Abstract:
This research aims to observe how students develop their written narrative skills. This research uses survey instruments and
questionnaires as data collection methods. Statistical methods are used in data analysis. One hundred students were involved
in this research, except those who only wrote less than seven texts from the research sample. The study results show that
students experience significant development in their linguistic expression in written communication situations. Their ability
to produce texts becomes richer at the linguistic level, with increased lexical diversity in nominal and verbal areas. They also
showed a better ability to use sentence-connecting devices. However, there are differences between students who use their
mother tongue and those who use their second language in terms of lexis and syntax. Students who use their mother tongue
tend to use less and less varied lexis than their second language. In addition, students also showed higher linguistic
uncertainty, especially in terms of case inflection and syntax. Nevertheless, there are no significant differences between the
two language groups regarding the global structure of the texts. The results of this study provide important insights for
language education at the primary school level, showing that students who use their mother tongue have sufficient ability to
carry out narrative tasks in a manner comparable to students who use a second language of the same age. However, it should
be noted that the development of language skills in students who use their mother tongue may take longer and require special
attention in language learning
