Allyssa McCabe – författare

This book is divided into three main topical sections: (1) Parent-child construction of narrative, which focuses on aspects of the social interaction that facilitate oral narrative development in Spanish-speaking children; (2) Developing independent narration by Spanish-speaking children; and (3) Narrative links between Latino children's oral narration and their emergent literacy and other school achievements. Chapters address narration to and by Latino children aged six months to eleven years old and in low, middle, and upper socioeconomic groups. Nationalities of speakers include the following: Costa Rican, Dominican, Ecuadorian, Mexican, Peruvian, Puerto Rican, Venezuelan, and Spanish-English bilingual children who are citizens or residents of the United States. Narratives studied include those in conversations, personal and fictional stories, and those prompted by wordless picture books or videos. Thus, the current project includes diverse nationalities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and genres of narrative.

Effective narration, the telling of stories or recounting of personal experiences, is an art requiring skills that appear crucial for children’s language development and literacy acquisition. Developing Narrative Structure, originally published in 1991, served an important purpose because it pulled together the widely scattered literature in the field, exploring the ways in which oral narrative structure develops in children and how it may be facilitated. It presented new empirical studies of the time, on genres of narrative, the role narrative structure plays in emergent literacy, the relationship between narrative language and autobiographical memory, and ways in which teachers and parents facilitate or hinder children's narrative development. The empirical research presented here draws from diverse groups, including Hispanic, African-American, and Anglo-American children from rural and urban America and Canada. Today it can be read in its historical context.

Perspectives on East and Southeast Asian Folktales is a multidisciplinary examination of folktales that are unfamiliar to Western audiences. Examining folktales from countries like Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, China, Japan, and Korea, the contributors consider various aspects: including identity issues, morals, collectivism, violence, scatological references, language socialization, representation of Buddhist values, emotional competence, as well as folktales' relationship to idioms and narrative structure. Highlighting differences and similarities between East and Southeast Asian and Western folktales, this volume promotes memorable understanding of East and Southeast Asian cultures and their oral traditions.