Paper Scientific Writing

Storytelling for Children in English Teaching as a Method to Encourage Young Learners Practicing English Skill and Enriching Vocabularies

Outline

What : What is storytelling and the advantages if we apply this method in learning English for young learners?

Why : The previous method that often be used in learning English and why should we change the method with storytelling.

Purpose : The final purpose of this method and the advantages using storytelling than another method.

ABSTRACT

            Nowadays English is not only owned by its native speaker, but also it has become the international language around the world. Every single component of the society including children learns English these days. Here is the challenge. Teaching English for children cannot be equalized with teaching teenagers or even adult. Children are active human being. Playing, listening to the story, and having fun are their world. As a teacher, we need special method to teach the skills of a language for them. In this article, the writer tries to propose storytelling as one of the methods to teach English skill, as the most important thing in a language for young learner or children. Storytelling is considered suitable to be applied in teaching to young learners because it is appropriate with their world. Storytelling contains four skills needed in a language learning, how to understand the story by listening to the storyteller, how to read the story well, how to retell the story in front of the class orally, and how to re-write or make a summary based on the story. Besides, children will find new words in the story and this can enrich their vocabularies in English.

As a result, young learners are habitual with English and are able to use English to communicate with others starts from the very little thing. Here, the children’s paradigm about difficulty and bored in learning English can be changed by learning English is fun and easy.

Key Words: Storytelling for Children, English Teaching, English Skills, Enriching Vocabularies

 

Introduction

            Nowadays, English is not only owned by its native speaker, but also it has become the international language around the world. Every single school around the world teaches English for their student as the foreign language.

            Talking about teaching cannot be separated from the methods, especially teaching a foreign language like English. Methods are needed because this is the technique for the teacher to interact or to communicate with the students. Methods also determine the success of a teacher delivering the material.

            Some principles are needed to be noted about the use of learning methods. Particularly those which are directly related to the students’ ability development factors, such as the curiosity of the students, give chance to the students to express their self, problem solving, an independent study, cooperative learning, and motivated the students.

            There are so many methods created in order to make the learning process are more interesting. Sometimes we feel it is very difficult to teach children, moreover to teach the foreign language like English to them. Story telling is considered to be an effective way for teachers to teach their students. Why it could be so? Because the nature of storytelling is retell the story based on the story that we have red, or heard before. Besides, in story telling both the students and teachers can share their own story each other or maybe they can read a tale story from the story book and then retell it in front of the class. The book can be the full color book, so that children are interested in reading the story. By this method, they can practice English skill and vocabularies in just one time, like reading, speaking, and listening.

            The old method like translation is a very boring method for children. Besides that, it can’t make the children improve their ability in English, because they only translating the material written in the text book without another practice. Another reason, Andrew Wright (1995: 4) in his book stated that Children have a constant need for stories and they will always be willing to listen or to read, if the right moment is chosen.

            Children are active human being. We cannot let them just sit down while we explain the material in front of the class. They must be very boring; moreover if we just let them to do such boring activities like translation. As a teacher, we should create a method which can make the student active in learning English, because the way to learn English is by practicing. Here, storytelling can be the solution, because by retelling a story the children can be trained not only in the speaking side, but also listening, reading, and writing as well.

            The main purpose of this paper is to create the fun and interesting atmosphere in teaching English for young learners, and to avoid the bored feeling of children in learning English. Next, children can be easy to improve their English skill and enrich their vocabulary with storytelling.

Storytelling

To apply a storytelling method, first of all we must know about what storytelling is. According to Barnes (1997: 1), storytelling is the art of telling a story that includes telling a story with the use of the written word, with the use of song, acting, mime, dance and other mediums. Accordingly, what meant by story in the statement is all genre of stories such as narrative, news item, prose, or poem. Those stories are retold not only orally, but also supported by body language in order to give extra meaning in the story.

To apply this method, usually teachers tell a story to their students, and then teachers ask their students to retell the story. Another way is student read the book or a story, and then they retell the story in front of the class.

Based on Wright (1995: 21, 23, 33, 40), there are three activities when storytelling methods are applied. Those three activities are activities before, during, and after the storytelling. What meant by activity before the story is we have to prepare an appropriate story. Try to pick out the words that students may not know and help them to find out the story by giving illustration like picture, mime, etc. The activity during the story is we have to make sure that students enjoy listening to the story. Teachers also have a responsibility to help the students understanding the story. To make conducive situation, the teacher also encourages the students to predict what is coming next. The activity after the story is showing understanding through traditional exercise like giving the question based on the story.

Storytelling for Children

            Based on the writer’s opinion that children are active human being, so we cannot let them just sit down while we explain the material in front of the class. Paul (2003:74) has emphasized certain important advantages from getting the children to listen to stories on tapes or teacher’s own voice. The advantage such as: The children get a new word and try to guess the meaning by illustration given by the teacher. Scott (1968:161) informs that a major purpose of storytelling is not only to entertain but there are also some other purposes of storytelling in language class. What meant by that statement is telling story not only giving entertain to the children, but also give new knowledge like vocabularies, and moral lesson. In this case, children can learn with a comfortable situation.

            Another benefits Storytelling for children is children engaged in the activity of storytelling learn about history and culture; they develop emotionally and have better self-esteem. They are very fond of listening to fairytales and stories, but it is very important to decide on the right story to tell (http://vox-vocis.hubpages.com/hub/Storytelling-with-children)

            Based on Vocis, there are 5 tips for teacher in storytelling such as: Innovation, voice mechanics, body talk, focus, and characterization. Those tips are very important for the teacher because those can support the way story retell. Like body talk which has been explained before, can help the students guess the words that they may not know yet. Focus to the story and bring concentration to its highest. Eye contact with audience is also necessary.

English Teaching

            As stated in the introduction that English has become the international language. Consequently, school all over the world put English as one of the subjects. Good teachers are required to teach English well in order to succeed the goal of English teaching. However, what is meant by English teaching? Based on Oxford Dictionary, teaching is a work of a teacher (teach), so English teaching means giving lesson to somebody, or giving somebody knowledge, skill about English. These are common acronyms in the English teaching field. There is some difference in meaning, but they are often used interchangeably.

1.      TEFL stands for ‘Teaching English as a Foreign Language’. Programs that use this label usually place emphasis on teaching English to people whose first language is not English, but who need to learn it for work or leisure.

2.      TESOL is a more general term, meaning ‘Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages’. This term is often used when teaching people for whom English is not their only or main language. It is now also the term used by the Further Education sector in the UK to refer to the teaching of English to all newcomers to the UK.

3.      TESL means ‘Teaching English as a Second Language’. This is the term more commonly used when learners of English are studying within a community in which most residents speak English, for instance in programs for new immigrants to English-speaking countries. However, there is a lot of overlap between TESL and TEFL. Many people with TESL certificates are teaching successfully in TEFL environments, and vice versa.

English Language Young Learner 

Before knowing about what young learner is, we would better find out about the nature of English language learner at the first place. Basically, English language learner is a learner who learns about English and whose native language is not English. This argument is supported by an article from Massachusetts  Parent Information and Resource Center (PIRC) that English language Learners (ELLs), also referred to as Limited English Proficient or LEP students, are students whose native language is not English and who are not yet able to do ordinary classroom work in English (http://www.pplace.org/publications/pointers/English/pppell.pdf : 1). Based on the explanation above, we can find out about what actually English Language young learner is. The word “Young” in the sentence is another word of “children”, so we can say that English language Young Learners are pre-school English learners, primary school English learners, and secondary school English learners or teenager. This statement is supported by Lenka Přibilová in her bachelor work. She states that a young learner can be anybody from the age of three to the age of eighteen (Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners. 2006: 10). However, this discussion will be specified to the young learner pre-school and primary school learners. Why so? Because there is a big difference between what a –three-year-old child can do and what a child of fifteen can do, such as the way of thinking, receiving the material, etc.

English Skill

            When we think of English skills, the 'four skills' of listening, speaking, reading, and writing readily come to mind. First, let’s analyze each skill one by one

a)      Speaking: Heny Handayani (2006: 1) states that speaking is the ability that requires the process of communicative competence, pronunciation, intonation, grammar and vocabulary improving. So, speaking is an ability to communicate with other people orally by English language.

b)      Listening: listening is a communication technique that requires the listener to understand, interpret, and evaluate what they hear. Listening skills are essential for learning since they enable students to acquire insights and information, and to achieve success in communicating with others, Trudy Wallace (2004: 13). Jack C. Richard states that listening has also been considered from a further perspective in recent years when it is examined in relation not only to comprehension, but also to language learning. Based on those statements, we can say that listening skill is very important in order to communicate with other people, because it defines whether or not we can interpret and understand what we hear. Listening is also important for language learning nowadays, because one of the most important skills in language is listening.

c)      Writing: Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols (known as a writing system). This is the final product of several separate acts that are hugely challenging to learn simultaneously, Trudy Wallace (2004: 15). Good writing conveys a meaningful message and uses English well, but the message is more important than correct presentation. It is clear that writing is actually one of English skill because it measures how able are we to represent the language in textual way and how able we are give meaningful message by using English in textual way.

d)     Reading: According to Wikipedia.com, Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of constructing or deriving meaning (reading comprehension). Reading is a skill that will empower everyone who learns it. They will be able to benefit from the store of knowledge in printed materials and, ultimately, to contribute to that knowledge. Good teaching enables students to learn to read and read to learn, Elizabeth S. Pang (2003: 21). Here, we can conclude that reading is a process of decoding a symbol in order to catch the meaning of text and gaining knowledge and benefit by reading text.

By this discussion, clearly explained that storytelling can encourage young learner to practice their English skill because like what explained before that storytelling is a students’ activity to read a story, being listened by other students, and the feedback can be written, or retell the story orally.

Teaching English Skill with Storytelling

            The basic goal to learn English is that we are able to make a conversation with native speakers. In conversation with native speakers, the most important ability is to be able to understand words and sentences which are new to the listener. The ability to do this can only be built by practice. Based on Wright (1995: 4) the fluency in English skill can be divided into two, those are:

1.      Listening and Reading

Both listening and reading are passive skills, so those skills based on the same things, those are:

a.       A positive attitude not to understand everything

b.      The skills of searching for meaning, predicting, and guessing

It means that when reading or listening to the story, the teacher can encourage the students to predict what the point of the story is, because students don’t need to understand all of the words, but they can try to guess the new words that they get by listening or reading the story in the class. In his book, Wright also said that children or students are able to do this in their own way. It means that the teacher’s role here is very important to encourage them.

2.      Speaking and Writing

Both speaking and writing are active skills, According to Wright (1995: 4) to learn those skills we need two important things:

a.       Positive attitude to ‘having a go’

b.      Not being afraid of making mistakes

These skills depend to each individual in how they construct meaning with limited language or vocabulary. In his book, Storytelling with Children (1995: 4), Wright states that by giving more importance to what the child achieve than to the mistake that he/ she might make, story can encourage their students to buildup of fluency in speaking and writing. This means that the teacher give the freedom toward the children to tell the story or to write the story as they want in order to encourage them practicing speaking and writing.

Enriching Vocabulary with Storytelling

            This phrase contains of two words, the first is “enrich” and the second is “vocabulary”. Let’s start from the word “vocabulary” as the most familiar word at the first place. Actually, what is vocabulary? Vocabulary is related to words. Lenka Přibilová (2006: 13) states that all languages consist of words. Languages emerge first as words, both historically, and in terms of the way each of us learned our first and any subsequent languages. A word is an ambiguous term and it can be used in many ways, even in ordinary language (Howard, 1988 in Rina Hidayati 2011: 10). (Hornby 1987: 959 in Rina Hidayati 2011: 2) explains that vocabulary is the total number of words which (with rules for combining them) make up a language, a range of words known to, or used by, a person, on trade, profession, etc, and a book containing a list of words; list of words used in a book, etc, usually with definitions or translations. Based on the analysis above, we can say that vocabulary is something related to the words of language or another idiom is bank of words.

The second word is “enrich” .According to Oxford Dictionary, the word “enrich” means improve something by adding something. Finally, Enriching Vocabulary means adding new vocabularies (bank of words) by doing something.  The most effective way to improve our vocabulary is getting new words. Vocabulary is important for students in learning English and it is impossible to learn a language without mastering vocabulary first. It is the first step to mastery English for young learner. Then how to get new words? Here, the writer tries to emphasize storytelling as an effort to get new words and enrich vocabularies, because after learning about those four skills, automatically children’s will increase little by little as stated in the listening and reading skills that by listening and reading the story, children or students can start with guessing new words that they get.

Final Remarks

            The above explanation aims to show that the learning process between young learners or children is different from teenagers or adult learners. Children are complex things. Consequently; to teach skills and vocabulary in English language learning for children needs special way and method. We have to enter their world, and storytelling is one of the ways. Storytelling can be done by both of sides, the students and the teacher to improve students’ English skills that consists of Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Reading also their vocabularies, because those things are very important in English Language Learning. By applying storytelling, there will be two-way communication. It means that the learning processed will not only focus on teacher (teacher-centered), but also it will involve the students to be more active in a learning process. Student-centered learning should be applied since in a lowest level of education, and storytelling can be the way to do that.

Reference

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Council, British. Study English Language Teaching. United Kingdom: British Council.

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http://www.pplace.org/publications/pointers/English/pppell.pdf, retrieved 27 October 2011.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_%28process%29, retrieved 16 November 2011.

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