A LONGITUDINAL INVESTIGATION OF MANDARIN-SPEAKING PRESCHOOLERS’ RELATION OF EVENTS IN NARRATIVES: FROM UNRELATED TO RELATED EVENTS

Abstract

This study focuses on the way preschoolers relate events in a story. Twelve Mandarin-speaking preschoolers served as subjects; their narratives were elicited through the use of a picture book, Frog, where are you? Our data suggest that children’s progression from treating single, unrelated events to related ones requires proper linguistic and cognitive capacities. The data also support earlier findings that most 5-year-olds are not able to relate a chain of events well. Additionally, it is found that there is dissociation in abilities for producing linguistic expressions and for inferring relations between events. We try to interpret the dissociation in terms of Karmiloff-Smith’s problem-solving model.

本文旨在探討漢語學齡前兒童在敘事發展過程中，其串連事件能力的進展。我們以12位兒童為對象，自其5;5歲起，進行為期6個月的觀察。語料採樣以Frog, where are you? 故事繪本為據；研究分析聚焦在該書跨第16、17兩頁的連續事件。研究結果發現：對敘事中的相關事件，孩童先視之為獨立的無關連事件，待其年齡稍長，才進一步詮釋為關連事件。然大多數5歲孩童尚無法妥善處理故事中的關連事件，亦無法適切地思索出事件間的因果關係。針對此一發展上的限制，我們以Piaget的認知發展理論為據加以闡述。此外，我們發現敘事中對故事整體架構與事件間關連性的處理，以及對故事細部的呈現與語彙的豐富性，此兩種能力在發展上是可分離的。針對此一觀察發現，我們試圖透過Karmiloff-Smith的三階段問題處理架構(Three Phase Model for Problem-Solving)來加以詮釋。