Story-retelling Task Research Articles

The influence of personality and anxiety on the oral performance of Japanese speakers of English

AbstractThis study investigated the relationship between personality and anxiety characteristics of Japanese students and their oral performance in English. The participants were 73 native‐speakers of Japanese who were studying English at various language schools in New Zealand. They were administered the Maudsley Personality Inventory, the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory, and a story‐retelling task which was scored in terms of oral fluency, accuracy, complexity, and global impression. Significant correlations were found between extraversion and global impression scores, and state anxiety and clause accuracy scores. These findings suggest that participants who were more extraverted produced better global impressions during their oral performance, and those who were experiencing higher levels of state anxiety made more errors in their spoken use of clauses. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Story narratives of adults with closed head injury and non-brain-injured adults: influence of socioeconomic status, elicitation task, and executive functioning.

Narratives were elicited in two story tasks, retelling and generation, from two groups of adults, 55 with closed head injury (CHI) and 47 non-brain-injured (NBI), recruited from rehabilitation facilities in three northeastern states. Participants were classified, on the basis of their socioeconomic status (SES), as professional, skilled worker, or unskilled worker. Narratives were analyzed using five discourse measures at the levels of sentence production, intersentential cohesion, and story grammar. Discourse performance was then compared across groups, tasks, and SES levels. Discourse performance of the CHI group was also compared with their scores from the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, a measure of executive functioning. Results indicated that two discourse measures distinguished the groups. The CHI participants produced significantly fewer words per T-unit and fewer T-units within episode structure than did the NBI group, which was attributed to difficulties with content organization. Performance on all five discourse measures differed for the story retelling versus the story generation tasks for both CHI and NBI groups. All participants produced longer and more grammatically complex T-units in the story generation task than in story retelling. However, cohesive adequacy and story grammar were better in the story retelling task than in the story generation task. It was therefore concluded that story generation was a more challenging task than story retelling for both groups. The only significant difference noted for SES involved the measure of intersentential cohesion. The unskilled workers demonstrated poorer cohesive adequacy than either the skilled workers or professionals, regardless of group or story task. Finally, modest correlations were noted between the discourse performance of the CHI group and scores from the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in both story tasks.

Children's Narratives Following Traumatic Brain Injury: Linguistic Structure, Cohesion, and Thematic Recall

Narrative discourse and intellectual functioning were examined 3 years following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in children 1 to 8 years of age at the time of injury. The language-impaired TBI group (n= 9) had language deficits during the subacute stage of recovery; their performance was contrasted with that of a TBI comparison group equated on neurologic and demographic variables that did not show subacute language impairment (n= 8) and a sibling comparison group (n= 9). The language-impaired TBI group had lower Verbal and Full-Scale IQ scores and produced fewer words and utterances than the sibling group on a story retelling task; their stories were characterized by fewer complete referential and lexical ties and more referential errors, indicating difficulty conjoining meaning across sentences. The language-impaired TBI group recalled approximately one-third of the propositions needed to maintain the story theme and made more errors sequencing the propositions than either the TBI or the sibling comparison groups. Group differences were not obtained on the Performance IQ scores or on measures of rate or fluency of speech production, mazes, use of conjunctives, or naming errors. The discourse deficiencies of children with TBI and acute language impairment were most pronounced at the level of cognitive organization of the text reflecting text macrostructure and were least apparent at the level of lexical and sentential organization reflecting text microstructure. Results are discussed in terms of the vulnerability of developing language abilities to disruption by brain injury.

A comparison between children who stutter and their normally fluent peers on a story retelling task

Narratives produced during a story-retelling task by 12 children who stutter and matched normally fluent peers were compared. Each narrative was analyzed for inclusion of story grammar components and level of sophistication. Additionally, the narratives produced by the children who stuttered were analyzed to determine the existence of a relationship between stuttering frequency and level of sophistication of the narrative. There were no significant group differences in the narratives and a weak relationship between narrative complexity and stuttering frequency. Qualitative analysis of the narratives revealed three subgroups of children who stutter, indicating that for some of these children, subtle language impairment may be a component of the fluency disorder.

The effects of topic and listener familiarity on discourse variables in procedural and narrative discourse tasks

This study investigated the effects of listener and topic familiarity on procedural and narrative discourse variables. Twenty-two aphasic patients (5 Broca's, 7 conduction, and 10 anomic aphasics) and 10 normal speakers served as subjects. Topic familiarity influenced discourse production in both procedural discourse and story retell situations. In procedural discourse, a greater number of optional steps were provided with familiar topics. During retelling of familiar topic stories, a greater proportion of action and resolution clauses were included. Listener familiarity affected the story retell task only. A greater percentage of subjects provided the setting when the listener was familiar.

Constructing rating scales for second language tests

Second language testing increasingly uses rated tasks in place of objectively scored items. Rating language performance is more demanding than scoring discrete-point tests. Lower reliability and validity for ratings are to be expected, especially in instructional settings where differences among students are small, and training for the use of rating scales is infrequent. The need for rating scales has not always led to effective and efficient scales, however. Standard rating scales require the matching of examinee performance to a verbal description. An alternative type of scale consists of an empirically derived, ordered set of binary questions relating to boundaries between levels on the performance being evaluated. Rating depends on a series of decisions. Two scales of this type were developed to assess the grammatical accuracy and communicative effectiveness of a story-retell task. All scale categories were used, thus demonstrating that category range was appropriate to the learners. Reasons are offered to explain why this type of scale may ameliorate reliability and validity problems associated with standard rating scales.

Narrative abilities in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and normal peers

A story retelling task was used to assess narrative abilities in 30 boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 30 normally developing boys, matched on age and IQ. Each boy listened to two stories and retold them for another child. Results indicated that the two groups did not differ in their ability to comprehend and extract the main ideas from the stories, but did differ in the production of narratives. Boys with ADHD provided less information overall, and their stories were more poorly organized and less cohesive and contained more inaccuracies. As a result, their stories were often confused and hard to follow. Organization and monitoring of information are functions of executive control. Thus the observed deficits in narrative production in children with ADHD may reflect underlying deficits in executive processes.

Cohesion Repairs in the Narratives of Normal-Language and Language-Disordered School-Age Children

The self-initiated repairs produced by 14 normal-language and 14 language-disordered children during a story retelling task are described. When grammatical repairs and repairs to text meaning were analysed, no group differences were found for either repair type. Both groups initiated significantly more repairs to text meaning. When repairs to text meaning were probed for the cohesive aspects of the repair activity, there were no group differences for the frequency or the types of cohesive repairs that were initiated. However, differences were significant for the success of the cohesive repair attempts and for the location of the repairs. Normal-language and language-disordered children appear to share similar strategies for monitoring narrative discourse, but they differ in their abilities to actualize their monitoring attention.

Narrative Competence: Cross-Cultural Comparisons

Abstract In a series of cross-cultural studies of narratives by children and adolescents, we examined thematic variations as well as cohesive devices. Our subjects ranged from 5 to 15 years of age. Our initial study included Black, Hispanic, and Native-American participants. We used a story-retelling task for comparative analysis. We found that children between ages 5 and 8 substantively increased the quantity and accuracy of their retold narratives. We also found thematic differ-ences among stories by children from the different speech communities, which suggested coherent cultural schemas specific to each ethnic group. Native-Amer-ican students, who reconstructed stories on the basis of pictorial cues, also revealed strong cultural and tribal variations in their narratives. In follow-up studies, we examined the relationship between narrative compe-tence and narrative cohesion. Our subjects (ranging in age from 8 to 11) were drawn from public school groups of English-speaking American students and Hungarian public school students. In the retold stories of these two groups, we found that the Hungarian students demonstrated a more artful storytelling style, employing a greater variety of cohesive devices and establishing a more coherent narrative experience than did the American students. (Linguistics, Education)

Degree of Bilingualism and Arithmetic Problem Solving in Hispanic First Graders

This study demonstrated that 45 first-grade Hispanic bilingual children's problem solving was related to the semantic structures of word problems (a) in a similar manner across their 2 languages, and (b) in a manner similar to that of monolingual populations. I also investigated the relationship between proficiency in each language and arithmetic problem solving in that language. When language proficiency was measured via the Preschool Version, Language Assessment Scales story-retelling task, an indicator of surface fluency, no such relationship was found. However, when proficiency was measured via verbal counting up and counting down, these relationships were found across both languages. Finally, I examined the relationship between degree of bilingualism and problem solving in English and in Spanish that goes beyond the connection between a language and problem solving in that language. This last relationship was found only for English as measured by each of the verbal counting tasks. The results suggest (a) that Hispanic bilingual children enter school with greater competence in solving addition and subtraction word problems than they are usually credited with; (b) that the cognitive benefits of being bilingual might appear, at least initially, in academic subjects; and (c) that these benefits depend on the development of decontextualized, academic language proficiency.

Expressive language recovery or improved communicative skills: Effects of p.a.c.e. therapy on aphasics' referential communication and story retelling

Abstract Eight chronic aphasics received a P.A.C.E. therapy programme. All patients received aphasia testing as pre/post therapy evaluation. In order to assess their communicative abilities in face to face setting, referential communication and story retelling tasks were also given. Results showed that aphasics' referential communication abilities improved whereas standard aphasia parameters did not. Furthermore, when story retellings were submitted to naive listeners, those produced after treatment were judged to be more informative. It is suggested that P.A.C.E. therapy can improve communicative skills even in those aphasic patients who do not show language improvement.

Narrative analysis: clinical applications of story generation and story retelling.

Narratives were produced by groups of language-disordered and nonimpaired children ages 9:0-11:4 (years:months) in story generation and story retelling tasks. The stories were analyzed in terms of the number of story grammar components, number of complete episodes, relative frequency of story components, and story length. For both groups of children, the results indicated strong overall homogeneity between story generation and story retelling. The retold narratives were longer and contained more story grammar components and complete episode structures for both groups of children. Clause length within complete episodes differentiated story generation from story retelling for the language-disordered children but not for the control group. The clinical advantages of using story retelling in language assessment are discussed.

The Influence of Task‐ and Proficiency‐Related Factors on the Use of Compensatory Strategies: A Quantitative Analysis

The study described in this paper was set up to investigate the effect of foreign language learners' proficiency level on compensatory strategies used by these learners to solve lexical problems. At the same time, the effect of task‐related factors on compensatory strategies was examined. The study involved three groups of Dutch learners of English at three different proficiency levels. The subjects were tested on three different tasks: a picture naming/description task, a story retell task, and an oral interview with a native speaker of English.It appeared that “proficiency level” is inversely related to the number of compensatory strategies used by the subjects: the most advanced subjects used fewer compensatory strategies than did the least proficient ones. Contrary to our expectations, however, the type of compensatory strategy chosen by the subjects was not to any large extent related to their proficiency level. Rather, the data indicate that task‐related factors play a large role in this respect. Whereas the subjects predominantly used analytic strategies in the picture naming/description task, they frequently resorted to holistic strategies and transfer strategies in the story retell task and the oral interview.To explain these differences it is suggested that in selecting compensatory strategies the subjects observed general conversational principles.

Lexicale Problemen - Hoe Los je ze op? de Resultaten Van Een Onderzoek Naar Compensatiestrategieën

The article reports the results of a four-year project on the use of compensatory strategies (CpS) by Dutch learners of English at three different proficiency levels. As expected, the number of CpS used by foreign language (L2) learners was inversely related to their L2 proficiency level. The type of CpS used proved to be largely task-related, however. The subjects predominantly used analytic strategies in a picture naming/description task, while in a story retell task, and particularly when participating in an interview with a native speaker of English, they also used many holistic strategies and transfer strategies. To explain the task-related variation in CpS use it was suggested that the subjects adhered to Grice's cooperative principle and the principle of economy when selecting CpS. Consequently, they attempted to use CpS that were both effective (in the context) and required minimal processing effort. Where this proved to be impossible, the importance of the communicative goal, the complexity of the task and the amount of time available determined their choice between using effective CpS and spending little effort.

Mothers and fathers teaching 3-year-olds: Authoritative parenting and adult scaffolding of young children's learning.

In this study we investigated variations in parental tutoring of children on the basis of Vygotsky's (1978) theorizing and the concept of parental scaffolding of children's learning. Twenty-four couples and their 3-year-old children participated. Mothers and fathers worked separately with the child on three difficult tasks: a block construction task, a matrix classification task, and a story retelling task. Parental interventions were classified by level of support and were used to define the region of sensitivity to instruction, following the work of Wood (1980). Independent observers rated each parent separately on authoritative/uninvolved and authoritarian/permissive styles, following Baumrind's (1967, 1973) typology. Both mothers and fathers adjusted their support of the child as predicted. Later portions of the tutoring interactions demonstrated more fine tuning of interventions by parents than earlier portions. However, authoritative mothers and fathers were generally more likely than nonauthoritative parents to focus interventions in the region of sensitivity across tasks and to shift their interventions contingent on child success or failure. These patterns were also associated with more dyadic success on task as predicted. We discuss relations between these two levels of parenting style. Recently a good deal of attention has been directed to the work of the Russian developmentalist Vygotsky (e.g., 1978), whose theoretical writings focused explicitly on the role of adult-child interaction in the socialization of early cognitive development. Vygotsky argued that all higher planning and organizing functions in development appear twice, initially on the interpersonal plane of social interaction and subsequently on the intrapersonal plane of individual cognitive functioning, following a process of gradual internalization. Most important in terms of the study reported here, Vygotsky's theory entails a specific model for the organization of adult-child teaching interactions (e.g., Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, McNamee, McLane, & Budwig, 1980). Initially, complex tasks must be accomplished by such a problem-solving dyad, with the adult assuming the directive and organizing functions. The child's role may be simply to enact the specific behaviors assigned to him or her by the adult tutor. Gradually, however, as the child becomes more knowledgeable and skilled, he or she takes over more and more of the goal-oriented, planning aspects of the task from the adult. Thus, Vygotsky suggested that learning by

Temporal characteristics in the fluent speech of child stutterers and nonstutterers

Past research reveals that adult stutterers often possess aberrant speech-timing abilities. As yet, only Healey and Adams (1981) have investigated these abilities in child stutterers. The present study attempted to assess the speech-timing skills of child stutterers and normal-speaking children while performing both simple and complex speech. Each subject was required to participate in two tasks: a sentence repetition task for simple speech and a story-retelling task for complex speech. Results supported those found by Healey and Adams, indicating that child stutterers have speech-timing abilities similar to normal-speaking children in simple speech tasks. The complex task, however, revealed that stutterers exhibited more frequent and longer interword pauses than nonstutterers. Two hypotheses generated from past research are offered to explain these differences. A third untested theory is also presented.

AN ANALYSIS OF DISCOMFORT, RISKTAKING, SOCIABILITY, AND MOTIVATION IN THE L2 CLASSROOM

This study investigated a causal model of second language learning. Particular attention was given to three situation‐specific constructs: Language Class Discomfort, Language Class Risktaking, and Language Class Sociability. It was theorized that voluntary Classroom Participation mediates the effect of Language Class Discomfort, Language Class Risktaking, Language Class Sociability, and Strength of Motivation on success in classroom L2 learning. The subjects were students enrolled in first year (first and second quarter) university Spanish classes.Data on Classroom Participation were gathered by means of classroom observation and audio recording. Proficiency was measured by correctness and fluency on a storyretelling task and correctness on a written final examination. The results of the causal analysis included findings that: Language Class Discomfort negatively predicted Language Class Risktaking and Language Class Sociability; Language Class Risktaking positively predicted Classroom Participation; and Classroom Participation positively predicted Oral Correctness for the first quarter students.

Retrospectie Als Hulpmiddel Bij De Analyse Van Compensatie-Strategieen

This paper deals with the procedures followed to identify the strategies in the Nijmegen project on the use of compensatory strategies by Dutch learners of English. The project aims to shed light on the relationship between foreign language proficiency level and compensatory strategy (CpS) use. For this purpose three groups of fifteen Dutch learners of English, of three different proficiency levels, were asked to carry out four tasks. Two of the tasks comprised rather formal elicitation techniques; the subjects had to describe concrete and abstract pictures. The two other tasks, a story retell task and an oral interview, were aimed at obtaining more natural language data. To identify the CpS we make use of problem indicators such as pauses, repetitions, intonation, sighs, laughs and ongoing commentary. In addition, it was decided to collect retrospective data from the subjects on the two more natural tasks, as in these tasks CpS are particularly hard to identify, due to the relative inaccessibility of the subject's intended meaning. In this paper criticism of the use of retrospective data is discussed, as well as the conditions (as specified by Ericsson & Simon, 1984) under which retrospective data can be reliably collected. A description of our procedures goes to show that, on the whole, these conditions are met in our case. The usefulness of retrospective data is then illustrated by means of a comparative study of two identification procedures, one with and one without use of retrospective data. The results indicate that the additional use of retrospective data increased the number of identifiable CpS by 33%; raised the degree of confidence which we can put in our identification in 64% of the cases; and enabled us to discover a small number of incorrectly identified CpS. It was therefore concluded that retrospective data can be considered a reliable and valuable resource in the analysis of CpS.

GRAMMATICAL ERRORS AS A FUNCTION OF PROCESSING CONSTRAINTS AND EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE

The first question of this study deals with the influence of the factors Time Pressure (present or absent) and Focus of Attention (on information or on grammar) on the correct use of two Dutch word‐order rules in the speech of 32 adult learners of that language. In an experimental repeated measures design using a story retelling task. Attention had a significant effect, but Time did not. The second question deals with the relation between explicitness of rule knowledge, assessed in an interview, and rule application, elicited in the experiment. Although the learners without explicit knowledge of the two word‐order rules made more errors in the story retelling task than learners with explicit knowledge, they were influenced by Time and Attention to the same extent as the learners with explicit knowledge.The results of this study are discussed in terms of Krashen's Monitor Theory and in terms of an information‐processing approach that distinguishes executive control from metacognitive knowledge.

Story Retelling as a Communicative Performance Screening Tool

This study investigated the use of a story retelling task as a mechanism for screening integrated communicative performance. Comparisons were made between story retelling performance and performance on two standardized screening tools for kindergarten, readiness, and first-grade children. Results suggest that story retelling is a more stringent measure of integrated communicative performance.