Event Modification in EFL Learners’ Narration: A Case Study on Retelling Alibaba Story

  • Betharia Sembiring Pandia Sekolah Tinggi Bahasa Asing Persahabatan International Asia
  • Berlin Sibarani Universitas Negeri Medan
Abstract views: 138 , PDF downloads: 116
Keywords: Modification, Events, Narrative, Story Telling, Constituent, Supplementary, Narrative Discourse

Abstract

Experiences of events of both direct and vicarious ones are perceived,   organized, sequenced and represented in narrative text in coherent structure. An event consist of character, action and setting. The representation of the events in narration is realized in narrative discourse. The coherent text structure is used to narrate sequence of events in various discourse strategies. This structure is also used to understand a narrative texts. Narratives comprises of constituents and supplementary events. The constituent events are causal in the sense that earlier event contributes to the occurrence of the next event that keep the story moving forward. The supplementary events are not causal; they can be removed without disturbing continuance of the story. Supplementary events are responsible for the meaning and impact of the story. If the supplementary events are removed, the meaning and impact of the story decreases. This background leads the research to investigate event modification and find out narrative discourse used to convey the story. To collect the data, the students were assigned to listen to the story of Alibaba with forty thieves, having listened to the story, they are assigned to modify the story, and retold the modified story in written form. The data were analyzed by comparing the original and the modified story based on every aspect of story structure. The results show that the students’ story modification is limited to the modification of characters and supplementary events; constituent events and narrative discourse are retained; no modification was done to the two aspects. This leads to the conclusion that sequences of events are organized, understood and produced in  a coherent structure.   

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Abbott, H.P. 2008. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bal, M. 2017. Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. London: University of Toronto Press.
Copeland, D. E., Larson, K. G., & Palena, M. T. (2015). Remembering stories: Constructing elaborate situation models in memory. In K. Brakke & J. A. Houska (Eds.), Telling stories: The art and science of storytelling as an instructional strategy (pp. 40–48). Society for the Teaching of Psychology.
de Sà, A. 2012. Fostering preschoolers’ narrative comprehension through inference making and story reenactment training. Doctoral dissertation. Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database (UMI No. 3542680). https://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/Record/10535345
Dymock, S. 2007. Comprehension Strategy Instruction: Teaching Narrative Text Structure Awareness


Gardner, D. (2004). Vocabulary input through extensive reading: A comparison of words found in children's narrative and expository reading materials. Applied Linguistics, 25(1), 1−37.
Lambrou, M. 2014. Narrative, text and time: Telling the same story twice in the oral narrative reporting of 7/7. Language and Literature, Vol. 23(1) 32–48. New York: SAGE
Manggala, S.A. 202. The Attitudes Characterizing Humans And Giants In Two Folktales From Central Sulawesi. Journal of Applied Studies in Language. 7(1), pp. 35-45
Mortensen, L., Lock, K.S., Nickels, L. 2008. Text Structure and Patterns of Cohesion in Narrative Texts Written by Adults with a History of Language Impairment. Read Writ. 22, pp.735-752. doi10.1007/s11145-008-9150-x
Nahatame, S. 2020. Revisiting Second Language Readers’ Memory for Narrative Texts: The Role of Causal and SemanticText Relations. Reading Psychology. Routledge

Sanford, A.J. and Emmott. C. 2012. Mind, Brain and Narrative. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Toolan, M. 2016. Making Sense of Narrative Text: Situation, repetition, and Picturing in the Reading of Short Stories. New York: Routledge
Published
2024-06-30

PlumX Metrics

How to Cite
Pandia, B. S., & Sibarani, B. (2024). Event Modification in EFL Learners’ Narration: A Case Study on Retelling Alibaba Story. JAMI: Jurnal Ahli Muda Indonesia, 5(1), 1 - 7. https://doi.org/10.46510/jami.v5i1.297
Section
Articles