Resumen

STEIN, Alejandra. Shared narratives at home: A longitudinal study about the narrative structure and the evaluative language. Interdisciplinaria [online]. 2015, vol.32, n.1, pp.51-71. ISSN 1668-7027.

The present study aims to analyze the structure and the evaluative language in narratives produced by child-caretaker dyads from Buenos Aires (Argentina), in different conversational contexts-storybook reading situations, conversations about past and future events- when children are 2 years and a half, 3 years, 3 years and a half and 4 years old. Narrative is not only a type of discourse that organizes communicative exchanges and the transmission and recreation of culture; it is also one of the most important ways in which thought is configured (Bruner, 1986; Nelson, 1996; Rosemberg, Silva & Stein, 2010). The narrative structure and the use of evaluative resources are particularly related to cognitive and socioemotional development (Fernández & Melzi, 2008). Narrative development begins during the preschool years (Nelson, 1996) and occurs through the social interactions that take place in diverse daily situations: play (Pellegrini, 1985), story-book reading (Snow, Porche, Tabors & Harris, 2007) and conversations about past (Nelson,1996) and future events (Hudson, 2002, 2006). A series of studies undertaken in the fields of Psychology and Psycholinguistics have analyzed the structure and the evaluative language in early narratives orally produced by mother-child dyads (Fivush, 1991; Haden, Haine & Fivush, 1997; Peterson & McCabe, 1992, 1994, among others). The results of these studies have shown a relationship between the type of information introduced by mothers when they produce narratives in collaboration with their children and the information provided by children in the production of independent narratives later on (Fivush, 1991; Peterson & McCabe, 1992, 1994). Other studies showed an increase of the information regarding actions as well as descriptive, orientative and evaluative components of the narratives as a function of children's age (Haden, Haine & Fivush, 1997). The great majority of this research has been done with English-speaking and Caucasian families. Although there are some studies with Spanish-speaking population in Latin America (Díaz Oyarce & Mendoza Saavedra, 2012; Fernández & Melzi, 2008; Romero Contreras & Gómez Martínez, 2013; Shiro, 2003) one can hypothesize there will be intra-group differences given the heterogeneity of Hispanic population. There are few studies focused on the comparative analysis of narratives produced in different conversational contexts (Curenton, Craig & Flanigan, 2008; Fernández & Melzi, 2008). The author did not find studies which analyzed the evaluative resources used during the production of narratives about future events. The corpus of the present study consists of 81narratives produced in different conversational contexts: storybook reading situations (34 narratives), conversations about past events (24 narratives) and conversations about future events (23 narratives). The situations, which took place in the homes of 6 middle-income children from Buenos Aires (Argentina), were audio-recorded and transcribed for their analysis. The narratives were analyzed regarding their structure and the evaluative resources used by the participants in order to answer the following questions: What are the characteristics of the narratives collaboratively produced by children-caretakers dyads? In particular, which is the relative weight of the evaluative component regarding the other structural components referred to orientation, action and description? Which evaluative resources are employed by the children and their interlocutors? Are there any longitudinal and between conversation al contexts differences regarding each of the aspects analyzed (structure of the narratives, evaluative component, evaluative resources)? The results showed that the evaluative component of the narratives is the most predominant since 2:6 years and in the different conversational contexts considered. The children who participated in the study jointly produced with their caretaker (primarily their mothers) narratives where the interpretation and the personal stance on the events were emphasized. This fact reveals the potential of collaboratively produced narratives to promote different aspects of child development, particularly those related to cognition and socioemotional development.

Palabras clave : Narrative structure; Evaluative language; Longitudinal analysis; Different conversational contexts; Middle-income families.

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