Chapter 6 Conclusion
6.2 Limitations of this study
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More specifically, they both frequently produced the type of elaborations, which was much higher than repetitions at each time point. In terms of narrative information types, at Time 1 (3;6) and Time 2 (3;9), D and Z were similar in that complicating action was higher than orientation. However, at Time 3 (4;0), Z’s orientation was higher than complicating action, while D’s complicating action was still higher than orientation. That is, at Time 3 (4;0), Z placed more emphasis on orientation than complicating action, while D focused on complicating action just as she did at Time 1 (3;6) and Time 2 (3;9).
With respect to the effect of mothers’ ways of co-constructing narratives with children on children’s narrative performance in conversation with a researcher, it was found that the difference between the two mothers’ elaborations would be reflected in their children’s contributions of this utterance type more obviously at later time points.
And the difference that D’s mother provided or requested for complicating actions much more often than Z’s mother did at Time 1 (3;6) was reflected in the two children’s percentage of this narrative information type at Time 3 (4;0). These findings are in line with Vygotskian theory that early scaffolds provided by mothers would be reflected in children’s performance at a later time.
6.2 Limitations of this study
Despite all the findings, this study leaves room for improvement and further
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inquiry. First of all, the sample size of this study is too small, so the generalizability of the findings remains a question. Therefore, it is suggested that more subjects should be included in future research. Second, the time span for observation in this study is too short. Change in mothers’ ways of co-constructing narratives with children and children's narrative performance in conversations with the researcher may only be obvious over a long period of time. Third, this study only examines the effect of mother-child conversation on children’s narrative performance. Even though mothers are generally the primary caregivers, children may be exposed to many other people, including fathers, preschool teachers, and baby-sitters who might also have an influence on children's narrative performance.
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