A Comparative Study Of Discourse Structures In Oral And Written Narrative Compositions Of Senior High School English Learners

This study seeks to investigate the shared and distinct features of discourse structures underlying the oral and written narratives produced by senior high school English learners under the same propositional writing conditions.The ultimate goal is to find out whether there are similarities and differences between oral and written narrative discourse ability of senior high school students and to provide some inspirations for senior high school oral and writing test.The main three questions are:1.What are the discourse structures in the composition that constitute senior high school English learners’ oral narratives?2.What are the discourse structures in the composition that constitute senior high school English learners’ written narratives?3.What are the similarities and differences between learners’ oral and written narratives?The study consists of 30 spoken and 30 written language samples from students of a Senior High School in Hebi City,Henan Province.Qualitative analysis is to identify and classify structural constructs in learners’ oral and written narratives.Data analysis has generated the subsequent major findings:Firstly,the macro-narrative structure of high school English learners’ monologue covers three principal categories:Topic Manifestation,Core Narrative and Finale.Each macro-structure can be decomposed into secondary or third subcategories.Secondly,the pattern structure of their written and oral narrative discourse is basically same.It shows the narrative discourse of these English learners has a universal schematic structure.Macroscopic structural features of narrative discourse are not affected by the language test form,but are universally presented in narrative discourse.Micro-structure has essentially the same components,and the subtle distinction is located in the "Finale".Thirdly,although their oral and written narrative discourse structure has universal schematic characteristics,there are differences in the frequency of their use of each discourse structural component.On the macro-structure level,the frequency of "Finale" in learners’ oral and written discourse is quite different.On the micro-structure level,the learners’ way of "Topic Manifestation" in different register is quite opposite.Learners’ ability in oral and written narrative discourse is comparable,but the structure of "Evaluative Narration" in written discourse is obviously higher than that in spoken discourse.And oral and written narratives show relatively significant differences in the use of various sub-categories at the end.So,the oral narrative discourse structure of senior high school English learners is incomplete and flexible,while the written one is relatively complete,complex and evaluative.Therefore,the oral and written narration of senior high school English learners do not develop synchronously.Compared with the oral and written narrative discourse ability of English majors and the narrative discourse structure of native English speakers,senior high school English learners have a stronger ability of written narrative discourse than oral narrative discourse.The significance of this thesis lies in two aspects.For one thing,the theoretical significance lies in:Through the division and classification of discourse structures in oral and written narratives,this study verifies the hypothetical concept of Story Grammar,that is,prototype elements or schematic structures are ubiquitous in narrative.And comparing the similarities and differences of them is conducive to expanding the theoretical dimension of narrative discourse research and oral and written comparative research.For another thing,the practical significance lies in:First,the differences in oral and written narrative structures may be related to the senior high school English learners’ ability in narrative structures in a different register.Considering the significant frequency differences in the composition of oral and written narrative structures in the discourse of senior high school English learners and oral competence is weaker than written language,so we should focus on strengthening oral English teaching.In the oral English teaching process,we should not emphasize on the teaching of pronunciation and intonation in such a partial form,but training students in the whole language of oral narrative discourse.Second,the results of this study also have some references for the scoring of oral and written language tests.For example,the frequency and complexity of evaluative language in oral narration can be employed as an important basis for scoring an oral language test.In the core narration of written language,the frequency of evaluative narrative and divergent narrative can be a significant basis for evaluating written language test.In foreign language teaching,students can accumulate some adjectives as materials for evaluating the language,and teachers should increase some cross-cultural knowledge for senior high school students,cultivate their awareness of cross-cultural differences and improve their communicative competence.