Naslov
Age-related differences in the production of causal relations: evidence from narratives of Croatian children

Autori
Košutar, Sara ; Kramarić, Matea ; Hržica, Gordana

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, ostalo

Skup
International online conference Expressing causality in L1 and L2

Mjesto i datum
Lublin, Poljska, 20.05.2021. - 21.05.2021

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
children's narrative abilities, age differences, causal relations, causal network model, Croatian

Sažetak
Successful narration relies on the ability to produce a coherent sequence of temporally and causally related events organized around the main theme, the ability that develops from early preschool age (Aksu-Koç and Aktan-Erciyes 2018). Narrative coherence has been evaluated mainly through sequences of story grammar (SG) elements. Some studies suggest that assessing SG as a sequence is not enough, but one must consider how these components are interconnected within and across episodes by means of causal relations. In this view, Trabasso et al. (1989) proposed a discourse analytic model according to which SG is viewed as an interrelated network of causal relations like enabling, physical, motivational, and psychological relations. The importance of causal coherence has been recognized in many studies that focus on narrative discourse from the developmental perspective (overview: Brown 2008). It has been shown that the ability to understand and use causal relations changes from early preschool through school age (Kupersmitt and Yifat 2014 ; Fichmann 2017). Previous studies provided different results regarding the usage of types of causal relations in narratives of children in different age groups. In this study, we aim to examine differences between preschool and young school-age children in the amount of all causal relations and in the amount of four types of causal relations produced in their narratives. Based on prior research, we hypothesized that there will be differences between two groups of children in the overall proportion of causal relations (H1) and in the proportions of enabling and motivational relations (H2) (older children will produce more causal relations overall as well as more enabling and motivational relations). However, no differences will be found in the proportions of physical and psychological relations (H3). The participants of this study were children of mean age 6 ; 3 (N=41) and 8 ; 4 (N=50). All the children were monolingual speakers of Croatian. Narrative samples were elicited using the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) (Gagarina et al. 2012 ; Gagarina et al. 2019), adapted for Croatian (Hržica and Kuvač Kraljević 2012). SG elements were marked according to the MAIN scoring sheet, which consists of Initiating Event, Goal, Attempt, Outcome, and Reaction. To perform causal relations analysis, we used the scheme provided by Fichman et al. (2017), who implemented the causal network model to the MAIN story structure. Causal relations were defined as connections between different SG elements. Due to the fixed number of SG elements in MAIN, the number of causal relations (overall and by type) is limited, so for each we calculated the proportion of produced relations. Several Mann-Whitney U-tests were used to analyse the difference between two groups in the overall proportion of causal relations and in the proportions of enabling, motivational and physical relations. Results showed a significant difference between younger and older children in the overall proportion of causal relations (U = 693, p < .01, r = .27) and in the proportion of motivational relations (U = 643, p <.01, r = .33), but we did not find a significant difference in the proportion of enabling relations (U = 809, p = .08, r = .18). Older children produced more motivational causal relations and causal relations overall compared to younger children. In line with our predictions, there was no significant difference in the proportions of physical relations (U = 814, p > .053, r = .20). Since psychological causal relations were scarce (a few children in both groups produced just one), rather than the proportion of relations, we calculated the proportion of children who produced this type of causality. The χ2 test was used to analyse the difference between two groups. Results showed no significant difference (χ2(1) = .54, p = .46, V = .08) in the proportions of younger and older children who produced psychological relations in their narratives, thus confirming our hypothesis. To our knowledge, this study is the first to examine causality in narratives of Croatian monolingual children by using the causal network model proposed by Trabasso et al. (1989). However, our results only partially confirmed the results of previous studies, thus indicating that more research is needed to better understand the development of causal coherence in children’s narrative discourse.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Logopedija, Filologija

POVEZANOST RADA