Data Collection Instrument

After the participants had been selected based on the previously mentioned criteria (see section 3.3.2), the researcher needed to select a data collection instrument in order to record the English-language ability of the participants. Many different approaches have been used in previous studies on bilingualism including natural speech observation, language tests, personal narrative, and fictional narrative. The following section discusses the researcher’s rationale for selecting fictional narrative as her data collection instrument.

3.4.2.1 Fictional Narratives

The term narrative, as used here, refers to “all types of discourse in which event structured material is shared with readers and listeners, including fictional stories, personal narratives, accounts and recounts of events (real or imagined)” (Mistry, 1993: 208). Two types of narratives are commonly used in the field of bilingualism, personal and fictional. Fictional narratives are stories about fictional events, often elicited with non-verbal prompts, such as pictures or videos. Fictional narratives are appropriate for this study because researchers working with bilingual children commonly use these narratives to answer questions about cross-linguistic influence, language attrition, and the development of vocabulary, temporality, and narrative competence (Pavlenko, 2008: 312). While personal narratives can also be used for these purposes, they exhibit a significant amount of variation across participants and contexts and are less amenable to analysis of intra- and inter-group similarities and differences. For example, one type of narrative relies on verbal input alone to elicit narratives about personal experiences – either one-time occurrences (Kemper, 1984; Peterson & McCabe, 1983; Roth & Spekman, 1986) or familiar “scripted” events (Fivush & Slackman, 1986; Hudson & Nelson, 1986). In applying these methods, the researcher has little external control over the events which the narrator is referring to. Another method aims to overcome this particular problem by providing a shared non-verbal – typically visual and typically fictive – basis for narrative description. This may be done by showing a film without words (Chafe, 1980; Hickmann, 1980, 1982; Sleight & Prinz, 1985; Warden, 1981) or by using pictures (Berman & Slobin, 1994). This study chose to use non-verbal prompts over verbal prompts as they encourage spontaneous speech from the participants, and as Berman and Slobin state, picture-based narratives are “often aimed at examining children’s ability to introduce, maintain and shift reference to protagonists” (1994: 41),

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for example, the characters shown in the pictures (Hickmann, 1980; Hickmann & Liang, 1990; Karmiloff-Smith, 1980, 1981; McGann & Schwartz, 1988). This design has an advantage over the memory burden entailed by film viewings, which vary in degree of retention of the material which they present (Berman & Slobin, 1994: 41). Researchers who have chosen to use narrative as a form of assessment on bilingual children often favour cartoons, pictures and picture books, because storytelling elicited by means of these prompts does not require children to imagine events and thus reduces the cognitive load imposed by the task (Berman, 1995).

3.4.2.2 Rationale for choosing fictional narratives

i. Ample normative data available:

Narratives have been documented comprehensively in young normally developing children in recent years (Bamberg, 1987; Bamberg & Marchman, 1990). The fact that narrative ability has good normative data available means that it should be an ideal source of comparison for children in whom language development / regression issues are evident or suspected. With regard to the results of this study, it should be possible to directly compare children’s skill at a number of different aspects of language such as grammatical measures, story structure and even pragmatics. This base of normative data available means that performance in particular areas of language can be compared between children with normal language development patterns and children who are suspected to be experiencing language development issues.

ii. Narratives are a good representation of every-day speech:

It is notoriously difficult for a researcher to identify specific errors made by children with language difficulties in every-day speech. A data collection instrument is required that is structured enough to reflect conversational style and the errors within this. The storytelling activity is a task that triggers data in a spontaneous way, and will not, therefore have a biasing impact on the speech production. Child narratives are thought to correspond closely to skills involved in every-day conversation (Preece, 1987), and therefore may be a promising assessment option for representing a child’s every-day linguistic ability.

84 iii. Narrative and literacy skills:

Oral narrative and literacy ability are closely interwoven skills. The latter develop later than the first with written narratives being estimated at around 60% the length of their oral counterparts (Gillam & Johnston, 1992). Kaderavek and Sulzby (2000) report that oral narratives using a familiar storybook as a prompt given by typically developing children were more complex and showed more of the devices used in written language than the narratives given by peers with language development issues.

iv. Poor narrative ability can demonstrate language problems:

It is possible to use narrative to distinguish children with communication difficulties from typically developing peers. Children with language development problems have been shown to produce poor narratives both when retelling stories and when generating them (Liles et al., 1995; Merritt & Liles, 1987; Tager-Flusberg, 1995; Van der Lely, 1997). These individuals are sometimes reported to produce narratives similar to those generated by younger normally developing children, and this is often the reported impression of every-day language.

v. Fictional narrative facilitates participant comparison:

Fictional pictures sequences were chosen for this study, over any other type of narrative, because the use of a single set of pictures as a narrative prompt provides a shared point of departure and a common external basis for comparing the narrative productions of children. Furthermore, narrative also allows the researcher to collect longer stretches of spoken language with a common plot, also making the comparison of data more feasible.

3.4.2.3 Limitations to the use of narratives

An obvious disadvantage to using narratives as an assessment method is that audio- recorded narratives require transcription, which is extremely time-consuming.