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Chapter 12. Narrative inquiry

Abstract

This chapter examines the key role that narratives have in human communication and engagement across cultures and as fertile analytical and methodological tools. Storytelling practices allow researchers to study speech participants’ visible and veiled interactional dynamics. Besides analyzing narratives for their content (“denotational text”), scholars have studied narratives also for their pragmatic effects in the here-and-now of speech participants’ interactions, or their “interactional text,” and across various spatiotemporal configurations. During their tellings, narrators can assume and reverse roles, for example. Moreover, narratives simultaneously shape and are shaped by their surrounding context. In this light, storytelling practices are actual speech events that are (co)created, and developed, and thus need to be studied as such because of their interactional nature.

Abstract

This chapter examines the key role that narratives have in human communication and engagement across cultures and as fertile analytical and methodological tools. Storytelling practices allow researchers to study speech participants’ visible and veiled interactional dynamics. Besides analyzing narratives for their content (“denotational text”), scholars have studied narratives also for their pragmatic effects in the here-and-now of speech participants’ interactions, or their “interactional text,” and across various spatiotemporal configurations. During their tellings, narrators can assume and reverse roles, for example. Moreover, narratives simultaneously shape and are shaped by their surrounding context. In this light, storytelling practices are actual speech events that are (co)created, and developed, and thus need to be studied as such because of their interactional nature.

Chapters in this book

  1. 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  4. Chapter 2. The Multiperspectival Approach to Applied Linguistic research 9
  5. Chapter 3. Implementing the Multiperspectival Approach (MPA) 30
  6. Chapter 4. Multimodality 49
  7. Chapter 5. Applying multimodal analysis 68
  8. Chapter 6. Conversation analysis 83
  9. Chapter 7. Doing conversation analysis 111
  10. Chapter 8. Grounded Theory 127
  11. Chapter 9. Applications of Grounded Theory in the field of Extensive Reading 149
  12. Chapter 10. Phenomenology 162
  13. Chapter 11. Phenomenology 180
  14. Chapter 12. Narrative inquiry 191
  15. Chapter 13. Narrative inquiry 206
  16. Chapter 14. Repertory grids 224
  17. Chapter 15. Repertory grids 246
  18. Chapter 16. Challenges and contributions of less frequently used methodologies 264
  19. Index 273
Less Frequently Used Research Methodologies in Applied Linguistics
This chapter is in the book Less Frequently Used Research Methodologies in Applied Linguistics
https://doi.org/10.1075/rmal.6.12per

Chapters in this book

  1. 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  4. Chapter 2. The Multiperspectival Approach to Applied Linguistic research 9
  5. Chapter 3. Implementing the Multiperspectival Approach (MPA) 30
  6. Chapter 4. Multimodality 49
  7. Chapter 5. Applying multimodal analysis 68
  8. Chapter 6. Conversation analysis 83
  9. Chapter 7. Doing conversation analysis 111
  10. Chapter 8. Grounded Theory 127
  11. Chapter 9. Applications of Grounded Theory in the field of Extensive Reading 149
  12. Chapter 10. Phenomenology 162
  13. Chapter 11. Phenomenology 180
  14. Chapter 12. Narrative inquiry 191
  15. Chapter 13. Narrative inquiry 206
  16. Chapter 14. Repertory grids 224
  17. Chapter 15. Repertory grids 246
  18. Chapter 16. Challenges and contributions of less frequently used methodologies 264
  19. Index 273
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