Explaining events in narratives: the impact of scaffolding in 4 to 12 old-year children - HAL-SHS - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société
Journal Articles Psychology of Language and Communication Year : 2009

Explaining events in narratives: the impact of scaffolding in 4 to 12 old-year children

Abstract

The focus of this article is the manner in which 4 to 12 year old children deal with the "evaluative" component of narratives (Labov & Waletsky, 1967). After spontaneously telling their first version of a story of a misunderstanding between two characters, constructed on the basis of a sequence of five images, children participated in a scaffolding procedure during which they were questioned about the reasons for the events. After this non-intrusive, Piagetian-styled clinical interview, children were asked to recount the story a second time. For children's first narratives, our study confirms earlier results by showing that, before 8-9 years, children rarely mention the epistemic states of the characters. The false belief of one of the characters and its rectification are rarely mentioned before10-11 years and even at that age by few children. Presenting a story based on a misunderstanding does not facilitate this kind of narration.
However, in the narrative produced after scaffolding, 6-7 year old children increase considerably their references to the characters' internal states, and from 8-9 years, the expression of false belief and of its rectification. These results call for multiple evaluations in order to best grasp children's narrative competence.
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Dates and versions

halshs-00413300 , version 1 (14-11-2011)

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  • HAL Id : halshs-00413300 , version 1

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Edy Veneziano, Christian Hudelot. Explaining events in narratives: the impact of scaffolding in 4 to 12 old-year children. Psychology of Language and Communication, 2009, 13 (1), pp.3-20. ⟨halshs-00413300⟩
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