Comparing Narrative Microstructures between Bilingual BalochiPersian Preschoolers and Monolingual Persian Preschoolers

Abstract

Background: With the rapid increase of bilingual children, more attention is needed on different patterns of their narratives. The aim of this study was to compare levels of narrative microstructures generated by typical developing kindergarten children who were bilingual in Persian and Balochi with their monolingual Persian-speaking counterparts. Methods: A total number of 30 Persian-speaking monolingual children and 13 available bilingual children (aged 48 months old) participated in this study. Their storytelling was audio-recorded and analyzed using Persian-NAP (Narrative Assessment Protocol) guidelines. Results: None of the NAP indicators (including group structure, phrase structure, modifiers, noun, and verbs) showed any significant difference between monolingual and bilingual children (0.06≤P≤0.5). Conclusion: We did not find different performances in the five NAP indicators between bilingual and monolingual children. It may be suggested that different patterns of creating phrases and sentences in the two languages do not affect grammatical use in the second language.

Keywords

• Narrative
• Microstructure
• Bilingualism
• Balochi language