國
立
臺
南
師
範
學
院
「南師學報」第 37 卷第一期人文與社會類（民國 92 年）
：67 ∼ 94
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Self-Regulation of Discourse Schema in Spoken
and Written Recall – A Comparison between
Chinese and British Children in North England
Hsin-hsin Yang
National Pingtung Teachers College, Department of English Education
Abstract
This study intends to investigate whether Chinese children perform differently from or similarly to
British children in their story-recall by means of oral and writing tasks. The research methods are
designed, firstly, to conduct an integrated experiment in story-recall through reading, speaking, and
writing; secondly, to analyze the data from the experiment by means of discourse analysis (form and
function) of story-telling structure. These methods aim to verify the hypothesis that based on
self-regulation of schema theory, and cultural differences in writing in the area of contrastive rhetoric,
Chinese children’s story re-telling and re-writing either systematically or diversely differ from British
children. The results show two important findings. Firstly, all these four children (two Chinese and
two British children) were able to work out their reading comprehension, and also re-constructed tasks
in the integrated experiment from reading, retelling and rewriting as effectively as expected. Secondly,
though the evidence is not systematically convincing enough to support that the two Chinese children
compose their written tasks differently from the British children, some interesting phenomena shown in
the analyzed data are worth discussing and also shed light on the need for further studies.
Key Words : schema, self-regulation, cohesion, story-recall, discourse analysis
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1.Introduction
English plays a pivotal role, carrying out its communicative and interactive functions to unveil the
unexplored but rich cultures and arts which have been generated by different races and nations. In
particular it breaks down the barriers between the East and West and facilitates mutual understanding
between the people in these two parts of the world. In correspondence with this flow, ESL/EFL
researchers, based on their studies and understanding, have noted the different writing styles between
native English speakers and ESL/EFL learners (Kaplan 1966). With relation to this query on cultural
differences in English writing, this study has its base from Sõter’s notion (1988). She states that an
EFL learner’s native thinking and discourse structure in mind manifest themselves in his/her English
writing.
According to Sõter (1988) ESL writers are members of a culture or society and will bring various
cultural experiences with them to their writing and reading experience. These writers, who have been
enculturated in particular and specific ways of language use, compose a variety of contexts and genres
in their writings. Although they are required to learn discourse conventions of the target culture or
society, they may encode meaning in ways that are different from that of the target. Consequently by
relating to the above notion, there are two questions that will be examined in this study:
(1) Is story recalling in the integrated procedure of reading, speaking and writing useful in revealing
pedagogical effect ?
(2) Does the English writing of Chinese children in the U.K. either systematically or diversely differ
from that of British children?
2. Theories and Background
Three central lines of literature support are Vygotskyan theory in cognitive development, and the
relationship between recalling and story schema in spoken and written discourse. Additionally, the
issue of contrastive rhetoric is also referred to as part of the fundamental theories in this study.
2.1. Vygotskyan Theory – Self-Regulation
It has been generally accepted that human beings have the inborn ability to construct languages
naturally. Based on this foundation the external stimulation from the social community offers
information inputting into children’s minds. Children are instinct- ively able to select, digest or even
reject this outward information. They then use their innate ability to assimilate (Piaget 1927) the input
data and integrate them with their original concept and generate reactions. In relation to that notion,
Vygotsky (1978) regards psychology plays an access to help uncover the origins of higher forms of
human consciousness and emotional life rather than of elementary behavioral acts. As mentioned,
psychological tools such as gesture, language sign systems, etc. are artificial formations which are used
to master natural forms of individual behavior and cognition. With a semiotic nature, psychological
tools are internally oriented, transforming the natural human abilities and skills into higher mental
functions. Among these tools, sensory schemata have an important position to be correlated with
practical actions (Vygostsky, 1990).
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69
Furthermore, internalization, defined as the process of transformation of external actions into
internal psychological function, is a crucial notion in human beings’ language acquisition. Vygostsky
(1990) also mentions that the transition from egocentric to inner speech manifests the internalization
of an originally communicative function, which becomes an individualized inner mental function. In
the course of development a transformation occurs, especially in older children. Vygotsky states that
investigations of memory in older children have shown that the interfunctional relations involving
memory change their direction. For these children, to recall means to think with their logicalized
memory of logical relations. More concretely, the older children are able to use their initial logical
function in their memories. These children’s recalling is regarded as a process of communication with
the text and further of sorting out their own renewed ideas which match their individual logic.
Therefore, young children are regulated by the pattern of the story they read and older children are
capable of reconstructing the story according to the logic they perceive. Thus, inner speech, as
explained, is the internalization of cultural forms of behavior involving the reconstruction of
psychological activity on the basis of sign operations (e.g. language acquisition). This means that
children’s linguistic manifestation consists of two pairs of important resources: external and internal
functions; social and individual functions. In addition, these two resources work coordinately and
interactively to generate the renewed products, i.e. inner concept and external concrete behavior such
as linguistic performance.
This internal, self-regulating process can be exemplified in Foley’s (1991) study. He points out
that, a reader, when reading a text, is unable to comprehend the entire content confidently. He or she
tries to understand segmental phrases or figures out the gist by interacting the new information with his
or her previous experience and stored knowledge. This reader, operating the process of self-regulation
in his/her mind, does not completely take the original text word by word as a computer does. More
organically, after the interactive process, the speech-for-oneself will be formed and the reader will go
on generating the inner speech to be a concrete and literate performance. This external performance in
speech and writing represents the individual ability at intellectual level in learning.
2.2. Recalling and Story Schemata
In light of the interactive relationship between external and internal functions, it could be
predicted that to convey a message to a reader through a text will help him or her to operate a mental
process. By reading the words and sentences, the reader then can manipulate their knowledge structures
to produce “a unique configuration, which is the representation of the meaning of the discourse”
(Sandford & Garrod, 1981:38). This configuration actually is the performance of storytelling.
In a storytelling process, people are able to paraphrase and produce summaries easily. And the
production of summaries and paraphrasing is usually related to “the normal pattern of recall and it is
important to establish the rules which govern the process, since it is an integral part of what we
normally call understanding” (Sandford & Garrod 1981:38). Therefore, the recall protocols in
storytelling can show that recall is primarily a reproductive or re-constructive process.
The stories as the texts to be comprehended by readers consist of characters who are placed among
the events woven into a well-designed structure. This structure as story schema includes the elements
of plot such as beginning/introduction, controlling and complex sections, climax, and ending (see
definitions and examples at 3.3.1). Thus, story schema is also used in the same sense as ‘frame’ and
helps story readers hold everything together. To recall a story is a retrieval process that generates a
reformed structure based on the original story schema or frame. For instance, we might like to know if
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the storyteller follows the sequence of plot, or whether he/she clearly presents controlling/complex
events and even the climax as important elements in his/her retelling. Therefore, the structure relies on
pre-established rather than arbitrary connections (Sandford & Garrod, 1981). In addition, the effect of
reconstructing the story depends on the reader’s familiarity with the materials, the story format and
other elements (Michaels, 1981).
This study aims to investigate the possible existence of sociocultural differences in story schema
which affect reading comprehension in children’s story recall. At the same time, taking this ground, it
also adopts the theory that the parameters, including gender, ethnicity and other cultural elements
which relate to social identity, should not be ignored in ESL teaching. Kaplan (1966), and Labov (1972)
have found indications of ethnic difference in preferred rhetorical structure. Leki (1991) also remarks
that ESL students from different discourse communities might then employ strategies learned for
specific L1 writing contexts in their L2 writing. However, Mohan and Lo (1985), turning their backs on
contrastive rhetoric, indicate that problems of Chinese students writing in English do not result from
the influence of Chinese rhetorical patterns. Instead, it is because of their difficulties and inexperience
in English writing. Thus, the idea that Chinese ESL learners might employ their Chinese syntactical
usage and transfer them into English contexts when they compose written tasks will be examined in
this study.
3. Research Methods
This study, based on the research questions, employed three methods to collect materials for a
through investigation. These methods are interviews of the subjects, an experiment, and text analysis.
The details of their operations are explained as follows.
3.1. Interviews and Subjects
The two Chinese participants were Angus (a boy from Taiwan) and Fang (a girl from Mainland
China), both aged thirteen. They had different English learning experiences before moving to the U.K.
with their families (see the personal information in Appendices I.a. & I.b.). Angus, the first research
subject, having been given basic English tutorial education in Taiwan, had attained an intermediate
level in English grammar and vocabulary. Then the ten-month stay in England helped him make much
more progress in English acquisition. The second subject, Fang, had entirely no knowledge of English
when she moved to England with her parents. Nevertheless, after one-and-a-half years, her teacher
reported her impressive breakthrough after direct exposure to English surroundings. She was keeping
up with other students in class very well, shown particularly in her English listening and speaking.
The two British children, Jonathan and Sally, were chosen as controls to illustrate a typical
English native-speaker’s performance and serve as counterparts in native English speaking and writing.
These two children were not much different from each other in terms of their intellectual level in
school and the family status in society. Generally speaking, these four children’s families were middle
or upper-middle class in the U.K. and China. Partial standardization of age, learning environments and
family background hopefully can result in findings with more validity.
3.2. Experimental Procedure
Two stories were chosen, after consulting two local primary school teachers, as reading texts
which were assumed appropriate to the children’s age, English ability, experience and interest. The
故事重述語體中的自我規律
71
content, theme, characters and plot were carefully considered in order to stimulate these young readers,
comprehending actively and responding unreservedly in their speaking and writing of story-recall. The
stories were Joshua’s Friend (JF) and The Unexpected Rainbow (UR) (see Appendices II.a & II.b).
The experiment was carried out in two stages. In the first stage, each subject was asked to read the
first story (JF). They were allowed to read it with no time limit. Secondly, after they were sure that they
were familiar with the story, they retold it and what they said was tape-recorded. Each subject was
instructed to tell the story to the researcher in the same manner as he/she would read to a friend. In the
second section, i.e. the writing part, each child, after finishing the oral retelling section, started writing
down what he or she had read. No special instructions were given. After the first story had been done,
the second one followed in the same procedure. Because of the different language abilities and thus
different task difficulties for the two groups, the whole experiment was conducted with the British
children on the same day and on two separate days with the Chinese children, one day per story. In
addition, the two Chinese children were asked to write down another version of the stories in Chinese.
Four written retellings in English are shown in Appendices 4a, 4b,4c and 4d and another two in
Chinese in Appendices 4e and 4f.
Reading
a reader’s interaction
with new information
Retelling
Rewriting
self-regulation
through recall
re-construction of
individual products
Figure 1 The Experimental Procedure
The figure above shows the different stages of this experiment. It started from reading, that is a
reader’s interactive contact with story texts. After that, through oral retelling the reader tried to
regulate the information in telling his/her own vision of the story text. Then, finally he/she
reconstructed written tasks as his/her own retold products.
3.3. Text Analysis
Three models displayed below were used to analyze the written data.
3.3.1. Analysis of Story Structure in the Reading text
Each of the stories employed in this study was divided into five sections: introduction, controlling
section, complex section, climax, and ending. Their criteria are explained and exemplified as follows:
(1) Introduction:
This is the beginning section, where the story setting (background) and the main characters first
are presented.
In Joshua’s Friend (JF) the introduction begins with Joshua’s breakfast time, his imagination on
the ‘Barrow’ figure. Meanwhile it brings in Joshua and his mother’s moving to London. The second
story, The Unexpected Rainbow (UR), starts with the setting about two kingdoms and the two main
characters, King Sol and King Splash, who have different duties to make sunny or rainy days which was
decided through their negotiation.
(2)Controlling section:
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This consists of important events related to the previous introductory part and prepares for later
development of the plot.
This section, in JF, presents a dialogue between Joshua and his mother on the way to school, his
learning situation and difficulties adapting himself to school. And in UR, the older and forgetful King
Sol breaks the rule and orders his servant to give the earth a heavy rain, which spreads a seed to evoke
the later conflict between the two kings.
(3)Complex section:
This is very close to the main theme and the core of the story content with the conflict between
the hero and the villain (protagonist and antagonist). Generally a character’s personality flaw causes
the conflict and disharmony which destroys the original balance.
In JF, this includes Danny’s first appearance in school and the game which reveals Danny’s
personality and Joshua’s difference from other pupils. In UR, King Sol’s reaction and revenge on King
Splash for his unreasonable conduct cause a big fight with the unexpected hot sun and the heavy rain
that appear on the earth simultaneously.
(4)Climax:
This is the crucial point involved in the unsolved problem from the conflict, or an influential and
breakthrough moment to place an event or a character. Then it or he/she can deal with the embarrassing
situation and end it positively or tragically.
In JF, the climax is Joshua’s waiting for his mother, which brings the chance for him and Danny to
understand each other more by sharing their imagined figures. And when the violent fight between two
kings in UR seems impossible to stop, suddenly an intermediate figure turns up. The North Wind
teaches the two kings a lesson by freezing the hot and the cold caused by them.
(5)Ending
This is the final outcome of the whole story to present the result after the climax.
In JF Joshua and Danny become good friends and run together to the coming car driven by
Joshua’s mother. Also, in UR, after being cooled by the North Wind, the two kings make peace and
rebuild a better relationship, shown by forming a rainbow in the sky together.
3.3.2. Analysis on Cohesion in Students’ Recalling Data
Analysis of linguistic data involves the counting of the types and numbers of cohesive ties used in
spoken and written texts from each subject. The categories of cohesive ties, defined by Halliday and
Hasan’s cohesion in English (1976), are reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical
cohesion (Note1).
3.3.3. Analysis of Form/Function in Students’ Recalling Data
The discourse analysis approach is used to examine the forms and function of the segments in
narrative composition act in accordance with models of rhetorical coherence. Related to the cohesion
criteria mentioned above, Indrasuta (1988:217) draws her ten forms of clauses in the analysis of
discourse: generalization, comment, action, mental state, dialogue, description of action, description of
mental state, description of character, description of setting, and description of things.
Indrasuta generated these ten forms and their detailed codes for the analysis of form and function
as shown in Figure 2. This system is used to analyze the subjects’ spoken and written scripts in order to
understand their recall structure towards the stories and the inter-relations between sections.
故事重述語體中的自我規律
Code Form
73
Function
Sequential chain:
Generalization
Comment
Mental state (ms)
bg = beginning
f = forward
b = backward
s = simultaneous
ft = future
Action (act)
Causal chain:
Dialogue (DIA)
DIA
Description of
action
act
Description of
mental state
ms
ca = cause
ef = effect
cs = causative
cq = consequential
av = adversative
al =alternative
Description
Description of
character
ch
Description of
setting
lo = locative
ad = additive
tp = temporal
ana = analogous
ela = elaborative
st
Description of
thing
th
Figure 2 Codes for the Analysis of Form and Function (Indrasuta 1988:217)
3.4. Data Analysis
Angus’ and Fang’s long-term written tasks, and the notes from family and school visits and
interviews are used as references to support the findings. The main parts are the four children’s oral
recordings, their written drafts in English and the two Chinese children’s Chinese writing in the recall
of these two stories (Appendices 4e and 4f).
An example figure (chosen among eight diagrams from four children in recalling two stories in
English and four from two Chinese children in Chinese) is shown in Appendix 3. Each code is based on
a verbal response. Therefore, in one sentence there might be more than one code.
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74
4. Findings and Discussions
The two aspects which text analysis was focused on are cohesion and linguistic form/function. The
findings are displayed respectively and discussed as follows.
4.1. Cohesion
The two figures below regarding linguistic cohesion resulted from the four subjects’ writing texts
of narrative. The two stories reveal several important findings in Figures 3a and 3b.
Jonathan
A.Reference
1.pronominals
2.demonstrate
and definite
articles
3.comparative
Sally
they,it,he,she, his,she,he,
them,her,his it
the
the
Angus
(English)
I,you,it,his,
they,him
the, that(*)
Angus
(Chinese)
you,he, I,
she
Fang
(English)
Fang
(Chinese)
him,you,them you,he,I
, you,his,they
there,that,
that
this
other(**),ano
ther,
others(*),diff
erent
B.Substitution
1.nominal
2.verbal
3.clausal
C.Conjunction
1.additive
2.adversative
and
as
3.causal
so, then,
because
sometimes
but
because,
then
and
but(*), yet
because
because, so,
therefore
and
though,
but(**)
so, then(*),
because
every time
but(*),on
the contrary
because
4.temporal
as
soon
5.complex
instead
perhaps
6.others
now
anyway
Now
moreover
D.Lexical
.same items of His mum was He thinks of But Joshua was 那一天學校來 1)Joshua
a J osh 惟一的朋
synonyms
late because she ‘Barrow’.
still thinking 了一個新女孩 Jamaka boy 友是一個她頭
腦裡( 簡) 的生
was a doctor ‘Barrow’ has his
own 子，她叫丹尼。 lived in
and Sometimes celery arms, a ‘Barrow’ with (On that day a London. 物
pumpkin
banana legs, new girl ca me He was shy.
late.
stomach and celery
arms to school. Her 2)his only friend (Josh’s only
melon pips for tummy
called friend is a
is name was called is
Danny.
‘Barrow’. It’s a creature
teeth. He is pumpkin.
in
creature Josh his mind)
made
of
vegetables.
had in his
mind.
Figure 3a Joshua’s Friend
Note: * used twice; ** used over twice
故事重述語體中的自我規律
Jonathan
A.Reference
1.pronominals
2.demonstrate
and definite
articles
Sally
Angus
(English)
75
Angus
(Chinese)
Fang
(English)
Fang
(Chinese)
they,it,his they,it,his,he him,it,his,
he,his,it,him his,him,he
him,they,
them,he,your
him,he,his
there, the, this, there,
this(*)
the
this(*),these
3.comparative
best
B.Substitution
1.nominal
so
2.verbal
those, that
there, this
there,the, that
biggest
biggest,
different
biggest,hottest, Biggest
strongest
and
This is what
they do.
3.clausal
C.Conjunction
1.additive
and
and
and
and
and
so
and then
but, then
therefore, if then, so,
so that
so (*),
therefore(**)
at once,
finally
finally
2.adversative
3.causal
4.temporal
until
5.complex and
others
soon
D.Lexical
.same items of There were In this story
synonyms
once the cities there are two
of Splash and kingdoms.
..,the kingdom of 有 一 條 法 律 就 Wind master a 他 們 從 來 沒 有 看
Sol and kingdom 是 一 天 下雨，一 very powerful
master.
The of Splash had a 天 晴 天 。
Sol. The city of kingdom of Sol rule that one day (There
is
a
到 這 樣 的 天
氣，一 會 兒下大
雨，一 會 兒又大
Splash made it and the kingdom sunny and one day rule that one
太 陽 。 (簡 )
rain and Sol of Splash
rain-
day
( They
made fire.
ing
and the next
it rains
day should be
sunny.)
Figure 3b The unexpected Rainbow
never
saw this kind
of weather: it
rained awhile
and then it
was sunny.)
Note: * used twice; ** used over twice
In regard to referent usage, the researcher found the four subjects apparently had not distinguished
differences in pronomicals, demonstrate, and definite articles. Angus’ and Fang’s tasks both in
Chinese and in English were found, having more first and second personal pronominals because of
their dialogue-centered writing style. In addition, Chinese children’s elaborate and expressive
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76
contents tell us that they tended to describe the story contents by using comparatives, especially in
Fang’s.
As for substitution, on average, all of them were seemingly weak in applying replaced patterns.
Only Sally used nominal and verbal substitutes more skillfully, which represented her personal
familiarity with manipulating this cohesive tie in her story rewriting process. For conjunctions the four
children were likely to use the additive ‘and’ as transmission keys, linking the continuous plots and
events. They were quite capable of using adversative (but, yet, though, etc), and causal words (so, then,
because, etc.). Compared with Angus, Fang used more temporal conjunctions such as in the meantime
and every time, which cannot be found in the two British children’s tasks. This implies that her longer
exposure to English in England helped her facilitate modifier usage better than Angus. Apart from this,
if we look at Angus’ and Fang’s Chinese writings, it is noticeable that they were more apt to write
better cohesive structure than their English tasks. The various conjunctions found are: in Fang’s tasks
there are: perhaps, on the contrary, moreover, thus, and therefore; and in Angus’ there are: soon, at
once, if, and even. This may show us that Fang’s good Chinese writing competence helped her work out
more elaborate writing than Angus.
As for lexical ties, Sloan (1983) states that the best interpretation of coherent synonyms is that
they conveys information the writer wants the reader to have. In this recall process, according to
coherent discourse, each new sentence is expected to ‘tell’ something that is connected with the idea
expressed in the preceding sentence. The examples displayed in the diagram show the equivalent
competence for these four children to convey messages with the information of related or coherent
events. To find out more significant differences between these written tasks, more extracts of the four
children’s story rewritings are respectively presented and discussed as follows.
4.1.1. Examples
A. Joshua’s Friend
(The reading text)
He closed his eyes again and almost bumped into the door. “Barrow, Barrow, Barrow,” he said, and
this time the thing called Barrow appeared in his mind and seemed to be walking beside him. Barrow
was made of vegetables and fruit. His legs were yellow bananas. His arms were celery sticks. His
tummy was pumpkin and his head was a watermelon. “Barrow, Barrow, Barrow,” said Josh, and Barrow
smiled with teeth of watermelon pips.
(A) Angus’ retelling
(1)English
But Joshua was still thinking his own ‘Barrow’ with banana legs, celery arms,
tummy is pumpkin.
(2)Chinese (with translation)
故事重述語體中的自我規律
77
“Barrow, Barrow , banana legs, celery arms, pumpkin tummy!” Joshua was
thinking a kind of illogical figure which shouldn’t be called a creature
(B) Fang’s retelling
(1) English
His only friend is called ‘Barrow’. It’s a creature Josh had in his mind. Barrow has
bananas for his legs, celery for his arms, pumpkin for his tummy and a big
watermelon head. Every time when it appears in Josh’s mind he smiled at Josh,
and gave him a relief.
(2) Chinese (with translation)
Joshua’s only friend ‘Barrow’ is a creature in his mind. Everytime while Joshua’s
was thinking of Barrow, Barrow appeared in his mind big and clear. ‘Barrow’ has
legs made of banana, celery arms, pumpkin tummy and a big water melon head.
Every time when ‘Barrow’ smiled, the watermelon teeth were shown. ‘Barrow’
didn’t speak but always smiled. Every time when ‘Barrow’ appeared, Joshua
didn’t feel lonely anymore.
(C) Jonathan’s retelling
He had no friends so he had an imaginary friend made of vegetables called
‘Barrow’.
(D) Sally’s retelling
Because he has no friends, he uses his imagination instead. He thinks of a creature
and says it over and over again.
B. The Unexpected Rainbow
(The reading text)
So in order to make things fair, the two kingdoms agreed that one day it would be nice and sunny
so that people could go for picnics, and the next, it would rain so as to give the trees and flowers a good
drink.
(A) Angus’s retelling
(1) English
Between two kingdoms, the kingdom of Sol and Kingdom of Splash had a rule that one day
sunny and one day rainy.
(2)Chinese (with translation)
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78
Between the kingdom of Sol and the kingdom of Splash there was a law. That was
one day it rained and the next should be sunny. Then it would be fair.
(B) Fang’s retelling
(1) English
So the kings decided that the first day King Sol should give earth a nice sunny day
and the second day, King Splash should give earth a raining day to cool down the
heat.
(2) Chinese (with translation)
It’s impossible to be rainy and sunny at the same time. So they two decided that
one day it would rain and the next should be sunny. Thus they worked in turn for a long time.
(C) Jonathan’s retelling
So they agreed that one day it would rain, the other be warm by the candles.
(D) Sally’s retelling
So they come up with the idea of having one day sunny and the next rainy.
4.1.2. Findings on Cohesion Analysis
According to the above extracts, the differences and similarities between British and Chinese
children on cohesion are discussed here.
(1) Chinese children tended to use more coordination codes to link the events. They were not used to
having conjunctions to connect sentences but continued to describe the main subject by adding
more elaborate expressions such as adjectives.
(2) British children were much more expert in observativity and causativity style (Sloan 1983) with
better lexical cohesion, concise and neat. They were also able to form a well-packed and coherent
unit.
(3) Chinese children, being predominant in their mother tongue, told the story UR more briefly and
concisely with good lexical cohesion by using better causativity than their English writings. In
addition, Fang’s detailed description of ‘Barrow’ and her frequent repetition of referents (e.g.
Barrow) is explained as her preference for the imaginary figure in the story.
4.2. Findings of Form and Function Analysis
The characteristics of the four subjects’ written tasks in terms of discourse analysis on form and
function are demonstrated below. Regarding the abbreviated codes (e.g. ca/ef for cause/effect), please
see Figure 2.
(A) Angus’ retelling
(a-1) English
(1) tends to be memory-based in detail.
(2) emphasizes the sequential actions with his particular dialogue-centered structure.
(3) has good logic, shown in using effect, causative and consequential as causal chains, but still
follows Chinese grammar order (effect/cause instead of cause/effect) (Hwang: 1987).
故事重述語體中的自我規律
79
(4) seemingly enjoys reading the second story (UR) more than JF, proved in his putting down personal
opinions and comments.
(5) has more options, describing mental states of the characters in UR and those in JF.
(a-2) Chinese (vs English)
(1) organizes the content concisely.
(2) manages the layout of dialogue and description of action, mental state and character in an equal
and balanced way, especially in UR.
(3) uses setting description as the start, seen in every narrative part.
(4) action/consequential appears very often in his discourse.
(5) effect/cause exists in his works.
B. Fang’s retelling
(b-1) English
(1) shows interest in elaborately depicting characters.
(2) prefers to use mental state of characters, especially in JF.
(3) actively presents causal chain (cause/effect, or causative/effect).
(4) equally spreads every catalogue of form in her two stories, except mental state description.
(b-2) Chinese (vs English)
(1) displays the stories still in an elaborate way.
(2) frequently uses cause/effect chains instead of effect/cause in Chinese grammar.
(3) tends to describe mental state as her preference.
(4) makes close links between actions and mental states in texts.
(5)repeats the subject ‘Barrow’ and the conjunction ‘every time’ too often.
(6)mixes English and Chinese in the dialogue between Danny and other children.
C. Jonathan’s retelling
(1) summarizes the stories by linking the main events.
(2) re-organizes the plot by changing them to be his own logical structure.
(3)tends to be rationally descriptive in action and dialogue, which means less mental state description.
(4) uses more comments, on average, to interpret the situation.
(5) evenly uses cause/effect and consequential/effect.
D. Sally’s retelling
(1) arranges the plot to be a concise summary with her own words and phrases.
(2) uses generalization and comment in general frequency.
(3) has high percentage in mental state description.
(4) evenly uses causal chains: cause/effect, causative/effect, and consequential/effect.
4.3. Discussions and Implications
The findings on cohesion and on form/function show pedagogical significance.
Two main points are explained below.
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(1) Story Schema and reading comprehension
The use of the narrative story structure in this study is based on the realization that the structure
goes along with children’s narrative schema in mind (Michaels 1981). The first story, Joshua’s Friend,
concerning minority children’s life in England, seemingly touched Fang more deeply than the other
children. In contrast, Angus was in favor of the second story, The Unexpected Rainbow, for its logical
analogy in structure and more interesting conflict in characters and events. Comparatively, the two
British children were much more able to paraphrase and regenerate the two stories into their own
summary style.
The results of discourse analysis also show that Angus, Jonathan and Sally all performed their
individual genre in re-generating the story and re-formulating the structure (e.g. Angus has the
dialogued-central style; Jonathan and Sally have the summary-based style). This finding also reveals
that the two EFL learners knew how to figure out their own strategies in the process. Accordingly, it
can be inferred that the new information gained through reading is ‘blended’ or ‘interwoven’ with the
background knowledge (schema) and internalized as inner speech, continuing to separate as the genesis
of thought, and then to become verbal thinking (Vygotsky, 1988).
Through the process of communication and interaction with the reading text, children’s recall of a
story involves communicating with the text and then sorting out their own renewed ideas in order to
match their individual logic. Therefore, young children are regulated by the pattern of the story they
read and older children are capable of reconstructing the story according to the logic they perceive.
When Fang described the dialogue between Danny and other children in school in her Chinese task,
the children spoke, unconsciously, in English and Danny Chinese. This indicates that an interesting
reading text can elicit a reader’s active reflection like Fang’s and even lead her to an empathy context
in which she herself has similarly experienced what the character (Danny) in the story does.
Thus, when a reader confronts a difficult reading task, he/she externalizes the inner order so that
he/she can regulate it himself/herself. This self-regulation is not something absolute but relates to the
principle of continuous access, trying to solve the difficulty (Frawley and Lantolf, 1983). Therefore, a
learner is not an autonomous finalized knower, but one who can recover and utilize earlier knowing
strategies (Vygotsky 1988) in reading.
(2) Contrastive Rhetoric and other findings
This study also aims to examine if in EFL learners’ writing there exists the cultural elements
which make EFL learners compose their writing differently from native speakers. The finding shows us
that the two Chinese children apparently did not write down their stories in Chinese word by word as
they did in English. Apart from more concise and summarized contents, for example, Angus organized
the layout of different elements in his task more evenly than his English written tasks.
Fang’s Chinese script still appears to be elaborately constructed. Her use of cause/effect chains
instead of effect/cause (the standard consequence in Chinese Grammar) offers evidence that her
English is interfered with by her Chinese language structure, though her English writing was nearly as
proficient as the British children’s. Angus’ logical consequence remained in the ground of Chinese
Grammar (effect/cause). This proves that Angus still applied his Chinese cultural experience to his
target language writing.
These findings are in accord with Sõter’s (1988) assumption that EFL writers would bring various
cultural experiences with them to their writing and reading experience. These two Chinese children, as
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ESL beginners, did not avoid making errors in grammar and still experienced ‘cultural shock’ to see
English as a ‘foreign’ language used outside of their family life, though they had temporarily settled
down in North England. Eventually, with their Chinese ethnic characteristics, they depend on their old
and familiar concept, and individual strategies to form their own writing content and styles.
In spite of the above findings another interesting phenomenon is that the two girls, Fang and Sally,
had a higher percentage in describing the mental state. It might imply that in gender-difference girls
tend to emphasize characters’ emotion and thinking instead of action even in story retelling. In contrast
to the girls, Angus and Jonathan tend to organize the sequential actions in a rational and logical manner.
Jonathan even reordered the plots to match his own story structure.
5. Conclusion
This study, based on Vygotsky’s Psycholinguistic theory, has shown that these four children are
able to comprehend, and to regenerate their new texts. Each subject performs his or her own
reformulating skill and linguistic competence in the recall experiment from reading to retelling, and
to rewriting. One point worthwhile to be mentioning is: a selected story text can be effectively used to
improve children’s communication ability by means of their rich lexical and grammatical information,
and the central notion within the text.
The second point is concerned with whether these two Chinese children compose their written
tasks differently from the British children. From the results of this study, the differences cannot be
established systematically with sufficient evidence. Never- theless, it seems true that the two Chinese
children still use their L1 skill and writing logical order in their target language practice. Their
elaborate writing styles and reflective contents may be resulted from their individual preference.
However, EFL writers, even older children, are still affected by their original cultural background in
terms of concept and language performance. Though Mohan and Lo’s (1985) viewpoint cannot be
denied - that is, that the Chinese young writers have difficulties in English writing because of
inexperience. These children use their writing strategies by transferring across languages from L1 to
L2 according to the findings in this study. This apparently corresponds to the presumption by Carson
and his co-workers (1990).
The data show that there are idiosyncratic differences between Chinese and British children due to
different patterns of resocialization of story-recalling. Thus, these findings can offer teachers a
message that providing students with appropriate reading materials is important in helping students’
reading skills. Other crucial findings in the light of contrastive rhetoric appear to be related to the
different grammatical rules and logical order. For instance, it can be found that Angus and Fang switch
to L1 and then to L2 erratically. Even these two languages (Chinese and English) could interfere or
benefit each other semantically or grammatically. Consequently, more accurate and clear findings
remain to be established in the second-language field.
Notes:
1. The categories of cohesive ties, defined by Halliday and Hasan’s cohesion in English are defined as
follows.
(1) Anaphoric references are the ties linking the current information to the preceding text. This study
aims to find the cohesion lying in the continuity of the reference. Three types of reference which
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are personal, demonstrative, and comparative are used in this study.
(2) Substitution is a relation between linguistic items such as words or phrases, which is playing the
role to replace one item with another.
(3) Conjunction ties are assigned to five categories: (a) additive (e.g., and, also, also, or, etc.); (b)
adversative (e.g. yet, only, but, etc.); (c) causal (e.g. so, then, therefore, consequently, because,
etc.); (d) temporal (e.g. then, next, before, after, etc.); and (e) other continuative (e.g. now, of
course, well, anyway, etc.) (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:336).
(4) Lexical cohesive ties concern the relationship of vocabulary in the current T-unit to previous
T-units. The general principle of the lexical classification is reiteration, which is categorized as
(a) same item, (b) synonym or near synonym or hyponym, (c) superordinate, (d) general item,
and (e) collocation.
References
Chatman, S. (1978). Story and Discourse, Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press.
Frawley, W. & Lantolf, J. (1983). Second language discourse: a Vygotskyan perspective, Applied Linguistics 6,
19-44.
Halliday, M.A.K. & Hasan, R.(1993). Cohesion in English, London: Longman.
Indrasuta, C.(1988). Narrative styles in the writing of Thai and American Students. In Purves, A. C. (ed.).
Writing across Language and Cultures: Issues in Contrastive Rhetoric, Newbury Park: Sage.
Kaplan, R.B. (1966). Cultural thought patterns in inter-cultural education. Language Learning 16, 1-20.
Kincaid, E.(1991). Stories for Bedtime, Newmarket: Brimax Books.
Labov, W. (1967). Narrative analysis: oral versions of personal experience, Essay on the Verbal and Visual Arts,
Seattle & London: American Ethnological Society.
Leki, I. (1991). Twenty-five years of contrastive rhetoric: text analysis and writing pedagogies, TESOL Quarterly
25, 123-141.
McClure, E., Mason, J., & Williams, J. (1983). Sociocultural variables in children’s sequencing of stories,
Discourse Processes 6, 131-143.
Michaels, S. (1981). “Sharing time”: children’s narrative styles and differential access to literacy, Language in
Society, 423-442.
Mohan, B. & Lo, Y. (1985). Academic writing and Chinese students: transfer and developmental factors, TESOL
Quarterly 19, 513-534.
Sanford, A. J. & Garrod. S. C. (1981). Understand Written Language, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Sloan, G. (1983). Transitions: relationships among T-unit, College Composition and Communication 34,
447-453.
Sõter, A. O. (1988). The second language learner and cultural transfer in narration, In Purves, A. C. (ed.). Writing
across Language and Cultures: Issues in Contrastive Rhetoric, Sage: Newbury Park.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in Society, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. (1990). Thought and Language, edited by Moravcsk,J.M.E. London:
Routledge.
Appendices:
收稿日期：民國 91 年 10 月 29 日
修正日期：民國 92 年 1 月 13 日
接受日期：民國 92 年 1 月 20 日
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故事重述語體中的自我規律現象北英格蘭中、英兒童比較
楊
昕
昕
國立屏東師範學院英語教育學系
摘 要
本研究主要目的在於：藉由分析英文故事重述的口述和書寫作品，呈現中、英兒童在語言表現
的異同。就著研究方法的設計，首先經由閱讀故事、講說、和書寫等連貫性活動，做一整合式的實
驗。接續前一方法，將實驗後所產生的作品資料作一分析，而採用的分析工具(instruments)和模式
(modes)，主要在剖析故事重述結構中的形式和功能。運用這些研究方法是為了確證一項假設：根
據基模原理中自我規律現象，以及對比修辭(contrastive rhetoric)的研究，文化差異可能是造成書寫
方式不同的重要因素。因此從中、英兒童在故事重述和書寫作品中，或許可以發現系統式或分散式
的差異。
依據最後結果可整理出兩點結論：(1) 就閱讀故事、重述、和書寫等連貫式實驗方面，顯示出
四位兒童(中、英各兩位)，不僅自信且從容地完成此三段式實驗活動，他們的口述和筆述內容，更
表現出他們對故事的理解和重新架構的能力；(2) 雖然資料無法充分支持假設的論點，亦就是中、
英兒童重述和書寫故事方式不同；然而，藉由話語分析(discourse analysis)發現的一些語言使用現
象，值得 EFL/ESL 的教育從業者參考，或藉此鼓勵相關領域的研究人員，做更大規模的研究。
關鍵字：基模、自我規律、連貫性、故事重述、話語分析