Impact of Task Complexity and Bilingualism on Narrative Structure in Bilingual Kindergarten Children

What is it about?

The study investigated the impact of narrative task complexity (defined as the number of story episodes) and bilingualism (first / second language) on the ability of bilingual kindergarten children to use story grammar categories (character, initiating event, goal, attempt, outcome).

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Why is it important?

Studies of the narrative skills of bilingual children in both their languages are still relatively rare. Furthermore, few studies have compared tasks of differing complexity in order to ascertain whether longer, more complex stories are more difficult to understand and produce or whether the length adds important information and assists young children. The present study fills these gaps by comparing two tasks with equivalent story structure but varying complexity to explore the effects of task complexity and language on narrative performance. Findings showed that task complexity and bilingualism both make a difference in children’s ability to express their knowledge of story structure. Children performed better on stories with a single episode (less complexity) and in their stronger language. The study shows the importance of testing bilingual children in both languages and in looking carefully at the length, structure, and complexity of the narratives being used for assessment and intervention.

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