L2 Narrative Research Articles

METADISCOURSE AND DISCOURSE STRUCTURE IN L2 NARRATIVE WRITING

METADISCOURSE AND DISCOURSE STRUCTURE IN L2 NARRATIVE WRITING

Relationship between learner creativity, task planning, and speaking performance in L2 narrative tasks

Abstract This study examined the relationship between learners’ creativity viewed as a divergent thinking cognitive trait and the language/content dimensions of their L2 speaking performance under two task planning conditions, while controlling for the effects of L2 proficiency. Sixty-one Chinese learners of English took an Elicited Imitation Task, a verbal and a figural creativity test, and performed two picture-prompted narrative tasks. Results showed that when learners had time to plan, their L2 proficiency and creativity were predictors of their speaking performance in terms of fluency and idea productivity, while under the no planning condition, creativity predicted learners’ performance measured by idea productivity, discoursal structure, and lexical diversity. Moreover, different creativity measures contributed to L2 task performance in differential manners. This study contributes to the field by shedding light on the interaction between learner-related and task-related variables on L2 speaking production and the nature of the new individual difference variable of creativity.

Differential emotional expression in autobiographical narratives: The case of Arabic–English bilinguals

Aims and Objectives: This study aimed to examine how bilinguals express their emotions in their first language (L1) versus their second language (L2) in autobiographical narratives. Methodology: A total of 64 Egyptian learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) took an English language proficiency test, and wrote about the happiest or saddest experiences they recalled in Arabic and in English. Data and Analysis: The narratives were analysed for the frequency and the valence of emotion words. Findings/Conclusions: The results showed no difference between the narratives of the two languages in terms of the frequency of words. However, the L2 narratives were generally more negatively valenced than the L1 narratives, and more emotional polarity was noted in the L2 narratives, particularly in sad situations. The results failed to show any effect for the participants’ age, gender or L2 proficiency on the frequency or valence of the emotion words. Originality: This study compared two languages that are distant at several levels, including typography and culture. In addition, the study examined some variables that were not investigated in earlier emotion studies of bilingualism. Significance/Implications: The study presents several implications in relation to the emotional contexts of learning theory and the pedagogy of emotion words.

The effect of lexical coverage on L2 learners’ reading comprehension of narrative and expository genres

Understanding the relationship between lexical coverage (i.e., the number of words known in a text) and second language (L2) reading comprehension is pivotal to L2 instruction as it helps teachers set sensible vocabulary learning goals and select suitable reading materials. This study examined the unique contribution of 7 lexical coverage figures (i.e., 90%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98%, 99%, and 100%) to the comprehension of narrative and expository texts read by Chinese EFL undergraduate students (N = 234). Participants completed the Vocabulary Size Test, a L2 reading ability test, a background knowledge test, reading comprehension tests, and topic familiarity ratings. Results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that after accounting for L2 vocabulary size and L2 reading ability, lexical coverage remained a steady, though weak, predictor of narrative and expository comprehension scores. No indication of a lexical threshold for reading comprehension was found. Instead, lexical coverage was found to be a stronger predictor of expository comprehension scores than narrative. While findings suggested 98% lexical coverage was reasonable for satisfactory comprehension of L2 narrative texts, 100% lexical coverage may be needed for satisfactory comprehension of L2 expository texts without the support of background knowledge. Pedagogical implications were discussed in relation to the findings.

The role of socioemotional wellbeing difficulties and adversity in the L2 acquisition of first-generation refugee children

AbstractFirst-generation refugee children often experience pre- and post-migration adversity and display high levels of mental health/wellbeing difficulties, but to date, research has not examined the impact of such factors on refugee children's L2 acquisition. Accordingly, this study examined the influence of externalizing and internalizing problem behaviours (wellbeing), time in refugee camps and low socioeconomic status (SES) (adversity) on the English-L2 abilities of 117 Syrian refugee children (7–14 years) in their third year of residency in Canada. Wellbeing difficulties and adversity factors accounted for variance on L2 vocabulary, morphosyntax, listening comprehension and narrative production tasks, beyond the variance accounted for by age of L2 acquisition and length of L2 exposure. Specifically, externalizing problem behaviours, time in refugee camp, maternal education and maternal employment predicted variance in L2 abilities. It is concluded that refugee children could have influences on their L2 acquisition that are different from those of bilinguals with other backgrounds.

The role of language proficiency, gender, and language dominance in using co-speech gestures to identify referents in narratives by Persian-English bilinguals

Abstract The research reported here examined the effects of language proficiency, gender, and language dominance on gesture use in the tracking of referents by Persian-English bilinguals. 32 EFL learners were divided into two groups of highly proficient and less proficient speakers with equal number of males and females in each group. They were presented with a video extract and asked to recount the story in both L1 and L2. The sessions were video-recorded and the participants’ speech and gestures were transcribed and coded to compare the total number of word tokens and the proportion of maintained references accompanied by three types of gestures. The results offered an effect for proficiency level as proficient learners produced shorter L2 narratives with fewer spoken referents and co-speech gestures. Regarding language dominance, the results were mixed as both males and females produced longer narratives and more gestures in their dominant language (L1), but fewer spoken references, which could be attributed to the pro-drop phenomenon in Persian. The findings also indicated that females’ narratives were longer with more referring expressions and gestures, suggesting that gender can modulate the relationship between language proficiency/dominance and gesticulation. Finally, abstract deictic gestures were observed to be more frequently used by participants.

The Development of Discourse and Morphological Features in L2 Narratives: A Study with Classroom Spanish-Speaking Learners of French

Previous research has examined the organization of second-language French narratives through discourse or morphological analyses. At the discourse level, the analyses have investigated the foreground/background relationship. Conversely, at the morphological level, the analyses have examined the role played by verbal morphology and verbal predicates. Different methodological caveats have limited the interpretation of findings in both types of analyses. In order to provide new data, this cross-sectional study examined the evolution of discourse and morphological resources in the written narratives of Mexican Spanish-speaking learners of French whose language learning experience is limited to the classroom. The learners in the cross-sectional sample (n = 11) were selected from a population of 88 participants who completed lexical, past-tense and general proficiency tests. They also generated two written narratives during silent-film retelling tasks. The cross-sectional sample selection was based on the learners’ test scores and the results of parametric statistical analyses. The narratives were analyzed for the identification of foreground/background clauses, verbal morphology and verbal predicates. The results reveal that, as learners’ past-tense knowledge increases, the organization of narratives consolidates through a developmental path that involves the interrelated growth of discourse and morphological features.

Gestures as scaffolding for L2 narrative recall: The role of gesture type, task complexity, and working memory

This study investigated the extent to which different pedagogical gestures contribute to learners’ foreign or second language (L2) narrative recall, and further discussed how task complexity and task difficulty (i.e. working memory capacity or WMC) influence recall performance. Sixty-four adolescent learners, assigned to four different gesture viewing conditions (iconic gestures, deictic gestures, beat gestures, or no gesture), were required to listen to an instructor telling two stories (one complex and one simple) and then retell both stories twice: once immediately after listening (immediate recall) and a second time two weeks later (delayed recall). Recall performance was evaluated by the number of relevant pieces of event and motion information produced in the participants’ retelling. The results show that L2 learners who were exposed to deictic and iconic gesture conditions outperformed the other gesture groups, particularly in delayed narrative recall, but only in complex tasks where cognitive demands were increased. It was also found that event and motion information was retained for a longer period of time in the deictic and iconic conditions respectively. Although both high and low WMC groups benefitted from viewing gestures, this finding further indicates that the beneficial effect of gestures on learners could possibly compensate for low WMC by providing scaffolding that reduces cognitive burden in narrative recall.

Navigating ethical challenges in second language narrative inquiry research

Methodological and theoretical innovations in second language (L2) narrative research have yielded helpful insights into L2 learning and teaching over the past four decades. However, with the creation of this vibrant line of inquiry, new ethical dilemmas have correspondingly emerged. These dilemmas threaten to violate the core ethical principles of (1) respect for persons, (2) yielding optimal benefits while minimizing harm, and (3) the preservation of justice. Building on recent ethics-inflected applied linguistics work that has distinguished between macroethics (procedural ethics of review boards and professional codes of conduct) and microethics (everyday ethical dilemmas encountered in specific research contexts), we explore how ethical challenges have been negotiated by L2 narrative researchers. The article closes with suggested ethical measures that need to be taken in the future as researchers continue to refashion narrative inquiry to meet evolving intellectual demands.

Linguistic consequences of toing and froing: factors that modulate narrative development in bilingual returnee children

ABSTRACT This longitudinal study examined the development of narrative micro- and macrostructure in Japanese-English bilingual returnee children. Returnees are children of immigrant families who move to a foreign country, spending a significant portion of their formative developmental years in the foreign majority language context before returning to their native language environment. The returnees did a narrative task in both their L1 (Japanese) and L2 (English) immediately upon their return to their native language environment and a year after. The results showed no aggregate significant changes in L1 or L2 micro- and macrostructure over time. However, at the individual level, the degree of maintenance of L2 microstructure was modulated by L2 exposure. That is, children who continued to receive L2 exposure better maintained their English microstructure (i.e. Type-Token Ratio and Verbs per Utterance) despite being re-immersed in the L1 environment. In terms of their Japanese, the age of return to the L1 environment and relative proficiency predicted the development of their Japanese microstructure (i.e. MLU, Fluency, Type-Token Ratio) and macrostructure. Our study is the first to track both languages of bilingual returnee children over time, revealing that different background variables affect the change in returnee children’s L1 and L2 narrative abilities.

Examining the Simultaneous Effects of L1 Writing, L2 Reading, L2 Proficiency, and Affective Factors on Different Task Types of L2 Writing

ABSTRACT The present study examined the complex structural relationships between the factors that influence L2 writing in more and less cognitively demanding tasks. To this end, 298 10th graders were recruited from a local high school in Korea. Participants completed tasks measuring L1 and L2 writing skills, L2 reading comprehension, L2 proficiency, L2 motivation, and L2 anxiety. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling based on a total of six sets of instruments. The results showed that for less cognitively demanding literacy tasks, L1 narrative writing skill, L2 proficiency and L2 writing anxiety had a direct impact on L2 narrative writing. L2 motivation had an indirect impact on L2 narrative writing through L2 proficiency. For more cognitively demanding tasks, L1 argumentative writing, L2 inferential reading, L2 proficiency, and L2 writing anxiety showed direct association to L2 argumentative writing. L2 motivation had an indirect effect on L2 argumentative writing through L2 proficiency and L2 inferential reading skill. These results suggest that differential sets of factors are working in tandem along the pathways to successful performance in more and less cognitively demanding literacy tasks.

Effects of second language on motion event lexicalization: Comparison of bilingual and monolingual children’s frog story narratives

This study investigates how children lexicalize motion event patterns in their first and second languages, L1-Turkish and L2-English. English is a satellite-framed language that conflates motion with manner expressed in the main verb and path in a non-verbal element, whereas Turkish is a verb-framed language that conflates motion with path in the main verb and expresses manner in a subordinated verb. We asked whether (1) learning a second language had an effect on children’s event descriptions in their first and (2) the effects were bidirectional. One hundred and twelve 5- and 7-year-old monolingual (L1-Turkish) and bilingual (L1-Turkish; L2-English) children participated. Participants produced narratives for wordless picture book, Frog, Where are you?. Six scenes of the book were selected for coding purposes as they represented motion events: (1) Frog’s exit from the jar, (2) Dog’s fall from the window, (3) Gopher popping out of the hole, (4) Owl’s exit from a nest, (5) Boy and dog falling down and (6) Boy and dog landing in a pond. For L1 descriptions, 5-year-old bilinguals used more manner-only and less path-only descriptions than monolinguals; no difference was found for 7-year-olds. For L2 descriptions, bilingual children used less Manner-only and Path-only expressions in their L2 narratives compared to L1 narratives. These findings suggest that for 5-year-olds, exposure to second language had an impact on how motion events are encoded. Results inform us about the early interactions between L1 and L2 in motion event lexicalization

A helping hand for thinking and speaking: Effects of gesturing and task planning on second language narrative discourse

While a growing body of research has provided important insights into the facilitative roles gesturing and task planning play in thinking and speaking, their synergistic effects on second language narrative discourse are not yet well understood. This study examines how different planning conditions, pre-task planning (PTP) and on-line planning (OLP), influence gesture forms and functions in narrative tasks, and how active gesturing influences narrative discourse planning and story organization. It was found that deictic gestures and overall representational gestures were used significantly more in OLP, while iconic gestures were used significantly more in PTP. Gesture functions fall into four categories: activating, manipulating, packaging, and exploring. Activating was the most common function in both OLP and PTP groups, while manipulating and exploring were used significantly more in OLP than in PTP. These findings provide evidence of self-oriented functions of gestures in an L2 narrative task that is cognitively demanding in conceptualization and formulation. Furthermore, the L2 learners in this study who were free to use gestures when they re-told stories produced more complete episodes and relevant propositional information than those who were restricted from doing so, showing the potential facilitative cognitive effects of gestures on discourse planning and information retrieval.

Investigating the Representation of Character Discourse in L2 Narratives Written by Iranian EFL Learners

The present study examined the discourse representation of characters’ voices in narratives written by Iranian L2 learners. The participants of this study were seven sophomore EFL majors (five women and two men) selected from among L2 learners through the convenience sampling method. The participants were assigned both a narrative topic about their story of learning EFL and Singleton’s (2001) picture narrative entitled “A Doctor’s Appointment.” Each of them wrote two narratives, first based on the topic and second on the assigned picture narrative from the first-person point of view. The content of the fourteen narratives was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The statistical results indicated that the participants presented the characters’ utterances primarily via direct discourse (DD) that embodies the original speaker’s exact words and secondarily employed indirect discourse (ID) that represents an utterer’s report of the other speaker’s dialogues in her or his own words more willingly than free indirect discourse (FID) that signifies double-voiced utterances. Thus, the dialogical principle of characters’ discourse in L2 writings was more DD-focused and less ID-oriented with no FID instance. The qualitative analysis of the narratives showed that the participants’ writings demonstrated a heteroglossia of authorial clauses as well as direct and indirect quotations of characters’ speeches and thoughts.

Young Language Learners’ Use of Discourse Markers in L2 Narratives

Young language learners’ (YLLs) use of discourse markers (DMs) has been largely neglected in studies of ESL learners, despite the importance of DMs for coherent speech and conversation management. The present study aims to fill this gap by investigating the use of DMs by YLLs of English in Croatia. The performances of sixteen YLLs aged 10–11 in picture-based narrative tasks were analysed focusing on DM use in context. The results demonstrated that the YLLs use DMs to structure their narrative, although they employ a very limited range of DMs, ignoring some common ones. No significant correlation was found between the YLLs’ proficiency, attitudes towards English, and exposure to English and their DM use. The qualitative analysis showed that the YLLs use DMs correctly and strategically, which points to their awareness of the pragmatic characteristics of DMs and the developmental potential for the acquisition of a wider range of these units.

Reduced language processing automaticity induces weaker emotions in bilinguals regardless of learning context.

While the evidence for impoverished emotional reactions of bilinguals in their weaker second language (L2) accumulates, the underlying mechanisms of this effect remain poorly understood. Here, we investigate how unbalanced bilinguals' language-specific emotions vary depending on differences in language processing automaticity versus in language learning and use contexts. We analyzed behavioral emotional reactions in a hypothetical decision-making task with low emotional appeal, the Asian disease problem (Study 1) and pupil and valence responses to authentic narrative video advertising with high emotional appeal (Study 2). Both studies replicated the L2 emotion disadvantage. In decision-making, L2 reactions paralleled first language reactions under perceptual load. During the L2 narrative, the pupil dilated less because of reduced lexical access automaticity rather than in response to language-context factors. The findings suggest that bilinguals have language-independent emotional representations. Yet, they process emotional information conveyed in L2 less automatically, which triggers weaker emotional reactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

What Are We Missing? How Language Impacts Trauma Narratives.

The potential for the development of psychopathology in aolescent refugees and asylees is high due to the trauma inherent in their experience. Yet, psychopathology rooted in trauma has proven amenable to treatment. Nonetheless, as most clinicians are monolingual, the language difference between clinician and client may be a barrier of desensitization and processing typically characteristic of trauma therapy. Thus, this study aimed to describe qualitative differences in speech production among native and non-native narratives using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) processing software (Pennebaker et al. 2015) to understand if the current best practice will function similarly in these populations. We compared 10 adolescent immigrants (50% male) who narrated events that provoked their migration to the U.S. in their second language (L2; i.e., English) to 10 age- and gender-matched adolescents narrating in their first language (L1; i.e., Spanish). Results revealed L1 narratives were significantly higher in their use of/talk about anger, cognitive processes, discrepancy, tentativeness, perceptual processes, ingestion, relativity, time, work, and home. L2 narratives were higher in their use of/talk about positive emotions, death, causation, health, motion, space, and fillers. Findings have implications for the efficacy of treatments using discourse to ameliorate symptoms related to trauma in non-native languages.

L2 Imperfective Functions With Verb Types in Written Narratives: A Cross–Sectional Study With Instructed Hispanophone Learners of French

AbstractThrough either morphological or functional approaches, previous research has examined how instructed second language (L2) learners develop control over a challenging area of French: the use of the imparfait. In order to better understand this challenge, this cross‐sectional study utilized both approaches and examined how 94 university Hispanophone learners of French developed control over 5 L2 imperfective functions with 4 verb types in 2 written narratives. Each L2 learner was assigned to 1 of 6 groups depending on the number of imperfective instances in their texts. In order to identify features of learner language, L2 imperfective use was compared to the imperfective found in first language (L1) Spanish (n = 31) and L1 French (n = 47) narratives. The analyses of the 2,176 instances of L2 imperfective use revealed that this form develops in accordance with a trend whereby a decrease is found from the characterization/state combination, to habituality/telics, to progressivity/nonpunctual dynamic verbs, to inchoative characterization/states, and to frequentation/activities. In contrast to the L1 imperfective in Spanish and French, the L2 imperfective showed variability across these combinations. Moreover, in the L2 narratives, learners favored the characterization/state association at the expense of using other imperfective functions with other verb types.

Bilingualism in a Case of the Non-fluent/agrammatic Variant of Primary Progressive Aphasia

There is a growing body of research on language impairment in bilingual speakers with neurodegenerative diseases. Evidence as to which language is better preserved is rather inconclusive. Various factors seem to influence language performance, most notably age of acquisition, level of proficiency, immersion and degree of exposure to each language. The present study examined fluency, lexical, discourse and grammatical abilities of a Greek-French late bilingual man with the non-fluent/agrammatic variant of primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA). Speech samples derived from three different narrative tasks in both languages were analyzed using quantitative production analysis (QPA) and fluency measures. The first aim of the study was to compare the participant’s connected speech production to that of Greek-speaking normal controls. The second aim was to determine whether Greek (L1) and French (L2) were differentially impaired. To our knowledge, this is the first report of connected speech deficits in a Greek-speaking patient with PPA and the first study which uses QPA to compare L1 and L2 narratives in a bilingual speaker with PPA. Compared to neurologically healthy controls, our participant was impaired in lexical, discourse and grammatical productivity measures, but did not differ in measures of grammatical accuracy. The presence of dysfluencies, reduced speech rate and simplified syntax is consistent with the pattern of impairment reported for the nfvPPA. Results showed that narrative production measures did not differ significantly between languages. However, they suggest a slightly worse performance in his second, non-dominant, language despite a similar pattern of impairment in both languages. Lengthy exposure to L2 and regular activation of L2 through daily use may explain the preservation of discourse abilities in his non-dominant language. This study calls attention to factors such as language dominance, proficiency, patterns of use and exposure to a language. These factors play a key role in assessing bilingual individuals with PPA and making clinical decisions.

Narrative abilities of bilingual children with and without Developmental Language Disorder (SLI): Differentiation and the role of age and input factors

Purpose: The narrative abilities of bilinguals with TD and with DLD/SLI in their English L2 were examined in order to 1) identify the narrative components that differentiate these two groups and 2) determine the role of age and input factors in predicting L2 narrative abilities in each group. Method: Participants were 24 English L2 children with DLD and 63 English L2 children with TD, matched on age (mean = 5; 8) and length of exposure to the L2 (mean = 24 months). Narrative samples were elicited using a story generation task and a parent questionnaire provided age and input variables. Results: Bilinguals with DLD had significantly lower scores for story grammar than their TD peers, but showed similar scores for narrative microstructure components. Length of L2 exposure in school and richness of the L2 environment predicted better narrative abilities for the group with TD but not with DLD. Older age predicted better narrative abilities for the group with DLD but not with TD. Quantity of L2 input/output at home did not predict story grammar or microstructure abilities in either group. Conclusion: Story grammar might differentiate between children with TD and DLD better than microstructure among bilinguals with less exposure to the L2 and when a story generation task is used. Bilinguals with TD make more efficient use of L2 input than bilinguals with DLD.