Ten head-injured adults were compared to normal adults on a narrative picture description task. Subjects were similar in amount of pertinent content expressed, narrative length, and rate of speech, but were significantly slower in rate of information imparted as they required lengthier and slower verbal outputs to convey essential information.…

Two experiments employed story telling to investigate whether production is adapted to comprehension. Subjects were more likely to specify instruments from stories if the instruments were atypical or important to the story. A mathematical model proposed that instrument concepts may be selected at three stages in the production process. (Author/LMO)

The acquisition of narrative competence in French by an Arabic-speaking migrant worker in interactions with target language speakers was explored, with hypotheses formed about the polyfunctional uses of certain forms to mark the chronology of events in the narrative or to introduce quoted speech. (Author/CB)

Acknowledges that many basic writing students have few personal experiences that translate into telling examples and effective supports in their writing. Suggests that teachers encourage students to fabricate in their narratives, since such structured lying gives students sufficient objectivity to revise--a significant step toward good writing.…

Two experiments were conducted to describe effects of age and task difficulty on referential cohesion of story retellings. It was hypothesized that increased task difficulty would lead to higher error rates for all subject groups: preschoolers, first graders, and adults. Results indicated higher incidence of errors with videotape than with verbal…

Shows how teaching sixth grade ESL students the story grammar of fairy and folktales enabled them to learn to express themselves in their own fiction writing. (FL)

Special issue dedicated to studies on contemporary Spanish American literature. (DS)

Review of the contribution of various oral language abilities to early reading performances found that, although phonemic awareness was the best predictor of early reading skills, metasyntactic ability also often accounted for significant variance. Once children acquire initial decoding skills, narrative discourse and other metalinguistic skills…

Proposes that one way to view storytelling in First Nations cultures is to look at the epistemology that informs it. Recommends that storytelling be central to environmental education, ethics, and practice. (Contains 19 references.) (DDR)

Argues the importance of dictated stories, with the teacher or other adult as scribe, in children's development as writers. Examines one child's literary influences and her literacy development. (MG)

Five classes of secondary school students were involved in an experiment to compare student interest in expository versus narrative text structures. Results with 313 ninth graders in Guam, using history texts, indicate that students favored narrative structure in face-to-face comparisons of texts. (TJH)

Examines differences in how viewers from five distinct cultural groups retell an episode of Dallas and how these differences reflect their perceptions of the program and their backgrounds. Results reveal correlations between ethnicity and choice of narrative form. (RAE)

Through story grammar instruction, low-achieving students are discovering that literature can be fun to read and perhaps have application to their own lives. (Author/TE)

Investigates the relationship between culture/language background and rhetorical style by examining the degree of similarity in the writings of Black students in two rhetorical modes: narration and exposition. Results from 30 high school students show culture/language background influences students' writings and suggests that written language…

Reports a study which examined the effects of direct instruction on the think-aloud protocols of ninth grade readers. Students made think-aloud protocols on two stories before and after instruction. Although the instruction did not substantially affect students' interpretive operations in reading, some students were less submissive to the text.…