Page 97 - Second language development of newly arrived migrant kindergarteners - Frederike Groothoff
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Development of narrative ability 97 time with the MAIN two to three months after the beginning of the study, when they had had at least two months of Exposure to Dutch at School. During the assessments we followed the MAIN protocol. The sessions started with the picture sequence of one of the MAIN retelling stories (Cat story or Dog story). This story was modelled by the researcher and the participants had to retell the story. Following this procedure, the narrative structure was modelled for the participants, as well as the specific vocabulary for that story. This retelling story was followed by ten comprehension questions. After that, the participants were presented with a second picture sequence (version Baby Birds or Baby Goats, see Figures 5.1 and 5.2). This story was not modelled by the researcher (although the retell story could be used as a model for this story as well); the children were encouraged to tell the story themselves. After the second story the participants had to answer another ten comprehension questions. The version of the story in Session 0 was randomly selected and then the versions were used alternately (see Table 5.2). Table 5.2: Overview of a Possible Order of the Stories used for one Participant.    Session 0 Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Story retelling task (warm-up session) Cat story Dog story Cat story Dog story Story generation task Baby Goats story Baby Birds story Baby Goats story Baby Birds story     Even though two stories were used in each session during the present study (one model story for story retelling and one for story generation) only the stories for story generation were analyzed. We choose only to analyze the story generation task because we were specifically interested in the more spontaneous productive proficiency of the participants instead of their capacity of being able to retell a story. The vocabulary during the retell part was modelled whereas the researcher did not prompt any of the words in the story generation part. Likewise, the answers to the comprehension questions after all stories, which are part of the MAIN protocol, were not analyzed. 5.3.4 Analyses Child characteristics Three factors concerning child characteristics were taken into account in the analysis: Age, Exposure to Dutch at School, and Educational Facility. Table 5.3 summarizes the descriptive characteristics of the participants. Table 5.3 is comparable with Table 4.3 from Chapter 4 except for Exposure to Dutch at School, since 


































































































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