divided into two groups participated: 16 bilingual children diagnosed with bilingual DLD and 42 with typical language development (TLD). Narratives were elicited in SL/Hebrew using the wordless picture book, Frog, Where Are You? Narratives were transcribed and coded for frequency of ISTs and classified as perceptual, linguistic, motivational, linguistic, emotional, or physical. ISTs were also examined in terms of their role in microstructure (tokens and types) and macrostructure (Character, Setting, Initiating Event, Internal Response, Plan, Attempt, and Consequence) categories. In terms of microstructure, bilingual children with DLD produced fewer word types and tokens in general and fewer perceptual ISTs than bilingual TLD peers. In terms of macrostructure, children with DLD used six out of the seven story grammar elements in their narratives less than bilinguals with TLD. For ISTs and macrostructure, bilinguals with DLD produced fewer linguistic ISTs in Attempts than their peers with TLD. Bilingual children with DLD have difficulties in producing ISTs, and this difficulty is shown to be related to both microstructure and macrostructure abilities. Suggestions for clinical intervention are offered to assist children with DLD in producing narratives that involve mental state language related to characters' feelings, intentions, and goals.

Impact of Narrative Task Complexity and Language on Macrostructure in Bilingual Kindergarten Children.

We investigated the impact of narrative task complexity on macrostructure in both languages of bilingual kindergarten children and the relationship of macrostructure across languages to guide practitioners' choice of assessment tools and aid in interpretation of results. Thirty-nine English-Hebrew bilingual kindergarten children (Mage = 65 months) retold two narratives in each language: a one-episode story and a three-episode story. Stories were coded for macrostructure using five story grammar (SG) elements: Internal State-Initiating Event, Goal, Attempt, Outcome, and Internal State-Reaction. Linear mixed and generalized linear mixed models were used to analyze scores for total macrostructure, episode, and SG elements; correlations were conducted to examine cross-language relations in macrostructure. In general, performance on the single-episode story was significantly better than for the three-episode story: higher percentages of SG elements were produced, with better performance in the home language/English. In addition to Task and Language effects, Age and Episode (Episodes 1/2/3 of the three-episode story vs. one-episode story) emerged as predictors of macrostructure. Performance on the different episodes of the three-episode story varied, with Episode 3 yielding scores similar to those on the one-episode story. Children produced more Attempts and Outcomes than other SG elements. Finally, the total macrostructure scores yielded low to moderate correlations across languages for both one-episode and three-episode stories, but there were no significant cross-task (one-episode/three-episode story) correlations. The study illustrates the importance of task complexity in narrative performance. Ideally, assessment should include a variety of tools, which would include narratives varying in complexity. However, time constraints do not always permit this luxury. The findings here may offer more to therapists than to diagnosticians. Narratives should be manipulated for episodic complexity not only in the number of episodes but also with regard to characters, goals, feelings, and reactions to events. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25222094.

Story Grammar Analyses Capture Discourse Improvement in the First 2 Years Following a Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.

Narration within a story grammar framework requires speakers to organize characters and events logically. Despite abundant research characterizing narrative deficits following a traumatic brain injury (TBI), the evolution of narrative story grammar over the first 2 years post-TBI has rarely been explored. This study analyzed story grammar in complex narratives of adults with and without severe TBI to (a) examine between-group differences and (b) investigate longitudinal changes over the first 2 years post-TBI. Story grammar analyses of Cinderella narratives from 57 participants with TBI and 57 participants with no brain injury yielded measures of productivity (total number of episodes, total number of story grammar elements), elaboration (total number of elaborated-complete episodes, mean number of episodic elements per episode), and completeness (total number of incomplete episodes). Mann-Whitney U tests compared measures across groups; generalized estimating equation (GEE) models identified predictors of change, including recovery time (3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 months post-TBI) and demographic/injury-related characteristics. Between-group differences were statistically significant for all productivity and elaboration measures at 3, 6, and 9 months post-TBI; one productivity measure and one elaboration measure at 12 months; and none of the measures at 24 months. GEE models showed significant improvements in all productivity and elaboration measures over the first 24 months post-TBI, with educational attainment and duration of posttraumatic amnesia affecting recovery. Incomplete episodes only showed between-group differences at 12 months and did not capture recovery. Productivity and elaboration are key story grammar variables that (a) differentiate complex narration in individuals with and without severe TBI and (b) capture narrative improvements over the first 2 years post-TBI. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25148999.

Narrative Intervention for Preschoolers Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing Using Listening and Spoken Language: A Pilot Study.

This pilot study aimed to examine the effects of a caregiver-supported, narrative-based intervention program on the story retelling skills of a group of preschoolers who are deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) using listening and spoken language (LSL). A concurrent multiple baseline design across participants was used to determine the effect of a narrative intervention on the story retelling skills of three preschool-age participants who demonstrated complex language delays. Their primary caregivers also functioned as participants. The 6-week narrative intervention program was implemented using a caregiver coaching model during individual therapy sessions. The dependent variable probes were administered twice per week across phases to assess the preschool participants' story retelling skills, including story grammar, complexity, and completeness. Social validity was also evaluated using a caregiver questionnaire. A functional relation was demonstrated between the intervention and story retelling across all three preschool participants with notable increases in the inclusion of story grammar elements and episodic completeness. All three participants maintained scores above baseline levels on dependent variable probes across the 6-week maintenance period. Social validity was strong according to the results of a caregiver questionnaire completed at the conclusion of the intervention. These findings offer preliminary support for the use of a caregiver-supported, narrative-based intervention program to improve storytelling and retelling skills in preschoolers who are D/HH using LSL.

Desempenho de pré-escolares e escolares no protocolo ProNOH: aspectos macroestruturais

ABSTRACT Purpose To investigate if the narrative score of the ProNOH protocol allows for discriminating age groups, as well as its relation with the global coherence level of the story. The performance of preschool and schoolchildren on the macrostructure aspects. Methods Participants were 97 preschoolers and schoolchildren with typical language development, aged between five and 12 years old, and both sexes who attended public schools. The “Protocolo de Avaliação da Narrativa Oral de História (ProNOH)” (Protocol for the Evaluation of Oral Storytelling) was applied and the narrative score in the macrostructure dimension was calculated with story grammar elements. These same story elements were used to obtain the global coherence level of the story, as proposed by Spinillo and Martins (1997). Results A statistically significant difference was found between age groups, mainly between the borderline ages of 5-6 years, 7-8 years, 9-10 years, and 11-12 years. Positive and statistically significant correlations were found between the narrative score and global coherence and age, as well as between the narrative score and global coherence. Conclusion The protocol proved to be useful for identifying the repertoire of typical story grammar elements as an objective measure that differs in oral narrative across age groups. The results also indicate that the narrative score can provide an idea about the global coherence of the story, although this value does not replace a specific analysis.

Narrative Microstructure and Macrostructure Skills of Persian-Speaking Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Studies examining narrative production skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have demonstrated variable and inconsistent results. This study aimed to investigate to what extent narrative difficulties in children with ASD reflect difficulties with language. Accordingly, the spoken narrative skills of 16 children with ASD were compared with those of their 16 chronological age-matched (CAM) and 16 language-matched (LM) peers. A Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric test was then used to examine the differences between groups in regard to NTC, NSG and SI variables .For other studied variables (NTW, number of T-units, ATL and total score), one-way analysis of variances (ANOVA) was also used. At the level of microstructure, the results showed that productivity (number of total words, total clauses, and T-unites) and syntactic complexity (average of T-unit length and subordination index) were predominantly similar in ASD and LM children. However, children with ASD scored lower than their CAM counterparts (P < 0.001). At the macrostructure level, we found that the total score of story grammar elements and the number of story grammars in the narrative production of children with ASD were lower than those in both CAM and LM children (P < 0.001). The present study, thus, showed that creating a coherent narrative could be more demanding for children with ASD than productivity and syntactic complexity.

Narratives by bilingual children: a tale of strengths and growth during kindergarten

ABSTRACT Given their significance in daily life and frequent inclusion in clinical and educational assessments, children’s narrative abilities merit investigation. The present study examines the narratives of children acquiring an additional language, adding to the more abundant studies of monolingual children. Sixty kindergartners (mean age 68 months) residing in Quebec, Canada participated. All spoke a minoritized language at home, and were being instructed in French, the majority language, at school. The children told stories in French based on pictures from the Edmonton Narrative Norms Instrument (Schneider, Dubé, and Hayward, 2005) in late fall or early winter, and again in spring. Their stories were subsequently analyzed for their macrostructural features. Despite limited exposure to French prior to kindergarten, the majority of children were able to communicate the central problem in the story, characters’ attempts to resolve the problem, and outcomes of those attempts. Furthermore, the children’s scores increased from time 1 to time 2 overall, and for four of eight story grammar elements. The higher scores were due to higher scores on elements as well as the emergence of new elements in children’s stories at time 2. The findings can help guide expectations for narrative growth among emerging bilingual children and inform instruction.

Story Grammar Elements and Mental State Terms in the Expression of Enabling Relations in Narratives of Bilingual Preschool Children

ABSTRACT The present research analyzes causal relations between events in the narratives of bilingual preschool children with typical development (BiTD) and with developmental language disorder (BiDLD). The analyses focused on story grammar elements (attempts and goals) and mental state terms between events in Enabling relations as features contributing to narrative discourse coherence. Narratives, collected from 48 bilingual children (14 with DLD) aged 5;06–6;06, were examined for the expression of enabling causal relations in both L1/Russian and L2/Hebrew. Children in both groups showed frequent omission of goals, but they used mental state terms to convey Enabling relations between events across episodes. Coherence is argued to be affected by syntactic, referential, and lexical skills.

The effect of workshop training on rater variability in children’s oral narrative assessment

Oral narrative assessments are important for diagnosis of language disorders in school-age children so scoring needs to be reliable and consistent. This study explored the impact of training on the variability of story grammar scores in children’s oral narrative assessments scored by multiple raters. Fifty-one speech pathologists and 19 final-year speech pathology students attended training workshops on oral narrative assessment scoring and analysis. Participants scored two oral narratives prompted by two different story stimuli and produced by two children of differing ages. Demographic information, story grammar scores and a confidence survey were collected pre- and post-training. The total story grammar score changed significantly for one of the two oral narratives. A significant effect was observed for rater years of experience and the change in total story grammar scores post training, with undergraduate students showing the greatest change. Two story grammar elements, character and attempt, changed significantly for both stories, with an overall trend of increased element scores post-training. Confidence ratings also increased post-training. Findings indicated that training via an interactive workshop can reduce rater variability when using researcher-developed narrative scoring systems.

Oral Narrative Instruction Improves Kindergarten Writing

Writing is a critical literacy skill that emerges in kindergarten. The research literature has only addressed transcription skills of kindergarteners and has failed to address text generation. The purpose of this action-research study was to investigate the effect of oral language instruction that focused on narrative text structures on kindergarten students’ ability to generate written narrative text. We conducted a concurrent multiple baseline design across three groups of students with two participants in each group. Students received six instructional sessions that involved the teacher modeling a story and supporting the students while they retold and generated oral stories. Pictures and icons were used to represent story grammar elements, but were faded within session to facilitate independent storytelling. The oral language instruction had an immediate positive effect on the narrative quality of students’ writing. Individual and overall effects were significant and maintained three to four weeks later. Findings suggest an efficient causal relation between oral language instruction and writing quality.

Narrative group intervention in DLD: Learning to tell the plot

The current research investigated the effectiveness of a narrative intervention method aiming to improve oral narrative ability in 8- to 10-year-old children with developmental language disorder (DLD) ( n = 6). Oral narrative ability was assessed through a narrative retelling and a narrative generation task of which both the narrative microstructure and narrative macrostructure were analysed. A debating intervention was included as a control condition ( n = 6). It was found that, after 10 weeks of narrative intervention, children significantly ( p &lt; .05) improved their storytelling abilities at a microstructural level: mean length of utterance; grammaticality; fluency; and complexity, as well as at a macrostructural level: the number of story grammar elements. The alternative intervention only yielded significant results on the number of story grammar elements, not on any microstructural skills. The narrative intervention is effective in targeting and improving both narrative micro- and macrostructure and is easily applicable in classrooms with DLD children.

The Untapped Potential of Preschool Classroom Volunteers in Language–Literacy Instruction: A Feasibility Study

Purpose This pretest–posttest study examined the effects of a professional development training on five volunteer instructors' (VIs) utilization of language and literacy facilitation strategies within interactive shared book readings with low-income preschool children. The training specifically targeted the VIs' use of wh -questions, expansions, and references to story grammar elements (SGEs) with use of a corresponding visual aid. Method VIs participated in a 3-hr training composed of lecture, video models, role playing, four opportunities to explicitly practice the target strategies, and four opportunities to receive immediate feedback from the investigators. The VIs led storybook readings that were video-recorded for comparison prior to and after the training sessions (two pretraining, two posttraining). The investigators analyzed the VIs' language and literacy strategy usage in the readings. The investigators compared the raw number of wh -questions asked, expansions of child responses or comments, the number of references (out of 20) to SGEs, and use of the visual aid pre- and posttraining. Results After the training, four of the five VIs increased the number of wh -questions asked during readings, and one VI maintained a large number of questions asked, compared to pretraining readings. All VIs provided an increased number of references to SGEs (character, setting, problem, fixing problem, solution) in a variety of capacities (name, definition, book-specific element, visual aid use) to reinforce narrative concepts. VIs had inconsistent increases in expansions of child responses or comments posttraining. Conclusion Results revealed the VIs generally increased their facilitation of language and literacy strategies after participating in a professional development training, suggesting utilization of volunteers as instructors may be a valuable area to explore, especially in low-income environments where children may be at risk for language and literacy delays. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12070824

Oral narrative structure and coherence of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

This study aimed to characterize and compare the use of typical story grammar elements and global coherence level in the oral narrative of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder with the narrative of children without the disorder and with typical development. A total of 40 children of both sexes aged 5 to 10 years who attended elementary school participated in the study, 20 of whom were diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD Group), and 20 with typical development (TD Group). Participants from each group were similar in sex, chronological age, schooling and socioeconomic status. The wordless picture book Frog, Where Are You? was used to elicit the oral narrative analyzed for the presence of the main typical elements of the story schema (character, theme/topic, event/plot and outcome), and afterwards their narration was classified according to four different levels of organization corresponding to the global story coherence level. The ADHD Group presented lower scores on the structural elements "theme/ topic" and "outcome" and a narrative with lower degree of coherence compared to the TD Group. The children with ADHD included in this study presented difficulties to use typical story grammar elements, mainly related to the maintenance of the central theme and outcome of the story. These elements are considered fundamental for construction of narrative coherence, which justifies the lower levels of global coherence found in the oral narrative of the ADHD Group.

Story grammar elements and causal relations in the narratives of Russian-Hebrew bilingual children with SLI and typical language development

BackgroundWhile there is general agreement regarding poor performance of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) on microstructure measures of narrative production, findings on macrostructure are inconsistent. PurposeThe present study analyzed narrative abilities of Russian-Hebrew bilingual preschool children with and without SLI, with a particular focus on story grammar (SG) elements and causal relations, in order to identify macrostructure features which distinguish bilingual children with SLI from those with typical development. MethodNarratives were collected from 35 typically developing bilinguals (BiTD) and 14 bilinguals with SLI (BiSLI) in both Russian/L1 and Hebrew/L2 using a retelling procedure (LITMUS-Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives) (Gagarina, Klop, Kunnari, Tantele, Välimaa, Balčiūnienė, Bohnacker, & Walters, 2012). Each story contained three episodes, and each episode introduced a different protagonist with explicitly stated Goals (G), Attempts (A) and Outcomes (O). Causal relations assessed included Enabling, Physical, Motivational, and Psychological relations, following Trabasso & Nickels (1992). Each Goal-Attempt-Outcome (GAO) episode was examined for the use of SG elements and causal relations. Results. Group differences emerged for both aspects of macrostructure. For causal relations, narratives of BiSLI children contained fewer Enabling and Physical relations, and differed qualitatively from those of BiTD children. For SG elements, BiSLI children referred to fewer SG elements than BiTD children in the first episode, but performed like BiTD children in the second and the third episodes. ConclusionsStory grammar elements in specific episodes along with Enabling and Physical causal relations distinguish the narratives of children with BiSLI from those with BiTD, which stresses the importance of examining wider array of macrostructure features in narratives.

Dynamic Assessment of Narratives: Efficient, Accurate Identification of Language Impairment in Bilingual Students.

This study investigated the classification accuracy of a concentrated English narrative dynamic assessment (DA) for identifying language impairment (LI). Forty-two Spanish-English bilingual kindergarten to third-grade children (10 LI and 32 with no LI) were administered two 25-min DA test-teach-test sessions. Pre- and posttest narrative retells were scored in real time. Using a structured intervention approach, examiners taught children missing story grammar elements and subordination. A posttest was administered using a parallel story. Four classification predictors were analyzed: posttest scores, gain scores, modifiability ratings, and teaching duration. Discriminant function analysis indicated that an overall modifiability rating was the best classifier, with 100% sensitivity and 88% specificity after 1 DA session and 100% sensitivity and specificity after 2 sessions. Any 2 combinations of posttest scores, modifiability ratings, and teaching duration for just 1 session resulted in sensitivity and specificity rates over 90%. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were used to identify clinically usable cutoff points. Post hoc exploration indicated that similar results could be obtained after only one 5-10-min teaching cycle, potentially further abbreviating the DA process. Concentrated English narrative DA results in high classification accuracy for bilingual children with and without LI. This efficient version of DA is amenable to clinical use.

학령기 다문화 가정 아동의 이야기 쓰기에 나타난 서사담화 요소 사용 양상

The purpose of this study is to analyze the use of narrative discourse elements embedded in a story The Tortoise and the Hare written by school-aged children from multicultural families. Discourse samples have collected based on a writing test taken by 30 children from multicultural families and 30 children from non-multicultural families. The data of 21 children from multicultural families and 30 children from non-multicultural families were analyzed, excluding children whose expressive lexical ability is below -1 SD in Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Test. Two groups were compared firstly in terms of story grammar elements (setting, initiating, event, attempt, direct consequence, and reaction), secondly discourse length (T-units, NTW) and lexical diversity (NDW), and thirdly cohesive markers such as conjunctive endings, specific semantic particles, and conjunctive words. As a result, for story grammar, group types’ main effects were verified only in setting, and grade’s main effects in initiating and direct consequence. As for discourse length and lexical diversity, the group types’ main effects were not significant in any variable, but grade’s main effects were significant in all of variables. In terms of cohesive markers, type’s main effects were verified only in conjunctive ending, and grade’s main effects were in all of cohesive markers. These results indicate that children from multicultural group used less of setting and conjunctive ending comparing with children from non-multicultural group. These findings show that it is necessary to consider story grammar elements and cohesive markers for evaluating and improving discourse skills of school-aged children from multicultural families.