Collaborative narration in preadolescent girl talk: A Saturday luncheon conversation among three friends

Collaborative narration, where several speakers contribute to the development of a story by adding events, evaluations, or details, can occur spontaneously in conversations of friends or family members. Informal conversations during meals provide an opportunity space for narration to become a joint activity among participants. This paper examined the collaborative narratives that developed spontaneously during a luncheon conversation of three American preadolescent girls in a home setting. The conversation was videotaped. Participants were shown the transcript and interviewed about their contributions to the narratives and their prior knowledge of events that were narrated. Co-narration involved repetition of words, phrases, and sounds; onomatopoeia; gesturing; dramatization; and latching. The girls used collaborative narration as play frames to build and demonstrate their friendship. Three collaborative narratives from the luncheon conversation were analyzed to identify narrative features used by the girls and situations that contributed to co-narration.