"we went home and told the whole story to our friends" : narratives by children in an Algonquin community

• Main Author: Pesco, Diane
• Other Authors: Crago, M. B. (advisor)
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: McGill University 1994
• Subjects: Language; Linguistics; Sociology; Ethnic and Racial Studies; Rhetoric and Composition; algonquin
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=22790

This thesis is a study of narratives by eighteen children 10 to 13 years old who live in an Algonquin community of Quebec. The narratives, primarily of children's personal experiences, were collected in peer groups, and were told in English, the children's second language. The specific contributions of children to each other's narratives were investigated and are described. The structural properties of a subset of the narratives were also examined using high point analysis (Peterson & McCabe, 1983). Findings resembled those reported for non-Aboriginal children with respect to the inclusion of the narrative elements of orientation, actions, and evaluation. However, the positioning of these elements and the low incidence of others resulted in differences in the structure of the narratives. Other aspects of the narratives considered include theme, narrator role, and the use of reported speech. The characteristics of the narratives are discussed as means by which the children in the study constructed and co-constructed narrative meaning. Information on the functional dimensions of narratives in the community and on the sociocultural context in which the children live is also provided in order to facilitate the reader's appreciation of factors that influence children's narrative production.