The seventh research question focuses on the students’ attitudes towards the
story-mapping instruction. The results of the questionnaire are presented below in
percentage form. The students’ responses to the story-mapping instruction are based
on the questionnaire and the interview.
● Results
Table 15 displayed the results of the questionnaire on the story mapping
instruction. The results revealed that the majority of the students strongly liked or
liked the story mapping instruction (Item 1, 86.8 %). They also reported that
story-mapping instruction helped them understand story structure (Item 2, 97.3 %),
provided them with more ideas to write about (Item 7, 93.4 %), and improved their
English story writing (Item 3, 94.8 %) and writing performance (Item 4, 92.1 %). The
results on writing apprehension were also satisfying. The majority students agreed
that story mapping helped enhance their confidence in writing (Item 5, 81.6 %) and
reduced their writing apprehension (Item 6, 73.7 %). Additionally, the students also
thought the story mapping instruction enhanced their reading comprehension (Item 8
& 9, 82.9 % and 92.3 % respectively) because it provided them with the knowledge of
story structure, which helped them predict the development of stories and have a
better reading comprehension.
Table 15
The Percentage of Items on the Response to the Story Mapping Instruction N=76
Item Strongly 2. Story mapping instruction helps me
understand the story structure.
1 1.3 1 1.3 74 97.3
3. Story mapping instruction helps me with English story writing.
1 1.3 3 3.9 72 94.8
4. Story mapping instruction helps me with English writing.
4 5.3 2 2.6 70 92.1
5. Story mapping instruction lets me have confidence in English story writing.
10 13.1 4 5.3 62 81.6
6. Story mapping instruction reduces my writing apprehension.
15 19.7 5 6.6 56 73.7
7. Story mapping instruction lets me have more ideas to write about.
2 2.6 3 3.9 71 93.4
8. Story mapping instruction helps predict the development of stories and improve my reading ability.
5 6.6 8 10.5 63 82.9
9. Story mapping instruction helps me comprehend stories better and improve my reading ability.
6 7.9 9 11.8 61 90.3
Based on the questionnaire, the researcher interviewed the students to elicit
more responses. When interviewed, most students said that they enjoyed reading,
analyzing, and creating stories during the 6 weeks of instruction. They considered the
story-mapping instruction a systematic learning strategy that offered them the schema
of the story structure. With the story schema, they comprehended and composed
stories more easily and confidently. The three positive responses to the story-mapping
instruction are summarized as follows.
● Most students recognize the story mapping instruction a non-threatening,
enjoyable activity.
S402: I used to be afraid of English writing because I totally didn’t know what to write about when I faced the topic. The concept of story grammar helps me realize story writing could be an unproblematic task.
S411: I agree with you. After the story mapping instruction, I find story writing an enjoyable task. I can create my story step by step, which makes me have more confidence in my ability.
S306: I like the feeling of get everything set and done as planned. I find that once the story structure is planned, writing stories becomes a relatively unproblematic and easy
task for me.
● The story-mapping instruction is a useful prewriting activity, which helps
students organize their stories.
S328: Before the instruction, I didn’t plan in advance of writing. Now, I would make a
story map before I write my story. I think the map helps a lot because I find I have
better organization in my story. I really make improvement in story writing.
S316: Now, I am accustomed to making a plan before I write. I would spend about 5 to
10 minutes writing down the story outline to have a general framework of the story
and then write my story down in details. The instruction helps me work out an
outline of a story efficiently and makes me feel more confident.
● The story-mapping instruction helps with reading and writing
S422: I have more to write about with the help of story maps. Besides, I think I write
with better organization and coherence instead of writing whatever come to my
mind.
S441: I agree. I could write more after the instruction. When writing based on the story
maps, I could generate more ideas and compose longer and imaginative stories.
S433: I enjoy analyzing stories. The story grammar helps me comprehend stories more
easily. Now when I read stories, I would try to find out the characters, time, actions,
ending, etc. I also try to predict what might happen next. I think it is an excellent
training for us.
S311: It also helps me in analyzing Chinese stories. I try to apply the concept of the story
grammar to Chinese stories and I find it works. I find it very interesting to analyze
stories this way. I think I might try to write Chinese stories with a story map.
● Discussion
The positive responses were in accordance with the findings in Brown (1988);
that is, the story-mapping instruction benefits not only reading but also story writing.
In the present study, the students expressed they liked the story-mapping instruction
since it helped increase their writing performance and confidence. The positive
responses of the students argued against the maturation effects playing a crucial role
in the improvement of the students’ writing performance. The quantitative results of
writing organization and qualitative results of students’ responses confirmed the
proposal that the story-mapping instruction helped the students organize their stories.
The students’ responses supported the concept of schema, metacognition and
reduction. Once the students were familiar with the concept of the story schema, they
could use the story schema to generate their stories with ease. Advocates of
metacognition believe that learners can learn better and with ease if they are aware of
what they are doing and know what to do next step by step. Furthermore, the
reduction theory, which holds that breaking the complex process down to easy pieces
makes a task easy, is in agreement with the students’ responses.
Although the present study focuses on writing, the majority of the students
applied the knowledge of story grammar to reading stories, both in English and
Chinese. The participants This phenomenon of applying the knowledge of story
structure to Chinese reading and writing was beyond the teacher’s expectation and has
not yet been mentioned in the previous studies. The participants also expressed that
they enjoyed analyzing stories, trying to find out the story grammar units in stories
they read. Furthermore, they indicated that knowing the story-mapping strategy
helped them comprehend stories better. The concept of story grammar even helped
them predict what might happen next in the stories they read.
To be brief, the story-mapping instruction helped the students with their reading
comprehension. The result showed that reading and writing are strongly connected.
Only when the students read extensively can they write compositions with rich
content.