How do we talk about events we perceive? And how tight is the connection between linguistic and nonlinguistic representations of events? To address these questions, we experimentally compared motion descriptions produced by children and adults in two typologically distinct languages, Greek and English. Our findings confirm a well-known asymmetry…

Much contemporary social theory has emphasised the key role that cultural and other narrative plays in any human understanding of moral self and agency. However, in those modern social contexts in which literacy has been widespread, such access to narrative has also been largely via the written word: those significantly educated in cultural…

The educational publisher Pearson/Scott-Foresman in 2006 introduced curriculum to address California History/Social Studies standards. Fifth grade students have difficulty comprehending non-fiction text that is informative enough to have historical accuracy. The publisher promotes a program that features a standard in every lesson, and promises no…

This article explores PowerPoint slideshow's capacities for introducing history teachers and students to the pictorial and digital turns for representing and narrating the past. Based upon this research, the author argues that image-dominated PowerPoint slideshow provides teachers and students with a unique and powerful tool for composing and…

A framework is proposed in which on-line activities occurring during comprehension are explicitly tied to the memory representation of a story. The framework, referred to as the "landscape" framework, is used to implement a process model that assumes that readers attempt to explain story events in terms of their causal antecedents. An…

Tests conducted with high school students. (CH)

The study assessed the oral narrative abilities of 10 normal and 10 learning-disabled (LD) middle school children (11-12 years old). Narratives were assessed using A. Applebee's system for the development of story organization. The narratives were also examined for the specific components used within the stories themselves. Findings revealed…

Internal narration is a "direct quotation of the mind" without authorial intervention, in which the reader overhears characters thinking silently. Dramatic interpretation and internal narration share the characteristics of primarily auditory expression and symbolic use of images. One of the most widely read and taught examples of this…

Article suggests how to read narrations and tune the viewer in, not turn him off. (Author)

The different functions of the brain hemispheres as they relate to discourse analysis of narratives are examined through review of studies of the narratives of hemidecorticate (a disconnection of the two brain hemispheres) adolescents. Focus is on the role of pragmatics, discourse processing, and the use of pronouns. (Author/DB)

Strategies for gathering narratives from children are described. Two analysis approaches (narrative level and story grammar) are recommended for discriminating between the narratives of normal and handicapped students at various ages. (Author/DB)

Explains structure and its relevance for both the practice and teaching of screenwriting. (PD)

Reports findings of three experiments indicating that story plot unit structure is a good predictor of subjects' thematic judgments about the story, and that subjects are sensitive to a more abstract level of conceptualization than the thematic patterns tested, based on evaluations of the protagonist's plans in the story. (HTH)

Examination of a subset of books popular with young adults--problem novels or young adult realism--is based on deductions concerning nature of reading response that text invites. Young adult realism as formula of popular culture, changes in conventions, narrators and narratees, and identification and distance are discussed. (34 references) (EJS)