Narrative skills of Catalan-Spanish bilingual children : macrostructural and microstructural development and assessment

This study investigates the development of narrative skills in Catalan-Spanish bilingual children, a rarely studied combination of languages in a bilingual context where neither language serves as a minority input, meaning both are widely used in the community. Seventy children aged 4 to 7 were assessed in both of their languages using the Multilingual Instrument Assessment of Narratives. The effects of language, age, and exposure on narrative macrostructure and microstructure were examined. Results indicate that both age and language influence these levels, while exposure affects specific microstructural measures (grammaticality, discourse markers, and code-switching). Certain aspects of narrative performance, such as comprehension questions, lexical diversity, MLCU, and subordination, develop in only one language, while others, including all other macrostructural measures, narrative length, MLCUmax, and code-switching, develop in both. Interestingly, children perform better in macrostructural aspects when narrating in Spanish, despite being schooled in Catalan and regardless of language exposure. However, in microstructural aspects, children show a disadvantage in grammatical accuracy in Spanish. These findings highlight the importance of considering age, exposure, and language of production when assessing language in bilinguals. The study contributes information on narrative development in Catalan-Spanish bilingual children, offering insights for assessment practices in bilingual populations.