Literate Language Features in the Procedural Narratives of African-American and European-American 5th Graders
Location
CSU 203
Start Date
20-4-2015 1:05 PM
End Date
20-4-2015 2:05 PM
Student's Major
Speech, Hearing, and Rehabilitation Services
Student's College
Allied Health and Nursing
Mentor's Name
Megan Mahowald
Mentor's Email Address
megan.mahowald@mnsu.edu
Mentor's Department
Speech, Hearing, and Rehabilitation Services
Mentor's College
Allied Health and Nursing
Description
In order to become competent readers and writers, children must master a number of different lexical and grammatical structures known as literature language features, which include adverbs, conjunctions, and descriptive noun phrases, as well as verbs used to quote speech and thoughts (mental and linguistic verbs). These features typically appear in a number of different genres of spoken language before being used effectively during reading and writing. One of the least studied of these genres is that of procedural narratives, which comprise linear sequences of instructions for carrying out tasks. To fill this gap, data was collected from matched groups of African-American (AA) and European-American (EA) 5th graders at two Midwestern elementary schools in order to understand how such children construct procedural narratives. Their instructional samples were analyzed to determine what types of literature language features they employed and whether or not African-American and European-American children differed significantly with regard to their usage of these features. Finally, their language was analyzed in order to determine whether or not their usage of any particular literate language features could be correlated with reading achievement. Preliminary results indicate that the usage of conjunctions, adverbs, and descriptive nouns phrases correlates with reading achievement while AA and EA children differ significantly with regard to their treatment of mental and linguistic verbs.
Literate Language Features in the Procedural Narratives of African-American and European-American 5th Graders
CSU 203
In order to become competent readers and writers, children must master a number of different lexical and grammatical structures known as literature language features, which include adverbs, conjunctions, and descriptive noun phrases, as well as verbs used to quote speech and thoughts (mental and linguistic verbs). These features typically appear in a number of different genres of spoken language before being used effectively during reading and writing. One of the least studied of these genres is that of procedural narratives, which comprise linear sequences of instructions for carrying out tasks. To fill this gap, data was collected from matched groups of African-American (AA) and European-American (EA) 5th graders at two Midwestern elementary schools in order to understand how such children construct procedural narratives. Their instructional samples were analyzed to determine what types of literature language features they employed and whether or not African-American and European-American children differed significantly with regard to their usage of these features. Finally, their language was analyzed in order to determine whether or not their usage of any particular literate language features could be correlated with reading achievement. Preliminary results indicate that the usage of conjunctions, adverbs, and descriptive nouns phrases correlates with reading achievement while AA and EA children differ significantly with regard to their treatment of mental and linguistic verbs.
Recommended Citation
Zehnder, John. "Literate Language Features in the Procedural Narratives of African-American and European-American 5th Graders." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 20, 2015.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2015/oral_session_09/4
