The Development of Children's Oral Narratives Across Contexts

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The Development of Children's

Oral Narratives Across Contexts
a
Adina Schick & Gigliana Melzi
Department of Applied Psychology , New York

University
Published online: 03 Jun 2010.
To cite this article: Adina Schick & Gigliana Melzi (2010) The Development of
Children's Oral Narratives Across Contexts, Early Education and Development, 21:3,
293-317, DOI: 10.1080/10409281003680578
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EARLY EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT, 21(3), 293317

Copyright 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1040-9289 print / 1556-6935 online
DOI: 10.1080/10409281003680578
ORAL NARRATIVE
SCHICK
AND MELZIDEVELOPMENT
The Development of Childrens Oral

Narratives Across Contexts
Adina Schick and Gigliana Melzi
Department of Applied Psychology
New York University
Research Findings: Children across cultures begin the process of becoming literate
well before they begin formal schooling. The early narratives children share in conversation with others lay the foundation for various academic and nonacademic aspects of school readiness. Practice or Policy: The present review synthesizes the major work conducted on the development of oral narratives among children from
diverse sociocultural backgrounds, especially those shared at home, at school, and
with peers. Contemporary research is discussed in relation to the socialization practices across cultures and the role these practices might play in shaping childrens narrative discourse.
In most communities, storytelling, whether in oral or written form, has been used
as a primary way to preserve and transmit shared ideologies and traditions.
Bruner (1986) defined narratives as forms of oral discourse that characterize and
facilitate culturally determined ways of communicating lived or imagined events
to others. Narratives are, thus, a way in which individuals represent and make
sense of past experiences, structure and evaluate those in the present, as well as
plan and anticipate those of the future. The study of narratives has been approached from various disciplines, including literature, linguistics, anthropology, and psychology, but its roots are in the structuralist investigations of the
written narrative. In one of the earliest works of its kind, Morphology of the Folktale, Propp (1928/1968) examined the basic plot components of fairy tales to derive their simplest narrative elements. Breaking away from this tradition, Labov
Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to Gigliana Melzi, Department of
Applied Psychology, New York University, 246 Greene St., 5th Floor, New York, NY 10003. E-mail:
gigliana.melzi@nyu.edu
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and Waletzky (1967/1997) examined the structure and organization of oral narratives shared by adults, paving the way for the investigation of oral stories. Their
analyses showed that narratives serve two main functions: a referential function
through the recapitulation of the events experienced, and an evaluative function
through the narrators subjective interpretation of the experience (Labov, 1972;
Labov & Waletzky, 1967/1997). Although Labov and Waletzkys investigation
was conducted with adults, it became a springboard for later studies on young childrens oral narratives (Mandler & Johnson, 1977; Peterson & McCabe, 1983;
Stein & Glenn, 1979). The early work on childrens narratives followed this tradition, identifying the basic structural elements used by children and the ways in
which these elements are organized to create a cohesive story (Peterson & McCabe,
1983; Stein & Glenn, 1979).
Almost parallel to the interest in the organization and development of childrens narrative skills, the emergence of the ethnography of communication approach (e.g., Gumperz & Hymes, 1972) led to various naturalistic studies on childrens language development, uses, and practices in diverse communities around
the world. The ethnographic work of Peggy Miller (1982) and Shirley Brice Heath
(1983), for instance, explored language socialization practices in low-income urban and rural communities in the United States. In their ethnographic studies, oral
storytelling about personal experiences emerged as a form of discourse used frequently with, around, or by children across cultural groups. However, the narrative
practices of the communities differed with regard to the frequency with which stories were shared with children, the roles adults and children played in the creation
of stories, and the socialization functions narratives played. Whereas in many
mainstream communities in the United States children are encouraged to share
their own narratives with adults, in others children might be exposed to multiparty
interactions as listeners and observers. Moreover, children from diverse communities are socialized to include different types of information in their personal narratives. For example, whereas in some White working-class communities children
are socialized to adhere to the literal truth when sharing stories about personal experiences, in some African American working-class communities embellishing
ones experiences when sharing a personal narrative is acceptable. Heaths study,
in particular, made a pivotal contribution to the field of education, namely to the
area focusing on the intersection of oral language and literacy. Her study highlighted how purposes and practices of narratives differ in diverse sociocultural
communities and demonstrated how the narrative patterns expected and fostered
in classrooms differ from those used in the homes of some children. All children
entering school must, therefore, adjust to the culture of the school if they are to become successful achievers in that milieu. Thus, the early work in the study of childrens narrative development highlighted developmental progression in the organization and development of childrens storytelling skills, as well as the variations
in narrative uses and practices in diverse communities.
ORAL NARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT
295
In order to construct and share a story effectively, children must rely on a combination of skills from various domains, including memory, language, and the social domain (Hudson & Shapiro, 1991). In turn, these early narratives lay the foundation for various academic and nonacademic aspects of school-related skills
(Bliss & McCabe, 2008; Fiorentino & Howe, 2004; Johnston, 2008; WishardGuerra & Howes, 2009). Early narrative ability, for instance, is both correlated
with and predictive of a wide range of essential literacy skills, including increased
vocabulary, print knowledge, decoding, story comprehension (Dickinson & Smith,
1994; Reese, 1995; Snow, Tabors, & Dickinson, 2001), morphological and syntactic skills (Snchal, Pagan, Lever, & Ouellette, 2008), as well as various writing
skills (Griffin, Hemphill, Camp, & Wolf, 2004). Early narratives are also related to
aspects of socioemotional development, such as the creation and maintenance of
interpersonal bonds (Fivush & Nelson, 2006; Nelson, 1993; Wang & Fivush,
2005; Welch-Ross, 1995), as well as various sociocognitive skills, including emotional recognition, perspective taking, and an awareness of the human mind and
behavior (Charman & Shmueli-Goetz, 1998; Fivush, 1993; Nelson, 1996). In addition, early narratives are related to childrens future recall and planning skills,
among other enhanced memory skills (Jack, MacDonald, Reese, & Hayne, 2009;
Rudek & Haden, 2005). As is evident, this area of inquiry is extensive, spanning
various developmental domains.
Given the wealth of research on narratives, the present review is selective, focusing on the development of oral narrative skills and how these relate to childrens literacy acquisition. As much of the contemporary work has focused on
the narratives shared at home, we begin our discussion by examining the ways
in which parents across cultures scaffold their childrens early narrative skills
through conversations about past experiences and book-sharing interactions. We
then review the work that has examined classroom narratives, focusing on the discourse styles teachers in U.S. schools use to engage their students in narrative interactions. Both of these bodies of work have identified relationships between the
narrative styles adopted by adult caregivers (i.e., parents and teachers) and childrens development of school-related skills. In the third section, we review a
somewhat less expansive area of research that has investigated childrens independent narrative skills when sharing stories without the assistance of adult scaffolding and when sharing stories with peers.
IN CONVERSATION WITH PARENTS

In the past 30 years there has been a burgeoning of research within the field of developmental psychology aimed at examining childrens narrative development.
Much of this research has been heavily influenced by Vygotskian sociocultural
theory. From this perspective, adults scaffold the skills children require to com-
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plete a task by providing guidance and feedback. With time, the child internalizes
the information the parent provides, and the external scaffold is no longer necessary (Vygotsky, 1962). Conversations shared between parents and children serve
as an important source of narrative scaffolding (Haden, Haine, & Fivush, 1997;
Melzi, 2000; Peterson & McCabe, 1994). Children as young as age 2 interact socially with their caregivers and begin to share stories with them (Eisenberg, 1985).
At first, the adults take the lead, providing both the structure of the narrative as
well as the majority of the content. When children are very young, mothers guide
their sharing of past experiences by asking closed-ended questions with yes/no answers; however, by the end of the preschool years, mothers shift to the use of more
open-ended wh- questions to help scaffold their childrens independent contributions to the story (Farrant & Reese, 2000). With time, children become less reliant
on parental scaffolding and become more adept at selecting and weaving information to construct and tell stories (Eisenberg, 1985). In this way, the input and contributions of the conversational partner act as a scaffold for the childs narrative
production by guiding the selection of the content and by providing the necessary
organization to construct a tellable story that will be understood and valued by the
larger community (Fivush, Haden, & Reese, 2006; Haden et al., 1997; Melzi,
2000; Peterson & McCabe, 1994).
Most of the research on narrative interactions has focused on mothers1 and their
preschool-age children (Fivush et al., 2006). This work suggests that maternal discourse features shape not only childrens future narratives but also other skills necessary for a successful transition into school. One aspect of narrative scaffolding
that has been greatly investigated is maternal elaborativeness. Elaboration is a discourse feature through which parents either provide or request from their child
new information that sustains the story. Although all mothers use elaborative language during narrative interactions with their children, they differ in the extent and
the manner in which they do so (Fivush, 1991; Fivush & Fromhoff, 1988; Fivush et
al., 2006; McCabe & Peterson, 1991; Peterson & McCabe, 1994; Reese & Fivush,
1993). Specifically, some mothers are highly elaborative and engage their children
in lengthy conversations, providing much of the structure and supplying rich, descriptive detailed information. These mothers encourage their children to coconstruct the narrative as they ask open-ended questions and expand on their childrens utterances. By contrast, less elaborative mothers typically engage their
children in shorter conversations, supplying little detail and asking fewer questions; the questions they do ask are repetitive, requesting the same type of information and seeking specific answers while providing little new information (Fivush
1Although less research has examined fatherchild narrative interactions, the existing research suggests that no significant differences exist between mothers and fathers in narrative style, amount of
elaboration, or themes discussed as they engage their young children in conversation (Cristofaro &
Tamis-LeMonda, 2008; Reese & Fivush, 1993).
297
& Fromhoff, 1988; Fivush et al., 2006; Melzi, 2000; Reese, Haden, & Fivush,
1996). It is interesting that past research has shown that maternal characteristics such as level of education are not correlated with elaboration (Newcombe
& Reese, 2004). By contrast, however, a number of child characteristics have
been associated with maternal elaboration. For example, mothers are, on average, more elaborative with children who are highly attentive (Farrant & Reese,
2000) and more active (Lewis, 1999). Thus, there appears to be a relationship
between child temperament and maternal elaboration. Moreover, mothers of
securely attached children tend to be more elaborative and are more likely to
adjust their degree of elaboration to their childs developing skills (Reese &
Farrant, 2003).
Research has shown that greater maternal elaborativeness is beneficial for childrens future development of narrative and literacy skills. Mothers who are highly
elaborative have children who share longer, more descriptive, and richer personal
narratives (Reese, Haden, & Fivush, 1993). In one of the few experimental studies
of its kind, for example, a group of mothers was trained to use a highly elaborative
style as they discussed past events with their 3-year-old children. Children whose
mothers were in the trained group told more sophisticated personal narratives two
years later compared children of mothers in the control group (Peterson, Jesso, &
McCabe, 1999). More recently, a longitudinal investigation of New Zealand
motherchild dyads (mainly from European backgrounds) provided further evidence that children of mothers trained to use an elaborative style when engaging
in talk about the past tell richerand more accuratepersonal narratives a year
after training (Reese & Newcombe, 2007). In addition, maternal elaborativeness
during stories about the past is related to childrens emergent literacy, including
receptive and productive vocabulary, concepts about print, and story comprehension (Reese, 1995; Sparks, Reese, & Kalia, 2005). In the Peterson et al.
(1999) study described above, as another example, children in the intervention
group displayed more gains in vocabulary a year after training compared to those
in the control group. Researchers have suggested that mothers who adopt a
high-elaborative style engage their children in higher levels of decontextualized
language usea foundational skill for literacy development. During talk about
the past, the experience is recreated solely through language, and therefore the
language used is decontextualized from the immediate environment, relying on
memory or internal representations. Decontextualized talk is cognitively and linguistically demanding, and thus helps prepare children for the various forms of
critical thinking that will be required of them when they enter formal schooling
(Snow, 1983, 1991).
Building on the early work on childrens narrative experiences across diverse
communities, contemporary cross-cultural and ethnographic work on narrative development has yielded compelling evidence that there are variations in the ways in
which adults scaffold childrens narrative productions, and that these variations
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are reflective of cultural beliefs, values, norms, and practices (Fivush & Haden,
2003; McCabe, Bailey, & Melzi, 2008). In other words, the extent to which mothers elaborate and the ways in which they do so as they scaffold childrens early narrative skills are contingent on the socialization goals adopted by their sociocultural
groups (Ochs & Capps, 2001; Wang & Fivush, 2005). Thus, because in the United
States children are typically imbued with a sense of individualism and a feeling of
autonomy and independence, Euro-American mothers often adopt a high-elaborative style as they engage their children in conversations about the self (Wang,
2001, 2004; Wang & Fivush, 2005). As another example, Latino mothers generally emphasize the importance of interpersonal relations and social skills during
interactions with their children. As a result, although Spanish-speaking immigrant
Central American mothers are as elaborative as Euro-American mothers, they typically focus more on the social and conversational aspects of the narrative task and
serve as a participatory audience, allowing their children to take control of the conversation (Melzi, 2000; Melzi, Schick, & Kennedy, in press). By contrast, Maori
mothers in New Zealand tend to adopt a low-elaborative style that uses frequent
repetition as a way of encouraging childrens retention of memories. Their low-elaborative, highly repetitive style is related to the cultures strong tradition of oral
narrative, which places much value on the memorization of stories (Hayne & MacDonald, 2003).
Because extensive talk about the self is discouraged in most East Asian cultures, East Asian mothers also tend to favor a low-elaborative interaction style that
keeps childrens contributions succinct, limiting the extent to which children are
allowed to introduce their own topics (Minami & McCabe, 1991, 1995; Mullen &
Yi, 1995; Wang, Leichtman, & Davies, 2000). For example, in a recent study examining cultural variations in the use of emotions in Chinese and Euro-American
motherchild conversations, Fivush and Wang (2005) found that Euro-American
children argued and negotiated the emotional topics more than did Chinese children, which highlights the different functions narratives play in the two cultural
groups. Whereas among Euro-Americans the sharing of stories about personal experiences often serves as a venue for expressing opinions and affirming individuality, among East Asian populations sharing personal narratives serves as a forum
for teaching moral values and acceptable behavior (Miller, Wiley, Fung, & Liang,
1997; Wang, 2001). Thus, it is not surprising that as they engage in conversation
about the past, East Asian motherchild dyads talk more about behavioral expectations and social norms, compared with the focus of Euro-American dyads on the
childs thoughts and feelings (Mullen & Yi, 1995).
Motherchild narratives about past experiences are one of the earliest contexts
for the development of narrative skills in young children, but they are not the only
important context. In fact, adultchild book reading is particularly important for
the support of emergent literacy development as well. For example, the number of
books in the home and the frequency with which books are shared with young chil-
299
dren are related to childrens early literacy skills, including vocabulary, a skill critical to the ability to read and write (Potter & Haynes, 2000; Raikes et al., 2006;
Snchal et al., 2008). Equally important is the manner in which the books are
shared. Because they follow a set plot (predetermined by textual and/or pictorial
cues), book-sharing interactions are more structured than oral narrative interactions. Most work examining the ways in which parents support childrens narrative
and literacy skills in this context has focused on maternal language and discourse
features used during the interaction, such as the amount of language, lexical diversity, the degree to which mothers adhere to the text and the types of extratextual
contributions, as well as how these relate to childrens linguistic, cognitive, and literacy outcomes (Bingham, 2007; Curenton, Craig, & Flanigan, 2008; Haden,
Reese, & Fivush, 1996; Martin, 1998; Reese, 1995; Snow, Tabors, & Dickinson,
2001). One particularly interesting study identified three overall book-reading
styles mothers of preschoolers used in this context and showed that the styles were
differentially predictive of childrens emergent literacy skills (Haden et al., 1996).
Some mothers adopted a describer style; these mothers included rich descriptions
and focused on vocabulary, expository language, and concepts but did not engage
their children in discussions about the events that transpired. By contrast, collaborators invited their childrens participation in the telling of the story and provided
positive feedback. Finally, comprehenders engaged their children in high-level
extratextual talk and encouraged them to draw inferences and make predictions.
Results showed that children of collaborators and comprehenders had more advanced vocabulary, print, decoding, and story comprehension skills 2 years later
compared to children of describers. Thus, it appears that asking elaborative
open-ended questions and scaffolding analytical thinking when sharing storybooks with young children foster literacy development.
Building on this work, research suggests that dialogic reading, a renowned
reading intervention program for mothers and children that encourages mothers to
elicit information from their children and to foster childrens participation when
sharing storybooks, is effective in helping to build early literacy skills (Whitehurst
& Lonigan, 1998). Nonetheless, although the asking of questions and the scaffolding of inferential and critical thinking are common features of book sharing in middle-class Euro-American families, these storytelling features might not be aligned
with the literacy practices of all communities, nor might they be as effective for all
children. For example, Reese and Cox (1999) found that for children with less advanced language skills, the describer style is in fact more effective than those
styles that focus on prediction and inferential thinking. Moreover, in a recent
meta-analysis investigating the effectiveness of dialogic reading on childrens vocabulary development, Mol, Bus, de Jong, and Smeets (2008) demonstrated that
although dialogic reading is beneficial for mainstream Euro-American families, it
is not equally effective for all motherchild dyads, likely because the book-sharing
styles encouraged are not aligned with their cultural styles.
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Similar to other narrative contexts, cultural norms are embedded in the manner
in which books are shared with children. For example, when sharing picture books
with their children, Euro-American mothers tend to ask challenging questions that
reflect the style used in elementary school classrooms in the United States. By contrast, East Asian mothers strive to maintain interpersonal harmony and typically
ask questions that their children can answer (Kato-Otani, 2004). Similarly, low-income (English-speaking) Puerto Rican and African American mothers of Head
Start children view shared book reading as serving a social function rather than an
academic one. In other words, the goal of story sharing is to spend quality time
with the child and strengthen the motherchild bond and not necessarily to teach
children skills that will be necessary for school success. Thus, when reading
text-based picture books with their children, mothers typically request little information from their children, reading to them directly from the text. Nevertheless,
low-income African American mothers are more likely to serve as the primary narrators than are Puerto Rican mothers, who take more of a child-centered approach,
allowing their children to take control of the narration (Hammer, Nimmo, Cohen,
Draheim, & Johnson, 2005). Research with Spanish-speaking mothers from other
Latino backgrounds shows that these mothers adopt an array of styles when sharing books with their children, varying in the extent to which they actively engage
children in the construction of the story. In their investigation of maternal booksharing styles, Melzi and Caspe (2005) found that, by contrast to middle-class
Euro-American mothers, who typically co-constructed narratives with their children, middle-class Peruvian mothers served as the sole narrators of an engaging
story with minimal child participation. In an extension of that work, Caspe (2009)
examined the book-sharing styles of low-income Spanish-speaking Dominican
and Mexican immigrant Head Start families living in New York City. Corroborating Melzi and Caspes (2005) findings, this study found that some mothers
co-constructed the story with their children, requesting significantly more information than they provided, but the majority of mothers (68%) narrated the story
with minimal input from their children. Interestingly, controlling for years of maternal education and childrens initial developmental competencies, it was the
children whose mothers served as the primary storytellers who had higher emergent literacy scores at the end of the school year. One potential explanation for this
finding is that the storybuilder style, although common among Euro-American
mothers, is not a familiar cultural practice of all Latino mothers, and, thus, although they attempted to ask questions of their children, they did not do so in a
smooth or natural manner (Caspe, 2009). Similar findings about the narrator
audience distinction as an important dimension of maternal scaffolding during
motherchild book-sharing interactions have been noted among a variety of cultural groups, including East Indian mothers (Harkins & Ray, 2004), Brazilian
mothers (Zilles, Melzi, Knecht, & Lopes, 2008), and Spanish-speaking Puerto Rican mothers (Caspe & Melzi, 2008). (For a review, see Melzi et al., in press.)
301
By the time children reach age 5, they have acquired the basic skills needed to
produce a narrative that approximates the canonical form of the oral stories valued
in their community through their participation in narrative interactions, such as
conversations about personal experience and book sharing. The narrative skills
children develop during the preschool years are critical for childrens school readiness, as they are predictive of their literacy skills throughout the elementary school
years (Griffin et al., 2004). Preschoolers oral narrative skills are robust predictors
of various reading skills, such as decoding, print knowledge, and story comprehension skills (Dickinson & Smith, 1994; Dickinson & Snow, 1987; Reese, 1995;
Snow, Tabors, & Dickinson, 2001) as well as writing skills (Griffin et al., 2004).
Given the importance of the home context for childrens narrative development,
much of the existing literature on childrens narrative conversations has focused
on parental scaffolding styles. Nevertheless, there is a need for further investigation of how maternal narrative scaffolding styles influence childrens narrative
styles across cultures, as most of the existing work has been limited to Euro-American populations. Moreover, despite their significance for childrens narrative development, parentchild interactions provide a limited snapshot of childrens daily
language exchanges, as they are only one of the many contexts in which preschool
children have the opportunity to engage in extended conversations. Young children engage in storytelling with others besides parents on a daily basis. They talk
with siblings, grandparents, and other family members. For example, in some Mexican American communities, older siblings frequently share storybooks with their
younger siblings as part of their caregiving responsibilities (Orellana, Reynolds, Dorner,
& Meza, 2003). Thus, it is important for researchers to investigate the narrative interactions children have with caregivers other than parents across communities. We
now turn our attention to the conversations children have with their teachers in educational settings, as the narrative interactions children have in this context provide
further support for the development of their narrative and literacy skills.
SHARING STORIES AT SCHOOL

In contrast to the home, where conversations are less structured and adults usually
interact informally with one or a few children at a given time, conversations in the
classroom are more scripted as teachers engage larger groups of children at once
(Cross, 1989; Dickinson, 1991). The structure of classroom discourse dictates the
types of narratives shared in preschools and the characteristics of these stories. For
instance, narratives shared in classrooms are shorter in length than those shared at
home (Dickinson, 1991). Research also suggests that children are frequently exposed to more diverse narrative forms and settings in classroom interactions than
in the home (Dickinson, 2001a). Over the course of the school day, children have
various opportunities to engage in narrative interactions independently and col-
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laboratively with both teachers and peers. The type of narrative support children
receive during these conversations differs and might complement that which they
receive at home.
In classroom conversations and discussions, teachers strive to scaffold childrens discourse such that language and concepts are within childrens zones of
proximal development. As children enter preschool classrooms with diverse language and literacy experiences, teachers face a challenge when trying to engage all
students in a conversation that is both educational and within their cognitive reach
(Dickinson, 2001a). The handful of studies conducted on teacherchild conversations in early childhood classrooms suggest that sharing (or circle) time is a common school activity during which children are encouraged to share experiences
and information with their teachers and peers (Cazden, 2001). Although the precise structure of sharing time might vary from one classroom to another, in general
it is a time for children to share narratives about personal experiences. Teachers
scaffold childrens narratives during sharing time by asking questions and providing information to both clarify and extend childrens talk (Michaels, 1991). At
times, however, teachers have difficulty understanding the stories told to them by
their students (Cazden, 2001). Unlike parents, who are familiar with their childrens experiences and can therefore provide the appropriate scaffolding to help
their children share coherent stories, teachers are typically unaware of the childrens experiences outside of school (Cazden, 2001; Dickinson, 1991). Therefore,
they might experience difficulty following the stories told to them by their students
and thus might be unable to provide the necessary prompts to facilitate the elaboration of the narrative (Cazden, 2001).
Cultural differences between teachers and their students might be a factor in
teachers unfamiliarity with childrens narrative styles (Cazden, 2001; Heath,
1983; Michaels, 1991). When listening to their students share their experiences,
teachers typically expect particular types of narratives. The expectation is for children to tell stories that are topic centered, those structured around a particular
experience with a clearly delineated beginning, middle, and end (Michaels, 1991).
This style is very much aligned with the style commonly used by middle-class
Euro-American parents. As teachers are familiar with this style, they can easily
help children extend their narratives. However, not all children necessarily use this
narrative structure. For instance, some working-class African American children
share topic-associating stories, long narratives that are marked by the juxtaposition of several concrete anecdotes all thematically linked to make an implicit
point (Michaels, 1991, pp. 310311). Teachers who are not familiar with this narrative structure have a difficult time understanding and scaffolding the narrative
production for the children (Gee, 1985; Michaels, 1991). Nevertheless, research
suggests that it is important for teachers to encourage their students to share narratives with them. It is important for teachers to listen closely to the stories that children tell them not only during circle time but also during non-structured activities,
303
such as mealtime and free play; to attend closely to the elements of those stories;
and to ask genuine questions that will aid their comprehension of the stories and
help them to become more familiar with diverse narrative practices and traditions
(Curenton, 2006).
Like the research on home literacy, most investigations of classroom literacy
environments have centered on book-reading interactions. This body of research
highlights the importance of classroom book reading in building childrens early
literacy skills by demonstrating that talk between preschool teachers and their students around storybooks is correlated with childrens vocabulary and story comprehension skills (Dickinson, 2001a; Dickinson & Smith, 1994; Snow & Dickinson, 1990). It is somewhat surprising that although preschool teachers are aware of
the importance of book reading for childrens literacy development, many teachers
do not systematically incorporate book reading as a daily activity in their classroom routines (Dickinson, 2001a). Moreover, shared book reading in classrooms
differs greatly from motherchild book sharing. For example, classroom book
reading serves more of an instructional purpose than a conversational one, with the
latter a more common function of book sharing in the home (Hindman, Connor,
Jewkes, & Morrison, 2008). In contrast to the sharing of storybooks in the home,
book sharing in classrooms typically occurs in group settings with large adult
child ratios (Wasik & Bond, 2001). Teachers rarely read to individual students,
and, consequently, it becomes difficult to tailor book readings to childrens preferred styles (Hindman et al., 2008).
As do mothers, teachers vary in the book-reading styles they adopt when sharing books with their classes. The styles differ in terms of the content they include,
the degree to which they engage students in pre-reading and post-reading conversations, the number and types of questions asked, and the degree to which the story
is enacted (Dickinson, 2001a; Dickinson & Smith, 1994). Some teachers, for example, use a didactic-interactional style that does not engage children in pre- and
post-reading conversations but rather focuses on the written text. Although there is
a high level of student involvement during the book reading, this talk is centered
on basic recall questions teachers ask following each section of the text. In addition, these teachers encourage their students to chant aloud familiar passages from
the text. Other teachers use a performance-oriented style. Teachers who adopt this
style are dramatic and expressive as they read aloud to their class. During the book
reading itself, they encourage little conversation about the text. However, they engage their students in extensive conversation both before and after the book reading as they discuss the plot in great detail and link the events to the childrens personal experiences. In the third style, the co-constructive style, the focus is on the
story itself. Although teachers who adopt this style do not include much pre- or
post-book-reading talk, they co-construct the story with their students, stopping
frequently during the reading to engage the class in analytical and evaluative talk
about the story (e.g., exploring characters motivations and emotions, analyzing
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the sequence of events) and to draw connections between the plot and the childrens personal experiences.
Research has shown that the three styles differ in the extent to which they support early literacy. Specifically, children whose preschool teachers encouraged
them to think about characters intentions and motivations, to analyze the sequence of events, and to make connections between the storyline and their personal experiences had more advanced language and literacy skills both at the end
of kindergarten (Dickinson, 2001a; Dickinson & Smith, 1994) and at the end of the
fourth grade (Dickinson & Porche, 2005). Nevertheless, some researchers have
found that preschool teachers talk during book-sharing interactions is low in cognitive demand and that there is little scaffolding of inferential thinking (Dickinson,
McCabe, & Anastasopoulos, 2003). Others suggest that preschool teachers do focus on higher order thinking, making predictions, and drawing inferences but neglect to teach print concepts and phonology (Hindman et al., 2008), skills that are
equally important for young childrens emergent literacy development. In fact, results of a recent randomized, controlled trial investigating the effectiveness of preschool teachers use of a print referencing style that emphasizes the inclusion of
questions and comments about print during teacherclass book reading demonstrated that teachers talk about print is related to childrens print knowledge and
letter recognition skills (Justice, Kaderavek, Fan, Sofka, & Hunt, 2009).
Thus, contemporary work on early childhood classroom narratives has highlighted the important role of teachers in building childrens literacy skills during
classroom book reading and sharing (or circle) time. However, little is known
about how teachers build on the culturally preferred narrative styles of children
from diverse backgrounds. Moreover, there are many other important opportunities for oral stories to be shared during the school day, including at mealtime and
during free play. For example, some work suggests that stories shared during
mealtime provide a good informal opportunity for children to become familiarized
with diverse narrative styles (Stone, 1992) and that free play is conducive to the
sharing of fantasy narratives (Dickinson, 2001b). Nevertheless, research on classroom storytelling has not fully investigated the various ways in which early childhood teachers support childrens personal narratives throughout the school day
and how classroom narratives might be related to childrens development of
school-related skills. As a result, additional research is necessary to ensure a comprehensive portrayal of narratives shared between teachers and children in early
childhood classrooms.
TELLING STORIES ON THEIR OWN AND WITH FRIENDS

Most of the contemporary research on childrens early narrative discourse has
focused on adultchild conversations with mothers in the home and preschool
305
teachers in the classroom. Fewer studies have examined childrens abilities to

share narratives independent of adult scaffolding or with their peers. This work has
highlighted that when talking about their past experiences, children as young as
age 4 adapt the content of their stories to their target audience (Fivush & Hammond, 1990). As children get older, however, there is developmental progression
in their storytelling skills, as the stories children share become more complex and
their narrative structure improves. Most of the work on childrens narratives has
focused on identifying the basic structural elements used by children and the ways
in which these are organized to create a cohesive story. Within this particular area
of research, two main perspectives have emerged. Grounded in cognitive psychology, episodic (or story grammar) analysis (Stein & Albro, 1997; Stein & Glenn,
1979) is directly based on Propps (1928/1968) work on Russian folktales and considers stories as series of episodes centered around a protagonist and his or her motives, attempts, and actions to achieve a goal (Stein & Albro, 1997; Stein & Glenn,
1982). Stein and colleagues view childrens narrative abilities as linked to the development of specific cognitive skills and thus posited that childrens stories become more complete over time. Children between the ages of 3 and 5 typically tell
stories that include general descriptions of the protagonist and his or her actions
without any order to the information presented, making it difficult for the listener
to follow the storyline. By the time children enter kindergarten, however, they
have begun to develop the skills necessary to share well-structured goal-based stories that are complete, coherent, and cohesive.
The other perspective, and one that has had, perhaps, the largest influence on
the study of childrens independent narrative abilities, is Peterson and McCabes
(1983) high-point analysis. Based on a Labovian perspective, high-point analysis
depicts the classic narrative as a series of clauseslinked temporally or causallythat build up to a high point (or climax) and ultimately come to a resolution.
Inherent in a good narrative is the use of both referential and evaluative features,
including orienting information that contextualizes the events that move the story
forward, descriptive detail, and subjective information. Scholars adopting this approach consider narratives to be part of childrens development of discourse abilities and thus linked to linguistic and conversational gains.
Peterson and McCabes (1983) high-point analysis extended Labov and Waletzkys (1967/1997) work to allow for the structural analysis of stories told by children. They developed a method of eliciting narratives from children, known as the
conversational map, that uses story prompts to engage children in storytelling.
Their influential study on childrens narrative structure highlighted qualitative differences in the structure and overall coherence of the personal narratives told by
children during early and middle childhood. Although children begin sharing stories during their first few years of life, without the support of adult scaffolding
children younger than age 4 typically organize the information in a temporally disorganized, unsystematic manner and neglect to include integral orienting informa-
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tion. Thus, the onus is placed on the audience to make sense of the story. By the
time children are 4 years old, their utilization of this leap-frog style begins to diminish and they begin to share chronologically organized narratives with temporal
markers linking events. Nevertheless, the narratives are primarily referential (i.e.,
events and descriptions), with little evaluative or subjective information included.
Typically, children begin to integrate evaluation into their stories at approximately
age 5. However, the stories they share tend to end at the high point, or climax,
without coming to any form of resolution. By the time children turn 6, there is a
qualitative shift in their storytelling abilities, as they begin to tell classic narratives, incorporating referential and evaluative information as they build up to a
high point and then come to a full resolution. This classic pattern is considered to
be the most developed structure and one that is encouraged in U.S. schools. Consequently, the early childhood years are critical to childrens development of the
skills necessary to share complete and coherent narratives.
Although Peterson and McCabes (1983) work focused on childrens narratives
about personal experience, similar developmental patterns of growth in narrative
skill have been noted in studies that have examined other narrative genres, including scripts and fictional (or fantasy) narratives (Hudson & Shapiro, 1991). Although scriptsbasic descriptions of routine eventsare the first narrative genre
children share independently, as they get older their scripts become better organized and more developed (Hudson & Shapiro, 1991; Nelson, 1998). The most
complex narrative genre and the last to develop is the fictional narrative. As a result, preschoolers fantasy stories lack many of the basic structural elements inherent in a good narrative (e.g., setting, sequence, perspective, resolution), and it is
not until age 8 that children share cohesive and sophisticated fictional accounts
with complex plots (Hudson & Shapiro, 1991; Stein & Glenn, 1982). Even in the
third grade, childrens fictional stories include few references to internal states and
goals, a skill that does not appear to develop fully until age 10 (Hudson & Shapiro,
1991). Thus, regardless of the narrative genre, over time children become increasingly capable of independently creating and sharing well-structured narratives, although the specific developmental trajectories vary based on the genre.
Recent work has explored variations in childrens narrative development across
cultural groups, identifying both structural and thematic variations in the stories
shared. These variations have been attributed to cultural ideas about narrative uses
and practices, maternal narrative scaffolding styles, and socialization goals (e.g.,
Gutirrez-Clellen & Quinn, 1993; Heath, 1983). For example, in the same way that
Euro-American mothers are more elaborative than their East Asian counterparts as
they engage their preschool-age children in conversation about the self (Wang,
2001, 2004; Wang & Fivush, 2005), the independent narratives of Euro-American
children are found to be more descriptive, to be more evaluative, and to include
more talk about the self than those shared by Chinese children (Han, Leichtman, &
Wang, 1998; Wang & Leichtman, 2000). By contrast, the stories told by Chinese
307
children include more themes of social harmony, social engagement, and obedience to authority than those told by Euro-American children (Wang & Leichtman,
2000). Cultural differences exist in childrens narrative structure, as well. Korean
children, for instance, include fewer temporal markers in their stories than do their
Euro-American and Chinese counterparts (Han et al., 1998). Moreover, children
from diverse East Asian backgrounds (e.g., Chinese, Japanese, Korean) share
shorter narratives about personal experience compared to Euro-American children
(Han et al., 1998; Minami & McCabe, 1991). The personal narratives shared by
children from Japanese backgrounds are especially succinct, typically consisting
of three verses, reflecting the structure of a Haiku. Japanese children also tend to
include multiple isolated experiences in their narratives, in contrast to Euro-American children, whose personal narratives are centered on one main experience
(Minami & McCabe, 1991). What is interesting, though, is that although their personal narratives are very short, stories shared by Japanese children do fit Peterson
and McCabes (1983) chronological pattern and are thus comprehensible to a
Euro-American audience. African American children typically share narratives
that contain several thematically linked episodes as well, but these narratives tend
to be long and elaborative, even compared to those of Euro-American children
(Michaels, 1991). Although this topic-associating style is the style most frequently
described in the literature, close examination of the independent narratives shared
by African American and Haitian American children highlights the fact that these
children adopt a variety of styles when engaging in storytelling and incorporate
culturally preferred discourse features such as repetition and extensive use of detail into their narratives (Champion, 1998; Champion, McCabe, & Colinet, 2003).
Moreover, although some of the stories they share might be interpreted as temporally disorganized and disjointed, paralleling the leap-frog style, African American children do tell topic-centered, classic narratives as well, adjusting their storytelling styles to the interactional function of the narrative context (Champion,
1998).
In addition to culture, narrative construction is also influenced by the structure
of the language children speak (see Berman & Slobin, 1994, for a review). Different languages offer distinct linguistic resources for constructing well-organized
narratives. For example, languages differ in their number of verb tenses and in
ways of marking aspect, as well as in the number and variety of adjective and adverbs available to narrators. These linguistic differences influence the structure
and content of childrens narratives (Berman & Slobin, 1994; Gutirrez-Clellen,
2002; Minami, 2008). Variations across languages as they relate to narratives have
been the focus of recent work with bilingual children. Although research on the
narratives of bilingual children is quite limited, findings suggest that narrative features vary consistently across languages spoken (Anstatt, 2008; Gutirrez-Clellen,
2002) but that the strategies bilingual children use can be transferred across languages (Anstatt, 2008).
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In addition to examining the overall structure of childrens independent narratives, scholars have also investigated developmental changes in the microstructure
of childrens stories, namely causal connectives and temporal markers. These elements are integral to the creation of a cohesive story. However, whereas preschoolers rely on basic connectives, such as then, because, but, and so, to achieve
narrative coherence, as children get older they include more varied temporal markers and use connectives in more sophisticated ways (Berman & Slobin, 1994; Hudson & Shapiro, 1991; Peterson & McCabe, 1991). For example, when sharing
wordless picture books, children between the ages of 5 and 9 are more likely to use
combined temporal markers, such as and then, to link sequentially events (Berman
& Slobin, 1994). There are also gender differences in narrative microstructure,
with girls including more temporal and causal markers than boys (Buckner &
Fivush, 1998; Fivush, Haden, & Adam, 1995; Han et al., 1998). Finally, verb tense
is integral for the temporal anchoringand by extension the coherenceof a narrative. Research has shown that it is not until age 5 that children show a preference
for one tense (typically either the past or present) when they engage in storytelling.
As a result, stories told by younger children often lack cohesiveness and coherence
(Berman & Slobin, 1994).
The stories shared by children of different ages differ not only in structure but
also in content. For example, when sharing wordless picture books preschool-age
children make few references to characters internal states. When they do talk
about characters emotions, they refer to those clearly identifiable through the illustrations. By contrast, during middle childhood, children elaborate on the internal states of the protagonists in storybooks (Berman & Slobin, 1994). Moreover,
gender differences in narrative content have been noted as well. Girls personal
narratives, for instance, are more relational and interpersonal and contain more descriptions, emotions, and internal states than the stories shared by boys (Buckner
& Fivush, 1998; Fivush et al., 1995). These differences in narrative content might
be related to gender socialization practices. For example, past research has shown
that mothers talk more about emotions with their daughters than with their sons
and that, in particular, mothers are more likely to discuss emotions in the context of
interpersonal relationships with their daughters (Fivush, Brotman, Buckner, &
Goodman, 2000). Nevertheless, these socialization patterns vary across cultures
(see Melzi & Fernndez, 2004).
Similar gender differences have been found for fictional narratives. Based on
her study of stories shared by children between the ages of 4 and 6, Nicolopoulou
(2008) found two gender-related narrative styles that differed in both structure and
content. Girls typically preferred a family genre, as their stories tended to focus
on networks of social relations, such as the family in the home setting. This focus on collective family relationships helped the girls achieve coherence in their
narratives, as it created a unifying theme. By contrast, boys tended to adopt a heroic-agnostic genre, and their stories were marked by conflict and an overall lack
309
of harmony. The stories were typically centered on disconnected characters engaged in conflict, and as a result, the boys had greater difficulty achieving coherence in their narratives.
The investigation of peer interactions is an even more neglected area, despite
the fact that peer interactions play an integral role in childrens everyday lives
from the preschool years onward. Although this area of work began three decades
ago (Ervin-Tripp & Mitchell-Kernan, 1977), the study of talk between peers has
not been well developed. This is surprising, as childrens collaborations to coconstruct stories provide an additional forum for the scaffolding of narrative skills
(Kntay & Senay, 2003). Children as young as 4 years of age have been found to
engage in peer narratives (Kyratzis & Ervin-Tripp, 1999; Umiker-Sebeok, 1979).
Talk between peers provides children with the opportunity to actively negotiate
meanings and relationships related to their local peer culture, creating a web of
cultural tools and possible worlds unique to childhood (Blum-Kulka, HuckTaglicht, & Avni, 2004, p. 308). Unlike the asymmetrical nature of adultchild interactions, in which children serve as the novices to the more knowledgeable adult,
when sharing stories with their peers children become the experts (Blum-Kulka et
al., 2004; Blum-Kulka & Snow, 2004). Consequently, stories told with peers contain more performance features than stories shared with unfamiliar interlocutors or
adults (Leith, 1995; Wolfson, 1978). For instance, to engage their audience in the
story, the narrators employ repetition and include much reported speech along
with changes in prosody (Tannen, 1989). Moreover, when engaging in conversations with their peers, preschool-age children serve as active listeners, requesting
orienting information, spontaneously providing information, and generally serving to improve the coherence of the narratives (Nicolopoulou & Richner, 2004).
Thus, the sharing of narratives with ones peers serves to facilitate childrens development of the diverse pragmatic and discursive skills essential to storytelling,
skills that perhaps are not as readily facilitated in conversations with adults.
The existing work on childrens independent narratives and those told with
peers provides evidence of age-related, gender, and sociocultural differences in
the structure and content of childrens independent narratives. However, further
research is needed to describe more fully the developmental progression of childrens narrative abilities across genders and cultures and to investigate the interrelationships between childrens narrative styles and their school-related skills.
CONCLUSION
Oral storytelling is a form of discourse used frequently with, around, or by children
across societies. Cultural norms are embedded in the manner in which stories are
shared, and thus communities differ with regard to the roles adults and children
play in the creation of stories and the socialization functions of narratives. Young
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children learn the culturally preferred ways of organizing and structuring narratives as they engage in everyday interactions with their caregivers. Narrative is a
form of extended discourse that requires children to move beyond the observable
and create meaning solely through language. Childrens early use of this type of
discourse is a powerful predictor of future literacy skills because texts presented
for comprehension in academic settings typically require children to interpret
complex messages without the support of a conversational partner or shared
knowledge with an audience. Thus, narratives are regarded as the quintessential
emergent literacy skill; the ability to share coherent, fully developed stories lays
the foundation for future literacy development and achievement. Children with
better developed narrative skills have an educational advantage over children who
enter kindergarten with less well-developed narrative abilities. Hence, research on
childrens narrative development is not only of academic interest but also has important educational implications.
Most of the contemporary work on early narrative development has focused on
maternal narrative scaffolding as mothers engage their children in conversations
about past personal experiences and during book-sharing interactions. This body
of work has highlighted maternal elaboration as a major scaffolding discourse feature, especially for childrens subsequent development of narrative and literacy
abilities. Mothers who are highly elaborative have children who share longer,
more descriptive personal narratives; have more enhanced vocabulary skills; and
are better prepared for the types of critical thinking that will be expected of them at
school. Nevertheless, maternal scaffolding styles are influenced by culturally specific socialization practices, and, as a result, elaborativeness might not be the only
important dimension across all cultural groups. The elicitation styles selected by
caregivers parallel the socialization goals of the surrounding community. With a
different goal in mind, mothers use different strategies to scaffold their childrens
developing narrative skills. Further investigation is needed with diverse cultural
groups, in particular research that focuses on the cultural factors that shape caregivers scaffolding styles and how these in turn are related to childrens independent narrative abilities.
Teachers, too, play an important role in building childrens emergent literacy
skills as they engage in storytelling during classroom book reading and sharing
time. However, many gaps remain in our understanding of how preschool teachers
scaffold the narrative development of children from diverse sociocultural backgrounds. Educators need to take into account the fact that children come to school
prepared in different ways to listen to and narrate stories. Heath (1983) demonstrated that teachers lack of knowledge about the unique culture-specific practices
of their students can lead to misunderstandings about childrens skills and thus can
be detrimental for childrens later success in school. As a result, it is essential that
teachers understand the cultural backgrounds of their students to ensure that they
build on the home literacy practices the children bring with them to the classroom.
311
One way this might be achieved is through increased diversity in the teacher
workforce, but perhaps what is most essential is providing solid training that exposes teachers to a variety of cultural storytelling practices. This type of training is
especially important for early childhood educators, as it would enable teachers to
build on their students early narrative skills by finding ways to include home practices in the classroom and to do so in meaningful ways.
Through the narratives shared with important others, particularly parents and
teachers, children acquire the basic skills needed to produce a narrative that approximates the canonical form of the stories valued in their community. The skills
gained in the home and school contexts are practiced and further developed during
conversations with peers. Despite the many contributions made by past research,
however, much still has been left unexplored. As educators and researchers explore the interrelationships between narrative and school learning, they must pay
close attention to the diverse styles used to support childrens narratives across
cultures, contexts, and conversational partners as well as how these styles are related to child outcomes in diverse sociocultural groups.
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Early Education and

The Development of Children's

Adina Schick & Gigliana Melzi

Department of Applied Psychology , New York

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EARLY EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT, 21(3), 293317

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The Development of Childrens Oral

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SCHICK AND MELZI

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ORAL NARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT

IN CONVERSATION WITH PARENTS

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SCHICK AND MELZI

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ORAL NARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT

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SCHICK AND MELZI

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ORAL NARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT

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ORAL NARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT

SHARING STORIES AT SCHOOL

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TELLING STORIES ON THEIR OWN AND WITH FRIENDS

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ORAL NARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT

teachers in the classroom. Fewer studies have examined childrens abilities to

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ORAL NARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT

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SCHICK AND MELZI

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ORAL NARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT

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SCHICK AND MELZI

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ORAL NARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT

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