A Narrative Discourse Analysis of an Indonesian L2

Learner’s Account

Didin Nuruddin Hidayat, Asep Mutaqin Abror, Alek, and Zaharil Anasy

UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta

Keywords: Narrative Analysis, Labovian’s model, Discourse, L2 Learner.

Abstract: The study analyzes narrative writing by an Indonesian L2 learner describing her English life account by

using Labovian model of structural narrative analysis and supported by Elli’s theory in learning strategy.

The L2 user’s account on using English experience is the subject analysis of the present study. She was

selected because she represents an Indonesian L2 learner who has had experience in using English since

early childhood. The study shows that the learner’s account appeared to be able to figure out various events.

It is indicated by 38.80% gained by Resolution (R) and 19.15% was reached by Conflicting Action (CA).

Meanwhile, the evaluation (E) reached up to 17%. The result of the study was then solidated by referencing

Elli’s theory of unlocking the story saying that the learner experience in using English was started from

learners’ curiosity. This study subject sense of curiosity is, then, later found to be supported by her mother

who taught English pronunciation to her since she was little. As the result of her curiosity and support from

her mother, further, she experiences such dynamic motivation and strategies, behaviouristic learning style,

social and affective learning strategy, and gains resultative motivation respectively as stages experienced by

her.

1 INTRODUCTION

Discourse analysis notion presently has turned

the attention of many researchers in educational

research field. Study of discourse -characterized as

language being used, the connection among content

and setting, the ideological impacts of discourse, or

the manners in which that activities and messages

past language are an indispensable piece of

significance making-has improved people’s

collective comprehension of educating and learning

forms.Especially in foreign language teaching,

discourse analysis in which employing narrative

analysis has drawn linguists and educational

researchers attention to further investigate its role in

foreign language education.

Narrative research in language teaching and

learning (LTL) as a part of discourse analysis deal

with the story of educators and students tell about

their lived and envisioned encounters. Teachers

regularly tell about their professional improvement

and their practices, and students about their

encounters of learning and utilizing language. What

stories are, and for sure what narrative research is,

notwithstanding, stays a long way from settled upon

in LTL study. There is no widely inclusive meaning

of narrative research, and this is likely in light of the

fact that a similar circumstance exists in different

orders from which experimental work in LTL draws

its hypothetical and methodological presumptions

and methodologies.

As narrative has also been considered as a

ground-breaking technique for catching the mind

boggling procedures of figuring out how to teach

(Richert, 2002) narrative has been an inseparable

factor in foreign language teaching, especially

English in classroom setting. Moreover, it has been

claimed that narratives "reveal how teachers engage

in the construction of narratives about themselves in

the context of their schools, classrooms, and

communities, as well as the current political context

of their teaching and learning to teach" (Schultz &

Ravitch, 2013, p. 37). As Olson and Craig (2009)

argued, narratives can also enlighten the specific

encounters of people. They contrast "small stories"

with the grand "mega-narratives" in education and

draw the attention to the significance of

neighborhood and particularized stories that live in

the communications between people, including

teachers and learners. The overall stories of

Hidayat, D., Abror, A., Alek, . and Anasy, Z.

A Narrative Discourse Analysis of an Indonesian L2 Learner’s Account.

DOI: 10.5220/0009836000530064

In Proceedings of the 7th Inter national Conference on English Language Teaching, Linguistics and Literature (ELITE 2019) - Promoting Global Diversity, Partnership and Prosperity through

English Development, pages 53-64

ISBN: 978-989-758-459-6

responsibility and institutionalization, they argue,

regularly eclipse little stories. It has additionally

been demonstrated that teachers use narrative as a

site of instructor information to build their own

understandings of their calling (Rex, 2011).

In the Indonesian contextwhere, as Lauder

(2008) mentionedEnglish with its status as a foreign

language, is agreed to be the first second language to

teach at the secondary level, narrative analysis could

take place as an important piece of the foreign

language acquisition. The policy of making English

to be taught at secondary level, thus, is believed to

bring such consequences to every learner to

experience in using English. Wefind various L2

learner performances in English proficiency. Based

on our personal experiences, some learners assume

English as a difficult subject to learn, while some

others consider English as a moderate subject to

comprehend, and the others, consist of relatively few

and rare, consider English just like the back of their

hand. The last type of learners even performs

English just slightly like English native user. To

Saville-Troike’s (2008) perspective, the last type of

learners is assumed to be a successful learner than

others.

In the present study, we focus to analyze one of

L2 learners case where according to our observation

possesses a relatively sufficient skills of English in

both spoken and written forms.The subject of the

study who becomes a subject of the analysis is

considered to experience English more than her

peers. Her English proficiency level is confirmed by

her various tests results and achievement. In the

tenth grade, she achieved an impressive score for a

TOEFL-like prediction test (647 out of 677), a high

score compared to her peers which only has an

average below 500. She also won the second

position in a nationwide competition of Spelling Bee

Competition held by a leading Indonesian university

in 2016. When she was in the eleventh grade, she

achieved IELTS prediction test 7 of 9. Of these

achievements, we found if the learnerappears

tosufficiently master English language above the

average of Indonesian high school students’

standard.

Another issue grounding on the present study is

by Government regulation setting up English as the

first foreign language to learn among other foreign

languages (Yufrizal, 2017). Thus, the Indonesian

government, through Ministry of Education

(MoE)includes English as one of the main subjects

to learn in senior high school. Specifically in its

curriculum, every learner in senior high school will

have to learn one of the writing genres, Recount

Text.This sort of genre tries to reveal the story of

one’s self (Mulatsih, 2018).This genre tells about the

story happened in the past (Kamil,

Komariah,&Natsir, 2017). Then, Wette (2017)

argued that to be able to produce a good recount text,

the learners need to deal with various aspects, such

as schematic structure, tenses, and key concepts that

is usually used in this type of genre. Therefore,

considering the abovementioned issue, we are

interested in conducting a study to unpack some

issues contained in an account ‘My English Life’

written by the identified L2 learner mentioned

previously.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The point of the semantic investigation of a content

is to attract the learners' attention to and to raise

his/her enthusiasm for the content's linguistic

properties. So as to think about on a linguistic model

to narrative, it should first be completely agreed

upon what the term "narrative" really implies. While

characterizing narrative, Labovand Waletzky (1967)

feature the ideas of revealing past occasions and

worldly crossroads. To them, comprehension of the

transient association and assessment of story are

critical. Toprak (1992) highlighted that lexical and

syntactic angles and the portrayal of discourse

classes structure a linguistic investigation. There are

a few etymologists who concentrate the linguistic

structure of narrative. Among them is Labov (1972),

who proposed a six-section examination of the oral

account of individual experience: abstract,

orientation, complicating action, coda, evaluation,

and result or resolution

With unique reference to Labov (1997), the six-

section structure of a full-fledged oral story might be

placed as:

1. Abstract: What, more or less, is this tale

about?

2. Orientation: Who, when, where, what?

3. Complicating action: Then what happened?

4. Evaluation: So what, how is this

fascinating?

5. Result or resolution: What at last occurred?

6. Coda: That's it, I've completed and am

'spanning' back to our current circumstance.

The discipline of narrative analysis has grown

from that point forward. For example, Fludernik

(1996) advances Labov and Waletzky's work by

underlining that normal account has two

fundamental levels: the open level between the

speaker and the recipient, and the story level. The

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primary level empowers the progress to the best

possible recounting the story, for example to the

subsequent level. In this demonstration of talking,

the story is being described and the crucial

foundation for the occasions that are going to happen

is being presented. Additionally, the conversational

trades may show up rather than the episode response

arrangement. Labov (1972) contrasts narrative from

any discussion about the past or occasions and match

it with paradigmatic in that the storyteller moves

involvement to the group of spectators. In this sense,

to be a narrative, talk ought to implant an

arrangement of statements coordinating a grouping

of genuine occasions.

Since narrative discourse is integral to the way

humans shape and show their understanding of

knowledge and experience, it is widespread in most

contexts dealing with social interaction. Brunner

(1997), for example, contrasts and complements two

modes of thought which seek to convince

interlocutors: one is the logic-scientific mode which

deals with general causes and their establishment,

and the other is the narrative mode which seeks to

validate experience through verisimilitude. Scholars

have also emphasized on the job of account request

in educational practice and research (Rex, 2011).

It is due to this importance that narrative analysis

as a genre has gained its reputation as one of the

major areas of inquiry within the broad field of

discourse analysis (Thornborrow, 2012). In contrast

to a much wider body of work on teachers' narrative

analysis research in general education, the studies

dealing with this issue are surprisingly scarce in the

field of applied linguistics and L2 education.

Pishghadam, Golparvar and Khajavy (2013)

investigated the role of narrative intelligence in the

accomplishment of English language teachers with

respect to gender and major. 753 English language

instructors and students partook in his study. Scales

of narrative intelligence and teacher achievement

were utilized to assemble information. The

discoveries demonstrated that there existed a huge

connection between teachers' academic adequacy

and their narrative intelligence. In addition, EFL

teachers who studied English literature demonstrated

a larger amount of account knowledge. In addition,

there was no factually huge contrast among male and

female teachers regarding account insight.

In another study, Fojkar, Skela, and Kovac

(2013) reported the discoveries of a study which was

led among grade school English language teachers in

Slovenia and aimed at uncovering their frames of

mind toward the utilization of narrative in showing

English as a foreign language to youngsters. The

examination results demonstrated that most teachers

used narratives when teaching English, and that

teachers who mostly utilized storytelling or story

reading techniques in their teaching. In spite of the

way that the teacher partaking in their investigation

knew about the significance of accounts in showing

English as a foreign language to children, they

guaranteed that there was still a ton to be finished

concerning the selection of the stories, the describing

procedures and the post-narration exercises.

Anotherrelated study is written by Abdellah

(2014) on Foreign Language Learning Recounts

demonstrated by Two Egyptian Muslim Religious

Intellectuals: A Narrative Education Discourse

Analysis. It is assumed to throw a light to a study of

analyzing and judging account on ones’ story in

acquiring and learning second language (L2) through

narrative inquiry. Some strong points are identified

to be recommended for the future research, such as

area of focus that can be easily identified from the

script, e.g. psychology of learning and learning style,

tracing learning strategies, and self-strategy of L2

learners. These points are theoretically in line with

one of the Discourse Analysis studies which is about

theme or context being discussed in a text (Gee,

2011). Another strong point yielded by this article is

the way Abdellah (2014) analyzed and interpreted

the data.

We found Abdellah had an impressive capacity

in analyzing and interpreting the script. He

demonstrated such a detail and in-depth analysis

toward values and cultures laying beyond the script.

Furthermore, Abdellah could demonstrate his ability

in analyzing the data that is yielded by Webster and

Mertova (2007) such as categorizing data, linking

the data of two different scripts and connecting

categories of data. Thus, he could provide such

similarities and differences of the story

tellersaccount on learning a foreign language. To

our point of view, Abdellah (2014) confirmed with

Paton’s statement (2002) if the quality of qualitative

study resulted from the quality of researcher’s

intellectuality. However, the study carried out did

not appear to demonstrate firm triangulation

technique. As what the reader understood, Abdellah

only analyzed and interpreted the account on two

scholars experience in learning L2 through the

written account. To the writers, the triangulation

technique could be carried out by tracing live

witness or family that is believed to have such

related information on how both scholars learn

Second Language (L2). Yet, the study illuminates to

various L2 learning process and alternative that

provides promising references to any second

A Narrative Discourse Analysis of an Indonesian L2 Learner’s Account

language (L2) learner and to the teaching and

learning process of L2 nevertheless.

Another similar study was carried out by Khalil

(2017). The study tried to seek the effectiveness of

narrative story ‘My mom only had one eye’ by using

six Labov’s Narrative Structures (1972) as the

present study pursued as well. The script was taken

from internet. Whilst the popularity of the story

appeared to be a thought-provokingissue attracting

the writer to conduct such a study. The result of the

study revealed that the narrative script ‘My Mom

only had one eye’ employed six type of narrative

structure offered by Labov. What is more, evaluating

is one of the structures existed in whole of the script

line. This issue was, then, considered as the root why

it was well-known widely.

3 METHOD

To conduct the present study, we investigated

written texts by employing Narrative Discourse

Analysis using Labovian’s model (1972) of narrative

structural analysis consisting of six structures;

Abstract (A), Orientation (O), Conflicting Action

(CA), Evaluation (E), Resolution (R), and Coda.

Every line in the account was separated and coded in

accordance with the six structures of narrative used

by Labov (1972) mentioned above.

As stated by Gerrig (2018), a narrative method is

defined as a study of recapping past event by

transforming real world events to verbal series. To

gain strong result, then, the result of the study will

be triangulated by adopting Elli’s Learning Theory

Strategy (1997) : (1) Cognitive strategies which

cause learners analyze, synthesize and transform

learning material such as recombining a meaningful

sentence by connecting such elements; (2) Meta-

cognitive strategies; (3) Social and affective

strategies.

The subject of the present study was an L2

learner of senior high school grade XII ofan Islamic

high school in Jakarta. This learner becomes a focus

of the present study since the learner has written an

account of her experience in exploring Englishas an

L2 in which it is considered as a successful story of

English acquisition in her age.

4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

There are some findings identified from the present

study appearing to illuminate the light toward

English education area gained through either

Labov’s (1972)model of narrative structureor Elli’s

theory (1997)of learning strategy.

4.1 Findings

As suggested by Labov (1972), the story is divided

into two parts: abstract and actual narrative. The first

part employs six structure models introduced by

Labov. This part is considered abstract since it builds

the ground of the whole story. In this part, the

readers might recognize if the story will be about

events how the learner got so well in both speaking

and writing in English. This part also serves to draw

readers’ attention to keep reading. In doing so, the

writer puts some temporal junction reflecting act and

effect indicated by clauses connected by using ‘and’

and ‘And for that’. Furthermore, in the end of the

first part, the writer hooks the reader’s attention by

writing ‘I shall now start the story’ (SeeAppendix,

Section I Part I.8).

Part 2 is identified as an actual narrative. That is

said this part is started with key concepts that mostly

used by every recount text in every beginning of the

story. As it said with the following line: ‘It all began

on one sunny day, when I was still about a year

old’andBack then, Iwas easily fascinated by anything

and everything. Everyone’s faces, butterflies, paint,

anything you can imagine (See Appendix Section I

Part I 9 &10).Due to the line inform about time,

actor, and a situation, this line is indicated to be

Orientation (O).

Table 1: Labovian’s Model of Narrative Structures

No Six Model Freq Percentage

1 Abstract

(

)

3 3.2%

2 Orientation

(

)

10 10.64%

Complicating

Action (CA)

18 19.15%

4 Evaluation

(

)

16 17%

5 Resolution

(

)

36 38.80%

6 Coda 1 2%

According to the table, Resolution (R) has the

highest percentage gained from the analysis of the

story. It reaches up to 38.80%. Meanwhile,

Complication Analysis (CA) gains19.15% which

stands as the second highest percentage followed by

Evaluation (E) obtains 17%. This is almost close to

the CA. The fourth position with 10.64% belongs to

Orientation whilst the two lowest percentage is

gained by Abstract and Coda with 3.2% and 2%,

respectively.

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The result also implies that, the writer did not

give a lot of information regarding the Orientation

(O) which fundamentally informs place, actor,

situation, time or action in the story (Khalil, 2017).

This is considered that the capacity of Conflicting

Action (CA) and its Resolution (R) together with the

Evaluation (E) are considered more dominant than

the rest three narrative structures Orientation,

Abstract, and Coda. From this case, we assume the

learner tends to explore events in her story rather

than exploring her as a subject of the story.

Meanwhile, Elli’s Theory of learning strategy

resulted various value and background occupied by

the learner. The account reveals that the learner

gains such both intrinsic motivation and extrinsic

one when using exploring English. The intrinsic one

is indicated by her line: I was easily fascinated by

anything and everything. Meanwhile, the extrinsic

one is triggered by her mother as in line:since my

mother is a child’s first and most important teacher,

I listened and became more interested in the English

language. She also experiences such self-direction

when dealing with English. This self-of direction is

emerged from her mother’s condition who was not

available anymore to teach her English. Thus, she

appeared to manage herself to find another way to

fulfill her need (See Appendix Section II, Analysis 3).

Not only does she occupy various motivations in

dealing with English, she also explores her English

to maintain communication and relationship in her

community. Furthermore, her English competences,

speaking and writing indicated to show positive

progress when she joinedand won an English

competition (See Appendix Section II, Analysis6 &

8).

4.2 Discussions

In terms of story line, the learner appears to be able

to maintain and keep readers’ attention by frequently

telling various sequencesindicated by CA and R with

38.80% and 19.15% respectively. Thus, readers may

experience dynamic tension when reading the story

from cover to cover accordingly. To put it another

way, according to Manzheleevskaya(2017)a conflict

may serve to attract reader’s interest.This condition

also implies that, in the real world, the learner may

find a lot of events which have something to do with

her English exploration. The same condition also

happens to the end of such events indicating whether

the event is accomplished or otherwise. The

percentage between CA and R is almost a half in

range. It is implied that the CA is responded twice or

more.

As Labov (1997) mentions, “a clause of

complicating action is a sequential clause that

reports the next event in response to a potential

question, ‘And what happened [then]?’ ” (Labov,

1997). It constructs pressure to keep the group of

spectators tuning in (Johnstone, 2001). In regards to

resolution (R), Labov (1997) argued that the

resolution of an individual account is the

arrangement of complicating actions that pursue the

most reportable occasion.' While Labov and

Waletzky (1967) consider the resolution of an

account as just the endings, in Johnstone's (2001)

adds up claiming it as the outcome or or resolution

discharges the strain and determines what at last

occurred.

What make the result of the present study offers

a strong message is indicated by the top three

percentages of Labov’s model of Narrative Structure

(1967), this finding brings such an implication if the

learners always figured out various sequences of

events represented by 38.80% gained by Resolution

(R). As in the narrative analysis offered by Labov,

Resolution (R) indicated the release of the tension

toward the sequences of events (Khalil, 2017).

Meaning that, she always manages with such a way

to experience English in her life. However, not only

does the writer overcome diverse events but also she

always tries to involve her interest and emotion

toward the event indicated by the Evaluation

reaching up to 17%. Labov (1997) mentioned

evaluation explaining that evaluation of a narrative

event is information on the consequences of the

event for human needs and desires (Labov,1997).

Johnstone (2001) suggests that it frequently precedes

the result or resolution and comprises of conditions

featuring the fascinating or un-ordinary occasions. It

makes the story teller continues talking and the

group of spectators continue tuning in. What a

storyteller needs to do is to assess occasions by

contrasting them and the ones out of an elective

reality that was not in fact realized. The references to

occasions that did not happen, might have happened,

or would happen, fill an evaluative need. They are

the comparatives, modals, negatives, and superlative

expressions. The utilization of likeness or similitude

likewise demonstrates assessment when these

happen in narrative clauses (Labov&Waletzky,

1967).

The result of the present studyseems to

besolidated when it is triangulated by the theory of

learning strategies introduced by Ellis (1997). The

result of the analysis implied that the learner appears

to experience various events provoking her to be

interested in exploring English. To put it another

A Narrative Discourse Analysis of an Indonesian L2 Learner’s Account

way, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and

self-directed learning demonstrated by the learner

seems to support the statistical data gained by R and

CA with 38.80% and 19.15%, respectively. These

two figures imply that there is a close connection

happening in the real world of the learner reflecting

such action causing effect of actions to the verbal

series of events portrayed in the story. To put it

another way, the story consists of a lot of temporal

junctions showing clauses indicating action linked to

some other clauses indicating the effect of the action

(Khalil, 2017).

5 CONCLUSION

To recapitulate,the six structures model of narrative:

Abstract,Orientation,Complicating Action,

Evaluation,Resolution, and Coda, introduced by

Labov exists in the account of the students.

However, the distribution of each structure varies in

which Resolution gains the highest percentage while

Coda reaches the smallest percentage. Meanwhile, in

terms of educational value revealed from the text

unlocked various issues yielding that the learner

faced various eventsenabling her to explore

considerable English. It goes hand in hand with high

percentage which is shown by both Complicating

Action and Resolution.

The study to a written narrative analysis related

to educationis indicated to be promising in

unleashing the value or culture delivered by writers.

Therefore, further research toward similar issues is

suggested in order to obtain various values or culture

reflected by writers. This is important since

education in Indonesia faces various challenges to

overcome. Thus, those expected generated values or

culturesfrom diverse stories may provide valuable

input in improving and the quality of education

especially in English language education in

Indonesia.To put it another way, analysis toward any

narrative texts investigatingfrom its linguistic

aspects without linking it to other educational frames

will remain rigid and appear to be purposeless.

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APPENDIX

Section I

Part I

Abstract

1. Hello there, how are you? Let me introduce

myself. (A)

2. My name is Diana Fathiah (pseudonym), but you

can call me Diana. (O)

3. I’m a normal Indonesian high school learner

who doesn’t think that her life is anything

special. (O)

4. But due to certain circumstances, (CA)

5. I will write the story of my life. Or, more

specifically, my English life. (R)

6. You see, apparently, one of the things I’m good

at is English, (A)

7. and some of my teachers and friends want to

know how I got so well in both speaking and

writing. (E)

8. And for that, I shall now start the story. (E/R)

Part II

Actual Narrative

9. It all began on one sunny day, when I was still

about a year old. ( O )

10. Back then, I was easily fascinated by anything

and everything. Everyone’s faces, butterflies,

paint, anything you can imagine. (O)

11. But it all started when I watched a TV show that

was talking about grapes. (CA)

12. Since I was still a young child, (CA)

13. I couldn’t spell it out right. (R)

14. It came out as a simple “Greip”. (R)

15. My mother, who heard me saying this, told me

the correct way to say it. (R)

16. Since my mother is a child’s first and most

important teacher, (CA)

17. I listened and became more interested in the

English language. (R)

18. My mother continued to teach me English. (R)

19. But,since my mother was working out a lot,

(CA)

20. I didn’t get many chances to learn from her. (R)

21. So instead, I watched TV. (R)

22. The TV channels in my house had subtitles,

(CA)

23. so I don’t have to worry about what the show

was talking about. (R)

24. And because of that, I became fluent in English

at the age of 3. (R)

25. Most people would call me a prodigy, (CA)

26. but I don’t think I am. (E)

27. As for the reason, I will show it later. (R)

28. Continuing on, as I keep watching the TV

channels, (CA)

29. I came to understand more information and

words. (R)

30. I also read some English books to widen my

knowledge. (CA)

31. Other than that, me and my family communicate

with each other in English. (CA)

32. And while it seems like a good Idea to keep

doing such things, (E)

33. it did bring some unwanted attention from other

people. (R)

34. Being an introvert, (CA)

35. I shy away from others. (R)

36. But since the thought of a young child being

able to speak English is interesting, and useful,

(CA)

37. My friends began to use me as a translator and a

dictionary, asking me questions and sometimes

asking me the answers for the English tests. (R)

38. Since telling answers to a test is wrong, (CA)

39. I never gave them the answers. (R)

40. And because of that, my friends disliked me, (E)

41. and left me alone. (R)

A Narrative Discourse Analysis of an Indonesian L2 Learner’s Account

42. Don’t get me wrong, (A)

43. I know that it counts as bullying, (E)

44. since alienating a person is bad, (CA)

45. but I liked being alone, (E)

46. so I didn’t have too much problems on it. (E)

47. Years passed, and my little sister was born

shortly before I became a junior high school

learner. (O)

48. Since me and my family always communicate

with each other in English, (CA)

49. the side-effect was a one year old baby that

could fluently speak English (E)

50. ….and couldn’t speak Indonesian until she was

around 6 years old. (E)

51. Moving on, I never stopped my love for

interesting things, (O)

52. and I kept looking for information and such on

subjects that I apparently was eyeing on, and

came to know many things. (O)

53. And since many information came in English,

(CA)

54. The side-effect of my passion was me learning

more English words and expanding my horizon.

(R)

55. Not only that, I also learned new words from

games and songs, specifically Japanese songs

that uses English subtitles. (R)

56. But, even so, since I was mostly alone for a

major part of my life, (CA)

57. I couldn’t speak in front of others. (R )

58. I could only speak to people I trust, such as the

native speaker from Poland that came to my

school, Mrs. Tish. (R)

59. Other than her, I could only speak English

confidently with teachers. (R)

60. This changed, though, after my school held a

competition for story-telling in English. (CA)

61. My class picked me (CA)

62. because of my fluency in English. (R)

63. So I had no choice but to comply. (R)

64. Even though I was nervous, (CA)

65. my teachers encouraged me to speak in front.

(E)

66. And after the competition was done, (CA)

67. I won 2

place on it. (R)

68. Needless to say, it raised my confidence, even if

just a little. (E)

69. Time passed, and I became a high schooler. (O)

70. Since the school appreciates English, (CA)

71. they held an English program for the new

learners. (R)

72. It lasted for about 2 weeks. (O)

73. At the 2

week, there was another native

speaker that came. (O/CA)

74. I spoke to the speaker countless times, sharing

some stories and sharing information. (R)

75. Seeing this, many learners then became

interested in me, (R)

76. and since the people at the school are all

friendly people, (CA)

77. they were able to be friends with me, not using

me as a tool for their own wishes. (R)

78. And because of that I gained more confidence

and was able to speak with other people in

English more comfortably. (E)

79. After the English program, the new learners also

had a pre-test TOEFL test. (CA)

80. I did the test, (R)

81. and apparently my score was 647. (CA)

82. My homeroom teacher, an English teacher,

noticed this and took an interest in entering me

to English competitions. (R)

83. and when it was the 2

semester of my

freshman year, (CA)

84. he entered an upperclassman and me to a

competition The ALSA E-COMP competition.

(R)

85. I signed for the spelling bee competition. (R)

86. And won 2

place. (R)

87. I thought it was not a big deal… (E)

88. until my teacher told me that it was a national

competition, meaning the competitors not only

came from Jakarta, but they came from all parts

of Indonesia. (CA)

89. Hearing this, a mixed feeling of shock and

relieve came. (E)

90. It’s a good thing he told me after the

competition was done, (CA)

91. since if he told me that first, I would’ve refused

the offer. (E)

92. And because of this, I was able to overcome

(some) of my shyness and am now able to speak

more confidently. (R)

93. And because of that, my English became more

fluent than before. (E)

94. And that is my English story. (Coda)

Section II

Story of My English Life

Indonesia L2 Learner

XI MIA I

Part 1 for Analysis 1

Hello there, how are you? Let me introduce

myself. My name is Diana Fathiah (pseudonym), but

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you can call me Diana. I’m a normal Indonesian

high school learner who doesn’t think that her life is

anything special. But due to certain circumstances, I

will write the story of my life. Or, more specifically,

my English life. You see, apparently, one of the

things I’m good at is English, and some of my

teachers and friends want to know how I got so well

in both speaking and writing. And for that, I shall

now start the story.

Analysis 1

This part of story is her opening story on

acquiring English. As we have read this first part,

there is no related information regarding with

Diana’s distinctive account in second language

acquisition. Yet there is one line saying that “…one

of the things I’m good at is English,….” To us, this

line reflects Diana’s belief toward her English

capacity. She seems to be really confident with her

English capacity. Needless to say, of her writing

style in this part, Diana has good capacity in

composing sentences. However, this study does not

focus on Diana’s language corpora. Instead, this

study only investigatesDiana’s life story in acquiring

English language.

Part 2 for Analysis 2

It all began on one sunny day, when I was still

about a year old. Back then, I was easily fascinated

by anything and everything. Everyone’s faces,

butterflies, paint, anything you can imagine. But it

all started when I watched a TV show that was

talking about grapes. Since I was still a young child,

I couldn’t spell it out right. It came out as a simple

“Greip”. My mother, who heard me saying this, told

me the correct way to say it. Since my mother is a

child’s first and most important teacher, I listened

and became more interested in the English

language. My mother continued to teach me English.

Analysis 2:

This part of story informs us that Diana in her

one year of age lived just like other normal toddlers

who are curious of something around their life. It is

indicated by the sentence “I was easily fascinated by

anything and everything.” However, there is one

thing that was impressed her to be curious more than

anything. It was a TV show which was talking about

grape. She imitated the word by pronouncing the

word “Greip”. Once her mother found her daughter

pronounced it wrong, her mother came to correct her

pronunciation. Furthermore, the role of her mother

went further; she went on teaching English to Diana.

Of this analysis there are briefly some

information of the first stage Diana acquired

English:

a. Self-Motivation/Intrinsic Motivation

It is all started by her inner motivation or to Ellis

(1997), it is called intrinsic motivation, a motivation

of being curious over something around her life until

she finally found something that was impressed her a

lot which was a TV show.

b. External Motivation

Diana gained a support from her mother. A

moment when she pronounced wrong on the word

‘grape’ and corrected by her mother, is believed to

be a starting moment for Diana to be interested more

in acquiring English. Furthermore, her mother kept

teaching her English on how to pronounce words

correctly. Diana found her get extra support from her

mother in learning and acquiring English. To Diana,

her mother taught English with full of entertainment

and fun.

Part 3 for Analysis 3

But, since my mother was working out a lot, I

didn’t get many chances to learn from her. So

instead, I watched TV. The TV channels in my house

had subtitles, so I don’t have to worry about what

the show was talking about. And because of that, I

became fluent in English at the age of 3. Most people

would call me a prodigy, but I don’t think I am. As

for the reason, I will show it later.Continuing on, as

I keep watching the TV channels, I came to

understand more information and words. I also read

some English books to widen my knowledge.

Analysis 3:

As mentioned previously,Diana’s mother always

taught her English pronunciation with fun. However,

since her mother worked a lot, she found that she did

not have any more chance to learn English. Thus,

she found an alternative way to learn and acquire

English which is watching TV show with subtitle.

Since she always watched TV shows, her English

went hand in hand with her ability just in three years

old.

What we understand from this part of story is

Diana kept listening to a TV show with a subtitle.

Besides, she also read some books. This activity is

considered to help Diana recognize more about

information and words in English.

A Narrative Discourse Analysis of an Indonesian L2 Learner’s Account

Of this analysis 3, it can be extracted that Diana

has:

a. Self-direction or Metacognitive Strategies

In her 3 years of age, Diana consciously was able

to find her way to learn and acquire English

whenever she found her mother not available to

teach her English. We believed that her self-

direction was influenced both by her curiosity and

her mother role in making her entertained and fun

when learning English. Ellis (1997) confirms that the

learning process carried out by Diana is called as

metacognitive process. A process where L2 learner

carried out such degree of cognitive and curious

maintenance consciously to acquire a language

through such expected input (Ellis, 1997).

b. Repetition/Behavior

Frequent exposure in acquiring English such as,

watching TV show and reading book help Diana to

be fluent in English. This sort of activities also

helpsDiana to understand more information and

words meaning. Besides, repetition helps Diana

acquired bold and contextual understanding toward

word uses.

Of Diana’s process in acquiring language

through TV shows, it is important to note that

repetition is one of learning styles that helps learner

acquires language from the stage of rigorous to

automaticity.

Furthermore, Ellis (1997) argues that language

acquisition is emerged through silent period such as;

listening and reading. The researcher agrees if

listening and reading are sort of activity that help L2

learner acquire language because in this activities,

L2 learner’s brain actively process such spoken and

written code to understand. To put it another way,

learning to write or to speak do not make L2 users

acquire language, instead they just learn the code.

Further, Krashen (2013), claims that learning

language does not make L2 users acquire a language.

It just helps L2 users understand the concept of

second language instead.

c. External Help

Of this part of story, it is clear that her mother

becomes one of the references for Diana in acquiring

English. She always concerned toward the interest of

her daughter. Besides, it is also understood if

Diana’s mother was educated well in terms of

English.

Part 4 for Analysis 4

Other than that, I and my family communicate

with each other in English. And while it seems like a

good Idea to keep doing such things, it did bring

some unwanted attention from other people. Being

an introvert, I shy away from others. But since the

thought of a young child being able to speak English

is interesting, and useful, my friends began to use me

as a translator and a dictionary, asking me questions

and sometimes asking me the answers for the

English tests. Since telling answers to a test is

wrong, I never gave them the answers. And because

of that, my friends disliked me, and left me alone.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that it counts as

bullying, since alienating a person is bad, but I liked

being alone, so I didn’t have too much problems on

it. Years passed, and my little sister was born shortly

before I became a junior high school learner. Since

me and my family always communicate with each

other in English, the side-effect was a one-year old

baby that could fluently speak English….and

couldn’t speak Indonesian until she was around 6

years old.

Analysis 4:

This part of story reveals that social factor

influences L2 learner acquires a language. Of this

issue, not only was Diana supported by her exposure

English activities previously mentioned: watching

TV shows and reading, but also her micro

community, family, supported her English

acquisition. Krashen (2013) states that conversation

help L2 user acquires language because through this

activity, each speaker tries to encode and understand

the spoken language. Further, understanding the

spoken language can be identified when every

speaker response each other or does not have

difficulties when coding the spoken language.

Furthermore, her English capacity was also

recognized by her friends around. According to the

story, Diana with her English always helped friends

to give information regarding with English material.

Of this issue, Diana’s English is used as a tool of her

social life.

Of this analysis, it is clear that Diana found her

ways in using English as follow;

a. Conversation/Social and Affective Strategy

b. Social Trust toward Diana’s capacity

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Part 5 for Analysis 5

Moving on, I never stopped my love for

interesting things, and I kept looking for information

and such on subjects that I apparently was eyeing

on, and came to know many things. And since many

information came in English, the side-effect of my

passion was me learning more English words and

expanding my horizon. Not only that, I also learned

new words from games and songs, specifically

Japanese songs that uses English subtitles.

Analysis 5:

This part of story informs us that Diana’s

curiosity toward something is getting bigger and

bigger. Since any information available used in

English, then, Diana was provoked to learn English

more and more. Thus, as a side effect, she gained

more English words. Besides, to the writer’s

perspective, words she got were one package with

contextual used. Thus, she is able to use the word

either spoken or written contextually.

Another issue that make Diana got more English

words is her hobby; playing games and listening to

songs. From these activities, Diana also found

herself attain English words.

All things considered that curiosity and such

demands offered by games push Diana to figure out

by digesting such language used in information,

games, and songs. To Diana it is called as a side-

effect.

Part 6 for Analysis 6

But, even so, since I was mostly alone for a

major part of my life, I couldn’t speak in front of

others. I could only speak to people I trust, such as

the native speaker from Poland that came to my

school, Mrs. Tish. Other than her, I could only speak

English confidently with teachers. This changed,

though, after my school held a competition for story-

telling in English. My class picked me because of my

fluency in English. So I had no choice but to comply.

Even though I was nervous, my teachers encouraged

me to speak in front. And after the competition was

done, I won 2

place on it. Needless to say, it raised

my confidence, even if just a little.

Analysis 6:

This story reveals that Diana employed English

as a tool for communication and maintenance

relationship. To Ellis (1997) this strategy is called as

learning strategy, more particularly Social and

Affective strategy. Besides, this story also reflects

that Diana has experienced such motivation shift and

believe from intrinsic motivation to resultative

motivation. Resultative motivation is a motivation of

using L2 triggered by the result of her English

performance (Ellis, 1997). Her achievement grabbed

the 2

place in Story Telling competition is believed

to raise her confidence and build her English

performance.

Part 7 for Analysis 7

Time passed, and I became a high schooler.

Since the school appreciates English, they held an

English program for the new learners. It lasted for

about 2 weeks. At the 2

week, there was another

native speaker that came. I spoke to the speaker

countless times, sharing some stories and sharing

information. Seeing this, many learners then became

interested in me, and since the people at the school

are all friendly people, they were able to be friends

with me, not using me as a tool for their own wishes.

And because of that I gained more confidence and

was able to speak with other people in English more

comfortably.

Analysis 7:

With English activity offered in her school as a

prior activity in her first-year study, Diana found it

as a good chance to use her English as a tool of

maintaining social relationship; speaking with native

speaker, sharing some stories and information.

Besides, her senior school gives her good and

friendly people who respect her. These two

conditions make her feels comfortable to live and

confident to use her English more comfortably.

Of this interpretation, we concludethat English

program and good school community assist her to be

more comfortable in using English.

Part 8 for Analysis 8

After the English program, the new learners also

had a pre-test TOEFL test. I did the test, and

apparently my score was 647. My homeroom

teacher, an English teacher, noticed this and took an

interest in entering me to English competitions. And

when it was the 2

semester of my freshman year, he

entered an upperclassman and me to a competition.

The ALSA E-COMP competition. I signed for the

spelling bee competition. And won 2

place. I

thought it was not a big deal… until my teacher told

me that it was a national competition, meaning the

competitors not only came from Jakarta, but they

A Narrative Discourse Analysis of an Indonesian L2 Learner’s Account

came from all parts of Indonesia. Hearing this, a

mixed feeling of shock and relieve came. It’s a good

thing he told me after the competition was done,

since if he told me that first, I would’ve refused the

offer. And because of this, I was able to overcome

(some) of my shyness and am now able to speak

more confidently. And because of that, my English

became more fluent than before. And that is my

English story.

Analysis 8:

Ellis (1997) reveals that L2 learners will be

motivated to learn English more when they have

achieved a satisfying English score. To Ellis this

type of motivation is called as resultative motivation,

a motivation of learning English more as a result of

good English score.

Being the 2

winner in national competition has

made Diana becomes more motivated to learn

English. As indicated by her line ‘And won 2

place… because of this, I am now able to speak more

confidently. And because of that, my English became

more fluent than before.’

Part 9 for Analysis 9

What is the moral of this story?

…well, you can interpret it as however you like

it, but the main point is, you can speak English

fluently, or at least learn to, if you do it by doing the

things you love to do, since the base of learning one

thing comes from one’s passion on said subject. It

can come in many ways, either learning it by

watching a movie with subtitles, or playing a game

with some English words, anything. Just do it by

doing what you love. And I guarantee you will be

fluent in no time. Well, not literally, but you get the

idea.

Analysis 9:

Of the last part of Diana’s account on English

acquisition, she concludes that her satisfying English

capacity is gained through her passion toward

English. Thus, many ways in sharpening English are

possible to carry out. It is considered that she has

been interested in English since she was child.

However, there are two primary issues triggered her

to have apassion toward English:

a. Diana’s high curiosity over everything and

anything

b. Diana’s mother rule in teaching English

pronunciation to Diana

And so is the end of my story. Forgive me if there

is any words or notions that might upset you, as I am

learning to write a story, after all.

Thank you for reading.

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