How to create a crisis

Abstract

In this paper, I will examine esl learner attempts at a key component of narrative prose, its complication. The complication is the defining component of the four-part schematic structure of narrative (Labov 1981, labov & Waletzky 1967), because it introduces the crisis of the story. This is the most impassioned phase of the narrative and therefore one expects (following Labov) that the narrator is the least disposed to strive to uphold prestige norms, and adopted rules. It is ironical, then, that what is acknowledged to be effective development of the narrative crisis is highly convention-bound prose. I will describe the basic textual - semantic, informational, organisational and representational - conventions that govern the development of the narrative crisis. I will then take random samples from a body of 35 student narratives, written by Cantonese-speaking esl learners at a Hong Kong university, to illustrate the difficulties these learners face in conforming to these conventions. In a final section, I will discuss the pedagogical implications of this study.