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2 - Cultural Variations in Mother–Child Narrative Discourse Style

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Margaret Caspe  and
Gigliana Melzi
Edited by
Allyssa McCabe ,
Alison L. Bailey  and
Gigliana Melzi
Allyssa McCabe
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Alison L. Bailey
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Gigliana Melzi
Affiliation:
New York University
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Summary

Key Words: mother-child narratives, Latino children, Spanish, mother-child book sharing, cultural variations

ABSTRACT

Children develop narrative ability in the context of the conversations they have with significant others, mainly family members. Within these conversations, children acquire language and literacy and become socialized to the discourse patterns, beliefs, and values of the community in which they live. Recent research has begun to highlight that Latino mothers scaffold their children's narratives differently than might mothers from other cultures. The goal of the current study was to explore how Peruvian, European American, and Puerto Rican mothers of comparable socioeconomic backgrounds, living in their country of origin, scaffolded their children's narratives in a semistructured book-sharing paradigm. Specifically, the study addressed two main questions: (1) Do variations exist in the styles that Puerto Rican, European American, and Peruvian mothers use to engage their children while sharing a wordless children's picture book? (2) Are there cultural preferences in these styles?

As part of a larger study, 45 mothers were visited in their home and asked to share a wordless children's picture book with their children. Book-sharing interactions were audiotaped, transcribed, and verified using a standardized format and coded at the utterance level. Results of a cluster analysis revealed two book-sharing styles that hinged on the degree to which mothers provided or requested narrative information from their children. Storytellers provided rich narrative information to their children and took control of the narrative, whereas storybuilders coconstructed the story with their children, creating a story together.

Type
Chapter
Information
Spanish-Language Narration and Literacy
Culture, Cognition, and Emotion
 , pp. 6 - 33
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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