LSHSS
Research Article
Examination of Narrative Language
at Microstructural and Macrostructural
Levels in Spanish-Speaking Preschoolers
Lorena Orizaba,a Brenda K. Gorman,a Christine E. Fiestas,b
Gary E. Bingham,c and Nicole Patton Terryd
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine
narrative language samples of Spanish-speaking
preschoolers to analyze changes in microstructural and
macrostructural skills in their first language (L1) from fall to
spring, relationships between narrative and vocabulary
skills in L1, and the extent to which fall skills predict
spring performance.
Method: Participants included 40 Spanish-speaking
children who were enrolled in community-based preschool
programs. Narrative language retells from the fall and spring
were examined, and microstructural and macrostructural
components were analyzed using the Narrative Assessment
A
s evidenced by their emphasis in current academic
standards, strong narrative language skills are
critical for successful academic achievement. Easily
visible in academic standards is the expectation that students
develop progressively robust oral and written narrative
skills as they advance through academic grade levels. Less
visible in the standards, but apparent from existing research,
is the contribution of language and narrative language skills
for reading comprehension (Boulineau et al., 2004; Fazio
et al., 1996; Griffin et al., 2004; Justice et al., 2006; Lervåg
et al., 2018; Mehta et al., 2005; Montgomery & Kahn, 2003;
Nathanson et al., 2007; Pankratz et al., 2007; Roth et al.,
a
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders,
Elmhurst College, IL
b
Department of Clinical Health Sciences, Texas A&M
University-Kingsville
c clude language forms such as syntactic and morphological
Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education,
Georgia State University, Atlanta
d
Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University,
Tallahassee
Correspondence to Brenda K. Gorman: brenda.gorman@elmhurst.edu
Editor-in-Chief: Holly L. Storkel
Editor: Kerry Danahy Ebert
Received November 6, 2019
Revision received November 11, 2019
Accepted November 15, 2019
https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_LSHSS-19-00103
428 Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools • Vol. 51 • 428–440 • April 2020 • Copyright © 2020 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
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Protocol–Spanish and the Narrative Scoring Scheme,
respectively. Participants also completed an assessment
of expressive vocabulary in Spanish.
Results: The results indicated different degrees of change
in microstructural and macrostructural elements, change
from fall to spring in some but not all elements measured,
shifting patterns of association between L1 vocabulary and
narrative skills, and variable prediction of spring scores.
Conclusion: Results from this study enhance professionals’
understanding of Spanish-speaking preschoolers’ narrative
language skills in L1 and considerations for assessing and
monitoring progress at different points in the academic year.
1996). Given the relationship between language develop-
ment and academic achievement, assessment and monitoring
of young children’s skills are critical elements of effective
educational programming and are necessary to individual-
ize instruction and support prevention of later difficulties
(Castro et al., 2011; Justice et al., 2010). Therefore, research
that enhances professionals’ understanding of valid assess-
ment practices and interpretation of young children’s lan-
guage performance is of critical importance, particularly
for children who are learning more than one language.
Narrative language tasks provide a valid means for
children to demonstrate a wide range of linguistic skills
(Justice et al., 2010; Paris & Paris, 2003). Specifically, nar-
rative discourse challenges children to use numerous literate
language features at sentence and word levels (i.e., micro-
structure) and higher discourse levels of organization (i.e.,
macrostructure). Microstructural elements generally in-
structures, vocabulary types and tokens, and cohesive de-
vices. Macrostructure is linked to mental schemas (Stein &
Glenn, 1979) for the organization of the story and is formed
according to the narrator’s exposure to story models. Macro-
structure is most often measured by story grammar com-
ponents including, for example, plot elements (problem,
attempt, and consequence) and setting. In light of research
Disclosure: The authors have declared that no competing interests existed at the time
of publication.
showing that reading comprehension skills of children who
are dual language learners (DLLs) may lag behind their
counterparts who are first language (L1) learners (Melby-
Lervåg & Lervåg, 2014), early assessment and monitoring
of DLLs’ narrative language including both microstructural
and macrostructural elements merit particular attention in
early childhood educational programming.
Considerations for DLLs
Extant research addressing language assessment of
young DLLs has largely focused on assessment of children’s
proficiency in English rather than in their home language
(Hammer et al., 2014), despite theoretical and empirical
evidence suggesting the importance of children’s home lan-
guage to their second language (L2) acquisition. In accor-
dance with Cummins’ Interdependence Hypothesis (1979)
that L2 competence is dependent on L1 competence, scholars
have documented that L1 skills as measured in elementary
school–age children (e.g., Lindsey et al., 2003; Miller et al.,
2006) and preschool-age children (Castilla-Earls et al., 2009)
predict literacy and academic achievement in L2. Children
with weaknesses in their L1 are at a higher risk for aca-
demic delays as compared to peers who develop competence
in the home language (Kohnert et al., 2005). Furthermore,
children who are slower to acquire L1 due to having devel-
opmental language disorder will also be impacted in their
learning of the L2 (Castilla-Earls et al., 2009). Together,
findings underscore the importance of assessing and moni-
toring children’s language skills in L1 and using this infor-
mation to individualize instruction to meet children’s needs.
Recognizing the array of linguistic skills demonstrated
through narrative language tasks and the aforementioned
relationship between narrative and reading comprehension
skills, a few key studies have provided insight into narrative
language development of elementary school–age Spanish-
speaking DLLs. Examining relationships between these
skills in DLLs, Miller et al. (2006) conducted a large-scale
study of more than 1,500 Spanish–English bilinguals from
kindergarten through third grade. Their results revealed that
children’s performance on Spanish oral language measures
elicited in a narrative task predicted reading scores in both
Spanish and English. Longitudinal studies of Spanish–
English DLLs have shown that children’s macrostructure
abilities in one language may also predict development of
these skills in the other language (Pearson, 2002; Squires
et al., 2014; Uccelli & Páez, 2007). Uccelli and Páez (2007)
examined school-age DLLs’ narrative language skills; spe-
cifically, they assessed students’ skills in kindergarten and
again in first grade. Analyzing narrative productivity (i.e.,
microstructure) and narrative quality (i.e., macrostructure),
they found improvement in both productivity and story
quality in English, whereas only story quality improved in
Spanish. Importantly, they found that children’s Spanish
story quality in kindergarten was predictive of their English
story quality in first grade. Echoing these results, Squires
et al. (2014) found that kindergarteners’ narrative macro-
structure scores in Spanish predicted their English scores in
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first grade. This predictive nature of L1–L2 language de-
velopment indicates the necessity of monitoring DLLs’ L1
development.
Interrelationships Between Narrative and Vocabulary Skills
The association between vocabulary and narrative
language skills appears to be especially important. Narra-
tors must utilize specific vocabulary, including mental state
verbs and descriptive adjectives, to produce macrostruc-
tural elements such as setting and character descriptions in
their stories. Moreover, there is also evidence of a develop-
mental emergence shared between vocabulary and syntax
development (Bates & Goodman, 1999), which is indicative
of the overlap between vocabulary and narrative micro-
structure. Concerning this relationship between vocabulary
and syntax development, research with young monolingual
Spanish-speaking children suggests that vocabulary growth
is associated with growth in mean length of utterance and
subordination in Spanish (Pérez-Leroux et al., 2012). As
form and function are interrelated, so are narrative macro-
and microstructure. Consequently, strategic analysis of
children’s narrative language samples can provide a rich
source of language data as they are in the process of devel-
oping their language skills.
Narrative Language of Preschool-Age DLLs
Narration is a functional task that is both academi-
cally and culturally relevant for preschool-aged children
from various language backgrounds (Gorman et al., 2016;
Kim et al., 2018; Mehrani, 2018). Preschool-aged children
are familiar with the idea of stories and storytelling; thus,
narrative language sampling for assessing children’s language
skills may introduce less test bias than other assessment
formats (Peña et al., 2014). Through a single narrative, chil-
dren demonstrate a wide variety of linguistic skills at word,
sentence, and discourse levels that examiners can strategi-
cally analyze. Despite the documented importance of early
narrative skills in L1 and their predictive validity in L2,
the literature on assessment and progress monitoring tools
that professionals may use with Spanish-speaking children
is limited.
Two examples of tools that may be used to facilitate
analysis of children’s narrative production in Spanish in-
clude the Narrative Assessment Protocol–Spanish (NAP-S;
Gorman et al., 2016) and the Narrative Scoring Scheme
(NSS; Heilmann et al., 2010; Miller & Heilmann, 2004). The
NAP-S is a Spanish version adaptation of Justice et al.’s
(2010) NAP. This tool focuses on the microstructural com-
ponents of narration and was designed specifically for pre-
school-age children. There is some evidence supporting
the utility of the NAP-S as a tool for assessing the narrative
language skills of Spanish-speaking preschoolers (Gorman
et al., 2016). For assessing the macrostructural components
of narrative language, the NSS was developed with English-
speaking, elementary school–age children in mind. The
NSS has been utilized to analyze narrative skills with school-
age bilingual children (Lucero, 2018; Miller et al., 2006)
Orizaba et al.: Narrative Language Spanish Preschool 429
and in bilinguals who were fluent in English (Heilmann
et al., 2010). However, research on utilization of the NSS
with Spanish-speaking preschool-age children is needed. This
study extends investigation of the NSS to this population.
More specifically, the NAP was developed to assess
preschool-age children’s expressive language skills in the
naturalistic and ecologically valid context of narration. The
tool measures aspects of English syntactic, morphological,
and vocabulary development in the context of narrating
a wordless picture book. The Spanish adaptation was devel-
oped to address the inadequacy of appropriate tools for
measuring and monitoring the progress of Spanish-speaking
children in their native language. Due to the greater mor-
phological complexity of Spanish as compared to English,
additional grammatical features were added, including article–
noun agreement (number and gender), noun–modifier
agreement (number and gender), clitic–noun agreement
(number and gender), irregular perfect, regular perfect, sub-
junctive, reflexive verb including clitic pronouns, (e.g., me,
te, se), transitive verb phrases including clitic pronouns, and
ditransitive verb phrases including clitics. In their study,
Gorman et al. used the tool to analyze the narrative retells
of children who were functionally monolingual in Spanish
and enrolled in preschool classrooms. Examination of the
tool’s construct validity through exploratory factor analysis
of all 27 items revealed that 10 items loaded most strongly
on the single narrative factor, resulting in the NAP-S long
form with all 27 items and a NAP-S short form with 10 items
(see Table 1). Whereas the long form provides a more com-
prehensive and detailed profile of performance, the short
form was also developed as a more feasible tool for use in
school settings. The investigators found that children’s scores
on both long and short forms increased significantly from
the fall to the spring, supporting its utility for Spanish-
speaking preschool-age children. Still needed, however, is
research that provides further insight into how children’s
microstructural skills in L1 change and how professionals
may incorporate microstructural analysis in their early child-
hood assessment practices.
The NSS distinctively evaluates narrative macro-
structure, including global characteristics of a story and the
cohesion of these elements (see Table 1). The scoring criteria
for the NSS is partly based on the three major categories
of cohesion necessary to tell an effective story: (a) referential
cohesion, which allows the narrator to maintain appropriate
reference to the characters, objects, and locations across
utterances using noun phrases and pronouns; (b) conjunctive
cohesion, whereby the narrator maintains concepts across
phrases and utterances by using conjunctive words and
phrases (e.g., and, but, besides, on the other hand, finally, in
addition); and (c) lexical cohesion, achieved by the narrator’s
use of vocabulary to effectively link concepts across utter-
ances (Hielmann et al., 2010). The specific categories of
analysis include the story introduction, character develop-
ment, mental states of story characters, referencing to clarify
pronouns, story conflicts and their resolutions, story cohe-
sion, and the clarity of the conclusion. Further examina-
tion by Heilmann et al. (2010) also revealed relationships
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between microstructural elements of vocabulary and gram-
mar with their narrative microstructural skills, with vocabu-
lary emerging as a major unique predictor of NSS scores.
As mentioned previously, further study of Spanish-speaking
preschoolers’ performance on the NSS is needed. There-
fore, additional research examining whether or not the NSS
tool is sensitive to their narrative language development
and would benefit assessment practices in early childhood
education settings would be beneficial.
Purpose
The compelling relationships between children’s nar-
rative language skills and reading comprehension along with
the increasing number of Spanish-speaking students across
the nation requires that professionals understand DLLs’
narrative language development and utilize informative pro-
tocols to assess and monitor their skills. Various studies
have contributed to our understanding of narrative develop-
ment among older bilingual children (Heilmann et al., 2010;
Miller et al., 2006; Uccelli & Páez, 2007), but research-
based protocols for assessment and monitoring of Spanish-
speaking preschoolers’ narrative language are limited. Due
to the importance of children’s language development in
L1, further study is required to establish recommendations
for examining young DLLs’ narrative microstructural and
macrostructural skills and to support interpretation of
performance. In response to these areas of need, this study
provides an analysis of preschool-age Spanish speakers’
narrative language skills in L1 at the beginning and end of
the school year. Specifically, the investigators posed the
following questions: (a) How much change in narrative
language microstructural and macrostructural skills from
fall to spring do Spanish-speaking preschoolers demonstrate
in L1 (Spanish)? (b) Which specific elements of microstruc-
ture and macrostructure change? (c) How are children’s
microstructural, macrostructural, and vocabulary skills
associated? (d) Do L1 narrative language and vocabulary
skills in the fall predict L1 narrative language skills in the
spring? The investigators sought to interpret these findings
to provide recommendations for early childhood assessment
practices with Spanish-speaking preschool-age children.
Method
Participants
Narrative transcripts were drawn from a database of
languages samples of preschool children who participated
in an earlier study investigating the development and valid-
ity of the NAP-S (Gorman et al., 2016). Participants were
enrolled in community-based preschool classrooms that
were involved in larger language and literacy projects and
were using preschool curricula that included narrative ac-
tivities in two large cities; one was located in the midwest
and the other in the southeast region of the United States.
The primary language of classroom instruction was English,
with Spanish support provided by teaching assistants or
aides. As described in Gorman et al. (2016), parent and
 Table 1. Assessment components of the Narrative Assessment Protocol-Spanish (NAP-S) long and short
forms and the Narrative Scoring Scheme (NSS).

NAP-S long form NAP-S short form NSS

Sentence structure Sentence structure Introduction

Compound sentence Complex sentences Setting
Complex sentences Modifiers Characters
Negative sentences Adverb Character development
Interrogative sentence Nouns Mental states
Phrase structure Noun–modifier agreement Referencing
Elaborated noun phrases Clitic–noun agreement Conflict resolution
Compound noun Verbs Cohesion
Prepositional phrase Auxiliary–main verb Conclusion
Modifiers Copula “be” verb +
Adverb Irregular past tense
Advanced modifier Regular imperfect
Nouns Tier 2 verbs
Pluralized nouns Transitive verb phrases
Posessive forms
Tier 2 nouns
Article–noun agreement
Noun–modifier agreement
Clitic–noun agreement
Verbs
Aux–main
Copula “be” verb +
Irregular past tense
Regular past tense
Irregular imperfect
Regular imperfect
Subjunctive
Tier 2 verbs
Compound verbs
Reflexive verbs
Transitive verb phrases
Ditransitive verb phrases

teacher questionnaires (Gutiérrez-Clellen & Kreiter, 2003;
Restrepo, 1998) were used to determine language status.
Participants were selected for the study based on their lan-
guage status as predominantly Spanish speaking based on
all of the following criteria: (a) teacher report that Spanish
was the child’s dominant language, (b) parent report that
Spanish was the child’s dominant language, (c) parent re-
port that Spanish was the child’s L1, (d) parent report that
the child was hearing only or primarily (≥ 80%) Spanish in
the home, (e) parent report that the child’s systematic expo-
sure to English began in preschool, and (f) inability to pro-
duce a narrative in English during fall testing. Participants
with a history of sensory impairment, neurological condi-
tions, or parent/teacher-reported cognitive concerns were
excluded from the study. The majority (75%) of children
were of Mexican heritage, with the remaining participants
of Puerto Rican or multiethnic heritage. According to the
directors of the preschool programs and/or parent question-
naires, all children met Head Start criteria for low-income
status. The current study was reviewed and approved by the
university institutional review board. From the data set of
60 children in the Gorman et al. study, a subsample was
drawn from participants with complete records and task
completion at both time points, fall and spring. This resulted
in transcripts from 40 Latino children (M = 52.90 months,
SD = 5.56; 22 boys, 18 girls) that were analyzed in the cur-
rent study.
Procedure
The investigation focused on analyses of data obtained
from narrative scoring of language transcripts using the
NAP-S and NSS. Narrative samples were collected in the
fall and spring based on the Mercer Mayer wordless story-
book Frog Where Are You? (Mayer, 1969), which is often
used in research examining Spanish-speaking children’s nar-
rative language development (Bedore et al., 2010; Gutiérrez-
Clellen et al., 2012; Petersen et al., 2017; Spencer et al.,
2019; Uccelli & Páez, 2007). Data collection, transcription,
and NAP-S scoring procedures are detailed in Gorman et al.
(2016). Digital audio recordings of the narratives were sent
to and transcribed by highly trained bilingual (English–
Spanish) staff at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s
Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts transcription
services laboratory. Once returned from the Systematic
Analysis of Language Transcripts lab, NAP-S scoring was
completed by two trained bilingual coders. Following Justice
et al.’s (2010) coding procedures, the transcribed narratives
were assigned a frequency score of 0, 1, 2, or 3+ occur-
rences for their inclusion of the coded NAP-S features

Orizaba et al.: Narrative Language Spanish Preschool 431

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(see Table 1). Ten narratives (25%) were randomly selected
for calculation of interrater reliability. Following Justice
et al. (2010), a “within-one” procedure (La Paro et al., 2004)
was utilized, such that coders were considered to be in agree-
ment if they were within one point of each other. Percent-
ages of agreement were 100% for compound sentences,
94% for complex sentences, 100% for negative sentences,
100% for interrogative sentences, 94% for elaborated noun
phrases, 98% for compound nouns, 94% for prepositional
phrases, 90% for adverbs, 97% for advanced adverbs, 100%
for pluralized nouns, 100% for possessive forms, 86% for
Tier 2 nouns, 99% for article–noun agreement, 100% for
noun–modifier agreement, 97% for clitic–noun agreement,
100% for auxiliary–main verb, 100% for copula “be,” 98%
for irregular past tense, 100% for regular past tense, 100%
for irregular imperfect, 100% for regular imperfect, 93% for
subjunctive, 93% for Tier 2 verbs, 100% for compound
verbs, 100% for reflexive verbs, 95% for transitive verb
phrases, and 92% for ditransitive verb phrases.
To conduct a macrostructural analysis of narratives,
two coders followed the NSS manual for training. The NSS
manual provides examples of scoring criteria, examples to
illustrate scoring, and rationales. Per the NSS instructions,
coders independently scored the following seven narrative
characteristics: (a) introduction (i.e., the quality of the nar-
rator’s establishment and description of the setting and main
characters), (b) character development (i.e., differentiation
of main and supporting characters and their significance
throughout the narrative), (c) mental states (i.e., reference
to and description of the character’s thoughts and feelings),
(d) referencing (i.e., use of names, pronouns, and other
antecedents and words for clarification), (e) conflict/resolution
(i.e., establishment and description of conflicts and their
resolutions throughout the story), (f ) cohesion (i.e., the
presence and quality of sequencing and transitions), and
(g) conclusion (i.e., the clarity and quality of statements to
wrap up the narrative).
The NSS rubric provides scoring criteria for scoring
each of the narrative characteristics as Proficient (5), Emerg-
ing (3), and Minimal/Immature (1). The rubric notes indi-
cate that scores in between (e.g., 2, 4) are undefined; raters
are allowed to use their judgment to assign these scores. Af-
ter scoring 10 narratives, the coders compared their results.
The raters again utilized the within-one procedure (La Paro
et al., 2004) and considered the scoring to be in agreement
if they were within one point. Despite having studied the
NSS training manual and practice examples, they did not
achieve 80% interrater reliability. They studied the NSS
training manual and practice items again, and indepen-
dently rescored the 10 narratives. Again, they were unable
to achieve 80% interrater reliability. The NSS was devel-
oped and tested primarily for school-age, English-speaking
children; perhaps interpretation of the scoring rubric was
more difficult because participants in this study were
preschool-age children who produced narratives were in
Spanish, whereas previous development and focus on the
NSS has been for school-age children who produced nar-
ratives in English.
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Regardless of the reason, the investigators determined
that further refinement of scoring criteria and examples for
training were necessary before continuing with NSS scor-
ing. While maintaining expectations of proficiency levels
for awarding scores of Proficient (5), Emerging (3), and
Minimal/Immature (1), the coding team worked together
to add clarifying information to the scoring rubric. Accord-
ing to the NSS manual, for example, a Conflict Resolution
score of 1 would be awarded for a narrative with “random
resolution(s) stated with no mention of cause or conflict”
or “conflict mentioned without resolution,” or “many con-
flicts and resolutions critical to advancing the plot are not
present.” A Conflict Resolution score of 3 would be awarded
for a narrative with “underdeveloped description of con-
flicts and resolutions critical to advancing the plot of the
story” or if “not all conflicts and resolutions critical to ad-
vancing the plot are present.” A score of 5 would be awarded
for a story in which the narrator “clearly states all conflicts
and resolutions critical to advancing the plot of the story.”
The coders decided they could enhance their scoring reli-
ability by clarifying how many and which conflicts and res-
olutions were considered critical and agreed that at least
four stated conflicts and resolutions were appropriate to
receive a score of 3 in this category. In the Mental States cat-
egory, a score of 1 would be awarded for “no use of mental
state words to develop characters,” a score of 3 for “some
use of evidence mental state words to develop characters,”
and 5 if “mental states of main and supporting characters
are expressed when necessary for plot development and ad-
vancement” and “a variety of mental state words are used.”
To clarify “some” and “variety,” a narrative category re-
ceived a score of 3 if the student exhibited “some use of ev-
ident mental state words to develop character;” however, the
criteria did not specify a concrete number of mental state
words that would be adequate to receive a score of 3. After
modifications were made, a score of 3 required the use of
two unique emotions or cognitive states (sad, mad, angry,
etc.). Similar modifications were made to the remaining
categories of the NSS. Another example category of the
NSS that underwent scoring modifications was the Cohe-
sion category. Criteria were added to define the possible
in-between scores of 2 and 4. For example, a narrative
would receive a score of 2 if the student used one transition
word (e.g., después, luego, todavía, porque, or entonces),
a score of 3 if the student used more than one transition
word, and a score of 4 if the student used more than two
transition words in addition to the narrative being more or-
ganized than a typical emerging narrative. Similar modifi-
cations were made to the remaining NSS categories. The
purpose of the additional criteria was not to change the
NSS scoring but to make it more specific in order to in-
crease scoring reliability. The adaptation of the NSS scoring
chart is available in the Appendix.
After this process, the coders independently scored
the 10 narratives again and found that they had indeed
achieved reliability of over 80%. Increasing objectivity within
the NSS scoring categories resulted in improved scoring
consistency and accuracy, which allowed narratives to
receive scores that best represented the students’ narrative
skill level. Scoring of transcripts then continued using the
more detailed scoring rubric. Scores ranging from 0 to
5 were assigned for each of the seven narrative characteris-
tics: introduction, character development, mental states,
referencing, conflict/resolution, cohesion, and conclusion.
The highest possible total score was 35.
Interrater reliability for NSS scoring using the up-
dated scoring was calculated using 20% of narrative sam-
ples selected randomly from the total number of samples.
Results from 16 narratives (eight from the fall, eight from
the spring) indicated the following percentage agreement:
100% for the introduction, 100% for character development,
87.5% for mental states, 93.75% for referencing, 93.75% for
conflict resolution, 100% for cohesion, and 87.5% for the
conclusion.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary is a valuable contributor to the quality of
narrative production (Justice et al., 2006). Consequently, the
consideration of children’s vocabulary skills in Spanish was
relevant to the current study. Participants completed the
Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT):
Spanish–Bilingual Edition (Brownell, 2001) in both the fall
and spring. This measure is a standardized, norm-referenced
expressive vocabulary assessment that was normed with
1,150 Spanish-speaking and Spanish–English bilingual chil-
dren between the ages of 4;0 and 12;11 (years;months) living
in the United States. Though not all participants were aged
4;0, this test was selected due to the limited availability of
other tests, at the time of the study, intended for Spanish-
speaking preschoolers living in the United States. The test
format is appropriate for preschool-age children; for each
test item, the examiner shows a colorful picture and asks
the child to name the item or group of items. According to
the test manual, items were required to meet specific cri-
teria to support linguistic and cultural appropriateness for
the targeted population. The EOWPVT: Spanish–Bilingual
Edition manual indicated a Cronbach’s coefficient alpha
of .95, split-half reliability of .96, and test–retest reliability
of .91. The test was normed based on children’s response
in either language; however, to examine associations between
Spanish vocabulary skills, children were asked to name all
items in Spanish. Given the modification of standardized
procedures, raw scores based on Spanish responses were
calculated and analyzed.
Analyses
To evaluate whether or not the NSS and NAP-S
tools captured significant change over the academic year,
we compared fall (Time 1) and spring (Time 2) scores using
paired t tests; pairwise comparisons were then run using a
Bonferroni adjustment to control for Type I error within
each analysis. Correlational analyses were conducted to de-
termine which narrative assessment tool was more closely
related to Spanish vocabulary. Linear regression analyses
were performed to determine how well the NSS and NAP-S
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fall long and short scores, and vocabulary predicted spring
narrative language scores. Means and standard deviations
are presented in Table 2.
Results
Magnitude of Change in L1 Microstructural
and Microstructural Skills
To address the first research question, we analyzed
children’s narrative microstructural and macrostructural
skills in Spanish, as measured by the NAP-S and modified
scoring of the NSS, respectively, in the fall (Time 1) and
again in the spring (Time 2). Analysis of the NSS indicated
performance that was significantly higher in the spring,
t(39) = 4.07, p < .001, with an effect size of d = 0.54. Gorman
et al. (2016) reported that performance on the NAP-S long
form and the NAP-S short form was significantly higher
in the spring; further analysis for the current study indicate
that these effect sizes were d = 0.47 and d = 0.42, respec-
tively, which are slightly lower than for the NSS. These
results indicate that participants demonstrated a medium
degree of change in narrative language microstructural ele-
ments and a large degree of change in macrostructural
elements in Spanish from the beginning to the end of the
school year.
Granular Changes
To address the second research question, pairwise
comparisons using a Bonferroni adjustment to control for
Type I error within each analysis revealed significant in-
creases from fall to spring ( p < .01) on three of the five
categories of the NAP-S long form: sentence structure,
modifiers, and verbs. Probing granular changes from fall
to spring, results suggest differences in production of com-
pound sentences ( p = .007), complex sentences ( p = .007),
adverbs ( p = .04), advanced modifiers ( p = .03), regular
past tense ( p = .04), and transitive verb phrases ( p = .004),
though none of these met criteria for significance with ap-
plication of a Bonferroni adjustment ( p < .003). Pairwise
comparisons using the Bonferroni adjustment indicated sig-
nificant increases ( p < .007) on three of the seven NSS
categories: referencing, conflict resolution, and conclusion.
Table 2. Means and standard deviations.
Fall Spring
Assessment tool M (SD) Range M (SD) Range
NAP-S long form 34.53 (9.16) 11–56 38.75 (8.81) 24–62
NAP-S short form 16.58 (5.32) 3–26 18.63 (4.46) 11–28
NSS 12.53 (2.87) 8–18 14.25 (3.44) 8–20
Spanish vocabulary 24.76 (10.6) 12–47 26.75 (7.91) 16–45
Note. NAP-S = Narrative Assessment Protocol–Spanish; NSS =
Narrative Scoring Scheme.
Orizaba et al.: Narrative Language Spanish Preschool 433
Associations Between Microstructural, fall vocabulary, r = .232, p = .34; spring vocabulary, r = .101,
Macrostructural, and Vocabulary Skills p = .73); thus, age was not entered as a covariate. Inde-
pendent samples t tests indicated no performance differ-
Correlation analyses between each tool and expressive ences by gender (NAP-S long fall, t(38) = 0.362, p = .72;
vocabulary scores indicated several significant associations. NAP-S long spring, t(38) = .0410, p = .684; NAP-S short fall,
In the fall, Spanish vocabulary scores were significantly t(38) = 0.080, p = .937; NAP-S short spring, t(38) = 0.726,
and highly related to microstructural skills as measured by p = .47; NSS fall, t(38) = 0.268, p = .79; NSS spring, t(38)
the NAP-S long form (r = .71, p = .001) and NAP-S short = 0.046, p = .96; fall vocabulary, t(38) = 1.454, p = .164;
form (r = .69, p = .001) scores, similar to findings from the spring vocabulary, t(38) = 0.329, p = .75); therefore, gen-
larger sample (Gorman et al., 2016). However, results did der was not entered as a control variable. Because efficiency
not reach statistical significance for macrostructural skills and feasibility are important to educators and clinicians as
as measured by the NSS (r = .43, p = .066). Conversely, in they select assessment tools, the investigators used scores
the spring, Spanish vocabulary was significantly and highly from the long and short forms of the NAP-S to analyze
related to macrostructure scores (r = .65, p = .013); how- prediction. Findings demonstrated that children’s NAP-S
ever, results did not reach significance for microstructure fall long scores predicted 43.9% of the variance in NAP-S
as measured by the NAP-S long form (r = .39, p = .17) or spring long scores, and their NAP-S fall short scores pre-
NAP-S short form scores (r = .43, p = .124), unlike results dicted 40.2% of the variance in the NAP-S spring short
from the larger sample. Examining relationships between scores. The NSS fall scores predicted 41.1% of the variance
fall vocabulary scores and spring narrative scores, Spanish in NSS spring scores. By comparison, Spanish expressive
vocabulary scores in the fall were significantly and highly vocabulary scores in the fall were less predictive of spring
related to all narrative scores in the spring: NAP-S long narrative scores, predicting 37% of the variance in NAP-S
form (r = .64, p = .003), NAP-S short form (r = .66, p = .002), long, 40% in NAP-S short, and 30% in NSS spring scores.
and NSS (r = .58, p = .009). Interestingly, further analysis indicated that the NAP-S fall
long scores predicted 50% of the variance in NSS spring
Predicting Spring Performance scores, and the NAP-S fall short scores predicted 43.3% of
the NSS spring scores, thereby showing somewhat higher
Results targeting the fourth research question indi-
predictive capacity than the NSS fall scores. Conversely, NSS
cated that children’s skills in both microstructure and mac-
fall scores did not inform NAP-S spring scores, predicting
rostructure in the fall as measured by the NAP-S and NSS
only 4.4% of the variance in NAP-S spring long and 8.5%
were predictive of their skills in the spring (see Table 3).
of the variance in NAP-S spring short scores.
Before conducting regression analyses, correlations between
these variables with age and gender were explored to deter-
mine if the latter should be included in the analyses. Re- Discussion
sults indicated no significant relationships between age in
The limited corpus of research regarding narrative
months and any of the measures (NAP-S long fall, r = .027,
language development and assessment of young DLLs pre-
p = .874; NAP-S long spring, r = .114, p = .51; NAP-S short
sents unique challenges for the early identification of and
fall, r = .224, p = .19; NAP-S short spring, r = .147, p = .39;
support for children who may experience language difficul-
NSS fall, r = .008, p = .965; NSS spring, r = .001, p = .993;
ties. To address this insufficiency in the research, this study
examined narrative language samples of Spanish-speaking
Table 3. Prediction of spring performance. preschoolers to analyze microstructural and macrostruc-
tural skills in their L1 with the goal of informing early
Outcome Adj R2 B SE B β t p childhood assessment practices for this population.
Our first goal was addressed by examining the mag-
NAP-S long form: Spring
NAP-S long form: Fall .439 0.648 0.115 .673 5.614 < .001 nitude of change over the course of the preschool year in
NAP-S short form: Fall .432 1.107 0.200 .668 5.539 < .001 children’s narrative language skills at microstructural and
NSS: Fall .044 0.802 0.480 .262 1.670 .103 macrostructural levels. As measured using both long and
Spanish vocabulary: Fall .370 0.559 0.165 .636 3.399 .003 short forms of the NAP-S, children demonstrated a signifi-
NAP-S short form: Spring
NAP-S long form: Fall .346 0.293 0.063 .603 4.655 < .001 cant, moderate degree of change in narrative language
NAP-S short form: Fall .402 0.541 0.104 .646 5.217 < .001 microstructural elements from the fall to the spring, with
NSS: Fall .085 0.512 0.238 .330 2.155 .038 similar effect sizes from the long and short versions. Recall
Spanish vocabulary: Fall .398 0.274 0.076 .657 3.592 .002 that the NAP-S long form is used to code 27 linguistic fea-
NSS: Spring
NAP-S long form: Fall .500 0.269 0.043 .716 6.321 < .001 tures and the NAP-S short form is used to code 10 features
NAP-S short form: Fall .433 0.432 0.078 .669 5.544 < .001 within five categories: sentence structure, phrase structure,
NSS: Fall .411 0.782 0.147 .653 5.316 < .001 modifiers, nouns, and verbs. Of these, post hoc analyses
Spanish vocabulary: Fall .298 0.162 0.055 .581 2.940 .009 indicated granular changes from fall to spring in the three
Note. NAP-S = Narrative Assessment Protocol–Spanish; NSS = categories of sentence structure, modifiers, and verbs, al-
Narrative Scoring Scheme. though changes in individual skills within these categories
did not meet criteria for significance with application of the

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Bonferroni adjustment. Thus, although the expectation for
increases in mean length of utterance and sentence complex-
ity in Spanish-speaking preschool-age children has been
established (e.g., Gutiérrez et al., 2012; Pérez-Leroux et al.,
2012; Uccelli & Páez, 2007), these findings add to the cor-
pus of information about linguistic development in this
population. As measures using the NSS with scoring refine-
ments, children demonstrated a significant, large degree of
change in macrostructural elements from fall to spring.
The NSS is used to measure seven areas of macrostructure:
the introduction, character development, mental states,
referencing, conflict resolution, cohesion, and conclusion.
Of these, post hoc analyses indicated that the specific areas
in which children demonstrated significant developmental
change from fall to spring were in referencing, conflict res-
olution, and conclusion. These changes in macrostructure
may reflect not only advances in children’s language skills
over the year but also growth in their social–emotional and
cognitive skills. From a developmental perspective, children
between the ages of 2 and 6 years tend to display social
egocentrism (Kegan, 1994). Because young children lack
perspective-taking skills, it is understandable if their narra-
tives lack sufficient macrostructural elements to meet the
listener’s needs and interests. Yet, children make significant
strides in social and cognitive development during their
preschool years (Sandy, 2014), which may be reflected in
changes observed across the year in the current study. Al-
though all areas in the NSS reflect important features of
macrostructure, the three areas of referencing, conflict reso-
lution, and conclusion showed the most sensitivity to change
in this sample, suggesting that they may be the most infor-
mative macrostructural areas for monitoring and identifying
Spanish-speaking preschool children who are and are not
making expected progress.
The current study was motivated by interest in pro-
viding recommendations for early childhood assessment
practices with Spanish-speaking preschoolers. Considering
ease of use and utility, the NAP-S short form is more effi-
cient than the long form and provides similar information.
Because the evaluator scores each phrase and sentence for
microstructural features individually, it may be possible to
score accurately the NAP-S from an audio recording with-
out the need for complete transcription; this format merits
future investigation. In contrast, scoring of macrostructural
features such as referencing, conflict resolution, and cohe-
sion requires that the evaluator attends to and analyzes the
content of multiple sentences simultaneously. This atten-
tional load for the examiner renders NSS scoring without
full narrative transcription very difficult. Even with full
transcription, evaluators in the current study experienced
difficulty scoring the NSS reliably due to their perception
of insufficiently defined scoring criteria. Importantly, both
for researchers and clinicians who wish to the NSS tool for
Spanish-speaking preschoolers, the initial difficulties with
achieving reliability were remedied through further devel-
opment of scoring criteria. Specifically, the researchers
added more specific criteria for scoring, including the pos-
sible in-between scores of 2 and 4 for which criteria were
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not previously presented in the original NSS manual. Once
the evaluators achieved reliability and completed scoring,
the NSS did indeed capture significant change in macro-
structure from fall to spring, with a marginally higher effect
size (d = 0.54) than the NAP-S long (d = 0.47) and NAP-S
short (d = 0.42) forms. Consequently, the NSS appears to
provide valuable information about children’s narrative
development in preschool and may be a feasible tool for
clinicians who are willing to transcribe the narrative for
coding purposes.
These current research findings indicating continued
growth in the participants’ L1 are also of interest, given
that some research has documented vulnerability of L1 when
children learn an L2 in early childhood (Leseman, 2000;
Wong-Fillmore, 1991). In contrast, the continued Spanish
support along with English instruction in children’s class-
rooms appears to have contributed to their gains in both
L1 vocabulary and grammar over the course of the school
year; this is in line with other research examining bilingual
preschool instruction (e.g., Barnett et al., 2007; Durán
et al., 2013; Farver et al., 2009; Garcia, 2018; Restrepo
et al., 2013). There are well-documented problems of both
overidentification and underidentification of English lan-
guage learners in special education (Counts et al., 2018).
Overidentification results, in part, from professionals’ over-
reliance on English measures to interpret bilingual children’s
performance. Underidentification results, in part, from
failure to consider children’s skills in L1 and the use of
a wait-and-see approach, in which professionals wait until
children have acquired more English to identify and inter-
vene with struggling learners. Consideration of children’s
skills in L1 in a contextually sensitive manner, such as
through assessment and progress monitoring of narrative
language skills in Spanish, is one means for addressing these
problems.
Associations Between Skills
Finally, the investigators were interested in examin-
ing associations between children’s expressive vocabulary
and narrative language skills in L1. In the fall, Spanish vo-
cabulary was strongly related to scores on both long and
short forms of the NAP-S. This finding is consistent with
earlier research documenting strong associations between
lexical and grammatical development in early childhood
for English and Spanish speakers (e.g., Bates & Goodman,
1997; Dionne et al., 2003; Marchman & Bates, 1994; Pérez-
Leroux et al., 2012). In contrast, children’s scores on the
Spanish vocabulary measure and NSS in the fall were not
related. In the spring, the associations alternated, with a
significant relationship between vocabulary scores and NSS
performance but no significant relationship between vocab-
ulary and NAP-S scores. The established relationship be-
tween vocabulary and the NAP-S in the fall and between
vocabulary and the NSS in the spring suggests that vocab-
ulary knowledge has a direct impact on the quality of
narratives. A more robust vocabulary inventory allows pre-
schoolers to produce more cohesive narratives. The alternating
Orizaba et al.: Narrative Language Spanish Preschool 435
pattern, however, was unexpected. One might expect sub-
stantial associations between vocabulary and both narrative
measures at both times. The transfer of learning within and
across languages is not always straightforward for children
developing an L2. Observed variation may have also been
a function of the types of language that each measure prior-
itizes. The EOWPVT predominately features nouns, whereas
the NAP-S also taps modifiers and verbs, and the NSS also
taps vocabulary related to referencing and cohesion. It may
be that the EOWPVT was too broad of a measure of vo-
cabulary that was not consistently related to abilities captured
by the NAPS or NSS at a given point in time but served
better as a predictor of children’s macro- and microstructural
abilities captured by these instruments.
Additional variation in children’s performance in the
fall and spring and different associations among key vari-
ables may relate to the role of input and language exposure
in children’s home and early learning environments. Per-
haps further examination of children’s home literacy expe-
rience before preschool entry and during preschool would
provide further insight into the development of these skills.
Children from low socioeconomic status backgrounds, such
as this participant sample, are less likely than their peers
to have significant literacy enrichment experiences at home
(Lewis et al., 2016). The decontextualized talk that children
are exposed to during early childhood includes their experi-
ences with narratives and has been shown to be predictive
of children’s academic language proficiency even in early
adolescence (Uccelli et al., 2019). Children’s increasing En-
glish exposure and classroom literacy experiences may have
influenced the shift in associations among key language
outcomes in the spring of the school year. Although we
cannot sufficiently explain these results, they do help inform
our understanding of typical patterns of language and nar-
rative development in bilingual preschool children.
Given this relationship and limitations in time for
testing, these results may again be interpreted to emphasize
a potential benefit of prioritizing assessment of microstruc-
tural skills in the fall over the use of a single vocabulary
measure. In this way, the evaluator collects performance
data that relates to vocabulary skill and that also provides
an important view into children’s decontextualized, narra-
tive language skills. Additionally, given that skills from L1
are predictive of development and later achievement in L2,
such assessment in Spanish may be particularly useful in
supporting the identification of and timely remediation for
children who are truly at risk for language and literacy
difficulties.
Predicting Spring Performance
Results indicated predictive capabilities of all narra-
tive measures. Therefore, these findings support the use of
these narrative measures at the beginning of preschool in
order to help identify children who are at risk for academic
difficulties. Specifically, the NAP-S fall long scores pre-
dicted 43.9% of the variance in NAP-S spring long scores,
NAP-S fall short scores predicted 40.2% of the variance in
436 Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools • Vol. 51 • 428–440 • April 2020
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the NAP-S spring short scores, and NSS fall scores predicted
41.1% of the variance in NSS spring scores. Interestingly,
fall scores on the NAP-S were also predictive of spring per-
formance on the NSS, but the reverse was not true; fall
scores on the NSS were not predictive of spring performance
on the NAP-S. This pattern of results may be interpreted
as logical, since the ability to formulate organized and
cohesive narratives is supported by robust vocabulary and
morphosyntactic skills, which typically develop rapidly in
early childhood. Though children also begin to develop
decontextualized language skills during early years of life
(Uccelli et al., 2019), the focus on narrative language with
fewer contextual cues increases during preschool and ele-
mentary school when classroom instruction emphasizes
shared storybook reading experiences. Considering limita-
tions in professionals’ time, it may not be feasible to analyze
all students’ narratives using both measures. Therefore,
these results suggest that selection of the NAP-S for admin-
istration at the beginning of the preschool year may be ad-
vantageous, not only for the informative data it provides
about children’s microstructural narrative language skills
at the time of administration but also for the predictive in-
formation it may provide about both microstructural and
macrostructural skills at the end of the preschool year.
Limitations and Future Directions
Although the current study offers insight into the
narrative language development and assessment of Spanish-
speaking preschoolers, further investigation with a larger
and more diversified sample would be beneficial. Partici-
pants in the current study were predominantly of Mexican
heritage and of low socioeconomic status and enrolled in a
dual-language Head Start program. Examination of a larger,
more diverse group of participants that includes children
from other Spanish-speaking Hispanic/Latino backgrounds
is warranted to increase the validity of the assessment tools.
As both coders who scored the NAP-S and NSS in this
study were bilingual and trained to score the NAP-S and
NSS, further research is necessary to examine the feasibility
of professionals’ use of these tools and the accuracy of
their scoring.
Clinical Implications
Narrative discourse provides an ecologically valid
context for assessment of preschool-age children’s language
skills that support their preparation for the academic lan-
guage demands of school. Results from this study enhance
professionals’ understanding of Spanish-speaking pre-
schoolers’ narrative language development in L1 and offer
suggestions for assessing and monitoring progress at differ-
ent points in the school year. The NAP-S appears to sup-
port analysis of children’s language at the sentence and
word level (microstructure), whereas the NSS, facilitated
through the use of modified scoring criteria, provides use-
ful information about higher discourse-level organization
(macrostructure). Childrens’ performance in the fall was
predictive of their skills in the spring, supporting the im-
portance of assessing children’s skills early in the year. The
coding of both micro- and macrostructural features of
language provides insights into foundational language skills
that are predictive of later language ability and reading
achievement.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by grants from the U.S. De-
partment of Education (#S359B080083), awarded to the second,
fourth, and fifth authors, and the United Way Metro Atlanta.
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 Appendix ( p. 1 of 2)
Narrative Scoring Scheme Preschool Spanish Adaptation
Characteristic Proficient (5)
Introduction (A) Setting:
-States general place and
provides some detail about
the setting (e.g., reference
to the time of the setting,
daytime, bedtime, season).
-Setting elements are
stated at an appropriate
place in story.
(B) Characters:
-Main characters are
introduced with some
description or detail
provided.
-Plus more than 2 details.
Character -Main character(s) and all
development supporting character(s)
are mentioned.
-Throughout story it
Orizaba et al.: Narrative Language Spanish Preschool
is clear that child can
discriminate between
main and supporting
characters (e.g., more
description of or emphasis
upon main character[s]).
-Child narrates in first
person using character
voice (e.g., “You get out
of my tree,” said the owl.).
Mental states -Mental states of main and
supporting characters are
expressed when necessary
for plot development and
advancement.
-A variety of mental state
words are used.
Referencing -Provides necessary
antecedents to pronouns.
-References are clear
throughout the story.
439
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(4)
-Plus one detail.
-Two adjectives/
characteristics
and two instances
of narration.
-Three unique emotions
and/or cognitive
states.
-Referents are clear
75% of the time.
Emerging (3)
(A) Setting: -States general
setting but provides no
detail.
-Description or
elements of setting
are given intermittently
throughout story.
-May provide description
of specific element of
setting (e.g., the frog is
in the jar).
-Dia/noche or habitación/
cuarto and the three
characters; boy/dog/frog
but with no details.
-Dia or bosque and the
3 characters but with
no details.
(B) Characters:
-Characters of the story
are mentioned with no
detail or description.
-Both main and active
supporting characters
are mentioned.
-Main characters are not
clearly distinguished from
supporting characters.
-Minimal narration in first
person.
-One specific adjective/
characteristic or more than
one instance of narration
(e.g., “ranita” not sufficiently
an adjective).
-Some use of evident mental
state words to develop
character(s).
-Two unique emotions and/or
cognitive states (e.g., enojar,
pensar, querer, gustar).
-Inconsistent use of referents/
antecedents.
-Referents are clear 50%
of the time.
(2)
-Just one aspect, either
setting or the two or
three characters (boy/
dog/frog).
-Character(s) are mentioned
after Page 6.
-Character(s) are
mentioned after Page 6.
-One instance of
narration. Narrative
makes sense to some
degree.
-One unique emotion or
cognitive state.
-Referents are clear 25%
of the time.
Minimal/immature (1)
-Launches into story
with no attempt to
provide the setting.
-Mentions only one
character.
-Inconsistent mention of
involved or active
characters.
-Character(s) necessary
for advancing the plot
are not present.
-No narration in first
person.
-Confusing, not clear,
reader does not
understand the
characters.
-No use of mental state
words to develop
characters.
-Excessive use of pronouns.
-No verbal clarifiers used.
-Child is unaware that
the listener is confused.
-Significant confusion,
almost always unclear.
(table continues)
 440
Appendix ( p. 2 of 2)
. (Continued).
Narrative Scoring Scheme Preschool Spanish Adaptation
Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools • Vol. 51 • 428–440 • April 2020
Characteristic Proficient (5)
Conflict -Clearly states all conflicts
resolution and resolutions that are
critical to advancing the
plot of the story (for a
detailed list of conflicts/
resolutions, see addendum).
Cohesion -Language helps the events
follow a logical order.
-Critical events are
included while less
emphasis is placed
on minor events.
-Smooth transitions
are provided between
events.
Conclusion -Story is clearly wrapped
up using general
concluding statements
such as “and they were
together again happy
as could be.”
Note. Adapted from Heilmann et al., 2010. Details that the authors added to enhance scoring reliability are in italics.
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(4)
-At least five conflicts.
-More organized than
“emerging.”
-Transitions are
relatively clear.
-One sentence about
finding the frog, one
about leaving with
the frog, and one
expression indicating
the end of the story
(e.g., “el fin,” “se acabó”).
-One sentence about
following the boy’s
footprints home, one
about finding the boy
in the bathtub taking
a bath, and one about
the frog jumping in and
jumping on top of the
dog’s head.
Emerging (3) (2) Minimal/immature (1)
-Underdeveloped description -Two or three conflicts -Mentions only 1 conflict.
of conflicts and resolutions (e.g., Gone-looked -Random
critical to advancing the Head stuck-breaks resolution(s) stated with
plot of the story. Bites-leaves, yells no mention of cause or
or Bees chase-run away conflict.
-Not all conflicts and resolutions Wants frog-gets one). or
critical to advancing the plot -Conflict mentioned without
are present. resolution.
-At least four conflicts. or
-Many conflicts
and resolutions critical to
advancing the plot are
not present.
-Events follow a logical order. -Either porque, entonces, -No use of smooth devices.
-Excessive detail or emphasis después, luego, y ahora,
provided on minor events or todaví a (consider siempre
leading the listener astray. if facilitates cohesion).
or
- Transitions to the next event
unclear.
or
-Minimal details given for critical
events.
or
-Equal emphasis on all events.
-More than one unique word
and occurrence of cohesive
devices.
-Specific event is concluded, -Sentence about finding -Child abruptly ends story
but no general statement the frog, or an expression (e.g., stops narrating and
made as to the conclusion indicating the end (“el fin,” listener may need to
of the whole story. “se acabó,” “bye”). confirm that retell has
-Some indication the story -One out of three sentences ended).
is complete. required for a score of 4. -The examiner indicates the
-Sentence about finding the ending of the story.
frog and an expression
indicating the end of the
story (e.g., “el fin,” “se
acabó,” “bye”).
-Two out of the three sentences
required for a score of 4.