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130 ACQ Volume 13, Number 3 2011 ACQuiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing
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at the beginning of every utterance. Possible reasons why
this participant may have underperformed include tiredness,
unfamiliarity with the task or shyness towards the examiner.
The “shame” response that may arise in testing situations
with Aboriginal children has been well reported and may
also have been a factor here (Gould, 2001; Malcolm et al.,
1999). Feelings of “shame” may lead to a reluctance to
speak or desire to leave a situation. Shame may arise from
situations where a person does not know what is expected
of them or feels singled out from the group.
Interesting trends are apparent when the results from
P#3 are excluded. Most other participants did well with
the Introduction, Character development and Conclusion
components. This is consistent with the observation that
people and place are of key importance in Aboriginal
storytelling (Malcolm et al., 1999). It is unclear why most
participants had difficulty describing the Mental states of
the story characters (feelings and thoughts). Referencing,
Cohesion, and Conflict resolution were challenging
components for the younger children but older children had
good mastery of these. This suggests that experience with
narratives at school contributed to the ability of Aboriginal
children to produce more mature oral narratives as
measured by the NSS.
Conclusion
This study was a preliminary exploration of oral narrative in
Aboriginal children. As such, the study is limited in several
ways including its small sample size and scope, and limited
information about the home languages and hearing status
of the children. However, the findings lead to some
important clinical implications. Speech pathologists need to
consider the language background of the Aboriginal
children they assess (including dialects, creoles, and
traditional languages) as well as information about the
child’s level of exposure to SAE. Until reliable normative
data are available, our ability to use grammatical or oral
narrative microstructure measures to define LI in Aboriginal
children is limited. There may also be greater benefit from
using measures that are more independent of grammar and
linguistic variation such as oral narrative structure.
The development of Australian English normative data
is needed as a focus of ongoing studies. Information is
needed on the language development of Aboriginal, Torres
Strait Islander, and non-Indigenous children, across the
range of remote, rural and urban contexts, language groups
and socioeconomic backgrounds. In addition, exploration
of appropriate assessment and language sampling
practices for Indigenous Australian children is required to
ensure optimum accommodation of cultural differences in
communication style (Gould, 2008). These differences may
include the need for relationship and purpose within the
interaction, avoidance of display questions, acceptance
of silence or a non-response, and strategies to minimise
“shame”. Until we have better normative data, clinicians are
advised to collect and analyse language samples over time
in order to monitor progress in response to intervention.
Acknowledgments
This paper is based on the honours project work of the
second author, supervised by the first author. Appreciation
is extended to the children who participated in this study
and to the school staff members, parents and caregivers
who supported them.