ERIC ED467864: An Exploratory Comparison of Oral Narrative Styles in Korea and the U.S.

13 Pages·1999·0.23 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 467 864
FL 027 381
Ko, Jungmin
AUTHOR
An Exploratory Comparison of Oral Narrative Styles in Korea
TITLE
and the U.S.
1999-00-00
PUB DATE
12p.; In: Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education:
NOTE
Contemporary Issues in Foreign and Second Language Learning
and Teaching, Fall 1999, see FL 027 379.
Research (143)
Journal Articles (080) -- Reports
PUB TYPE
Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education; v4 n1 p21-30 Fall
JOURNAL CIT
1999
EDRS Price MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.
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College Students; Comparative Analysis; *English (Second
DESCRIPTORS
Language); Films; Higher Education; Korean; *Native Speakers;
*Oral Language; *Personal Narratives; Second Language
Learning; Uncommonly Taught Languages
Native Language
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
This exploratory study compares the narratives of three
Korean speakers living in the United States with those of two native English
speakers. The subjects viewed the film, "The Red Balloon," and were given
three tasks: to recount the events in the movie, to describe what they would
relate to their friends about the movie, and to describe what they saw as
they simultaneously watched the movie a second tine. The study shows that the
subjects interpreted and reproduced narratives from different genres in
different ways. Within any given genre, however, the native and nonnative
speakers responded similarly. Exceptions include conventionalized ways of
opening and closing a narrative, tense usage, narrative length, and the
handling of culturally significant lexical items. In addition, nonnative
speakers spent more time organizing their thoughts and used metacognitive
processing actively to plan what they could say and to minimize errors.
(Author/SM)
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
An Exploratory Comparison of Oral Narrative Styles
in Korea and the U.S.
Jungmin Ko
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Office of Educational Research and Improvement
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Points of view or opinions stated in this
document do not necessarily represent
official OERI position or policy.
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An Exploratory Comparison of Oral Narrative
Styles in Korea and the U. S.
JUNGMIN KO
This exploratory study compares the narratives of three Korean speakers
living in the United States with those of two native English speakers. The
subjects viewed the film The Red Balloon and were given three tasks: to
recount the events in the movie, to describe what they would relate to
their friends about the movie, and to describe what they saw as they
simultaneously watched the movie a second time. The study shows that
the subjects interpreted and reproduced narratives from different genres
in different ways; within any given genre, however, the native and
nonnative speakers responded similarly. Exceptions include
conventionalized ways of opening and closing a narrative, tense usage,
narrative length, and the handling of culturally significant lexical items.
In addition, nonnative speakers spent more time organizing their thoughts
and used metacognitive processing actively to plan what they could say
and to minimize errors.
INTRODUCTION
Language is the product of culture, and each cultural group has its
of speak-
own conventionalized ways of speaking. Over time, these ways
ing change for various reasons, even within a single language group.
One analytical method for examining these patterns of speaking and their
changes is the analysis of narratives within the culture.
Several researchers have made important contributions to narra-
tive analysis. Tannen (1980), for example, studied the relationship be-
tween culture and patterns of narratives. She investigated how members
of different cultures transformed the same series of events into different
narratives. Specifically, she compared how two language groups, Ameri-
based
cans and Greeks, recounted the story of a film. Her research was
on the assumptions that culture influences narration and that language
groups have conventionalized ways of telling stories.
Hicks (1991) investigated different genres of narrative productions,
including sportscasts, news reports, and stories. Hicks assumed that we
become aware of different genres early in childhood. Because children
interact with other people in many different social settings, they soon
or)
learn how to adapt their language to different conventionalized ways of
1T
speaking and presenting knowledge.
c-21
3
22
Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education
Dechert (1983) studied the
case, Koreans, use when telling
cognitive operations used by a
a narrative in English?
German second language learner
narrating in the target language,
METHODOLOGY
English. According to Dechert, sec-
ond language learners use both the
Participants
L1 and L2 to activate metacogni-
Five subjects (four women
tive processing to plan what they
and one man) participated in this
are going to say. Such learners
study: Sarah, Rose, Junyi, Yongsik,
make use of "islands of reliability"
and Miyeon. Sarah and Rose are
Islands of reliability refer to
native English speakers. Sarah is
phrases or sentences that the nar-
a sophomore in Art History at the
rators can produce fluently and
University of Texas at Austin (UT).
smoothly without hesitating, fill-
She is a Caucasian female from a
ing in pauses with um's, drawing
middle-class family. Rose, who has
out the length of words, or correct-
a master's degree in English, is
ing themselves. Too high a pro-
taking courses at UT for her teach-
cessing load in a short time, how-
ing certificate. She is a female Af-
ever, causes second language
rican-American from a middle-
learners to make errors at lexical
class family. Junyi, a freshman in
and syntactic levels. In general,
Chemistry at UT, is a Korean fe-
Dechert says that planning and
male who came to the U.S. 6 years
telling a story are both a top-down
ago. Junyi spent her adolescent
and bottom-up, that is, a multidi-
years in the U.S. Yongsik, a doc-
rectional process.
toral student at UT, is a Korean
This exploratory study
male who came to the U.S. 8 years
compares the narratives of three
ago. He possesses a high level of
Korean speakers with those of two
English-speaking proficiency.
English speakers. Its goal is to an-
Miyeon graduated from a college
swer or find approaches to an-
in Korea and came to the U.S. with
swering the following questions:
her husband in 1997. She is taking
ESL courses at UT. She has some
Do subjects develop their nar-
i.
problems expressing herself in
ratives differently by task?
English.
ii. Do language groups interpret
narrative tasks differently?
Material
iii. Do language groups have their
The film used in this re-
own conventionalized ways of
search is The Red Balloon, the same
narrating?
film used in Hicks' study. While
iv. What kinds of strategies do
Hicks used a shortened version of
nonnative speakers, in this
the film (15 minutes), this study
4
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Comparison of Oral Narrative Styles in Korea and the U. S.
movie?" This question was
used the full version (34 minutes).
used in the Tannen (1980)
The movie was produced in 1956
in France and won an Academy
study.
ii. Respond to the question,
Award for Best Short Film. The
"What would you tell your
movie has no spoken dialogue.
friends who have not seen the
The reason for using a silent film
movie?"
in this study was to eliminate po-
iii. Narrate the film as they
tential confounding factors, such
watched the first 2 minutes a
as the variability in levels of listen-
ing comprehension among the
second time.
subjects and the effects of oral in-
The Korean subjects were
put on the subjects' interpretation
asked to narrate in Korean first
and hence reproduction of narra-
and then in English. Their narra-
tives. A silent movie, moreover,
tion was audiotaped and tran-
imparts its meaning almost en-
tirely by visual means, so that
scribed.
viewers are more likely to come
away with an interpretation that
Analysis
more closely reflects their under-
The data analysis was
lying ways of thinking.
based on Tannen's research in
The plot of the movie is
which she identified the following
simple. A young French boy makes
variables of narration: mainte-
friends with a red balloon, which
nance of film perspective, descrip-
joins the little boy as he goes to
tions of action, interpretation of
school and follows him through-
events, interpretative naming, in-
out the day. A gang of other boys
terpretative omission, attribution
becomes jealous of the friendship
of causality, philosophizing/per-
between the two, until finally
sonalizing, and stylistic variation.
some gang members take the bal-
Of those variables, this study bor-
loon away from the boy and pop
rowed maintenance of film per-
it. At that point, all the balloons in
spective, descriptions of action
Paris come to the boy and carry
(with a focus on verb tenses used
him into the sky.
in the narratives), interpretative
naming, interpretative omission,
and personalizing. This study
Procedure
found few interesting phenomena
This study was conducted
regarding interpretation of events,
November 20-27, 1998, at UT. Af-
attribution of causality, and stylis-
ter viewing the film, subjects were
tic variation, so those variables
given three tasks:
were disregarded. Moreover, in
Respond to the question,
this study, personalizing is defined
i.
"What happened in
the
as describing the balloon in terms
24
Texas Papers in Foreign Language. Education
ordinarily used in describing a
Interpretative Naming
person; in contrast, Tannen defines
Certain lexical items in the
speakers' narratives seemed to
personalizing as adopting an ethi-
convey culture-specific informa-
cal point of view. For analyzing the
responses to the questions, the
tion. For example, in Question 3,
study made use of the interpreta-
the on-line task, Yongsik and Junyi
tive methods from Hicks (1991),
initially used "a dog," rather than
while adopting Dechert's (1983)
"a cat," in their narration. Clearly,
characterizations of the strategies however, the animal in the scene
used by second language learners.
is a cat, not a dog. Eventually, both
Finally, in its analysis of the sub-
of subjects corrected the phrase "a
jects' interpretations, the study
dog" to "a cat."
uses the category of maintenance
of film perspective, as discussed in Junyi.
A boy was on the way to
Tannen's study.
school and then he sees little dog.
And then he goes down to stairs.
He still wants to play with [a little
RESULTS
bit hesitatingly] a little cat, I think.
There's a dog, a little
Yongsik.
Verb Tenses Used in Narratives
puppy. Oh! Actually it looks like a
Both of the native English
cat. So the boy is playing with a dog
speakers, Sarah and Rose, used the
or a cat. I'm not sure.
present tense throughout their re-
sponses to Questions 1 and 3. This
The source of this temporary
coincides
with
observation
confusion appears to be cultural.
Tannen's finding that native
In Korea, a cat is considered a cun-
speakers exhibited a strong ten-
ning animal, and its only domes-
dency to couch their narratives in
tic purpose is to catch rats; they are
the present tense. On the other
never seen as pets. Hence, Kore-
hand, two of the three Korean
ans find it difficult to imagine that
speakers, excluding Yongsik, used
a student might stop to pet a cat
the past tense in responding to
on the way to school.
Questions 1 and 3, both in their
The Koreans Junyi and
Korean and English language re-
Miyeon referred to the woman
sponses. Yongsik went back and
who stayed with the boy as his
forth between the past tense and
"mother." The native English
the present tense in Korean, but
speaker Sarah, however, described
used the present tense predomi-
her as his grandmother.
nately in English.
When he finally got
Junyi.
home, his mother threw it away.
6
25
Comparison of Oral Narrative Styles in Korea and the U. S.
Sarah.
The balloon is like a per-
Miyeon.
He go home with red bal-
son. He becomes very good friends
loon and his mother didn't like the
with it.
red balloon.
When he finally gets
Rose.
It seems to be almost like
Sarah.
a pet. It's his friend.
home, his grandmother doesn't let
Yongsik.
They became friend each
him keep the balloon.
other.
Since the woman's relation-
Miyeon's data were espe-
ship to the boy was not entirely
cially interesting. Miyeon de-
clear in the movie, this scene was
scribed the balloon as "like a hu-
good for drawing out the speak-
man" in English and "like [a]
ers' unconscious thoughts. The
ghost" in Korean. In the Korean
Koreans tended to think of the
culture, the word "ghost" refers to
woman as the boy's mother. A
some inexplicable phenomenon.
close look at the scene, however,
reveals that the woman is much
older than the boy's mother could
Interpretation of Each Question
be expected to be. Sarah appears
to be right.
Responses to Question 1: "What
happened in the movie?"
Interpretive Omission
Four subjects (not including
The narratives by Korean
Yonsik) tended to understand this
speakers, both in English and in
question as a memory task. They
Korean, were shorter than those
tried to recall the story accurately
produced by native English speak-
and chronologically. Only Yongsik
ers. Korean speakers tended to
did not understand the question as
omit information that did not con-
calling for accurate recall; instead,
tribute to the theme. On the other
he narrated only the main points
hand, Americans tended to men-
of the story.
tion all the elements in a sequence
Unlike Tannen's (1980) re-
of events.
sults, in which native speakers of
English narrated another silent
movie, The Pear Stories, from a
Personalizing
viewer's perspective, neither of
Four of the subjects with
the two native English speakers in
the exception of Junyi personal-
this study narrated the movie from
ized the red balloon. Sarah used
a viewer's perspective. They men-
the words "friends" and "person."
tioned the word "movie" only in
Rose used the words "friends" and
the beginning sentences of their
"pets." Yongsik used "friends."
responses. They never used words
or phrases like scene, viewers, or
zoom in, which would indicate that
7
26
Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education
the subject was speaking from a
narrating the story of a movie in
viewer's perspective.
English.
In Sarah's narration, she
Yongsik said "That's how it
balanced her attention between
ended" both in Korean and in En-
glish, while Junyi and Miyeon
the first part, which consisted of
the boy's befriending the balloon
gave closure to neither their Ko-
on the way to school, and the sec-
rean nor English narratives. They
ond part, which consisted of the
gazed at the researcher, who fi-
other boys' grabbing and popping
nally had to ask, "Is that the end?"
the balloon. As can be seen, the
second part deals with conflict, in
Responses to Question 2: "What
that the balloon is taken away by
would you tell your friends who
the gang of boys, then saved by the
have not seen the movie?"
boy, and finally popped by the
All the subjects except Rose
boys. Miyeon and Junyi focused
interpreted the question as requir-
attention on the first part, while
ing a brief introduction to their
Rose focused more on the second
answer and an evaluation. They
part, which, according to her re-
developed their narratives conver-
marks to the researcher, she
sationally and tried to instill in
thought to be the more interesting.
their listener an interest in the
Sarah, Rose, and Yongsik
movie.
began their narratives with at least
one mention of the word "movie"
I just saw the neatest
Sarah
or "balloon" and closed their nar-
movie. It was about a little boy who
ratives with "That's the end" or
finds this red balloon. But the bal-
"That's how it ends."
loon is like a person. He becomes
very good friends with it. They go
Sarah.
The story of the red bal-
through all adventures together. It
loon...
was so funny and cute. But it is sad
Rose.
This is a movie about a
at the end. I won't tell you what
little boy and his balloon...
happened, because I want you to see
The main character in
Yongsik.
the movie and it is so pretty, the
this movie are one boy and the red
balloon, the colors in the movie. So
balloon...
you need to see when you can.
Junyi
I saw the movie called
Sarah.
That's the end.
The Red Balloon. It's about a little
Rose.
That's how it ends.
boy about the balloon and kept fol-
Yongsik.
That's how it ended.
lowing the boy. I think it has deeper
meaning to the movie than what it
These words may be indica-
actually happened but I can't really
tions of a conventionalized way of
get the whole point. But at the end,
he flied with lots of balloon.
27
Comparison of Oral Narrative Styles in Korea and the U. S.
only what was going on in the vi-
I just watched the movie
Yongsik.
sual images. In Korean, Yongsik
named The Red Balloon. And I
took a viewer's perspective and
heard that the movie was made in
described not only what was go-
France in 1956 and got kind of prize
ing on at a given time but also
from International Movie Festival.
what would be going on. In En-
But that movie was really boring.
glish, he just focused on what was
Don't ever watch this movie.
going on at a given time.
In contrast, Rose summa-
rized the story in the first three
[Korean] He's climbing
Yongsik
up the lamppost. Of course, there
sentences. After that, however, her
will be a big red balloon up in the
response was not much different
lamppost. [The red balloon does
from the one she offered for Ques-
not appear in the scene yet.]
tion 1, except that she narrated the
[English] The movie
Yongsik
story in a more lively fashion. In-
terestingly, she brought up the
just began. The one little boy ap-
scene in which the boy happened
pears in the screen.
to see a girl with a blue balloon;
Rose also took a viewer's
she had not mentioned this scene
perspective in her introductory
in her response to Question 1. In
remarks, saying, "This is the old
this response, she seemed to want
to add appeal to her narrative by
French film called The Red Balloon."
However, she never mentioned the
pointing out that the red balloon
followed after the blue balloon, word film again and just described
what was going on.
just as a boy might follow after a
girl.
Strategies of Second Language
And it will always be his
Rose.
Learners
balloon, except that there's another
Before beginning their nar-
girl who is walking around that had
ration, Miyeon, Junyi, and Yongsik
a blue balloon. It seemed to be the
asked for some time to organize
same way. They bump each other.
their thoughts, and they spent
more time in organizing their
Her balloon flies out of her hand and
chases back, because it seems that
thoughts than the native speakers
they like each other, like boys and
did. They used more filled pauses
girls.
(the interjection of "um"), hesita-
tions, and drawls, indications that
they needed more time to plan
Responses to Question 3: The
their narration and to avoid errors.
On-Line Task.
Miyeon's speaking proficiency
All five participants with
was the lowest among the subjects,
the exception of Yongsik described
and she had the highest frequency
28
Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education
of fillers, such as um and no! no!
sational settings that are not en-
She especially temporized with
tirely natural.
um's when she was confronted
In this research, Questions
with challenging verbal tasks.
1, 2, and 3 were carried out in se-
quence; therefore, the subjects
could have anticipated what
He could not enter the
Miyeon
would be required of them in the
school and classroom with red bal-
in-line task. For example, Yongsik
loon. (um) He go home.
. . .
narrated not only what was hap-
Miyeon had plenty to say,
pening at a given point in the story,
but she realized that her vocabu-
but also projected ahead from that
lary was too small for her to ex-
point to later consequences or re-
press her thoughts. Her use of the
lated action in the story. Thus, the
filler um signals the psychological
order of the tasks could have in-
process of "holding the floor"
fluenced the results.
while she simultaneously plans
the continuation of her narrative.
DISCUSSION
These nonnative speakers
The study shows that the
did not make any major language
subjects interpreted and repro-
errors except those in respect to
duced narratives from different
tense and lexicon. This and their
tasks in different ways; within any
use of filled pauses indicate they
given task, however, the native
engaged
actively
in
were
and nonnative speakers re-
metacognitive processing to plan
sponded similarly.
what they could say with the few-
The responses of the re-
est errors. However, it seems that
search subjects to the three ques-
narration in the L2 strained their
tions represented three different
abilities enough that errors in
tasks. When answering Question
tenses persisted.
1, "What happened in the movie?"
participants tended to interpret the
LIMITATIONS
question as a memory task. When
The researcher asked the
answering Question 2, "What
subjects to narrate the story as if
could you tell your friends who
the addressee had not seen the
have not seen the movie?" the re-
movie. Nevertheless, the subjects,
spondents tended to interpret the
especially the Korean speakers,
question as requiring a summary
presumed that the addressee (the
and evaluation. They developed
researcher, in this case) already
their narratives conversationally
knew the story. Consequently, a
and tried to instill in the listener
limitation of this study is that the
an interest in the story. In Question
data were gathered from conver-
3, the on-line task, participants
narrated the action as it unfolded.
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