Date of Award

7-18-1996

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Dr. Kathy Coufal

Abstract

The differences in language constructs elicited in a video narration language sampling context and an art narration language sampling context were investigated. A quasi-experimental counterbalanced design was utilized to assess the effects of the language sampling contexts on the language constructs elicited. The subjects were six boys and six girls, ages four and a half to six years, with normally developing language. Age-matched pairs were randomly placed in one of two groups. Group A was exposed to the video narration context followed by the art narration context. Group B was exposed to the art narration context followed by the video narration context. Language samples were taken in both the art narration context and the video narration context. The language constructs examined included: mean length of utterance, type-token ratio, range in utterance length, semantic roles, fourteen grammatical morphemes, negation, noun phrase elaboration, verb phrase elaboration, sentence types and clause structure. Mean length of utterance, range in utterance length, and type-token ratio were statistically analyzed using two-tailed t-tests. A statistically significant difference was not found between the two conditions for mean length of utterance, type-token ratio, or range in utterance length. The final eight language constructs examined were descriptively analyzed. Differences were found in certain aspects of each of these constructs. Analysis also revealed that the final context subjects were exposed to generally elicited a greater frequency of occurrence of the language constructs examined, regardless of the order of the conditions. These findings suggest that art narration is a valid means for sampling language and that the more a child is familiarized with a stimulus the greater the narrative elaboration of the story.

Comments

A Thesis Presented to the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts University of Nebraska at Omaha. Copyright Leah Margaret Gearhard Horst July 18, 1996

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