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.

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Apr 20th, 1:05 PM Apr 20th, 2:05 PM

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