Papa pig just left for pigtown: Children's oral and written picture descriptions under varying instructions

Abstract

Second‐ through fifth‐grade children were asked to describe pictures under four conditions: orally and in writing for both a present audience and for an absent child who would have to read the written description or listen to the recording and draw it. About half the 150 subjects were speakers of English as a second language. The four descriptions from each child were coded for variables reflecting dimensions expected to be sensitive to the differences in instruction and mode: quantity, specificity, density, main theme, and nar‐rativity. Children of all grades were sensitive to the task demands, though older children produced longer and more specific descriptions. A greater effect of the instruction was found in the oral than in the written descriptions; across grades the best performance occurred in the oral description for an absent audience. The written mode elicited more highly narrative descriptions in general. Home language environment had virtually no effect on quality of picture descriptions in any of the four conditions, suggesting that in school‐related language tasks such as those used here curricular factors and the school language environment constitute more powerful learning influences than the home language environment.