On the ability to tell good stories in another language

The Handbook of Narrative Analysis

“…Content-based narrative analyses, to which Labovian methodology belongs, offer important predictions for the development of narrative abilities in both L1 and L2. In the past, research on L2 narrative production has revealed not only the role of the language learners' L2 proficiency and familiarity with the narrative discourse norms of the target language, but also the influences of L1 narrative conventions on an L2 (e.g., Kang 2003). This means that, in their L2 narrative production, language learners who have not yet developed adequate L2 skills will be obliged to rely on their L1 skills and discourse strategies.…”

Handbook of Narrative Analysis

“…In the case of bilinguals, we must also take into consideration whether narratives are told in the narrator's L1 or L2. Using a wordless picture book, Kang (2003) explored how oral English narratives told by adult Korean English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners differ from those told by native speakers of English. Kang (2006) further investigated culturally preferred written narrative styles and their effects on L2 narrative styles.…”

Producing culturally appropriate narratives in English as a foreign language

“…This is particularly important for several reasons. First of all, the specific types of and emphasis on features included in narratives have been shown to be discourse properties that elder members of the society socialize children into (Blum-Kulka, 1993;Han et al, 1998;Mullen & Yi, 1995;Peterson & McCabe, 1992) and have been found to be consistently culture-dependent (Bamberg & Damrad-Frye, 1991;Berman & Slobin, 1994;Kang, 2003;Kuntay & Nakamura, 1993;Ordóñez, 2000). Thus, we will be able to see how such culture-specific discourse properties may or may not be present in adult L2 learners' L1 and L2 written discourse, which will have further implications for L2 pedagogy.…”

“…Studies of L2 oral narratives have focused on the areas of difficulty L2 learners may face in producing extended discourse in the target language. They have found that first language norms serve to scaffold the acquisition of discourse in a second language (Kang, 2003;Kim, 1999;Maeno, 2004;Ordóñez, 2000).…”

“…With time, children learn to create systematic representations of their experience in socially and culturally appropriate ways through the construction of narratives, and the structural complexity of narratives increases (Botvin & Sutton-Smith, 1977;Haslett, 1986). Cross-cultural studies of oral narratives have revealed a series of contrasts with respect to the presence of specific story structure categories (Labov, 1972), their organization (Minami & McCabe, 1991;Shiro, 1997;Uccelli, 1997), and the type and amount of information included in them, particularly with respect to the inclusion of evaluative devices that describe characters' internal states (Bamberg & Damrad-Frye, 1991;Berman & Slobin, 1994;Kang, 2003;Kuntay & Nakamura, 1993). Studies of L2 oral narratives have focused on the areas of difficulty L2 learners may face in producing extended discourse in the target language.…”