INTRODUCTION 1
1 Overview 2
2 Need for the study 2
3 Significance of the study 8
4 Outline of the book 10
5 Summary 11
PART Ⅰ LITERATURE REVIEW 12
Chapter One Narrative Theories and Studies 13
1.1 Overview 13
1.2 The conceptual definition of narrative 13
1.3 Narrative structure 17
1.4 Some related empirical narrative studies 19
1.5 Summary 46
Chapter Two Research Methods In Narrative Studies 47
2.1 Overview 47
2.2 Qualitative methods employed in the previous narrative studies 47
2.3 The employment of three qualitative methods 50
2.4 Justifying the employment of the qualitative approach to narrative 54
2.5 Qualitative data analysis framework for this study 55
2.6 Summary 59
PART Ⅱ METHoDoLoGY 61
Chapter Three A Qualitative Design 62
3.1 Overview 62
3.2 Research questions 62
3.3 Material 63
3.4 Data analysis 65
3.5 Narrative components in the data analysis framework 73
3.6 Summary 79
Part Ⅲ RESULTS AND DISCUSSIoN 80
Chapter Four Describing the Macrostructure of L2 Learners'Oral Narratives 81
4.1 Overview 81
4.2 The macrostructure of L2 learners'oral narratives 81
4.3 Micro-analysis of two sample cases:An illustration 82
4.4 Summary 88
Chapter Five Generating the Narrative Structure of Character-centric Monologues 89
5.1 Overview 89
5.2 The narrative map generated from the character-centric monologues 89
5.3 The structural representations of the macro-categories 90
5.4 Summary 117
Chapter Six Generating the Narrative Structure of Event-centric Monologues 119
6.1 Overview 119
6.2 The narrative map generated from the event-centric monologues 119
6.3 The structural representations of the macro-categories 120
6.4 Summary 133
Chapter Seven Comparing the Narrative Structures Across Different Topics 135
7.1 Overview 135
7.2 Comparing the macrostructures between different topic groups 135
7.3 Comparing the microstructures between different topic groups 136
7.4 Describing a merged narrative structure ofthe learners'monologues 149
7.5 Developing a conceptual model of the learners'oral narratives 151
7.6 Summary 161
Chapter Eight Comparing the Narrative Structures Across Different Levels of Oral Proficiency 162
8.1 Overyiew 162
8.2 Cross-level comparisons of the macrostructures 162
8.3 Cross-level comparisons of the microstructures 163
8.4 Summary 196
CONCLUSION 197
1 Overview 198
2 Major findings 198
3 Theoretical implications 200
4 Practical implications 207
5 Limitations of the study 211
6 Directions for future research 213
7 Summary 213
REFERENCES 215
APPENDIXES 244
Appendix Ⅰ Transcripts of“Unusual Teacher”Sample Cases(TEM-4 Oral English Test 2001) 244
Appendix Ⅱ Transcripts of“Birthday Party”Sample Cases(TEM-4 Oral English Test 2000) 266
Appendix Ⅲ Rewrite Rules in Mandler and Johnson's Story Grammar Model 287
Chapter One 22
Table 1.1：The Subordinate Elements in an Episode 22
Table 1.2：Story Grammar Categories(Stein ＆ Glenn 1979) 24
Table 1.3：The Labovian Model of Narrative Structure(Labov 1972) 27
Table 1.4：The Relation of Evaluation to the Other Elements in the Labovian Model 30
Table 1.5：The Structural Features Shared by the Four Models 42
Chapter Three 64
Table 3.1：Information About Task 2 in Oral TEM-Band 4(2000 and 2001) 64
Table 3.2：Brief Data Information About the Selected Cases 65
Chapter Four 82
Table 4.1：Frequencies of Each Macro-category in the Sampled Cases 82
Chapter Seven 135
Table 7.1：Frequency Distribution of EV Across Different Topics 135
Table 7.2：Frequency Distribution of ID Types Across Different Topics 136
Table 7.3：Frequency Distribution of TC Across Different Topics 140
Table 7.4：Frequency Distribution of IL Types Across Different Topics 144
Table 7.5：Frequency Distribution of IR Across Different Topics 146
Table 7.6：Distribution of EV Types Across Different Topics 148
Chapter Eight 162
Table 8.1：Frequency Distribution of Each Macro-category Across Different Levels 162
Table 8.2：Frequency Distribution of ID Types Across Different Levels 164
Table 8.3：Frequency Distribution of IC Across Different Levels in Different Topic Groups 165
Table 8.4：Frequency Distribution of TC Types Across High-and Low-level UT Groups 167
Table 8.5：Frequency Distribution of IL Types Across High-and Low-UT Groups 173
Table 8.6：Frequency Distribution of IL Types Across High-and Low-level BP Groups 181
Table 8.7：Frequency Distribution of IR Across Different Levels 186
Table 8.8：Proportion of IR Segments in the Core Narrative of Example 8.15 189
Table 8.9：Frequency Distribution of EV Types Across Different Levels 193
Table 8.10：Frequencies of Two Minor Types of Absent EV Across Different Levels 195
Chapter Four 81
Figure 4.1：The Macrostructure of the Chinese EFL Learners'Oral Narratives 81
Chapter Five 90
Figure 5.1：The Narrative Map Generated from Analysis ofthe UT Cases 90
Figure 5.2：The Two Variations of ID Internal Structure in the UT Cases 91
Figure 5.3：The Three Variations of IL Internal Structure in the UT Cases 98
Figure 5.4：The Graphic Representation of Low-UT Case 10 103
Figure 5.5：The Three Strucural Realizations of EV in the UT Cases 112
Chapter Six 120
Figure 6.1：The Narrative Map Generated from Analysis of the BP Cases 120
Figure 6.2：The Internal Structure of ID in the BP Cases 121
Figure 6.3：The Episode of Temporal Events in Event Frame in the BP Cases 126
Figure 6.4：Four Types of Event Sequences in Episode-oriented IL of the BP Cases 129
Chapter Seven 150
Figure 7.1：The Merged Model of Narrative Structure Generated from both UT and BP Narrative Maps 150
Figure 7.2：The Conceptual Model of L2 Learners'Oral Narratives 152
CONCLUSION 209
Figure 9.1：The Suggested Components of Discourse Competence in Communicative Language Production 209