Characteristics of Mean Length of C-unit in Word (MLC-w) in Story-Retelling Assessment

Yun, Hea Ryun

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2008;13(3): 381-396.

Hea Ryun Yun^`

윤혜련(Hea Ryun Yun)

ABSTRACT

Background & Objectives
The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of syntactic complexity analysis through “story-retelling”.
Methods
Participants were twenty-seven 1st to 3rd grade normal elementary school children. Two stories were used to each child, one was easy and the other was difficult in the content severity. The study procedure was to tell children one story, asked them to retell it, and to conduct the comprehension task. The analysis of story recall was conducted in three ways: (1) the recall construction, (2) the rate of proposition recall, and (3) the syntactic complexity with Mean Length of C-unit in word (MLC-w).
Results
First, story comprehension abilities, recall construction, and rate of proposition recall were significantly higher in the easier story(“Frog’s story”) than the more difficult story (“Tiger’s story”), but MLC-w was not different between the two stories. Second, there were strong correlations between the two stories in story comprehension abilities, recall construction, and rate of proposition recall, but there was no significant correlation in MLC-w. Third, chronological age was correlated with all factors (comprehension ability, recall construction, rate of proposition, and MLC-w) strongly in “Tiger’s story”, but there was different result in “Frog’s story”.
Discussion & Conclusion
The results of this study indicate that MLC-w is reliable indicator of language development in the lower grade children. But, MLC-w does not reflect on the ability of story comprehension, recall construction and rate of proposition.