Teaching the Narrative Essay: Embedding the Elements of Fiction

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.211224.004How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Literature and language learning; elements of fiction; the narrative essay; teaching writing

Abstract

The narrative essay belongs to chronological order, a way of organizing ideas regarding their occurrence in time. As a result, it requires a different set of writing skills from other types of essays: it is built out of sequential events of the narrative, not main ideas and supporting details. However, it is realized that the two writing coursebooks, Reason to Write (Intermediate) by Oxford (2005) and Great Writing 4 by Heinle Cengage Learning (2014), construct relatively vague guidance for students to build a narrative essay accordingly. This action research is, therefore, to bridge that gap, suggesting a literary approach to teaching that essay: embedding elements of fiction in the process. In this paper, the benefits of the method are discussed in terms of students’ language, organizational, and critical thinking skills. The findings from the students’ essays and surveys prove positive, from which insights are then taken into consideration. The implications of the method are that there exist opportunities and possibilities for applying literary theories into English teaching and learning.

Copyright

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Pham Thi Hong An
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/12/24
TI  - Teaching the Narrative Essay: Embedding the Elements of Fiction
BT  - Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Asia Association of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (AsiaCALL–2-2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 27
EP  - 39
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211224.004
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.211224.004
ID  - An2021
ER  -