LISTENING TO MATERNAL STORY TELLING AFFECTS NARRATIVE SKILL OF 5-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN

The effect of maternal story telling on the child's use of eight lingu istic evaluative devices (e.g., reference to internal states of actors ) was assessed for sixty 5-year-old children. We used picture books th at provided the components of a narrative while leaving story tellers free to use their own linguistic evaluative devices. Children increase d the number of clauses and the use of evaluatives in story telling as a consequence of hearing the story told by their mother. Transferring these skills to more general story telling required hearing the mothe r tell two different, but related, stories. This maternal effect on th e child's narrative skill may contribute to the process of enculturati on.