The Study of Evaluation and Social Interaction in Verbalizing Narratives between Female Children and Adults

Social and intercultural studies show that narrative is a basic and permanent form of human speech which is not used similarly across nations. This study examines how the Pear Stories, the internationally popular silent film, is verbalized in two groups of 40 women aged 18 to 22 and 40 girls aged 9 years old. This story has a social theme in which depict the story of young boy’s theft and the subsequent adventures. The participants were asked to verbalize the film once it is screened. To examine the social interaction, the data were analyzed by means of frequency and to investigate the evaluation, Toolan’s criteria were used. The statistical analysis indicates no significant differences in the two groups in terms of social interaction; however, their difference was significant in the way they evaluate the story. The findings show that adults’ ratings of their narratives were twice as high as those children. Also, the participants display interaction at the outset of the story in response to the interviewer and in the middle of the story while recalling. The results show that evaluation is a socio-cultural process implicating a level of maturity and social knowledge which children have not reached yet.