This paper examines two studies on language development and narrative discourse structure by looking at how language shapes and is shaped by culture-specific experiences. Conversations between 20 middle-class Japanese preschoolers, aged 4-5 years old, and their mothers were analyzed to study differences in narrative elicitation by mothers towards children in these age groups. Findings indicate that mothers used different techniques depending on the child's age to elicit children's participation in narrative discourse. Study 1 examined micro-level aspects of parental styles and found that mothers of 4-year-old children were more likely to use a particular discourse device to preface topic-extension. Study 2 used a speech act coding system and revealed that mothers of 4-year-old children requested more evaluation from their children in comparison to mothers of 5-year-old children. Across the two age groups, maternal requests for information about actions during narrative elicitation were found to be negatively associated with children's statements about actions in their monologic narrative productions. Yet positive correlations were noted in quantity and variety of words used by the children and duration of talking turn. Overall, a close relationship was found between maternal patterns of narrative elicitation and children's developing narrative skill. (Contains 36 references.) (Author/NAV)