Communication skills are considered extremely important for the development, preservation, and transmission of culture to future generations, and incorporate the complicated relationship between language and culture. This book focuses on an analysis of personal narratives by Japanese pre-school children. The book also analyzes mother-child narratives and joint book-reading activities. Contents: Preface 1. Introduction 2. Literature Review 3. Research Design: Methodology and Basic Concepts 4. Monologic Narrative: Narrative Development 5. Monologic Narrative Structure in Japanese 6. Parental Narrative Elicitation Styles 7. Cross-Cultural Comparison of Parental Narrative Elicitation 8. Styles of Parent-Child Book Reading in Japanese Families 9. Conclusion and Implications References/ IndexDr. Masahiko Minami has written extensively on psycho/sociolinguistics with a particular emphasis on cross-cultural comparisons of language development and narrative/discourse structure. He has published significant contributions to works covering cultural constructions of meaning, childcare quality in Japan, and East Asian students' experiences in U.S. classrooms.