Bilingual narratives from mothers and three-year-old children: style, interaction roles and language use

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the narrative styles and the interaction roles while two dyads (each constituted by the mother and a three-year-old child) share a picture book. The dyads are bilingual and live in Santa Maria do Herval (RS, Brazil). To identify the narrative styles and the roles played by mother and child, we analyze the contribution of each one to the progress of the history. In addition, we analyze qualitatively the use of the languages. In an interaction predominantly in German, it was noted the adoption by the mother of elaborative style. In another interaction, the mother took the low elaborative style. Regarding the roles in interaction, children were encouraged by their mothers to adopt the role of co-narrators of the story. This approximates from the results of the dyads with the same age that interacted in Portuguese in the same community.