Exploring Structures of Oral Personal-Experience Narratives of Female Egyptian EFL Learners

Abstract

Humans are born storytellers as they use oral narratives as a vehicle to share their experiences. This study aimed to study how female Egyptian speakers formulate their personal experiences in oral narratives in the English Language. A need of this study was felt because not much is known how Arab EFL speakers build their oral narratives when its structure is talked about. The sample of this study comprised 24 female students from an Egyptian university pursuing a program in English language and literature, divided equally into two groups of intermediate and advanced levels. By using a non-experimental mixed model research design, the data was collected through semi structured interviews. The quantitative results were based on Mann-Whitney Test, which compared two unpaired groups to investigate the differences between the frequencies of the moves in the oral narratives as well as their use of structural tools; while the qualitative results were obtained from the participants’ responses in the interview, which gave insight into how the participants formulated their narratives. Results show variations in the moves of narratives in both groups; however, there was no significant difference in the overall structure of each narrative. The study also attempted to compare the narrative structure of the female Egyptian EFL learners with that of their peers. It was found that there was no relationship between EFL proficiency and the structure of the narratives of female Egyptian at both advanced and intermediate levels. These findings will provide useful insights about the structural aspects of the oral narratives of Arab EFL learners.