敘述文的語言特徵─教學與學習上的建議 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學語言學研究所碩士論文. National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of Linguistics Master Thesis. 政治大立Advisor：Dr. Hsun-huei Chang 指導教授：張郇慧博士. ‧. ‧ 國. 學 y. Nat. 敘述文的語言特徵─教學與學習上的建議. n. al. er. io. sit. Linguistic Features of Narrative Writing: Implications to Teaching and Learning. Ch. engchi. i n U. 研究生：張孝晨撰 Student：Xiao-chen Zhang 中華民國一 o 四年七月 July, 2015. v.

(2) LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF NARRATIVE WRITING: IMPLICATIONS TO TEACHING AND LEARNING. BY. 政治大. Xiao-chen Zhang. 立. n. al. sit. er. io. in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. y. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Nat. A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Institute of Linguistics. Ch. engchi. July 2015. i n U. v.

(3) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. Copyright © 2015 Xiao-chen Zhang All Rights Reserved iii. i n U. v.

(4) Acknowledgements 終於，經過不斷地努力，這一刻到來了，開花結果的這一刻。感謝我的指導教授張郇慧老師，謝謝老師您在論文寫作期間為學生所花費的精力與時間，由於您細心的教導及溫暖的鼓勵，讓學生在遇到困難時還能不畏艱難地向前邁進。感謝論文口試委員何萬順老師及高照明老師，謝謝兩位老師在論文口試時給予學生的指正與建議，使本論文能夠更加完善。感謝政大語言所的每位老師，謝謝你們讓學生獲得深厚的語言學知識，賦予我足夠的能力完成這篇論文；感謝政大語言所的助教學姊，謝謝助教學姊在論文寫作期間給予我的幫助，讓我可以順利地完成許多與論文相關的事宜；感謝政大語言所的每位同學，能與你們一起上課，一起討論語言現象，一起完成包種茶及期末聯歡活動，一起吃飯聊天，真的十分愉快!特別感謝怡婷、郁萱與聖瑋，謝謝你們在論文寫作期間傾聽我的煩惱並給予我支持與鼓勵，讓我得以順利地完成我的論文。感謝婉婷學姊及佩君學姊，謝謝你們的幫助，讓我獲得了珍貴的語料。. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. ‧. 感謝大學教授梁董，謝謝老師您在公車上與學生的談話，給予我勇氣朝著目標前進；感謝每位大學同學，謝謝你們給予我在準備研究所考試及論文寫作期間的鼓勵，也謝謝你們相信我能夠達成目標，尤其感謝好友萬仔在這幾年的陪伴與信任，讓我能夠在重要時刻克服緊張，表現最好的自己；感謝我的國中英文老師 Joyce，謝謝您讓我深深地愛上英文，也讓我將英文老師視為一生的職志；感謝. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. 兩位補習班的老闆劉叔及 Mike，謝謝你們給予我機會並相信我能夠勝任；謝謝我的每位學生，謝謝你們讓我得以在教學這條路上逐漸成長，而你們可愛的笑容是治癒憂鬱的特效藥；感謝我所崇拜的運動員及藝人，謝謝你們讓我知道，遇到挫折時不要輕易放棄，要堅持下去，最後一定會獲得豐碩的成果!感謝可愛的卡通人物及小動物，讓我可以忘記壓力，放鬆緊繃的神經；感謝主耶穌基督，感謝祢在我最無助的時候，賜予我力量並陪著我一起渡過。. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 感謝我最愛的家人們，謝謝你們對我無微不至的照顧，讓我成為今天的我；謝謝我親愛的爸爸張德生先生，您讓我知道樂觀的力量，讓我能夠以笑容渡過一切；謝謝我親愛的媽媽陳慧娟女士，您讓我知道溫柔的力量，讓我能夠以柔軟的心面對一切；謝謝我親愛的姊姊張晨玲女士，你讓我知道堅持的力量，讓我能夠在課業及工作上堅持不懈地努力；我要以最誠摯的心向我的家人們說聲:「我愛你們」! 最後，感謝親愛的 PJ，你的愛與包容，讓我蛻變，讓我成長，讓我一步一步地實現了夢想並且對未來充滿美好的期待。 iv.

(5) 期望自己，永遠滿懷感謝，為社會付出自己的一份力量。. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. v. i n U. v.

(6) Table of Contents Acknowledgements......................................................................................................iv Table of Contents..........................................................................................................vi Figure and Tables.........................................................................................................ix Chinese Abstract............................................................................................................ x English Abstract............................................................................................................xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background and Motivation ................................................................................. 1 1.2 Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................ 4. 政治大 1.4 Significance of the Study ..................................................................................... 6 立 1.3 Research Questions .............................................................................................. 5. ‧ 國. 學. CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................................8 2.1 ESL/ EFL Writing Research ................................................................................ 8. ‧. 2.2 Narrative Writing Research ................................................................................ 13. y. Nat. 2.3 Summary of Literature Review.................................................................................16. io. sit. CHAPTER III METHOD ......................................................................................... 17. n. al. er. 3.1 Data Collection ................................................................................................... 17. Ch. i n U. v. 3.2 Rater ................................................................................................................... 19. engchi. 3.3 Instrument ........................................................................................................... 19 3.4 Procedure ............................................................................................................ 21 3.5 Analytical Framework ........................................................................................ 22 3.5.1 The Formulation of the Linguistic Feature of the Narrative...................22 CHAPTER IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION………………………………….. 27 4.1 The Analysis of the Seven Linguistic Features of the Narrative in Taiwanese English Textbooks and Taiwanese Senior High School Students' Writings ............ 27 4.1.1 Agentive Subject ..................................................................................... 28 4.1.2 Simple Past Tense ................................................................................... 30 vi.

(7) 4.1.3 Action Verb ............................................................................................. 33 4.1.4 Active Voice............................................................................................ 35 4.1.5 First Person Perspective .......................................................................... 38 4.1.6 Constant Themes ..................................................................................... 40 4.1.7 Chronological Order................................................................................ 43 4.2 The Linguistic Features and the Grades of the Senior High School Students' Narratives ................................................................................................................. 44 4.3 The Comparison of Linguistic Features of the Narrative and Significant Grades-related Linguistic Features........................................................................... 49. 政治大 5.1 Suggestions for Editing Senior High School English Textbooks....................... 53 立. CHAPTER V PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS................................................ 53. ‧ 國. 學. 5.2 Suggestions for Taiwanese Senior High School Students in Learning Narrative .................................................................................................................................. 56. ‧. 5.3 Suggestions for Taiwanese Senior High School Teachers for Teaching and. sit. y. Nat. Grading Narratives ................................................................................................... 57. io. er. CHAPTER VI CONCLUSION ................................................................................ 61 6.1 Summary of the Major Findings ........................................................................ 61. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. 6.2 Significance of the Present Study ....................................................................... 66. engchi. 6.3 Limitations of the Present Study ........................................................................ 68 6.4 Suggestions for Further Research ...................................................................... 69 REFERENCES........................................................................................................... 71 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................ 78 APPENDIX A:The Writing Task .............................................................................. 78. APPENDIX B:The Information of the Narratives in Taiwanese English Textbooks .................................................................................................................................. 79 APPENDIX C:The Information of the Narratives in College English Writing Textbooks ................................................................................................................. 80 vii.

(8) APPENDIX D:The Rubric for Rating ...................................................................... 81. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. viii. i n U. v.

(9) Figures and Tables List of Figures Figure 3.1 Linguistic features of the narrative and examples in native English speakers' narratives. ............................................................................................. 24 List of Tables Table 4.1 The usage of agentive subject in TET and TSW .......................................... 28 Table 4.2 The usage of the simple past tense in TET and TSW .................................. 31 Table 4.3 The usage of action verb in TET and TSW .................................................. 34 Table 4.4 The usage of active voice in TET and TSW ................................................ 36. 政治大. Table 4.5 The usage of the perspective in TET and TSW............................................ 39. 立. Table 4.6 The usage of constant themes in TET and TSW .......................................... 41. ‧ 國. 學. Table 4.7 The usage of the chronological order in TET and TSW .............................. 43 Table 4.8 Correlation and P Value of the Grades and the Linguistic Features............. 47. ‧. Table 4.9 Summary of Findings for the effects of Linguistic Features and Grades .... 48. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. ix. i n U. v.

(10) 國立政治大學語言研究所碩士論文提要. 論文名稱: 敘述文的語言特徵─教學與學習上的建議指導教授: 張郇慧博士研究生: 張孝晨論文提要內容:. 政治大. 在大學入學考的英文科目中，英文作文的考題以敘述文與論說文兩種類型最. 立. 為常見。特別注意的是，於每年二月份所舉行的大學學測的英文考科中，2004. ‧ 國. 學. 年至 2014 年間，敘述文的出現次數高達八次。因此，如何教導學生進行英文的. ‧. 敘述文寫作是每位高中英文老師所要面對的課題。此外，記敘文與敘述文均為描. Nat. io. sit. y. 寫形式的文章，學生容易對這兩種文體產生混淆，可能影響學生的敘述文體的英. er. 文寫作而造成負面的影響。. al. n. v i n Ch 為了幫助學生能夠了解敘述文體的特性，本研究經由以英文母語者的文章整 engchi U. 理出七項關於敘述文的特性。此外，本研究也利用敘述文的七項特性來檢驗五篇高中英文教科書的文章與五十篇學生的英文文章，除了審視這五十五篇文章是否達到七項特性之外，也利用學生敘述文的分數發現會影響分數的語言特徵。最後，藉由研究中的發現給予英文教科書編寫與英文敘述文教學及學習上的建議。. x.

(11) Abstract The most common styles of English writing in the college entrance exam are narratives and expository. Furthermore, narrative writing occurs more frequently than expository in the General Scholastic Ability Test (GSAT) held in early February every year. During the years 2004 to 2014, writing a narrative with sequential pictures was used eight times to evaluate Taiwanese senior high school students' English writing. 政治大. abilities. Therefore, the teaching and learning of English narratives is of a great. 立. importance for teachers and students in Taiwanese senior high schools.. ‧ 國. 學. In order to help the teaching and learning of narrative writing, this study aims to. ‧. find out the linguistic features of the narratives based on the analysis of English. Nat. io. sit. y. narratives written by native speakers. Then, according to the seven linguistic features. er. of the narrative found in this study, fifty-five narratives from Taiwanese English. al. n. v i n Cstudents textbooks and senior high school investigated to know whether the h e nwere gchi U seven linguistic features were presented. Furthermore, to determine the significant grades-related linguistic features of students' narratives, the grades of students' narratives and the linguistic features are examined in this study. Lastly, by using the findings of the study, some pedagogical implications are offered for English textbooks, the teaching and learning of the narrative style.. xi.

(12) CHAPTER Ⅰ INTRODUCTION. 1.1 Background and Motivation Writing is an important part of language teaching and the ultimate challenge for language learners (Chen, 1998). Most first language (L1) and second language (L2). 政治大. users think that writing is difficult (Byrne, 1988). Lanna (1989) stated that writing is a. 立. process comprised of planning, drafting and revising. Besides, in the writing process,. ‧ 國. 學. the writer needs to have sufficient language knowledge and ability to make the. ‧. writing coherent. For Taiwanese senior high school students, mastering the writing in. Nat. io. sit. y. Chinese and English is essential for passing the College Entrance Exam. However,. er. because of the lack of formal teaching of English writing and the lack of awareness of. al. n. v i n C hstudent's undesirable linguistic features, Taiwanese senior e n g c h i U performance of English writing has been a crucial issue in Taiwan.. To deal with the issue of Taiwanese senior high school students' English writing, the topic of English writing in the college entrance exam may be an important consideration to the teaching and the learning of English writing. In past decades, narratives have been the most common style of writing in college entrance exams in Taiwan. Since 2004, the topic of English writing in the General Scholastic Ability Test 1.

(13) (GSAT) has focused on making a story from four sequential pictures, which is a type of narrative writing. Starting from 2010, the form of sequential pictures has changed into more creative form with the last picture left blank. Students need to make a reasonable ending for the picture. To senior high school students in Taiwan, narrative may seem similar to descriptive because the object of these two types of writing are centered on telling. 政治大. something to someone, and this similarity makes them confused when they face these. 立. two types of writing. The uncertainty leads to a mixture of features of narrative and. ‧ 國. 學. descriptive; this lowers most students' scores on English compositions. However, in. ‧. the teaching of English writing, there is little introduction to the definition of different. Nat. io. sit. y. types of writing, such as narrative, descriptive, expository and persuasive and the. er. writing patterns of these four type of writing. Without teaching these concepts,. al. n. v i n C inh writing English compositions. students will still have difficulties engchi U. Some research on Taiwanese senior high school students has offered insights. In Liu's study (2008), the result showed that Taiwanese EFL learners used more adverbial participle clauses than native participants do. According to Yu (2010), “adverbial clauses are commonly utilized to express various types of circumstantial meanings in the learners’ writing. Temporal adverbial clauses are the most usage in different kinds of adverbial clauses.” Due to sequential pictures being widely used in 2.

(14) the college entrance exam from 2004 onwards, one study focuses on the effects of using pictures as prompts in regard to English writing performance of high and low achievers in senior high school (Tsai, 2009). Although a high frequency of narrative has been found in the college entrance exam, only two studies are related to narrative tasks faced by Taiwanese senior high school students. Chuang (2004) proposed a case study of English narrative writing process of Taiwanese senior high students. She. 政治大. found that “in terms of the composing process, there exist lots of similarities among. 立. these subjects across different proficiency levels, including the recursive writing. ‧ 國. 學. process, the rough planning, the use of satisfying strategy in drafting, and limited. ‧. revising/editing.” Aside from this study, the other narrative-related research centers on. Nat. io. sit. y. the theme types (Tsai, 2011). In Tsai's finding, Taiwanese senior high school students. er. used unmarked noun phrase theme the most and marked theme the combination of. al. n. v i n Cthe non-finite clause and noun phrase little research has been found h eleast. n gHowever, chi U on the relation of the narrative and linguistic features. For the reason that the narrative writing is viewed as the easiest type of writing compared to descriptive, expository and persuasive, as claimed by Mohan and Lo's study (1985), narratives are favored to evaluate English writing ability in college entrance exams. Although the high frequency of English narratives and the importance of teaching English narratives Taiwanese senior high school are evident, 3.

(15) there is a gap in that current studies on Taiwanese high school students' narratives did not analyze students' narrative writing in order to understanding the writing pattern of Taiwanese high school students. In view of the findings concerning the specified linguistic features in the narrative, further investigation is required to facilitate the understanding of linguistic features in the narratives, and to use these features to inspect Taiwanese high school students' narratives. Furthermore, because the articles. 政治大. in Taiwanese English textbooks are the main learning models of writing for Taiwanese. 立. senior high school students' narratives, they are examined in this study.. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. 1.2 Purpose of the Study. Nat. io. sit. y. The nature of a discourse will influence the form of verb phrases, which includes. er. the choice of tense, aspect and voice (Berk, 1999, p.161). For example, the simple. al. n. v i n Cnarratives. past tense was easily found in the studies also claimed that thematic h e n gPrior chi U patterns are related to the text type (Chao, 2002). In Zhang and Wang’s analysis in 2001, they only found constant themes; these are one of four types of thematic progression (Daneš, 1974) performed in narratives. From these studies, we can infer that some linguistic features, such as verb type and the type of thematic progression are related to the narrative writing. However, prior researchers did not formulate the linguistic features used in the narrative writing to specify narratives among many 4.

(16) types of writing. They only proposed that different types of texts may present distinguishing features in some ways. Differing from the investigation of college students' and ESL students' English writing analyzed by many researchers (Kobayashi and Rinnert, 1992; Raimes, 1987; Zamel, 1983; Feng, 2001), the senior high school students' writing in Taiwan was mostly used in this study. Matching the writing ability of native English speaker is an. 政治大. ultimate goal for every ESL/EFL learner, and this goal would take much time in their. 立. L2 learning process. But the analysis of the linguistic features in the writing may be. ‧ 國. 學. an efficient way to help students to reach the goal. Therefore, this study examined the. ‧. linguistic features presented in narratives to analyze the writing pattern of the. Nat. io. sit. y. narratives from Taiwanese English textbooks and from Taiwanese senior high school. er. students' writing. Furthermore, the grades of students' narratives and the linguistic. al. n. v i n C significant features would be assessed to find h e n g cgrades-related h i U linguistic features. The result of the analysis may give some suggestions for the edition of English textbooks for Taiwanese senior high schools and the teaching of English narrative writing for the senior high school students.. 1.3 Research Questions To help students and teachers in Taiwanese senior high schools in the teaching 5.

(17) and learning of English narratives, the researcher aims to investigate the following questions regarding the linguistic features and the narratives. 1.3.1 What are linguistic features in narratives of native English writers? 1.3.2 Based on linguistic features in narratives of native English writers, what are the similarities and differences between the narratives of Taiwanese English text books and Taiwanese senior high school students’ writing?. 政治大. 1.3.3 What are the significant grade-related linguistic features of Taiwanese students'. 立. narratives?. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. 1.4 Significance of the Study. Nat. io. sit. y. English writing is essential in English learning. However, the lack of teaching. er. and practice of English writing has led to a negative effect resulting in the inferior. al. n. v i n C h exam. To help students writing ability in the college entrance e n g c h i U and teachers learn and teach English writing, respectively, to face the recent trend of the narrative writing in the college entrance exam, this study pays attention to the research on English narratives. English narratives used in this study can be grouped into three sources: (1) narratives of native English speakers, (2) narratives of English textbooks and (3) students' narratives. In this study, the seven linguistic features of the narratives were found by analyzing native English speakers' narratives according to the linguistic 6.

(18) items used in Biber's investigation (1988) in the variation of speech and the writing. Followed by the formulation of the seven linguistic features of the narrative, the narratives of Taiwanese English textbooks, which is the main learning resource for Taiwanese senior high school students' English reading and writing, and narratives of Taiwanese senior high schools students' would be evaluated for determining whether the seven linguistic features of the narrative are presented. To help the students raise. 政治大. the grades of their narrative effectively, we also seek the significant grades-related. 立. linguistic features. Finally, some suggestions can be proposed for English textbooks,. ‧ 國. 學. the teaching of English narratives and the learning of English narratives.. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 7. i n U. v.

(19) CHAPTER Ⅱ LITERATURE REVIEW. The following literature review is divided into two parts. The first part is the introduction of ESL/ EFL writing research. The second part reviews some studies on narrative writing research.. 立. 政治大. 2.1 ESL/ EFL Writing Research. ‧ 國. 學. Second language writing (L2) has always been a difficult area for second. ‧. language learners and a hot topic for second language researchers (Zhang, 2008). In. Nat. io. sit. y. the late 1950s and the early 1960s, the population of international ESL writers at. er. institutions of higher education in North America increased, so the field of L2 writing. al. n. v i n C hthose ESL students.UResearchers from different was originally centered on teaching engchi linguistic fields have addressed numerous issues in their studies, and the studies. conducted by the researchers of L2 writing can be categorized into five areas: (1) L2 writers' characteristics, (2) the L2 writing process, (3) L2 writing feedback, (4) L2 writing instruction, and L2 writers' texts (Zhang, 2008). Studies on L2 writers’ characteristics have mainly investigated three categories of the writer variables: L2 variables, L1 variables, and psychological and social variables, and their influence on 8.

(20) L2 writing. Different L2 skills can be seen as one of L2 variables. In their writing, more skilled L2 writers wrote longer texts (Grant & Ginther, 2000; Sasaki, 2000) and used more parts of speech, fictional categories (Grant & Ginther, 2000; Kiany & Nejad, 2001), and grammatical features(Grant & Ginther, 2000). As for L1 variables, the studies of L1 writing ability are included in this respect. Carson et al. (1990) proposed that L2 writing ability correlated significantly with L1 writing ability. In. 政治大. their research, the first language and second language writing abilities of adult ESL. 立. learners, which include Japanese and Chinese ESL Students, was examined to. ‧ 國. 學. determine the relationships across languages (L1 and L2) in the acquisition of L2. ‧. writing skills. Furthermore, Ma and Wen (1999) claimed that the L2 writing ability of. Nat. io. sit. y. writers at different L2 proficiency levels could be significantly predicted by L1. er. writing ability according to the linguistic evidence they found. The research on. al. n. v i n C hthe emotions of theUL2 writers may influence their psychological variables found that engchi writing strategies (Clachar, 1999). When the L2 writers faced topics which can elicit emotions, the writers spent more time on lexical, morphological and syntactic issues for the complete expression of their feeling with specific linguistic structures. Classification of the L2 writing research in the studies on the L2 writing process. is the second area. There are two main focuses in this area of study: the role of L1 in L2 writing, and writing strategies. Brooks (1985) investigated the writing processes of 9.

(21) five unskilled college writers speaking Cantonese, French, Spanish and Malay. She found that students who had read and written extensively in their native language were able to use these competencies when writing in English. The positive correlation of the L1 writing ability and the L2 writing ability is proven by Brook's findings. The other issue in the L2 writing research is writing strategies. The usage of writing strategies, such as the planning, is influenced by the level of L2 proficiency (Akyel,. 政治大. 1994). He found that “proficiency level affected the quality of plans and compositions,. 立. but the language used for the plan had no significant effect on the differences between. ‧ 國. 學. higher- and lower-proficiency writers in terms of the plan and composition scores.”. ‧. The third area of the L2 writing research is L2 writing feedback. In the writing. Nat. io. sit. y. classroom, there are two sources of feedback: L2 writing instructors and student peers.. er. The effect of L2 writers’ approaching the writing process, viewing feedback and. al. n. v i n making revisions to the writing C willhbe definitely decided e n g c h i U by the type of feedback given by the teacher (Hedgcock & Lefkowitz, 1996; Lockhart & Ng, 1995). As for the peer feedback, it is stated there are some advantages of using peer review, including bringing a genuine sense of audience into the writing classroom, helping develop students’ critical reading and analysis skills (Keh, 1990), and encouraging students to focus on their intended meaning by discussing alternative points of view that can lead to the development of those ideas (Mangelsdorf, 1992; Mendonca & Johnson, 1994). 10.

(22) In the area of L2 writing feedback, the effects of peer feedback and teacher feedback have been compared. Connor and Asenavage (1994) explored the impact of peer and teacher feedback on the revisions of university freshman ESL students from different countries in a university in the USA as they wrote and revised an essay. The results showed that the feedback of the teacher and the peer were not the reason for the revision; interestingly, the revision resulted from some other source.. 政治大. L2 writing instruction is the fourth area in the L2 writing research. The research. 立. on L2 writing instruction mostly focused on the discussion of instructional models. ‧ 國. 學. and the use of portfolios. For the studies on instructional models, which contain. ‧. process approach and product approach, some researchers have compared the. Nat. io. sit. y. advantages and disadvantages of these two approaches (Han, 2001; Zhang & Zhou,. er. 2002; Chen, 2005). The other issue in L2 writing instruction is the use of portfolios.. al. n. v i n C h with using U Baack (1997) reported his own experience e n g c h i portfolios in ESL writing. classrooms. He argued for the use of portfolios for helping the evaluation of the students' writing development. The last area is L2 writers’ texts. Studies of L2 writers’ texts include two issues: contrastive rhetoric between L1 and L2 texts, and linguistic features of L2 texts. Kaplan started Contrastive Rhetoric (CR) research in 1966. He assumed that “each language is characterized by a set of rhetorical conventions unique to it, and these 11.

(23) conventions influence how people in those cultures think and write, and consequently interfere with their ESL writing ” (Grabe & Kaplan, 1989; Kaplan & Grabe, 2002; Kaplan, 1966, 2000). Furthermore, some researchers analyzed the differences between Chinese and English writing. Matalene (1985) found that a huge amount of memorization is essential to the Chinese writing system because of the important role of rote-learning. Li (1996) also proposed the reason for the lack of creativity in. 政治大. Chinese writing, and the respect of authority in Chinese culture. Another important. 立. difference between English and Chinese writing lies in discourse organizational. ‧ 國. 學. patterns: the structure of English composition is linear and direct, while that of. ‧. Chinese composition is a roundabout (Kaplan, 2001). The other issue in the area of L2. Nat. io. sit. y. writers’ texts is linguistic features of L2 texts. In 2002, Hinkel conducted a. er. comprehensive study of L2 texts. She compared the writings of non-native English. al. n. v i n C hChinese, Vietnamese, speakers (NNS) (Japanese, Korean, e n g c h i U Indonesian and Arabic) to those of native English speakers (NS) (English). Based on this comprehensive study, systematic information about linguistic and rhetoric characteristics of L2 texts by learners of different L1 backgrounds was provided. Through the introduction of five areas of L2 writing, research, we found that although researchers in the area of L2 writers’ texts dealt with the linguistic features in L2 texts and the difference in the writing of L1 and L2 (Hinkel, 2002), the texts of 12.

(24) L2 writers were not focused on specific types of writing and compared L1 and L2 writing on the basis of the same types of writing. To fill this gap, this study aims to formulate the linguistic features of the narrative of native English speakers and investigate L2 texts, including the narrative articles in Taiwanese English textbooks and the narrative writing written by Taiwanese senior high school students.. 2.2 Narrative Writing Research. 立. 政治大. In this section, the writing research is narrowed down to studies on the narrative. ‧ 國. 學. in order to understand the nature of the narrative and the issues discussed in this field.. ‧. It is claimed that narratives can be seen as the original method for people to recount. Nat. io. sit. y. the individual and social experiences of their lives (Burner, 1986, 1990, 1991;. er. Polkinghorne, 1988). Some studies state that the structure of the narrative occurs as a. al. n. v i n C h 1991; Ricoeur,U process of emplotment (Polkinghorne, e n g c h i 1984-1986) in which separated temporal actions and events are transformed through language into “unified story with a point or theme” (Polkinghorne, 1991, p.141). Normally, the understanding of the. narrative does not depend on the formal logic or concrete empirical evidence, but rather on interpretive strategies. Two modes of thinking were proposed by Bruner (1986, 1991) for the discrimination underlying the understanding narratives and non-narrative. The logicoscientific (paradigmatic) mode and the narrative mode are 13.

(25) included in these two modes of thinking. The former type refers to the kind of thinking in formal science where people make connections among natural phenomena, searching for casual and logical interpretations. The other type, narrative mode, signifies how people make connections among and explains the events and the actions of human experience. Bruner (1991) also proposed that narrative versions of reality are considered to be based on the acceptance of conventions, not empirical. 政治大. falsification, verification, or logic. Therefore, there can be fictional narratives because. 立. of the dispensable concurrence between the text and the real world.. ‧ 國. 學. Form is the main focus in the research on narrative writing. Eggers (1994) stated. ‧. that the narrative writing can be the presentation of personal experiences or events. Nat. io. sit. y. that happened to oneself or to other people. He also proposed that “a narrative should. er. (1) have enough detail to give the reader a close-up of the events, (2) contain enough. al. n. v i n transitional expressions to help C theh reader follow the sequence e n g c h i U of actions, and (3) be. written in one tense, usually the past tense since the paragraph is usually about actions taking place in the past.”Similarly, in the narrative essay, some basic structures are included (Cobb, 1985). In his findings, the details about the action are provided first, followed by the detailed explanation of the action and the introduction of the characters. Finally, the reason for the writing is offered to the reader. In the research on writing, the comparative analysis of narratives of native 14.

(26) English speakers and ESL writers was conducted (Smith, 2011). Writing mechanics, writing syntax and overall story quality are three aspects analyzed in the writing of narratives. He found that “monolingual and ESLs were similar to the cognitive, linguistic, word- and text-level reading and writing measure, but ESL performance was lower on vocabulary and reading comprehension across all three grades. Narrative writing in monolingual and ESLs alike was predicted by syntactic skills,. 政治大. word-level skills (decoding and spelling) and text comprehension.” EFL writing. 立. researchers in Taiwan pay much attention to the narratives of senior high school. ‧ 國. 學. students. Chung (2004) investigated the narrative writing process among senior high. ‧. students at different writing proficiency levels. She found that in the composing. Nat. io. sit. y. process, the subjects among different proficiency level shared numerous similarities,. er. followed by the classification and definition of theme types (Halliday, 1994) and the. al. n. v i n concept of the theme and rhemeC (Daneš, English narratives of senior high h e n1974). gchi U. school were analyzed to understand the preference of the theme types in students' writing (Tsai, 2011). The results showed that the theme type proper unmarked noun phrase is favored by the students; based on her findings, some pedagogical implications about the teaching the concept of the types and the functions of the themes were proposed. While the studies on narrative writing are discussed in this section, there is little 15.

(27) research on English narrative writing of Taiwanese senior high students. Besides, instead of focusing on the specific linguistic features in the students' writing, this study centered on the formulation of the linguistic features of the narratives and the analysis of the narratives of Taiwanese English textbooks and Taiwanese students' writing.. 2.3 Summary of Literature Review. 立. 政治大. The research on L2 writing research and the narrative writing was introduced in. ‧ 國. 學. the Literature Review section. In L2 writing research, few studies focused on the. ‧. specified types of L2 writing, or conducted the comparisons of L1 and L2 writing on. Nat. io. sit. y. the basis of the same types of writing. As for the studies on the narrative writing in. er. Taiwan, there is little research on the linguistic features of the narrative and the. al. n. v i n students' narratives in TaiwaneseCsenior high schools in particular. To fill this gap, this hen gchi U study focused on the formulation of the linguistic features of the narrative. The linguistic features of the narrative found in the study would be used as the criterion to evaluate the narratives of Taiwanese senior high school students' writing and the Taiwanese English textbook, which is considered the main source of students' English writing.. 16.

(28) CHAPTER Ⅲ METHOD. The narrative-based linguistic data used in this study is introduced in this chapter. The information on fifty-five narratives from three sources is presented in the first section. In the second section, the rater of the students' narratives collected in this. 政治大. study is discussed. In the third section, linguistic features of the narrative for this. 立. study are interpreted. In the fourth section, the procedure, including the three stages,. ‧ 國. 學. are explained. In the last section, the analytical framework includes the formulation of. ‧. the linguistic features of the narrative.. er. io. sit. y. Nat 3.1 Data Collection. al. n. v i n C were In this study, sixty narratives h e used h i U the linguistic features of the n gtocformulate. narrative and the analysis of the writing pattern of Taiwanese English learners. One source was five narratives written by native English speakers, chosen from two English writing textbooks widely used in Taiwanese colleges, which are Developing Compositional Skills and Refining Composition Skills. The word limit of these narratives was under 1000 words for the accurate assessment between the narratives in the textbook and the students' narratives, which were under 120~150 words. 17.

(29) Another source was fifty narratives written by Taiwanese senior high school students in practice exams for the college entrance exam within the time limit and under 120 words. The topic and interpretation of English writing are shown in the Appendix. The other source was five narratives chosen from two English textbooks mostly used in Taiwanese senior high schools, which are the San Min version and Far East version. Because the articles in English textbooks may be the main models for Taiwanese. 政治大. senior high schools students in learning English compositions, an analysis of them. 立. may help us to better understand the impact of the articles in English textbooks on. ‧ 國. 學. students' writing. The topic and the version of the narratives of the textbooks are listed. ‧. in the Appendix. Although the narratives of native speakers and the English textbook. Nat. io. sit. y. were taken from the textbook, they differ in two ways. First, most articles in. er. Taiwanese English textbooks were written by non-native speakers. Although there are. al. n. v i n C h in consideration some articles written by native speakers, e n g c h i U of the senior high school students as the readers, they were adapted by Taiwanese editors. Second, the. narratives of native speakers from the college textbook would present the features of the formal narrative so that the student can understand how to realize the features in the writing. Therefore, we choose these formal narratives to be the linguistic data for the establishment of the linguistic features in the narrative.. 18.

(30) 3.2 Rater An experienced English teacher in the Senior High School is responsible for giving the marks for the students’ English narratives. This English teacher as the rater has taught English in the Senior High School over three years. The rater in this study used the grading system published by the College Entrance Examination Center (CEEC) as the scoring criterion shown in the Appendix.. 立. 3.3 Instrument. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. According to Biber's analysis of the spoken form and the written form of the. ‧. language (1988), he proposed that there are some linguistic features for discriminating. Nat. io. sit. y. the narrative form and non-narrative form of the language. The narrative and the story. er. share the same linguistic features because of the nature of the narration in these two. al. n. v i n types. In daily conversation, theC narration used. Therefore, for the similar h e nisgmostly chi U. nature of the narrative and the story, these two types may contain the same linguistic features of the spoken form of the language. Thus, compared to other types of writing such as expository and persuasive, narratives may be more like the spoken form of the language as the nature of narration is common in oral language. For this reason, linguistic features of the narrative can be discriminated by other types of writing such as expository due to the difference in the spoken and written forms of the language. 19.

(31) The most common and largest investigation of similarities and differences between speech and writing with the corpus study is Biber’s (1988). Furthermore, Biber also considered linguistic co-occurrence to be the core of the study of register, and he assumed in the situation where a group of linguistic features co-occur with high frequency they must share an implicit communicative function. Biber's finding was based on early studies such as that of Chafe (1982) which assumed that sets of. 政治大. linguistic features are likely to co-occur in specified groups of texts. Therefore, the. 立. group of the linguistic features can be referred to different linguistic functions, so the. ‧ 國. 學. linguistic feature of one type of the writing can be established by the group of the. ‧. linguistic features with the specific linguistic function, and not just one single. io. sit. y. Nat. linguistic feature.. er. In Biber's analysis of the spoken and written forms of the language, sixty-seven. al. n. v i n C hlinguistic features U linguistic features were used; those e n g c h i can be categorized into sixteen grammatical items (Biber, 1988, p.73~75): (1) Tense and aspect markers, (2) Place and time adverbials (3) Pronouns and pro-verbs, (4) Questions, (5) Nominal forms, (6) Passives, (7) Stative forms, (8) Subordination features, (9) Prepositional phrases, adjectives and adverbs, (10) Lexical specificity, (11) Lexical classes, (12) Modals, (13) Specialized verb classes, (14) Reduced forms and dispreferred structures, (15) Coordinations and (16) Negation. Some linguistic features in these sixteen 20.

(32) grammatical items are found to dominate the narratives of native English speakers, and those linguistic features become the linguistic feature of the narrative for this study.. 3.4 Procedure There are three stages of the procedure in this study. The first stage is to formulate. 政治大. the linguistic features of the narrative by examining for five narratives of native. 立. English speakers, with the calculation of the frequency of the sixty-seven linguistic. ‧ 國. 學. features proposed by Biber (1988) to discriminate between speech and writing. The. ‧. second stage is to analyze the narratives from the two English textbooks commonly. Nat. io. sit. y. used in Taiwanese senior high schools and from Taiwanese senior high school. er. students' writings. The writer of the narratives from the textbook and from students'. al. n. v i n writings would be counted if he/Cshe linguistic features of the narrative found hused e nthe gchi U in the first stage. The third stage is to find the significant grades-related linguistic features of students' narratives. In this stage, we would use the web tool Coh-Metrix, which is introduced in Chapter four, to calculate the statistical value of each linguistic feature contained in Coh-Metrix. Then, the data from Coh-Metrix and the grades of the students' narrative will be assessed by SPSS software for the value of the correlation, which can present the extent of relation of each linguistic feature and the 21.

(33) grades of the narrative.. 3.5 Analytical Framework 3.5.1 The formulation of the linguistic feature of the narrative Each of the linguistic features in Biber's analysis of the speech and the writing (1988) was used to investigate the linguistic features in native English speakers'. 政治大. narratives. After the analysis of sixty-seven linguistic features were categorized into. 立. sixteen grammatical items, four linguistic features, including the first personal. ‧ 國. 學. pronoun, the third personal pronoun, the simple past tense and proper nouns presented. ‧. the highest occurrence in this study.. Nat. io. sit. y. The high frequency of the first and third person pronouns in the position of the. er. subject established one linguistic feature called the agentive subject because they. al. n. v i n Ch represented agentive referents. Furthermore, first and third personal pronouns, e n gthe chi U which are two of the key linguistic features in this study, can express the perspective of the writer. In the five narratives written by native English speakers, the first person pronouns were used the most; therefore, the first person perspective is a linguistic feature of the narrative. Another high frequency linguistic feature was the simple past tense in these five narratives. Based on the high frequency of the simple past tense, it became one of the linguistic features of the narrative for this study. 22.

(34) Aside from the single linguistic feature, the group of linguistic features can refer to the specified function in the text (Chafe, 1982; Biber, 1988). The co-occurrence of the set of linguistic features is a linguistic feature of the narrative in this study. The high frequency of co-occurrence of the linguistic features, including the third person pronouns and the proper nouns, like the name of the character, served as a linguistic feature for this study. This linguistic feature of the narrative was called constant. 政治大. themes in this study because the same referent of the pronouns and the proper nouns. 立. as the theme was found among sentences. With its high frequency in the narratives. ‧ 國. 學. from native English speakers, many writers used the first personal pronoun as the. ‧. theme to form constant themes in the narrative. The term of constant themes was first. Nat. io. sit. y. proposed by Danes (1974) in his four types of thematic progression, and his definition. er. of constant themes is that the same themes among the sentences are repeated.. al. n. v i n Therefore, constant themes, i.e. C thehsame referent withU e n g c h i the same pronouns or the same proper nouns as the theme in the sentence, are one of the linguistic features of this study. Through the analysis of linguistic features of tense and aspect markers, the focus was on the verb. In this process, we noticed that, numerous action verbs were used in the sentences. These action verbs and the high frequency of the first or third person pronouns formed many sentences with the active voice in the narrative. Therefore, 23.

(35) action verbs and the active voice were viewed as two linguistic features of the narrative. Furthermore, from the investigation of the verbs in the narratives written by native English speakers, we found that the verbs occurred in chronological order for the development of the narrative. According to this discovery, the chronological order is a linguistic feature of the narrative for this study. Based on the observation of the occurrence of each linguistic feature and co-occurrence of a set of linguistic features. 政治大. and analysis of the verbs, seven linguistic features of the narrative and their examples. 立. Seven Features in Narratives. 學. Examples(from Refining Composition. ‧. ‧ 國. are listed in Figure 3.1.. Skills). y. Nat. Forcibly, she walked us the seven long,. n. al. er. io. sit. 1. Agentive subject. hilly blocks from our home to school,. v i n C h depositing our e n g c h i U defiant tearful faces before the stern principal.. 2. Simple past tense. I recognized him as a repressed maniacal child-killer, and knew that if we ever saw his hands we'd be in big trouble.. 3. Action verb. We piled into jeeps provided by the Jamaican government and headed north 24.

(36) into the interior. 4. Active voice. The activities in the kitchen increase as my father stirs the gravy and my mother puts the finishing touches on the festive table setting.. 5. First person perspective. We relish the fact that we have nothing to. 立. but wait for the events of the day to 政 do 治大 unfold. (First person perspective). ‧ 國. 學. 6. Constant themes. I hated that smell. I favored crisp new. Nat. y. ‧. scents.. We piled into jeeps provided by the. n. al. er. io. sit. 7. Chronological Order. Jamaican government... We turned onto a. v i n C h dirt road thatUcut though... We had been engchi on foot for about fifteen minutes.... Figure 3.1 Linguistic features of the narrative and examples in native English speakers' narratives. Note. The words underlined in the table refer to the occurrence of the linguistic features of the narrative. After the formulation of the seven linguistic features of the narrative, in the 25.

(37) following section, these seven linguistic features of the narrative are used to evaluate the narratives of Taiwanese English textbooks (TET) and Taiwanese students' writing (TSW) in the senior high school to know their presences of each linguistic feature of the narrative.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 26. i n U. v.

(38) CHAPTER IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. In this chapter, the study’s findings are presented and discussed. First, the narratives of Taiwanese English textbooks and Taiwanese students' writing were analyzed according to seven linguistic features of the narrative. Second, the. 政治大. grades-related linguistic features of the narrative were found by the data from. 立. grade-related linguistic features of the narrative.. 學. ‧ 國. Coh-Metrix. Third, we compared the linguistic features of the narrative with the. ‧. Nat. io. sit. y. 4.1 The Analysis of the Seven Linguistic Features of the Narrative in Taiwanese. er. English Textbooks and Taiwanese Senior High School Students' Writings. al. n. v i n C h the narratives U In this section, we will investigate e n g c h i collected from English. textbooks and students’ writings with the seven linguistic features of the narrative:(1) Agentive Subject, (2) Action Verb, (3) Active Voice, (4) Simple Past Tense, (5) First Person Perspective, (6) Constant Themes, and (7) Chronological Order. Seven parts are included in this section to present the uses and the example for each linguistic features of the narrative in these narratives.. 27.

(39) 4.1.1 Agentive Subject The subject used in Taiwanese English textbooks (TET) and Taiwanese students' writing (TSW) is the agentive subject as in narratives of native English writers. The reason for this choice of subject is that the narrative writing is similar to telling a story, and in the story, the people are essential parts of the story. In general, the key role in the story’s narrative, which is made up of a series of events, is played by humans; the. 政治大. description of their actions is factual or imagined. To create a story for humans in the. 立. picture, all the narratives in TET and TSW use the agentive subject. In Table 4.1, the. ‧ 國. 學. total numbers of words, total numbers agentive subjects and the percentage of them. ‧. are presented. The higher percentage in TSW indicates the lack of the flexible. Nat. io. sit. y. syntactic pattern due to the numerous sentences beginning with the agentive sentences.. er. The log likelihood ratio and the P value are also shown in Table 4.1; it presents that. al. n. v i n C h subject in TET U the difference of the usage of agentive e n g c h i and TSW is significant. Table 4.1 The usage of agentive subject in TET and TSW TET. TSW. total numbers of words. 3090. 9973. total numbers of agentive subjects. 292. 1097. Percentage. 9.4%. 10.9%. 28.

(40) Log-likelihood ratio1. 5.49. P value2. <0.05. In the Taiwanese English textbook, most of the narratives involve one specified person. One of narratives chosen in this study is a story about a man named Gulliver who had made a special trip to Lilliput. An example of a narrative in a Taiwanese English textbook is shown below.. 政治大. (1) I attempted to rise, but was not able to stir; for as I happened to lie my back, I found my arms and legs were fastened to the ground with my hair tied down in the same manner. I likewise felt…. 立. ‧ 國. 學. This example is the narration of the main leading character’s first arrival in the new. ‧. place. The words underlined are the subject in each sentence, and they are the referent. sit. y. Nat. to the main leading role.. er. io. In TSW, the agentive subject is also used to refer to the main leading role, and. al. n. v i n this choice of the subject not only Ccorresponds U but also represents the h e n g ctohthei pictures doer of a series of actions within the story. An example in the student's narrative is shown below. (2) One day, when I was in Teacher Brown’s class, I couldn’t help taking out my smart phone because there were so many applications that I just wanted to use it at every moment. When I was using a communication application 1. Log likelihood ratio can be calculated by Log-likelihood and effect size calculator (http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/llwizard.html). The value of log likelihood ratio can present the significance of the difference of two frequency scores. 2 The P value is used as an index to present the significance of the result in the statistical test. If the P value is less than 0.05, it means the result is significant; if the P value is less than 0.01, it means the result is the most significant. But if the P value is higher than 0.05, it means the result is not significant. 29.

(41) which is called LINE, I lowered down… In the example of the student’s writing, every subject in the main clause underlined is I, which is the main leading role in the pictures shown on the test sheet.. 4.1.2 Simple Past Tense In the narration, people would correlate the event with the time. In English, the tense used to narrate the event which happened in the past can be the simple present. 政治大. tense and the simple past tense. The simple present tense can refer to the fact that the. 立. the event in the narrative was accomplished in the past.. 學. ‧ 國. event in the narrative truly happened, while the simple past tense can emphasize that. ‧. All narratives of TET and TSW use simple tense as the referent of the time.. Nat. io. sit. y. However, most of the writers in TSW used the simple past tense. Only eight writers in. er. TSW used the simple present tense. The possible reason for the numerous uses of the. al. n. v i n Cthat simple past tense in TSW may be in sequential pictures is similar to h ethenevent gchi U. their experiences so that the simple past tense is chosen. On the other hand, in TET, the simple past tenses are used frequently to present the story or the experience of the main leading role. Therefore, for the writers of TET and TSW, the simple past tense is the choice with the highest frequency in writing a narrative. Table 4.2 shows us this result. Because more agentive subjects are used in TSW, the percentage is higher in TSW for the narration of the subject. Furthermore, the difference of the usage of the 30.

(42) simple past tense in TET and TSW is the most significant according to the largest log-likelihood ratio and the smallest P value. Table 4.2 The usage of the simple past tense in TET and TSW TET. TSW. total numbers of words. 3090. 9973. total numbers of verbs with the simple past. 294. 1129. tense. 立. Percentage. 政治大 9.5%. ‧ 國. 學. Log-likelihood ratio. 7.29. ‧. P value. 11.3%. <0.01. y. Nat. io. sit. In the following, we look at the example (3) chosen in TET.. n. al. er. (3) It was starting to get dark, the continuous drizzle of snow flurries making it difficult to see. He almost missed the old lady, stranded on the side of the road. But even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help…. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. As we can see, the simple past tense is used to narrate the surrounding and actions of the man. The verb in the simple past tense includes the words underlined. Aside from the narrative for the example (3), the other four narratives collected in this narrative used the simple past tense as well. In students' writings, narratives with the simple past tense or the simple present tense can be found throughout. However, the choice of the simple past tense is more. 31.

(43) common than the simple present tense. The following is the example of TSW with the simple past tense. (4) This morning, my first class was math, and I not only hated math, but also I didn’t understand what the teacher was talking about, so I opened my bag, then took up my smartphone. I turned on the Wi-Fi, I received a lot of messages… The writer of this example used the simple past tense to narrate the mood and action. The words underlined are the verbs of the simple past tense.. 政治大 (5) Today is a cloudy day… the bird in the sky attracts my mind, the class is so 立 boring that I can’t focus my concentration on the book… I open the monitor, Let's turn to the example of TSW with the simple present tense.. ‧ 國. 學. there is a message from my girlfriend…. The words underlined are the simple present tense verbs in the example (5). There are. ‧. some differences in the student's writing with the simple past tense. In the narrative. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. with the simple past tense, the verb to be (was/were) is used less often than other. i n U. v. types of verb. On the other hand, in this student's writing with the simple present tense,. Ch. engchi. the verb to be (is) is used more often than other type of verbs. Furthermore, we also notice that the writers who use the simple present tense would more readily make the error of the tense easier because they may easily have inconsistent verb tenses in some sentences. In eight students' narratives with simple present tense, some verbs with the simple past tense were found in their narratives. The following is the example of the students' narrative with many simple present tenses and fewer simple past tenses. 32.

(44) (6) It's a normal school day, and Teacher Lin is teaching math. But Jay is using his phone under the table..."Teacher Lin, I am sorry, I shouldn't use my phone during the class." Jay said. "Yes, you shouldn't... am I a boring teacher? " Teacher Lin asked. In the example (6), the words underlined include verbs in the simple present tense and simple past tense. We found that the verb with the simple past tense appeared with the dialogue. In the narratives of Taiwanese English textbooks, the dialogue used the simple past tense because the time reference was the past.. 政治大. Therefore, although the writer of the example (6) chose the simple present tense in the. 立. narrative, the dialogue in the narratives of the Taiwanese English textbooks may have. ‧ 國. 學. an impact on changing the simple present tense into the simple past tense to the. ‧. student’s decision of the tense for the word said and asked of the dialogue in the. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. example (6).. 4.1.3 Action Verb. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The verb type in the narrative functions as a tool to accompany each action of the event. Many writers of the narrative in this study tend to use action verbs other than stative verbs in their writing because the narrative is the type of writing that combines actions as chronological events. Furthermore, the action verbs can create the foregrounding, and it serves as “the phenomenon of linguistic highlighting” (Halliday, 1973) in the text. 33.

(45) In Table 4.3, all the writers in TET and TSW used action verbs in their narratives, and the result is listed in Table 4.3. Although there are some stative verbs in the narrative of some of these writers, the number and the uses of the action verbs in every sentence is significant compared to the stative verbs: The average of action verbs as the main verb of the sentence is twelve, while the average of stative verbs is only two in each student’s narrative. The lower percentage in TSW is affected by the. 政治大. more uses of the verb to be in the writing. In the usage of action verb in TET and. 立. TSW, there’s no significant difference because of the smallest log-likelihood ratio and. ‧ 國. 學. the highest P value in Table 4.3.. ‧. Nat. TSW. sit. TET. n. al. 3090. total numbers of action verbs. Ch. er. io. total numbers of words. y. Table 4.3 The usage of action verb in TET and TSW. i n U. v. e n g c h i307. Percentage. 9973. 908. 9.9%. 9.1%. Log-likelihood ratio. 1.72. P value. >0.05. Below is an example from the article chosen from the narrative of TET. (7) She sat down and cried. She had spent many happy hours planning a nice Christmas present for Jim, her dear husband, but... Della stopped crying and stood up. She turned and stood before the mirror. She pulled her hair down... 34.

(46) In this example, the writer uses many action verbs to describe a series of actions of the woman. All the action verbs underlined in these three lines make the story progress chronologically and vividly. Let's look at how the student uses the action verbs in the narrative. (8) No matter how I explain, he just ignored, and demanded me to his office immediately... I stood too far from him to hear what he was saying and who he was talking to... The example (8) deals with the context: the teacher wants him/ her to go to office, and. 治政 the process: the student goes to the office. The underlined 大action verbs present the 立 ‧ 國. 學. actions of the teacher and the student. We could know clearly the order of each action by the sequential action verbs. The action of each agentive subject is linked the. ‧. adjacent action verbs.. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat 4.1.4 Active Voice. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. In narratives of English native speakers, the active voice can not only emphasize the subject, which may play the main leading role or one related to the main leading role, but also correlate the subject and the verb closely to clarify the sequential change of the action carried out by the subject. Furthermore, in the process of learning English grammar, the active voice is learned earlier than the passive voice; English learners in Taiwan are more familiar with this usage. From the aspect of the pattern of these two voices, the passive voice is more difficult for revealing the change of the 35.

(47) position of the subject and the object, and the insertion of the combination of the verb to be and the verb participle to form its syntactic construction. Therefore, in the narrative of TET and TSW, all of the writers use the active voice in their writing, and the result is shown in Table 4.4. But few sentences with the passive voice can be found in the situation, like being scolded or the state of the object. The higher percentage in TSW expresses that the syntactic pattern in TSW is less changeable than. 政治大. in TET. We can also know that the usage of active voice in TET and TSW has the. 立. most significant difference because the log-likelihood ratio is the highest and the P. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. value is the smallest in Table 4.4.. Nat. TSW. sit 3090. n. al. er. io. total numbers of words. TET. y. Table 4.4 The usage of active voice in TET and TSW. Ch. engchi. total numbers of verbs with active voice Percentage. 9973. iv n U 405. 1517. 13.1%. 15.2%. Log-likelihood ratio. 7.29. P value. <0.01. We can see the usage of the active voice in the example (9) from TET below. (9) His fingers tore open the paper. She gave a cry of joy─but it quickly changed into tears. There lay the set of combs that Della had wanted for so long. They were beautiful... But now she had no hair to wear them in. In the example (9), the narration of the action of the man and woman is presented 36.

(48) with the active voice. The words underlined in the example are the verbs in all the clauses, and these verbs are used to form the S-V-O sentence pattern in the example. This provides a closer relation of the subject and verb so that the reader can understand the clear link of the subject and the action made by the subject from the sentence. Let's turn to the usage of the active voice in the narrative of TSW below. (10) No way! It's the math class again. All of a sudden, my emotion drops to the bottom. Honestly, Mr. Wu is a superb math teacher, but I really can't. 政治大 concentrate on the figures on the blackboard... 立. ‧ 國. 學. In the example (10), for emphasizing the subject of the sentence and making a closer bond of the subject and the verb of the sentence, the active voice is used. The words. ‧. underlined in this example are the verbs in each clause. We could find that the writer. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. of the example (10) used the action verbs and the verb to be to form the active voice.. i n U. v. The active voice is presented with high frequency in the narratives of TSW as. Ch. engchi. evidenced by the involvement of the verb to be compared to the action verb. This may be why the student would confuse the discrimination between the narrative and the descriptive. The more the active voice with the verb to be was used in the writing, the more the writing came close to the description of the person or the thing, which is the main characteristic of the descriptive.. 37.

(49) 4.1.5 First Person Perspective The first person perspective is the most used in the narratives of English native speakers and students' writing collected in this study. The usage of the first person perspective in the narration may be the way to make the reader know that the main leading role is played by the writer, and the event in the narration can be considered as the experience of the writer. This first person perspective can easily lead the reader to. 政治大. the context of the event narrated in the writing as well. On the other hand, all the. 立. narratives of the English textbooks chose the third person perspective; in those. ‧ 國. 學. narratives, the writers may or may not play the role in the narration, and can be seen. ‧. as a neutral narrator who expresses the events without being emotional or judgmental.. Nat. io. sit. y. This perspective spares more rooms for the imagination of the reader.. er. The result of the usage of the perspective is shown in Table 3.5. All the narratives. al. n. v i n in TET and TSW use the first orC thehthird perspective.U e n g c h i However, there is the difference in the number of writers using the first person perspective and the third person perspective. More writers of TET chose the third person perspective more than the first person perspective. The reason for this may be that the point of many articles in TET is not to take students personally on the scene, but rather to convey the core meaning of the article. For example, the story of the poor man who helped the old woman expresses the core meaning that the people you help may turn out to be people 38.

(50) helping you. As for the writers of TSW, for the reason that the context of the picture is about a student in the classroom and is closer to the students’ lives, they think of themselves as playing the main leading role in the picture and use the first person perspective in the writing. Table 4.5 The usage of the perspective in TET and TSW TET writers who use the perspective. 立. TSW. 政治 5大 1. the third person perspective. 36. 學. 4. 14. ‧. ‧ 國. the first person perspective. 50. The following is the example from the narrative of TET.. sit. y. Nat. (11) She finished her meal, and quietly slipped out of the door, while the waitress went to get her change from a hundred-dollar bill. When she returned, the. n. al. er. io. lady was no longer in sight, but the waitress noticed something…. i n U. v. This example (11) narrates a story of a kind man who helps an old lady and the lady. Ch. engchi. passes the man's kindness to a woman who is the wife of the man. The point of this story is to let the students know that the love can be spread from one person to another. Therefore, this article is narrated with the third person perspective. Let's look at an example of students' narratives with the third person perspective. (12) Frank is a delightful student who always is number one at school in the mid term exam. His parents then buy him a cell phone as an encouragement. But something worse came after this; Frank started to keep using… The writer of this narrative creates a main leading role and the third person 39.

(51) perspective. However, the narratives of TSW with the third perspective have a problem: most of them give much information about the main leading role and lead to the vagueness of the focus. Let's turn to look at an example of a student's narrative with the first person perspective. (13) On Monday during Math class, I felt so bored that I started to text my girlfriend. I took a lot of selfies with extremely funny facial expressions, and then sent them to my girlfriend. And that’s the reason…. 治政 In the example (13), the main leading role is the writer, 大so the writer used the first 立 ‧ 國. 學. person perspective in the writing. Furthermore, in this study, we found that the student making the narrative with the first person perspective can avoid the long. ‧. introduction to the main leading role; this may be a way to get a high score in. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. English writing.. 4.1.6 Constant Themes. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Because of the high frequency of the usage of pronouns, pronouns as the subject and the theme can be found in the sentence of the narratives from TET and TSW. The theme, which is defined as “the element which serves as the point of departure of the clause within its context” (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004), is the topic of the sentence; by using the same themes among the sentences, it can be used to accomplish the thematic progression (Danes, 1974). The result of the usage of 40.

(52) constant themes in TET and TSW can be seen in Table 4.6. Table 4.6 The usage of constant themes in TET and TSW. writers who use the constant themes. TET. TSW. 4. 34. The following is the example from the article with constant themes in TET. (14) Mathew Jenkins stopped off at White’s Toy Store after school as he always did. That shiny new bicycle─ his bike─ was still there in the window. Mathew had set his heart on that bicycle… But he knew he couldn’t have it.. 治政大the theme in the sentences. The words underlined in the example are the subject and 立 ‧ 國. 學. And all the themes refer to the same person and continuously appear in sentence after sentence. The constant themes can not only make the narrative coherent but also avoid. ‧. the digression for the reason that every time the theme is shown in the sentence, it is. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. hard for the writer to narrate other trivial things.. i n U. v. Now, let's turn to the student's narrative with the constant themes in TSW.. Ch. engchi. (15) I sent a message during the class this morning, because my friend, Judy, asked me if I could have a dinner with her. I was so concentrated… I am too afraid to find after school. In this example above, every sentence begins with the same theme“I”, which is all the words underlined. Although the constant themes can help the students maintain the coherence of the writing, the unchangeable structure of the sentence may negatively impact the scores of the English writing. In those two examples above, although constant themes are used, the pattern of 41.

(53) the usage differs. In the narrative of TET, the writer did not use the same personal pronoun as the theme. Instead, the name of the person would be mentioned again after using two to three pronouns, followed by it. In so doing, the reader will not be confused about the numerous personal pronouns in the narrative; this is a convenient way to find the referent of the personal pronoun because the name of the character can be known in the last two or three sentences. On the other hand, in the narrative of. 政治大. TSW, the writer used constant themes with the same personal pronouns as shown in. 立. the example (15).. ‧ 國. 學. Furthermore, from the analysis of these narratives, we found that if the narrative. ‧. lacks the personal pronoun as constant themes, there would be more theme types such. Nat. io. sit. y. as adverbs and prepositional phrases as their constant themes in the narrative.. n. al. er. Below is the example from the article of TET with non-personal pronouns as constant themes.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. (16)... Three months later, another bald patch was found...Soon Alison's scalp was dotted with... With only a handful of hair left, the time had come... With her new look, Alison felt herself again. The words underlined are adverbs and prepositional phrases shown in the article. Although the writer did not use personal pronouns as constant themes in this article, the coherence and the cohesion are still attained with numerous usages of adverbs and prepositional phrases.. 42.