Storing simple stories: Narrative recall and the Chinese student

Abstract

Several recent studies have demonstrated the importance of discourse organisation for the comprehension and recall of various discourse genres. This paper, following Carrell (1984), investigated the presence of a formal schema in second language reading comprehension of short narratives. In all, four factors in the operation of formal schemata in the recall of written narrative texts by a group of students at the City University of Hong Kong were investigated. These were: quantity of recall, temporal sequence of recall from story‐schematic and input versions of stories, the effects of second language proficiency level on quantity of recall, and the quality of recall. Evidence was found indicating the effects of temporal sequence on recall. The possible influence on recall of certain variables is also explored.