Cultural Perspective of Storytelling

Cultural Perspective of Storytelling in Korean-English Bilingual Children : 

Cultural Perspective of Storytelling in Korean-English Bilingual Children Huai-Rhin Kim, M.A. Cynthia Johnson, Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ASHA Convention Nov. 17, 2007 hkim22@uiuc.edu cjj@uiuc.edu

Cultural Differences in Narratives : 

Cultural Differences in Narratives Through storytelling, individuals become members of their cultures. Bruner, 1990 Cultural differences in narration influence children’s narrative development. Anderson & Li, 2006 Fung, Miller, & Lin, 2004 Heath, 1983 Narrative is a useful tool that indexes ones’ communicative competence and identifies discourse problems. J.Y. Kang, 2003

Narrative in Korean Culture : 

Narrative in Korean Culture Koreans [college students] failed to represent the preferred discourse style of the target [English-speaking] culture. Kang, 2003, p. 127; 2004 Fewer explicit evaluations, shorter length of stories, and more noun phrases to refer to characters in both languages, compared to native speakers of English. When Korean Mothers and children told about past events Mullen & Yi, 1995 Less child-centered (i.e., focused on the child’s thoughts, feelings, and attributes). More child-directive (i.e., focused on behavioral expectations)

Possible Culturally-Influenced Narrative Traits : 

Possible Culturally-Influenced Narrative Traits Codas including a lesson, moral, or reflection and internal state words have been a unit of analysis in narratives (Ukrainetz et al., 2005). Morals of stories and characters’ emotions have been evaluated in children’s narrative performance (Fey et al., 2004; Stein & Glenn, 1979; Ukrainetz et al., 2005). Humor is “a method of coping with difficult situations, and expressing both meaning and emotion” (Bergen, 1989, p. 18).

Use of culturally-influenced narrative traits – Morals of Stories : 

Use of culturally-influenced narrative traits – Morals of Stories Chinese personal storytelling as a didactic resource to convey moral and social standards European-American families’ personal storytelling as a medium of entertainment and self-affirmation Miller, Fung, & Liang, 1997

Characters’ emotions : 

Characters’ emotions Monolingual English-speaking children used internal state words more often as they got older. Ukrainetz, 2005 Korean adults and children express emotions less in narratives than their English-speaking counterparts Han, Leichtman, & Wang, 1998

Research Question : 

Research Question How do Korean-English bilingual children include possible culturally- influenced narrative traits, namely morals of stories, humor, and characters’ emotions, in their Korean and English spoken narrative?

Method : 

Method Participants 20 normally developing Korean-English bilingual children – 3rd through 5th grade 17 children were born in Korea, 3 were born in the U. S. Speak Korean at home, English at school 40 written data and 80 spoken data were collected and analyzed.

Procedure : 

Procedure Spoken Stimuli (4 wordless picture books) – each child produced 4 spoken narratives, 2 in Korean, 2 in English The Tortoise and the Hare (Steven, 1984) Oops (Mayer, 1977) The Lion and the Mouse (Peterson & O’Neil, 1996) Achoo (Mayer, 1977)

Procedure – Cont. : 

Procedure – Cont. Children looked through each picture book, then told a story about it (with pictures present) About 5 minutes of storytelling per story

The Coding System : 

The Coding System Two panels of judges Korean panel – 3 native speakers of Korean English panel – 3 native speakers of English The 6 judges independently identified instances of morals, humor, and emotions in the books. 6 logs (combined) = potential instances of morals, humor, and emotions for coding in the children’s narrative stories.

Results – Morals/Lessons of Stories : 

Results – Morals/Lessons of Stories When they told stories in English, they added more morals of stories than when they told stories in Korean. Korean Moral (M = 9%)< English moral (M =11%), p > 0.05 Example - “You shouldn’t bring the frog at restaurant”

Results - Humor : 

Results - Humor When they told stories in Korean, they significantly added more humor than when they told English stories. Korean Humor (M = 49%) > English Humor (M = 29%) , p < 0.05 Example - “The frog jumped and dived in to the celerd (salad)”

Results – Characters’ Emotion : 

Results – Characters’ Emotion When they told stories in Korean, they significantly expressed more characters’ emotions than when they told in English. Korean Emotion (M = 4%) > English Emotion (M = 2%), p < 0.05 Example - “The boy was so sad because he couldn’t find his little frog”

Conclusions : 

Conclusions Morals of stories – more frequent in English Humor – more frequent in Korean Characters’ emotions – more frequent in Korean

Written vs. Spoken : 

Written vs. Spoken

Acknowledgments : 

Acknowledgments I appreciate the help of the children and their families who participated in this study. I also appreciate the help of 7 undergraduate research assistants, Jiyun Lee, Mary-Kelsey Coletto, Rene Jones, Joohee Chung, Megan Wehrli, Laura Helregel, and Yoonkyung Kim

Slide 18: 

Thanks also to two Korean churches, Jesus-Love Korean United Methodist Church and the Korean Church of Champaign-Urbana This study was supported by a 2005 Summer Fellowship Award from the Computer Science/Artificial Intelligence Group at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign

Thank you! : 

Thank you! Please contact me at hkim22@uiuc.edu

Reference : 

Reference Anderson, R.C., & Li, W. (2006). A cross-language perspective on learning to read. In A. McKeough, J. L. Lupart, L. Phillips, & V. Timmons (Eds.), Understanding literacy development: A global view (p. 65-91). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Dyson, A.H. (1989). Multiple worlds of child writers: Friends learning to write. New York: Teachers College Press. Fey, M., Catts, H., Proctor-Williams, K., Tomblin, J. B., & Zhang, X. (2004).  Oral and written story composition skills of children with language impairment.  Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 47, 1301-1318. Fung, H., Miller, P.J., & Lin, L-C. (2004). Listening is active: Lessons from the narrative practices of Taiwanese families. In M.W. Pratt & B.E. Fiese (Eds.), Family stories and the life course: Across time and generations. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Reference – cont. : 

Reference – cont. Kang, J.Y. (2003). On the ability to tell good stories in another language: Analysis of Korean EFL learners’ oral “frog story” narratives. Narrative Inquiry, 13(1), 127-149. Scores for new SAT with writing section by College Board. (2006,October 7). Retrieved August, 29, 2006, from http://www.collegeboard.com/press/releases/150054.html Ukrainetz, T.A., Justice, L.M., Kaderavek, J.N., Eisenberg, S.L., Gillam, R.B., & Harm, H.M. (2005). The development of expressive elaboration in fictional narratives. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 48, 1363-1377. Writing results by National Assessment of Educational Progress. (2006, October 2). Retrieved December, 2002, NAEP database from http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nde.