초등 2, 4, 6학년 일반 아동의 설명담화 요약하기 능력: 비교/대조와 원인/결과를 중심으로

Abstract

Summarizing of expository discourses in second, fourth, and sixth grade children: compare/contrast and cause/effect

Kim, Bo-Rim Advisor : Yoon, Hyo-Jin Department of Speech-Language Pathology Graduate School of Chosun University

School-aged children have developed narratives and expository discourse that convey various information rather than daily conversations. Expository discourses could be different structure according to the collection, cause/effect, problem/solution, and compare/contrast type of depending on the organization of content characteristics and contents. The curriculum includes these four types of expository discourse. Children needs knowledges in macrostructure and microstructure for understanding expository discourse. Previous studies have tended to investigate microstructure including vocabulary and sentence structure complexity rather than macrostructure. However, recent studies have emphasized the macrostructure to know how children understand and produce overall organization and contents of expository discourse. Summarizing is the one of the useful way to assess ones knowledge of macrostructure and microstructure. In order to summarize, children need to produce main sentences of whole text, and topic-related vocabulary. What is more, sentences should be closed to each other to increase coherence of the text and connect to appropriate cohesive device. The aims of this study is to investigate knowledge of macrostructure and microstructure in expository summarization for second, fourth and sixth graders. This study used two expository types which are compare/contrast and cause/effect structure that frequently appear in elementary school textbooks. This study analyzed organization, coherence, and language markers.

The followings are research questions: 1) Does compare/contrast and cause/effect descriptive telling summarization show significant differences in scores of organization in summary depending on the school year?

2) Does compare/contrast and cause/effect descriptive telling summarization show significant differences in scores of coherence in summary depending on the school year?

3) Does compare/contrast and cause/effect descriptive telling summarization show significant differences in scores of language markers in the summary depending on the school year?

Total 45 students from second, fourth and sixth graders participated in the study. Each graders were 15. All children should have intelligence quotient score of 80 or above in K-CTONI-2. Children also should obtained higher than –1 of standard deviation on Receptive & Expressive Vocabulary Test (REVT). Children who scored 90 or above (standardized score) in reading fluency test in Korean Language-based Reading Assessment (KOLRA) were selected. As well, all children have no history of visual and hearing impairment and neurological and emotional problem. Children were read two expository discourse types by examiner. Children were asked to fill in the graphic organizer for each expository text and summarize the texts using the graphic organizers. The scoring was made by modifying and supplementing the summarization scoring system by Westby et al.(2010). The scoring was divided into three categories: organization, coherence, and language markers. Three categories comprises of 8 factors. Organizations included three factors which were filling in the graphic organization, summarizing using graphic organizer, and aware of expository discourse types. Coherence included three factors which were main sentence, closeness between sentences, and cohesive devices. Language makers were vocabulary and sentence complexity.

The following is the result and discussion of this study. First, all scores of three factors in organization for compare/contrast structure, types significantly increased between the second and fourth graders, and between the second and sixth graders. In cause/effect structure, all factors except filling in the graphic organizer, showed significant differences between grades, and the scores increased significantly as children get older. It could be explained by Chall’s reading development (1983). Second graders were likely to use their cognitive resources for decoding text while fourth and sixth graders could use their cognitive resources for understanding text because they could decode words and sentences automatically. Second, in scores of summary coherence, there were significant differences in main sentence, closeness between sentences, and coherence marker in both the compare/contrast and cause/effect structure in all grades.As children get older, they could integrate the text into one main sentence and increase metacognitive skills which is the ability to make plans for re-arranging sentences. Third, all language marker including vocabulary and sentence complexity in two expository types were significant differences between the second and fourth graders, and between the second and sixth graders. As subjects were getting older, they can use sophisticated vocabulary and complex sentences. The results of this study suggest that summarization for macrostructure and microstucture of expository discourse may be used for useful assessment and intervention for school-aged children with language problems.