[[alternative]]Oral Narrative Skills in Preschool Children with Hearing Impairment: A Macrostructure Analysis

[[abstract]]本研究欲透過分析與比較學前聽損與聽常兒童的敘事鉅觀結構表現，了解聽損兒童在口語敘事時故事結構和篇章凝聚（coherence）的特徵，以作為臨床上語言評估及療育介入的依據。本研究招募15位學前聽損兒童和15位同年齡的聽常兒童，共收集30位兒童的敘事樣本。研究者以無字圖畫書作為誘發敘事樣本的材料，請受試兒童看過圖畫書後自發性說出故事，再針對受試兒童的敘事樣本進行敘事鉅觀分析，分析方式包括故事文法分析、故事情節完整性及因果網路分析架構。 研究結果顯示：學前聽損兒童在故事結構與篇章凝聚的表現都較一般同年齡的聽常兒童落後。聽損兒童的故事文法總分低於同年齡的聽常兒童，統計上達顯著差異。故事文法分析的結果顯示：，學前聽損兒童在「引發事件」與「嘗試」的故事文法細項得分上均顯著低於聽常兒童；從故事情節完整性的表現來看，學前聽損兒童的得分顯著低於一般聽常兒童。研究者亦以因果網路分析架構了解兒童的篇章凝聚力，兩組兒童的事件間因果連結次數呈現顯著差異，學前聽損兒童局部凝聚的表現不如同年齡的聽常兒童。兩組兒童主要事件的次數也達統計上顯著差異，聽損兒童整體凝聚的表現較聽常兒童差。在整體篇章凝聚的部分，聽損兒童故事中主要事件出現的次數亦低於同年齡的聽常兒童，代表聽損兒童述說故事時較少講述與故事主題相關的語句。 雖然標準化的語言評估工具顯示學前聽損兒童在語言表達量表上與聽常兒童並無顯著差異，但是學前聽損兒童的敘事鉅觀表現仍有改善空間。本研究證明敘事鉅觀或許能夠做為臨床語言評估的另一執行選項，且亦可做為是語言治療的目標，建議早期療育人員在未來聽損兒童的語言評估與介入可考慮加入敘事鉅觀結構分析的項目。[[abstract]]This study was to examine the difference of oral narrative macrostructure skills between preschool-aged children with hearing impairment and those with normal hearing, including the characteristics of story structure and coherence. A total of 30 participants were recruited in this present study, including 15 preschool children with hearing impairment and 15 children with normal-hearing. A wordless storybook was presented to each participant and the child was asked to generate a story based on the content of the storybook. The researchers then analyzed the collected language samples and measured differences in narrative macrostructure between children with hearing impairment and those with normal hearing. Narrative macrostructure analysis in this study included story grammar, complete episodes and causal network analysis. Results revealed that there were significant differences in story structure and coherence between preschool children with hearing impairment and those with normal hearing. The total story grammar score for children with hearing impairment was significantly lower than the score for children with normal hearing. For individual story grammar elements, children with hearing impairment produced significantly fewer numbers of elements for “initiating event” and “attempt” than children with normal hearing did. Preschool children with hearing impairment also produced fewer numbers of complete episodes in their stories than children with normal hearing did. Causal network analysis was used to measure coherence in participants’ stories. Children with hearing impairment produced fewer numbers of causal chains and causal connections than children with normal hearing did. Although standardized assessment did not showed significant differences in language expression between children with hearing impairment and children with normal hearing, oral narrative macrostructure skills in preschool children with hearing impairment were still under developed. Findings of this study demonstrated that narrative macrostructure analysis could be an alternative method applied to language evaluation and intervention for preschool-age children with hearing impairment