Kathleen Hipfner-Boucher|Trelani Milburn|Elaine Weitzman|Janice Greenberg|Janette Pelletier|Luigi Girolametto
Narrative abilities in subgroups of English language learners and monolingual peers
University of Toronto|University of Toronto|University of Toronto|University of Toronto
aims objectives objective study examine narrative ability two subgroups english language learners ells relative group english monolingual el1 peers specifically investigated whether three groups children differed measures narrative macrostructure microstructure methodology two groups ells identified basis parent report language often heard spoken home ell english language users ell minority language users group monolingual english children served comparison group n 25 per language group children averaged 56 months age children completed narrative retell task data analysis retell task scored relation macrostructure narrative information microstructure number utterances mean length utterance number different words grammaticality ancovas partialling age memory revealed distinct performance profiles two ell groups findings group differences number utterances story grammar however performance ell minority language group significantly different el1 ell english language group microstructure measures number different words sentence length grammaticality overall performance ell english language users indistinguishable el1 group originality study highlights heterogeneity ell kindergarten sample respect english narrative ability based extent english heard spoken home implications findings highlight need gather detailed linguistic information home language environments ell children involving language literacyrelated tasks important implication information potential lead nuanced expectations teaching methods subgroups ell children