Kathy and Mark Anderson (1997:1) defines that text is words that are put together to communicate meaning. When we speak or write to communicate a message it means that we are creating a text. In creating a text it requires us to make choices about words we use and how we put the together. .
Anderson and Anderson (2003:5-7) divide text types such as recount, narrative, explanation, discussion, literary poetry, and so on. Among those kind of texts as mentioned, based on the curriculum for junior high school students, there are only some of those texts introduced to the students of junior high school; they are narrative, recount, procedure, report, and descriptive. In this case, the teacher only focuses on narrative text because it is one of difficult text for students especially ninth grade students and the teacher assumes that it is very important for students to comprehend this text, not only for their preparation on National Exam but also for mastering English text as well.
According Garnett (2003: 7), a narrative text tells a story that may be based on the writer’s imagination or on facts. The purpose of a narrative is to entertain the reader.
Types of narratives are short stories, fables, modern fantasy, folktales, science fiction, legends, myths and play.
The features of Narratives are Orientation, Sequence of Events and Resolution. A narrative begins by setting the mood of the story to give the reader an “orientation” or starting point. An orientation tells the place, time, main character/s and other information. Sequence of Events is the main body of the story and describes an event or sequence of events which leads the character/s into a complication where the normal events are upset by some form of conflict. More than one complication may be created to frustrate the character/s in resolving the conflict. This heightens the sense of tension and anticipation in the reader. While in the resolution part, everything ends up happily or sadly after the problem/s or conflict/s are satisfactory resolved. In some narratives, the resolution may be left for the reader to decide.
The language features found in narrative texts are:
- nouns /pronoun
- adjectives forming noun phrase, e.g: long black hair, two red apples
- time connectives and conjunctions for sequencing event, e.g then, before that, etc.
- adverbs and adverbial phrases to show the place of the story, e.g here, in the mountain, happily ever after, etc.
- action verbs in past tense; stayed, lived
- saying verbs, for speech, e.g: said, told, and thinking verbs for thought and feeling of the characters, e.g: thought, felt, etc.
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