The role of speech and thought presentation in the comprehension and appreciation of English prose fiction

This study aimed at investigating the effect of speech and thought presentation on the comprehension and appreciation of English prose fiction. With this aim in mind, 42 (forty two) third year students from English Language Teaching Department of Çukurova University were chosen as participants, and they were submitted firstly a questionnaire in which their reading habits (both in Turkish and English) were questioned. In this questionnaire, the participants? self image of themselves as to being a good reader of Turkish and English Literature were also investigated. After this questionnaire, the participants were presented three different tasks based on each of the six extracts (taken from five novels and one short story) in which their comprehension and appreciation of the extracts were probed in relation to the point of view and speech and thought presentation modes encompassed in those extracts. While the first task focused on the general understanding of the extract and the point of view of it, the second extract asked the participants to identify whose point of view (perspective) is expressed in each sentence (totally 27 sentences in each extract). The third task comprises of 18 (eighteen) questions the locus of which is on the comprehension and appreciation of the extracts. In addition to the questionnaire and those three tasks, the researcher had the opportunity to interview with some participants- since the tasks were distributed one at a time- in order to clarify the answers they had written. As a result of the data collection process, the obtained data were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively.The results of this study present in-depth insights into how non-native speakers of English (Turkish speakers in this study) are affected by the speech and thought presentation modes in English prose fiction. In addition, it provides implications for English Language Teaching context in order to overcome the difficulties the participants experienced.Keywords: Narratology, Speech and Thought Presentation, Point of View, English Prose Fiction, Comprehension, Appreciation, Reading Habits.