AN INTEGRATION OF LABOV'S NARRATIVE ANALYSIS MODEL TO CONTINUATION WRITING INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

Abstract

The modern Chinese educational framework increasingly prioritizes critical thinking, creativity, and practical communication skills, recognizing writing as fundamental beyond test performance. Continuation writing, which involves extending a given story, requires students to deeply understand the original text and develop coherent, stylistically consistent continuations. Traditional product-oriented writing instruction separates reading from writing, focusing on the final product and using scores to assess rather than instructing on revisions. This approach tends to lead to student disinterest and passive attitudes towards writing, with compositions revised only for grammatical errors instead of cohesive and coherent content organization. This study highlighted the development of a continuation writing instruction based on Labov's Narrative Analysis Model, guided by sociocultural theory. We implemented the model with 30 senior high school students in Heilongjiang province, China, and collected data to assess the students' needs in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). The results indicated students' needs in four areas: understanding the article's theme and structure, extracting critical information, organizing and planning, and enhancing style and creativity. Pedagogically, the study offers valuable insights for teachers and students. Teachers gain guidance on integrating Labov's model to nurture students' narrative competence and writing proficiency. Students benefit from a better understanding of their continued writing needs.