Effects of English Narrative Intervention for Spanish–English Bilingual Children on Narrative Discourse and Morphosyntactic Abilities
Alalabeth Ramirez, Lamitra Baez, Noha DaherPurpose:
Minimal research has been conducted on the effects of a narrative intervention on Spanish–English bilingual children on narrative discourse and morphosyntactic skills, as well as cross-linguistic transfer. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which an English narrative intervention increases the narrative discourse skills and morphosyntactic skills in Spanish–English bilingual children in both the treated language (English) and the nontreated language (Spanish).
Method:
A one-group pretest–posttest design was implemented. Sixteen typically developing 6–8-year-old (kindergarten to third grade) bilingual children participated in individualized
Results:
All participants demonstrated a significant increase in narrative discourse skills. However, more gains were observed for the morphosyntactic measures for the kindergarten to first-grade participants in both languages, than was measured in the second- to third-grade participants. Cross-linguistic transfer of skills was observed with narrative skills and morphosyntactic skills to a degree.
Discussion:
An English narrative intervention holds promise in improving bilingual children's narrative discourse skills and morphosyntactic skills. Further research is recommended to determine the effect of a narrative intervention program on bilingual children from different populations and its long-term impact.