Ability of well‐read‐to kindergartners to decontextualise/recontextualise experience into a written‐narrative register

This study examined ‘pretend readings’ of 20 well‐read‐to kindergart‐ners for their ability to produce decontextualised/recontextualised language considered appropriate for written narrative. In a previous study, 20 kindergartners had told about their birthday parties and pretended to read a wordless picture book to a doll. Using Rader's (1982) depiction of the novelist's task as one to create ‘within‐text worlds’, the language samples were examined for: (a) referential attempts; and (b) vividness of images provoked by verb use. Reference use was analysed from the perspective of Clark & Haviland's (1977) ‘Given/ New’ contract. Verbs were scored for imagability using a researcher‐designed rating scale. Results from this analysis and re‐examination of results from an earlier analysis of the data revealed that the children possessed implicit knowledge of the decontextualised nature of written narrative. Specifically, they were implicitly aware of the role of the writer of narrative in creating a within‐text world for the reader by (a) providing appropriate given/new information and (b) creating constrained and vivid images solely through linguistic means.