Abstract
This paper examines text structure and patterns of cohesion in stories written by a group of adults with a history of childhood language impairment. The study aimed to extend our knowledge of writing difficulties in this group by building upon a study that examined clause level phenomena (Smith-Lock, Nickels, & Mortensen, this issue). Ten adults with a history of Language Impairment and 30 control participants were asked to write the story of Cinderella. Stories were analyzed for their generic structure and cohesion resources, both of which contribute to the organization and coherence of a text. Results revealed that patterns of text organization at the level of generic structure and measures of cohesion did not distinguish the performance of writers with a history of Language Impairment from the comparison group. A wide range of lexico-grammatical skills was evident within the Language Impaired group, with few individuals with Language Impairment falling outside the normal range of performance. It is suggested that generic structure and cohesion are a relative strength in the writing of adults with Language Impairment, within the constraints of their lexical and grammatical skills.
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Notes
When calculating relevant tokens, the initial token and all related subsequent tokens (grammatical & lexical) are included in the relevant token count.
When calculating the lexical and grammatical tokens which form chains, the initial token is excluded because there may be a number of chains associated with it, e.g. Cinderella- (Initial token) may have a related repetition chain (Cinderella), a reference chain (she, her), a super/subordinate chain (young girl/Cinderella; Cinderella/foot;). Therefore, including the initial token could artificially inflate the count.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by an Australian Research Council small grant and a Macquarie University Research Development Grant. Lyndsey Nickels was supported by an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship. The authors wish to thank the participants for their time and cooperation.
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Mortensen, L., Smith-Lock, K. & Nickels, L. Text structure and patterns of cohesion in narrative texts written by adults with a history of language impairment. Read Writ 22, 735–752 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-008-9150-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-008-9150-x