Perspective and Subjectivity in Students’ Narrative Reconstructions of Classroom Activities

Abstract

How do university students interpret learning activities in the classroom? How can we as teachers and researchers investigate how students construct meaning of these activities? These are two questions that this article seeks to answer. In mainstream second language acquisition, in order to maintain the appearance of objectivity, surveys and statistical analysis would be the only way attempted. However, is this the only way that human beings construct meaning? In everyday life, we cherish our experiences and also transmit these to others in narrative form. With this in mind, this research seeks to use the tools of narratology and its ideas of subjectivity and perspective to analyze two student-produced narratives. It is argued that student writers use various narrative strategies to create either sympathy or identification in the reader.