Acquisition Specifics of Genre Repertoire of Personal Discourse in 4-6-Year-Old Children with Developmental Language Disorder and Typically Developing Peers

Abstract

The first holophrases of a child’s speech mark the beginning of the development of oral discourse. Various typologies of genres fall mainly into two groups: those that are based on the external criteria (functional-pragmatic, social-pragmatic) towards the text, and those that are based on certain textual traits of the text. Mastering oral discourse also means mastering its genre forms. Children with primary developmental language disorder usually face difficulties in generating discourse text. Their oral discourse acquisition processes are not well studied yet; information regarding Russian-speaking children is particularly lacking. The aim of this paper is to discuss the dynamics of mastering various genres (narrative, description, expository discourse, and instruction) of oral discourse of preschool children with primary developmental language disorder compared with their typically developing peers. To design a situation of natural communication for the subjects and to elicit their personal discourse, an experimental methodology of Simulating a Conversation with a Peer was developed. The study involved 20 children aged 4-5 years with primary developmental language disorder and 12 typically developing peers. All children were assessed three times with an interval of 3-4 months; each wave of assessment included three meetings. The developed corpus of oral personal discourse was transcribed, annotated morphologically, and submitted to linguo-statistical distributive analysis of discourse passages. In addition, narrative texts were evaluated in terms of the elaboration level of the narrative structure. Statistical analysis evidenced significant between-group differences in the distribution of narrative and expository passages and in the elaboration level of the narrative structure. Dynamic characteristics distinguishing children with primary developmental language disorder from typically developing children were revealed.