Extended discourse in the foreign language classroom: From the perspective of narratives of Japanese learners of English

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The purpose of this study is to examine the development of extended discourse skills in Japanese learners of English by focusing on narratives gathered through an English language program at a Japanese university. Regarding foreign language learners of English, basic narrative skills are important for both speaking and writing. A variety of both written and spoken narratives (e.g., personal narratives, fictional narratives, elicited narratives, collaborative narratives) will be collected. Narratives will be analyzed in terms of (1) narrative organization (e.g., cohesion, referential structure), and (2) evaluative language (e.g., frames of mind, hedges). Both cross-sectional (by year and proficiency level) and longitudinal analyses will be conducted. In addition, comparisons between different types of narratives (e.g., personal narratives, fictional narratives) will be conducted. Lastly, the narratives will be organized into a L2 learner corpus of narratives which will contribute to second language research and pedagogy.During FY2022, the main focus of the project was data collection. Spoken and written narratives of various types (i.e., elicited narratives, personal narratives, fictional narratives, collaborative narratives) were collected from approximately 300 university students. Transcription and data analysis have commenced. One publication on collaborative narratives has been written, based on preliminary results.