The purpose of this study is to describe the fundamental structural components found in native Chinese speakers’ oral narrative discourses. A field study was launched to collect samples in two different social situations, namely the formal social situation and the informal social situation. The structural and non-structural features of all formal samples discourse were analyzed, to generalize fundamental discourse strate¬gies for composing a formal Chinese oral narrative discourse. The informal sample discourses were not analyzed, because the current study does not concern informal narrative discourses. As the result, the current study proposes two general structures of formal Chinese oral narrative discourses, and two preferred logics for composing a formal oral narrative under time constraint. This study also points out several coordination and communication strategies that have significant positive influence on audience’s evaluation of a formal Chinese narrative discourse. The study can potentially improve the teaching and learning of Chinese as a foreign language.
Key words: oral narrative, discourse strategy, discourse structure, coordination strategy, communication strategy, Chinese language pedagogy.