PENGERTIAN NARRATIVE TEXT

Pengertian Narrative Text

Narrative Text itu seperti apa? Disebutkan bahwa A narrative text is an imaginative story to entertain people (teks narasi adalah cerita imaginatif yang bertujuan menghibur orang). 

Jika melihat pada kamus bahasa Inggris, secara harfiah narrative bermakna (1) a spoken or written account of connected events; a story. (2) the narrated part of a literary work, as distinct from dialogue. (3) the practice or art of narration. 

(Narrative bermakna : 1. sebuah cerita baik terucap atau tertulis tentang peristiwa-peristiwa yang berhubungan. 2. bagian yang diceritakan dalam sebuah karya sastra, berbeda dengan dialog. 3. Praktik atau seni bercerita)

Jika disimpulkan, maka sebuah narrative text adalah teks yang berisi sebuah cerita baik tertulis ataupun tidak tertulis dan terdapat rangkaian peristiwa yang saling terhubung.

Generic Structure dari Narrative Text

Bagi sobat yang masih duduk di bangku sekolah tingkat menengah, penjelasan mengenai narrative texts tak usah sulit-sulit ya.. Intinya, narrative text ini mempunyai struktur / susunan seperti di bawah ini: 

Orientation : It is about the opening paragraph where the characters of the story are introduced.(berisi pengenalan tokoh, tempat dan waktu terjadinya cerita (siapa atau apa, kapan dan dimana) 

Complication : Where the problems in the story developed. (Permasalahan muncul / mulai terjadi dan berkembang)

Resolution : Where the problems in the story is solved. Masalah selesai, --- secara baik "happy ending" ataupun buruk "bad ending".

Kadangkala susunan (generic structure) narrative text bisa berisi: Orientation, Complication, Evaluation, Resolution dan Reorientation. Meski “Evaluation” dan “Reorientation” merupakan optional; bisa ditambahkan dan bisa tidak. Evaluation berisi penilaian/evaluasi terhadap jalannya cerita atau konflik. Sedangkan Reorientation berisi penyimpulan isi akhir cerita.

Pada beberapa referensi tentang Narrative Text, terdapat tambahan generic structure pada Narrative Text, yaitu penambahan Coda setelah Resoultion. Jadi susunan Narrative text adalah Orientiation, Complication, Resolution dan Coda.
Coda adalah bagian terakhir dari structure Narrative Text yang berisi perubahan yang terjadi pada tokoh dan pelajaran yang dapat dipetik dari cerita tersebut.

Jika sudah mahir membuat cerita narrative, susunannya bisa diubah-ubah kok, yang terpenting bagian-bagian di atas masih tetap ada dalam tulisan narrative sobat. 

Ciri-Ciri Narrative Text

• Mengunakan Action Verb dalam bentuk Past Tense. Misalnya : Climbed, Turned, Brought, dsb.

• Menggunakan Nouns tertentu sebagai kata ganti orang, hewan dan benda tertentu dalam cerita. Misalnya : the king, the queen, dsb.

• Menggunakan Adjectives yang membentuk noun phrase. Misalnya : long black hair, two red apples, dsb.

• Menggunakan Time Connectives dan Conjunctions untuk mengurutkan kejadian-kejadian. Misalnya : then, before, after, soon, dsb.

• Menggunakan Adverbs dan Adverbial Phrase untuk menunjukkan lokasi kejadian atau peristiwa. Misalnya : here, in the mountain, happily ever after, dsb. 

Untuk lebih jelasnya, lihat contohnya di bawah ini :

Contoh Narrative Text Lengkap

Di bawah ini contoh - contoh narrative text, seperti :

1. Kumpulan Narrative Text Cerita Rakyat Indonesia dalam Bahasa Inggris berisi kumpulan kisah / cerita rakyat bahasa Inggris yang melegenda di bumi nusantara Indonesia.
2. Kumpulan Narrative Text Dongeng Legenda Bahasa Inggris berisi kumpulan dongeng-dongeng terkenal baik di dunia ataupun di Indonesia.
3. Kumpulan Narrative Text Cerita Binatang / Fabel Bahasa Inggris berisi kumpulan cerita tentang hewan atau disebut juga "fable" terpopuler.
4. Kumpulan Narrative Text Cerita Nabi berbahasa Inggris Pendek berisi cerita naratif islami tentang Nabi dan Rasul dalam bahasa Inggris.

CONTOH NARRATIVE TEXT TINGKAT SD/ SMP/SMA

Sam, The Kind Of Lion

Once upon a time, there lived a lion in the jungle. His name was Sam. Everybody in the jungle knew him very well. and they didn’t want to make a friend with him. Because they were afraid of him. Because his face was so scary and vicious.

One day, in a shiny morning, when Sam was sunbathing at the side of the river, he saw a small antelope in danger. A giant snake came sneaking behind it. The giant snake was going to eat it. Suddenly Sam jumped over the snake as soon as possible before the snake caught the small antelope and scared the snake away.

Later, the small antelope felt relieved that Sam saved his life from the giant snake. After that, he told the whole jungle that Sam was a kind lion. Sam just saved his life. So, there was no need to be afraid of him. After that accident, Sam had a lot of friends.

Artinya:

Pada suatu hari, hiduplah seekor singa di hutan. Namanya Sam. Semua binatang di hutan mengenalnya dengan sangat baik dan mereka tidak mau berteman dengannya. Karena mereka takut kepadanya. Wajahnya begitu menakutkan dan ganas.

Suatu hari, di pagi yang cerah, ketika Sam sedang berjemur di pinggir sungai, Sam melihat seekor kijang kecil dalam bahaya. Seekor ular raksasa menyelinap di belakangnya. Ular raksasa itu akan memakan kijang kecil tersebut. Tiba-tiba Sam menerkam ular tersebut sebelum ia menangkap kijang kecil. Sang ular ketakutan dan pergi meninggalkan mereka.

Kemudian, si kijang jecil tersebut merasa lega mengetahui Sam telah menyelamatkan hidupnya dari ular raksasa. Setalah kejadian tersebut. Si kijang kecil memberitahukan kepada semua warga hutan bahwa Sam adalah seekor singa yang baik. Sam telah menyelamatkan nyawanya. Jadi, tidak perlu takut kepadanya. Sejak kejadian itu, Sam mempunyai banyak teman di hutan.

Penjelasan Narrative Text (untuk tingkat Mahir)

Untuk mengetahui definisi dan penjelasan tentang narration (narrative text) sobat mahasiswa dan mahasiswi bisa membaca buku buku tentang writing di perpustakaan terdekat dan terlengkap, dan disini saya hanya akan mengutipkan pendapat Thomas S. Kane (2000: 363-364) di bawah ini:

A narrative is a meaningful sequence of events told in words. It is sequential in that the events are ordered, not merely random. Sequence always involves an arrangement in time (and usually other arrangements as well). A straightforward movement from the first event to the last constitutes the simplest chronology. However, chronology is sometimes complicated by presenting the events in another order: for example, a story may open with the final episode and then flash back to all that preceded it.
A narrative has meaning in that it conveys an evaluation of some kind.  The writer reacts to the story he or she tells, and states or implies that reaction. This is the "meaning," sometimes called the "theme," of a story. Meaning must always be rendered. The writer has to do more than tell us the truth he sees in the story; he must manifest that truth in the characters and the action.
Characters and action are the essential elements of any story. Also important, but not as essential, is the setting, the place where the action occurs. Characters are usually people—sometimes actual people, as in history books or newspaper stories, sometimes imaginary ones, as in novels. Occasionally characters are animals (as in an Aesop fable), and sometimes a dominant feature of the environment functions almost like a character (the sea, an old house).
The action is what the characters say and do and anything that happens to them, even if it arises from a nonhuman source—a storm, for instance, or a fire. Action is often presented in the form of a plot. Action is, so to speak, the raw material; plot, the finished product, the fitting together of the bits and pieces of action into a coherent pattern.  Usually, though not invariably, plot takes the form of a cause-and effect chain: event A produces event B; B leads to C; C to D; and so on until the final episode, X. In a well-constructed plot of this kind we can work back from X to A and see the connections that made the end of the story likely and perhaps inevitable.
Stories can be very long and complicated, with many characters, elaborate plots, and subtle interpenetration of character, action, and setting. In writing that is primarily expository, however, narratives are shorter and simpler. Most often they are factual rather than imaginary, as when an historian describes an event. And often in exposition an illustration may involve a simple narrative. Being able to  tell a story, then, while not the primary concern of the expository writer, is a skill which he or she will now and again be called upon to use.

Penjelasan dalam blockquote di atas hanya khusus mahasiswa yang sudah mahir dalam membaca dan memahami isi text berbahasa Inggris sehingga sangat tidak dianjurkan bagi anda yang masih duduk di bangku SMP atau SMA.

Namun jika anda sudah sangat mahir meskipun baru duduk di tingkat menengah, silahkan saja membacanya dan semoga mengerti maksud isi materi teks narrative di atas.

CONTOH NARRATIVE TEXT TINGKAT MAHIR

Let’ Me Love You

Once upon a time, there was once a guy who was very much in love with this girl. This romantic guy folded 1,000 pieces of paper cranes as a gift to his girl. Although, at that time he was just a small executive in his company, his future doesn’t seem too bright, they were very happy together. Until one day, his girl told him she was going to Paris and will never come back. She also told him that she cannot visualize any future for the both of them, so let’s go their own ways there and then… heartbroken, the guy agreed.

When he regained his confidence, he worked hard day and night, just to make something out of himself. Finally with all these hard work and with the help of friends, this guy had set up his own company…

“You never fail until you stop trying.” he always told himself. “I must make it in life!” One rainy day, while this guy was driving, he saw an elderly couple sharing an umbrella in the rain walking to some destination. Even with the umbrella, they were still drenched. It didn’t take him long to realize those were his ex-girlfriend’s parents. With a heart in getting back at them, he drove slowly beside the couple, wanting them to spot him in his luxury saloon. He wanted them to know that he wasn’t the same anymore, he had his own company, car, condo, etc. He had made it in life!

Before the guy can realize, the couple was walking towards a cemetery, and he got out of his car and followed them…and he saw his ex-girlfriend, a photograph of her smiling sweetly as ever at him from her tombstone… and he saw his precious paper cranes in a bottle placed beside her tomb. Her parents saw him.He walked over and asked them why this had happened. They explained that she did not leave for France at all. She was stricken ill with cancer. In her heart, she had believed that he will make it someday, but she did not want her illness to be his obstacle … therefore she had chosen to leave him.

She had wanted her parents to put his paper cranes beside her, because, if the day comes when fate brings him to her again he can take some of those back with him. The guy just wept.

Referensi :
Kane, Thomas. S. 2000.The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing. New York: Barkley Books.
Sumber ENGLISHINDO.COM Referensi Belajar Bahasa Inggris