Personal narrative assessment for Cantonese-speaking school-age children

Abstract

This study investigated the oral personal narrative production in 60 Cantonese-speaking children between 6 and 9 years of age. Three language measures, namely Total Personal Narrative Score, Macrostructure Score and Microstructure, were derived from three personal narratives produced by each participant after listening to the sample stories. The participants also completed the Cantonese Grammar subtest of the Hong Kong Cantonese Oral Language Assessment Scale (HKCOLAS). Analysis of the data demonstrated that there were significant group differences in narrative production skills with respect to all the tested language measures. Further investigation identified that the high point element ‘Resolution’ at the macrostructure level was the most sensitive to age, and ‘Conjunction’ was a better age indicator than ‘Referencing’ at the microstructure level. The correlation between the Macrostructure and Microstructure scores was positive but weak, while the correlation between Total Personal Narrative and Cantonese Grammar scores was positive and strong. No significant group difference was found with respect to the length of narratives. These findings supported McCabe and Bliss (2003) and Cheng’s (2004) reports that personal narrative production can be further developed as an efficient tool for screening and assessment of language capabilities of Cantonese-speaking school-age children.