An Analysis of the Development of Grammatical Cohesion in persian-Speaking Students’ Written Discourse

Kamari, Elaheh

An Analysis of the Development of Grammatical Cohesion in persian-Speaking Students’ Written Discourse

Document Type : .

Author

Elaheh Kamari

Abstract

This research aims at analyzing and comparing the development of grammatical cohesive devices (reference, conjunction, ellipsis and substitution) in Persian-speaking students’ written discourse at primary level (9 to 12 years old) according to logical meta-function introduced in Halliday and Matthiessen’s systemic functional grammar (2004), by using a descriptive analytical method. 45 students (boys) studying at primary school (4th, 5th and 6th grades) in 2014-15 were selected through random-sampling. Two written tests in the form of picture stories were administered for gathering data from their writings. Frequency, percentage and pattern of development of using grammatical cohesive devices were compared in seeking the answer to the question of how age affects the frequency and the variety of grammatical cohesive devices. The frequency of grammatical cohesive devices among the 4th, 5th and 6th grade students was 1285, 1866, 2198 respectively. So the use of grammatical cohesive devices proved to increase in higher grades. Based on the Kruskal–Wallis test, the differences were significant (p≤ 0/05). The distribution of different cohesive devices showed some changes as the grades moved higher. In addition, more sophisticated devices were noticed . Personal references were the most and comparative references were the least frequent devices in the category of reference. In conjunction, additive, adversative, spatio- temporal and causal- conditional conjunction were the most and the least frequent ones. In ellipsis and substitution, nominal phrase deletion was the most, and verb phrase deletion was the least frequent one. The percentage of different devices were as follows: reference (62%), conjunction (22%), ellipsis and substitution (16%).

Keywords

Full Text

به فایل پی دی اف مراجعه کنید.

References

احدی، حوریه (1394). «بررسی رویکرد دوسویه در زبان‌شناسی بالینی با آسیب زبانی». زبان‌شناخت. س6، ش2: 13-1.

حسن‌زاده، سعید و اصغر مینائی (1380). «انطباق و هنجاریابی آزمون رشد زبان برای کودکان فارسی‌زبان تهرانی». پژوهش در حیطۀ کودکان استثنایی. س1، ش1: 51-35.

رضوانی، راضیه، زهرا سلیمانی، شهره جلایی و یحیی مدرّسی (1395). «بررسی مقایسه‌ای انسجام داستان در کودکان فارسی‌زبان مبتلا به آسیب ویژۀ زبانی و کودکان طبیعی». مجلۀ علوم پیراپزشکی و توانبخشی مشهد. دورۀ5، ش2: 41-34.

سیف، علی‌اکبر (1395). اندازه‌گیری، سنجش و ارزشیابی آموزشی. تهران: نشر دوران.

قاسمی، مسلم، محبوبه نخشب، بتول علی‌نژاد، میثم شفیعی و مهدی تذهیبی (1391). «توصیف برخی ساختارهای زبانی در داستان‌گویی کودکان 4 سالۀ سالم شهر اصفهان و ارتباط آن با جنس براساس پروتکل ارزیابی داستان‌گویی». پژوهش در علوم توانبخشی. س8، ش4: 15-1.

Allen, M. S., M. K. Kertoy, J. C. Sherblom, & J. M. Pettit (1994). “Children’s narrative productions: a comparison of personal event and fictional stories”. Applied Psycholinguistics. 15, 149–176.

Berman, R. A., & D. I. Slobin (1994). Relating events in narrative: A crosslinguistic developmental study. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Boudreau, D. M. & N. L. Hedberg (1999). “A Comparison of Early Literacy Skills in Children with Specific Language Impairment and their Typically Developing Peers”. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 8, 249–260.

Casby, M. W. (1992). “The Cognitive Hypothesis and its Influence on Speech-Language Services in Schools”. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. 23, 198–202.

Copmann, K. S. P. & P. L. Griffith (1994). “Event and Story Structure Recall by Children with Specific Learning Disabilities, Language Impairments, and Normally Achieving Children”. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. 23, 231–247.

Dockrell, J. E., G. Lindsay, B. Letchford, & C. Mackie (2006). “Educational Provision for Children with Specific Speech and Language Difficulties: Perspectives of Speech and Language Therapy Service Managers”. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. 41, 423–440.

Eaton, J. H., G. M. Collis, & V. A. Lewis (1999). “Evaluative Explanations in Children’s Narratives of a Video Sequence without Dialogue”. Journal of Child Language. 26, 699–720.

Ellis Weismer, S., J. B. Tomblin, X. Zhang, P. Buckwalter, J. G. Chynoweth, & M. Jones (2000). „Nonword Repetition Performance in School-age Children with and without Language Impairment”. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 43, 865–878.

Fey, M. E., H. W. Catts, K. Proctor-Williams, J. B. Tomblin, & X. Zhang (2004). “Oral and Written Story Composition Skills of Children with Language Impairment”. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 47, 1301–1318.

Field, A. (2009). Discovering statistics using SPSS. 3rd ed. London: SAGE.

Gillam, R. B. & R. M. Carlile (1997). “Oral Reading and Story Retelling of Students with Specific Language Impairment”. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. 28, 30–42.

Gutiérrez-Clellan, V. F. & E. Peña (2001). “Dynamic Assessment of Diverse Children: A Tutorial”. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools. 32, 212–224.

Halliday, M. A. K. & R. Hasan (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman.

Hedberg, N. L., & C. E. Westby (1993). Analyzing storytelling skills: Theory to practice. Tucson: Communication Skill Builders.

Hemphill, L., N. Picardi, & H. Tager-Flusberg (1991). “Narrative as an Index of Communicative Competence in Mildly Mentally Retarded Children”. Applied Psycholinguistics. 12, 263–279.

Hughes, D., L. McGillivray, & M. Schmidek (1997). Guide to narrative language: Procedures for assessment. EauClaire, WI: Thinking Publications.

James, D. (1999). “Children’s Story Telling Skills in the Age Range of Five to Seven Years”. In S. McLeod, & L. McAllister (Eds.), Towards 2000: Embracing change, challenge and choice: Proceedings of the 1999 Speech Pathology Australia National Conference. Melbourne: Speech Pathology Australia, 102–109.

James, D. G. H. (2001). “Story Telling Skills in Children Aged 3;0 to 5;11 Years”. In L. Wilson & S. Hewat (Eds.), Evidence and Innovation: Proceedings of the 2001 Speech Pathology Australia National Conference. Melbourne: Speech Pathology Australia, 171–179.

Johnson, C. J. (1995). “Expanding Norms for Narration”. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. 26, 326–341.

Kaderavek, J. N. & E. Sulzby (2000). “Narrative Production by Children with and without Specific Language Impairment: Oral Narratives and Emergent Readings”. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 43, 34–49.

Liles, B. Z. (1985). “Cohesion in the Narratives of Normal and Language-disordered Children”. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 28, 123–133.

Liles, B. Z. (1987). “Episode Organization and Cohesive Conjunctives in Narratives of Children with and without Language Disorder”. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 30, 185–196.

Liles, B. Z. (1993). “Narrative Discourse in Children with Language Disorders and Children with Normal Language: a Critical Review of the Literature”. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 36, 868–882.

Liles, B. Z., R. J. Duffy, D. D. Merritt, & S. L. Purcell (1995). “Measurement of Narrative Discourse Ability in Children with Language Disorders”. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 38, 415–425.

Manhardt, J. & L. Rescorla (2002). “Oral Narrative Skills of Late Talkers at Ages 8 and 9”. Applied Psycholinguistics. 23, 1–21.

Mayer, M. (1969). Frog, where are you?. New York: Pied Piper.

McCabe, A. & P. R. Rollins (1994). “Assessment of Preschool Narrative Skills”. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 3, 45–55.

Merritt, D. D. & B. Z. Liles, (1987). “Story Grammar Ability in Children with and without Language Disorder: Story Generation, Story Retelling, and Story Comprehension”. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 30, 539–552.

Miller, L., T. B. Gillam, & E. D. Peña (2001). Dynamic assessment and intervention: Improving children’s narrative abilities. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.

Miranda, A. E., A. McCabe, & L. S. Bliss (1998). “Jumping Around and Leaving Things out: a Profile of the Narrative Abilities of Children with Specific Language Impairment”. Applied Psycholinguistics. 19, 647–667.

Norbury, C. F. & D. V. M. Bishop (2003). “Narrative Skills of Children with Communication Impairments”. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. 38, 287–313.

Olley, L. (1989). “Oral Narrative Performance of Normal and Language Impaired School Aged Children”. Australian Journal of Human Communication Disorders. 17, 43–65.

Pallant, J. (2001). SPSS survival manual. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.

Paul, R. & R. L. Smith (1993). “Narrative Skills in 4-Year-Olds with Normal, Impaired, and Late-Developing Language”. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 36, 592–598.

Paul, R., R. Hernandez, L. Taylor, & K. Johnson (1996). “Narrative Development in Late Talkers: Early School Age”. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 39, 1295–1303.

Pearce, W. M. (2003). “Does the Choice of Stimulus Affect the Complexity of Children’s Oral Narratives?” Advances in Speech Language Pathology. 5, 95–103.

Pearce, W. M., P. F. McCormack, & D. G. H. James (2003). “Exploring the Boundaries of SLI: Findings from Morphosyntactic and Story Grammar Analyses”. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics. 17, 325–334.

Pearce, W.M., D. G. H. James & P. F. McCormack (2010). “A Comparison of Oral Narratives in Children with Specific Language and Non-Specific Language Impairment”. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics. 24 (8), 622-645.

Peterson, C. & A. McCabe (1994). “A Social Interactionist Account of Developing Decontextualized Narrative Skill”. Developmental Psychology. 30, 937–948.

Peterson, C. (1993). “Identifying Referents and Linking Sentences Cohesively in Narration”. Discourse Processes. 16, 507–524.

Rice, M. L., J. B. Tomblin, L. Hoffman, W. A. Richman, & J. Marquis (2004). “Grammatical Tense Deficits in Children with SLI and Nonspecific Language Impairment: Relationships with Nonverbal IQ over Time”. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 47, 816–834.

Shapiro, L. R. & J. A. Hudson (1991). “Tell Me a Make-Believe Story: Coherence and Cohesion in Young Children’s Picture-Elicited Narratives”. Developmental Psychology. 27, 960–974.

Strong, C. J. & J. P. Shaver (1991). “Stability of Cohesion in the Spoken Narratives of Language-Impaired and Normally Developing School-Aged Children”. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 34, 95–111.

Tabachnick, B. G. & L. S. Fidell (2007). Using multivariate statistics. 5th ed, Sydney: Pearson Education.

van der Lely, H. K. J. (1997). “Narrative Discourse in Grammatical Specific Language Impaired Children: A Modular Language Deficit?” Journal of Child Language. 24, 221–256.

Watkins, R. V. (1994). “Specific Language Impairments in Children: an Introduction”. In R. V. Watkins, & M. L. Rice (Eds.), Specific language impairments in children. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes, 1–15.