Page 335 - KSPK ENGLISH LANGUAGE

6. Stories and storytelling

The benefits story and storytelling are many and they include:

 Children love stories!
 Children are familiar with narrative conventions and listening to stories is something they are used to
doing.
 Stories help children understand their world and share it with others, as such developing emotional
intelligence.
 Stories provide for shared social experiences. Children laugh together, are happy and sad together,
shout and sing together. This helps build children’s confidence.
 Storytelling has predictable routines with predictable formats providing children with pointers,which
encourage participation. This promotes a positive attitude towards the language that they are learning
and enhances their motivation.
 Stories support the development of children’s listening and concentration skills, especially when
supported by the story visuals, the storyteller’s voice, mime and gesture.
 Stories provide a natural and relevant context for exposure to language.
 Listening to stories helps children become aware of the rhythm, intonation and pronunciation of the
language.
 Many stories naturally provide for repetition, allowing children the added opportunity to participate
using the chunks of language which are repeated as a reinforcement.
 Children enjoy listening and re-listening to stories. This recurring activity allows for children to
participate in the storytelling activity by repeating large sections of narrative. This in itself is a kind of
drill / pattern practice but in a meaningful context.
 Stories exercise the imagination! Children become involved in the story, identifying with the characters,
interpreting the narrative and illustrations.
 Stories develop children’s learning strategies: listening for general meaning; predicting; guessing
meaning; hypothesising.
 Language input in stories is slightly above the level of normal production which allows for children to
feel confident using what they know to understand the story, but also learning a little more.
 Stories often address universal themes, which allow children to think about issues that are important
to them, e.g. sharing, respecting others, being ill, wearing glasses.
 Stories can link with other curriculum areas, providing for continuity in learning. This also includes the
social and cultural aspects of language learning.
 Stories add variety to a language course.

How to use a story in a preschool English class

Pre-story activities
In the Schemes of Work it is suggested that a story is selected that has some relationship with the topic.
This means it provides an opportunity for further exposure to the topic language, but also enables children
to use what they know to understand the story. Pre-story activities should help children make connections
to their learning.

If using a book:
 Show the cover and ask the children what they think the story is about. Encourage prediction.
 What can they see on the front cover? Can they label anything?
 Read out the title and explain it if necessary.
 Also read out who wrote it and who illustrated it, if this is relevant.
 If appropriate ask the children to listen out for something, e.g. language related to the topic.

If using another type of story with realia or pictures as a support
 Show the realia or pictures and ask children to make predictions about the story.
 If appropriate, ask the children to listen out for something, e.g. language related to the topic.

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