Analysis of Narrative Essay Text in Pakistani ESL Learners with the LENS OF SFL

Abstract

This study explores how the narrative essay writing text employs transitivity structures to realize the experiential meanings, focusing on process types, participants, and circumstances within the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Simultaneously the study explores the ideational meta-functions in the narrative essay written texts by the university undergrads participants 20 in number. Under the ideational exploration the linguistic choices reflect he material and experiential focus at maximum level. A mixed-method approach was implemented for transitivity elements analysis of the narrative essay texts under the lens SFL (Systemic Functional Linguistics) a grammatical appraisal framework developed by Hlliday (1994) using a linguistic corpus tool UAM 3.3x version along with the additional help of the UAM 6.2 version of the linguistic corpus tool at the same time. The results manifested the material processes were dominant (N= 656, 13.5%), followed by relational (N=165, 3.4%) and mental (N= 138, 2.9%) processes. Participants (N=1397, 29.2%) and circumstances (N=744, 15.5%) were frequent, with actor, goal, and carrier as key roles. The narrative essay text prioritized factual description over introspective or interpersonal meanings. These results suggest the need for more balanced experiential representations in writing content of ESL Learning, and expose the underlying in depth meaning and ideological orientations contained in the narrative text.