Development of qualifiers in children’s written stories
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Anne Vermeer
Abstract
In general, stories written by children in which many details are used are perceived as being more attractive. However, the use of stylistic elements in children’s writings has scarcely been described. We investigated stories written by 320 elementary school children from grades 3 to 6, focusing on the qualifiers they used to describe persons, objects and actions: names, relationships, intensifiers, adjectives and adverbs, sizes, prices, colors, details, and words to express modality, place and directions. The results showed a significant growth from grade 3 to 6 in the number of qualifiers. Dutch-L1 outperformed Dutch-L2 children in almost all these qualifiers. Girls used significantly more names, intensifiers, adjectives and adverbs in their description of persons, objects and actions than boys.
Abstract
In general, stories written by children in which many details are used are perceived as being more attractive. However, the use of stylistic elements in children’s writings has scarcely been described. We investigated stories written by 320 elementary school children from grades 3 to 6, focusing on the qualifiers they used to describe persons, objects and actions: names, relationships, intensifiers, adjectives and adverbs, sizes, prices, colors, details, and words to express modality, place and directions. The results showed a significant growth from grade 3 to 6 in the number of qualifiers. Dutch-L1 outperformed Dutch-L2 children in almost all these qualifiers. Girls used significantly more names, intensifiers, adjectives and adverbs in their description of persons, objects and actions than boys.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface ix
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Part I. Language and literacy development
- How neuroscience can inform education 3
- The neural basis for primary and acquired language skills 17
- Contributions from cognitive neuroscience to current understanding of reading acquisition and reading disability 29
- Lexical quality revisited 51
- The role of metalinguistic and socio-cognitive factors in reading skill 69
- Developing reading comprehension interventions 85
- Hunting for the links between word-level writing skills and text quality 103
- The development of Hebrew conjunct constructions in narration 119
- Motivation and engagement in language and literacy development 137
- Children’s hypertext comprehension 149
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Part II. Multilingual language and literacy development
- An updated review of cross-language transfer and its educational implications 167
- The influence of first language on learning English as an additional language 183
- Multilingual learners 199
- A comparison of phonological awareness and morphological awareness in reading Chinese across two linguistic contexts 219
- Development of qualifiers in children’s written stories 237
- Individual variation in syntactic processing in the second language 257
-
Part III. Language and literacy development in special populations and its implications
- How to teach children reading and spelling 277
- Two technologies to help adults with reading difficulties improve their comprehension 295
- Can poor readers be good learners? 315
- The shift of the role of early intervention in the study of dyslexia 333
- Issues in diagnosing dyslexia 349
- Imagery in reading and reading disabilities 363
- Written narratives in children with autism 379
- Advancing interventions for children with motor restrictions 399
- Assessment of communicative competence in children with severe developmental disorders 413
- Index 441
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface ix
-
Part I. Language and literacy development
- How neuroscience can inform education 3
- The neural basis for primary and acquired language skills 17
- Contributions from cognitive neuroscience to current understanding of reading acquisition and reading disability 29
- Lexical quality revisited 51
- The role of metalinguistic and socio-cognitive factors in reading skill 69
- Developing reading comprehension interventions 85
- Hunting for the links between word-level writing skills and text quality 103
- The development of Hebrew conjunct constructions in narration 119
- Motivation and engagement in language and literacy development 137
- Children’s hypertext comprehension 149
-
Part II. Multilingual language and literacy development
- An updated review of cross-language transfer and its educational implications 167
- The influence of first language on learning English as an additional language 183
- Multilingual learners 199
- A comparison of phonological awareness and morphological awareness in reading Chinese across two linguistic contexts 219
- Development of qualifiers in children’s written stories 237
- Individual variation in syntactic processing in the second language 257
-
Part III. Language and literacy development in special populations and its implications
- How to teach children reading and spelling 277
- Two technologies to help adults with reading difficulties improve their comprehension 295
- Can poor readers be good learners? 315
- The shift of the role of early intervention in the study of dyslexia 333
- Issues in diagnosing dyslexia 349
- Imagery in reading and reading disabilities 363
- Written narratives in children with autism 379
- Advancing interventions for children with motor restrictions 399
- Assessment of communicative competence in children with severe developmental disorders 413
- Index 441
