"We Went Home, Told the Whole Story to Our Friends": Narratives by Children in an Algonquin Community

• Published in: Journal of Narrative and Life History
• Main Authors: Pesco, Diane, Crago, Martha
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: John Benjamins Publishing Company 1996
• Subjects: algonquin
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.6.4.01wew; http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/jnlh.6.4.01wew.pdf

Abstract Narratives of personal experience told by 18 Algonquin children ranging from 10 to 13 years old are described and discussed in this article. The narratives were collected in peer dyads or groups and told in English, the children's second language. Using a database of 93 narratives, we report the type of contributions that the children made to each other's narratives as well as the narrative content and themes. The structural properties of a subset of the narratives, determined using high point analysis, are also reported. These discoursal, thematic, and structural features are discussed in terms of how they interact with one another, and together provide insights into the social character of the children's narratives. The study also demonstrates how children's narratives reflect and contribute to cultural, community, and peer group belonging. (Communication Sciences)