The macrostructure of narratives produced by children acquiring Finnish Sign Language.

Heta Pietarinen, Laura Kanto
Author Information
  1. Heta Pietarinen: Department of Language and Communication Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Seminaarinkatu 15, PO Box 35, FI-40014, Jyväskylä, Finland. ORCID
  2. Laura Kanto: Department of Language and Communication Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Seminaarinkatu 15, PO Box 35, FI-40014, Jyväskylä, Finland.

Abstract

This article investigates the narrative skills of children acquiring Finnish Sign Language (FinSL). Producing a narrative requires vocabulary, the ability to form sentences, and cognitive skills to construct actions in a logical order for the recipient to understand the story. Research has shown that narrative skills are an excellent way of observing a child's language skills, for they reflect both grammatical language skills and the ability to use the language in situationally appropriate ways. This study was conducted using the FinSL Narrative Skills Production Test assessment to observe how narrative skills develop in children between the ages of 4 and 11 who acquire FinSL in their natural language environments. The results show that the narrative skills of children acquiring FinSL develop following the same guidelines found in other signed and spoken languages. Narrative structure and content increase with age.

Keywords

Word Cloud

Created with Highcharts 10.0.0skillsnarrativelanguagechildrenFinSLacquiringFinnishSignLanguageabilityNarrativeassessmentdeveloparticleinvestigatesProducingrequiresvocabularyformsentencescognitiveconstructactionslogicalorderrecipientunderstandstoryResearchshownexcellentwayobservingchild'sreflectgrammaticalusesituationallyappropriatewaysstudyconductedusingSkillsProductionTestobserveages411acquirenaturalenvironmentsresultsshowfollowingguidelinesfoundsignedspokenlanguagesstructurecontentincreaseagemacrostructurenarrativesproducedtestingbilingualismbimodaldevelopmentsign

Similar Articles

Cited By