Pragmatic and Narrative Skills of Urdu-Speaking Preschool Children
Abstract
Communication serves to be the sole foundation of human interaction. Pragmatics is the aspect of language that grasps the helpful utilization of language in social settings. Importantly, when past events are discussed it leads to an important aspect of social interaction, whereas through narratives, children improve their pragmatic competence by following specific social and cultural rules. Assessing pragmatic and narrative skills is an important aspect of early literacy. The objectives of the study are to assess the pragmatic and narrative skills of Urdu-speaking preschool children. It is a descriptive cross-sectional survey. The pragmatic and Narrative skill instrument (PNSI) Urdu version developed by Qadeer (2019) has been used to assess the pragmatic and narrative skills of children. The total sample consisted of (N=40 ) children, the sample was further divided into two groups. Group I included children from the age range of 4 years to 4 years and 11 months (n=20) and group II included children from the age range 5 years to 5 years and 11 months (n=20) respectively. The sample included both boys and girls and Non non-probability purposive sampling was used in the study. Results showed that children between the ages of 4 years to 4 years and 11 months did not perform well in narrative skills. Still, they were able to maintain the topic, initiate conversation, and end the topic properly. In the other group, children between the ages of 5 years and 5 years 11 months were unable to narrate stories including beginning, middle, and end. According to this study, a variety of practices and activities that support language comprehension and application in social and practical contexts can help young children improve their pragmatic and narrative skills.
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Citation of this paper
Bashir, N., Rauf, N. K., & Qadeer, A. (2023). Pragmatic and narrative skills of Urdu-speaking preschool children. Erevna: Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 7(1), 1-13.
