Storytelling intervention to improve the narrative skills of bilingual children coming from low socio-economic status

ABSTRACT

This study aims to investigate narrative competence of bilingual children from low socio-economic status (SES) before and after they were involved in fourteen weeks of Turkish storytelling activities. Fifteen bilingual children from low-SES backgrounds participated in this research. Bilingual children first produced narratives using Mercer Mayer’s (1969) book, Frog Where Are You? The children then attended storytelling activities for fourteen weeks. In total, fourteen storybooks were read to the children. All the books featured problem-solving skills and instances of several attempts to solve the problem presented therein. Each story was again told using different storytelling techniques, and then the children retold again Frog Where Are You? The quality of the children’s narratives was investigated in accordance with Labov's [(1972). Language in the inner city: studies in the Black English vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press] story grammar model. Children told were analysed statistically and descriptively. The findings revealed that children produce more structured narratives after being involved in storytelling activities.

KEYWORDS:

• Narrative skills
• story grammar
• storytelling intervention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Zeynep Temiz got her MS and PhD degrees at Middle East Technical University (METU) at the Department of Elementary Education. She is currently teaching at Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey University in Karaman-Turkey. Her study focuses on preschool education, teacher education, environmental education, Narrative skills, and beginning teachers’ problems.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Scientific Research Council of Yüzüncü Yıl Üniversity [grant number 2015-HIZ-EF167].