Telling a coherent story in a foreign language: analysis of Korean EFL learners’ referential strategies in oral narrative discourse

Abstract

Abstract The present study aims to examine Korean EFL learners’ ability to achieve discourse cohesion in English through appropriate selection of referential forms and utilization of referential strategies; in particular, it looks into the language-specific aspects of the referential system in their L1, and how these may be evident in their L2 performance. Using “frog story” picturebook prompts, The analyses examine oral narratives produced by Korean adult EFL learners ( N =12) in L1 (Korean) and L2 (English) and adult American native English speakers ( N =12). Quantitative analysis of the narratives shows that the specifically Korean linguistic strategies of heavily relying on nominals are evident in the Korean EFL learners’ English narrative discourse; thus, the resulting stories are relatively less coherent and cohesive than the native English speakers’. However, it is also observed that the Koreans’ English stories tend to diverge from their Korean counterparts in the direction of the target language norms. In addition, both the Korean EFL learners’ English narratives and the English native speakers’ stories showed referent effects which were not present in the Korean stories; this is supposed to be due to the Korean referential system, which prefers explicit reference even when characters have already been introduced and remain in the central plot.