Journal of Narrative and Life History - Volume 6, Issue 4, 1996

AbstractNarratives of personal experience told by 18 Algonquin children ranging from 10 to 13 years old are described and discussed in this article. The narratives were collected in peer dyads or groups and told in English, the children's second language. Using a database of 93 narratives, we report the type of contributions that the children made to each other's narratives as well as the narrative content and themes. The structural properties of a subset of the narratives, determined using high point analysis, are also reported. These discoursal, thematic, and structural features are discussed in terms of how they interact with one another, and together provide insights into the social character of the children's narratives. The study also demonstrates how children's narratives reflect and contribute to cultural, community, and peer group belonging. (Communication Sciences)

AbstractInstrumental approaches to teaching human development ask students to learn about children at different ages and stages so as to plan appropriate instruction. An alternative approach stresses the connections between psychological theories of growth and the life experiences of the students themselves, with the goals of increasing intrapersonal awareness and identity achievement. In one such course, students wrote autobiographical texts, interviewed each other, and wrote essays on their texts and "official" texts in human development. This case study focuses on the narratives of one woman, who used Erikson's psychosocial theories to analyze her stories of adolescent conflict and school difficulties. (Developmental Psychology-Education)

AbstractThis study presents empirical evidence o f Japanese preschool children's (a) narrative discourse competence and narrative structure and (b) rhetorical/expressive flexibility, compared to adults. With data on oral personal narratives told by Japanese preschoolers and adults, and with verse/stanza analysis (Gee, 1985; Hymes, 1981) and high point analysis based on the Labovian approach (Labov, 1972; Peterson & McCabe, 1983), it was discovered that children's and adults' narratives are similar in terms o f structure in that they both tend to have three verses per stanza, and that children and adults tend to tell about multiple experiences. By contrast, there are some clear differences in terms o f content and delivery. Whereas children tend to tell their stories in a sequential style, adults emphasize nonsequential information. Specifically, compared to children's narratives, adults' narratives place considerably more weight on feelings and emotions. The findings of this study strongly suggest that oral personal narratives told by Japanese preschoolers do not represent the final phase o f development. Rather, they still have a long way to go. (Narrative Development; Narrative Structure)