Effects of Structural Guidance in Story Retelling on Children's Dictation of Original Stories

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Abstract
The study sought to determine if frequent story retellings with structural guidance could improve kindergarten children's use of structural elements in dictations of original stories and increase the oral language complexity of the stories. Treatments were administered to children once a week for eight weeks. After a story was read, the control children ( n = 44) drew a picture about it and the experimental children ( n = 38) retold the story individually to a research assistant. Story dictation pre- and posttests were administered. Analysis of covariance indicated significant improvement for the experimental group in dictation of original stories and in oral language complexity. Retelling proved to be an instructional strategy capable of improving children's dictations of original stories and oral language complexity within those stories.