Narrative comprehension in simultaneously bilingual Finnish-Swedish and monolingual Finnish children
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Sari Kunnari
Abstract
We analysed narrative comprehension in 5-to-6-year-old simultaneously bilingual Finnish-Swedish (n = 16) and monolingual Finnish children (n = 16) by using the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN). We assessed mean total narrative comprehension scores for bilingual children in both of their languages and for monolingual children in Finnish, in both telling and retelling conditions. We compared bilingual and monolingual children’s narrative comprehension in Finnish and analysed the association between comprehension and production. We also analysed the children’s ability to answer different types of comprehension questions (i.e., questions probing goals, internal state terms, and questions requiring both the ability to draw inferences and to explain answers). We found no difference in total narrative comprehension scores for bilingual children between their two languages or between monolingual and bilingual children. This suggests language-independent narrative comprehension. We found no difference in narrative comprehension between telling and retelling and no correlation between narrative comprehension and production. However, we found a clear question type effect. Children performed better on questions probing goals or internal state terms, but questions that required both inferencing and ability to explain answers were very demanding. In conclusion, detailed analysis of narrative comprehension provides knowledge on how children create a coherent understanding of a story and utilise information in the comprehension process.
Abstract
We analysed narrative comprehension in 5-to-6-year-old simultaneously bilingual Finnish-Swedish (n = 16) and monolingual Finnish children (n = 16) by using the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN). We assessed mean total narrative comprehension scores for bilingual children in both of their languages and for monolingual children in Finnish, in both telling and retelling conditions. We compared bilingual and monolingual children’s narrative comprehension in Finnish and analysed the association between comprehension and production. We also analysed the children’s ability to answer different types of comprehension questions (i.e., questions probing goals, internal state terms, and questions requiring both the ability to draw inferences and to explain answers). We found no difference in total narrative comprehension scores for bilingual children between their two languages or between monolingual and bilingual children. This suggests language-independent narrative comprehension. We found no difference in narrative comprehension between telling and retelling and no correlation between narrative comprehension and production. However, we found a clear question type effect. Children performed better on questions probing goals or internal state terms, but questions that required both inferencing and ability to explain answers were very demanding. In conclusion, detailed analysis of narrative comprehension provides knowledge on how children create a coherent understanding of a story and utilise information in the comprehension process.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledging our reviewers vii
- Cross-linguistic development of narrative comprehension from A to Z 1
- Narrative comprehension in Lebanese Arabic-French bilingual children 31
- Inferential comprehension, age and language 61
- Bilingual Turkish-Swedish children’s understanding of MAIN picture sequences 99
- Narrative comprehension in simultaneously bilingual Finnish-Swedish and monolingual Finnish children 149
- Narrative comprehension by Croatian-Italian bilingual children 5–7 years old 171
- Bilingual children’s lexical and narrative comprehension in Dutch as the majority language 197
- Why do you think the boy would be unhappy if he saw what the cat was eating? 231
- Narrative comprehension and its associations with gender and nonverbal cognitive skills in monolingual and bilingual German preschoolers 269
- Bilingualism effects in the narrative comprehension of children with Developmental Language Disorder and L2-Greek 297
- Commentary 331
- Index 337
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledging our reviewers vii
- Cross-linguistic development of narrative comprehension from A to Z 1
- Narrative comprehension in Lebanese Arabic-French bilingual children 31
- Inferential comprehension, age and language 61
- Bilingual Turkish-Swedish children’s understanding of MAIN picture sequences 99
- Narrative comprehension in simultaneously bilingual Finnish-Swedish and monolingual Finnish children 149
- Narrative comprehension by Croatian-Italian bilingual children 5–7 years old 171
- Bilingual children’s lexical and narrative comprehension in Dutch as the majority language 197
- Why do you think the boy would be unhappy if he saw what the cat was eating? 231
- Narrative comprehension and its associations with gender and nonverbal cognitive skills in monolingual and bilingual German preschoolers 269
- Bilingualism effects in the narrative comprehension of children with Developmental Language Disorder and L2-Greek 297
- Commentary 331
- Index 337
