Cognitive Mechanisms of Narrative Identity in Second Language Discourse 

K. Gayathri¹, Dr. S. Sophia Christina²

¹Research scholar, Department of English, St. John’s College, Palayamkottai. gayathrik.0014@gmail.com

²Assistant professor, Department of English, St. John’s College, Palayamkottai.

Abstract

This paper proposes a psycholinguistic model for the cognitive mechanisms that underlie the formation of narrative identity in second language (L2) discourse. Although the role of narrative has been extensively explored in literary and sociocultural studies, its cognitive mechanisms in L2 contexts are relatively undertheorized in the literature. Informed by working memory model (Baddeley), speech production model (Levelt), and bilingual emotional processing research (Pavlenko), this study contends that L2 narrative discourse is a cognitively complex process that entails memory reconstruction, emotional processing, and self-presentation. The heightened level of cognitive complexity in L2 contexts may lead to narrative in cohesion, reduced emotional salience, and changes in narrative identity performance. The process of second language autobiography is a mediator between memory and language, and it influences learners’ narrative identity in discourse. By integrating psycholinguistic models and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research, this theoretical study conceptualizes narrative ability as a linguistic and cognitive accomplishment.

Keywords: Psycholinguistics, Narrative identity, Working memory, Second language acquisition, Emotional processing.