Webster defines language as “words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them, used and understood by a community” . We see that the speaking of the words has not been left out of this basic definition of “language”. Neither did this definition (which was the first one listed of four) of the word ignore the fact that one needs a “community” in order to have language- people to receive and understand the utterances. So, it stands to reason that some sort of communication through “speaking” with “listeners” is vital for language teaching. When language is taught in the classroom, be it first language, or second language, the field tends to lean toward the aspects of reading and writing. To be sure, these are important in the storage and retrieval of ideas, but first and foremost language seems to be concerned with speaking and oral comprehension. In her article, Sheila Carrol says that, “All true storytelling requires a teller and a listener. Storytelling is language in context.” Since storytelling and language learning overlap in what one needs and what the other provides, it makes sense to combine the complimentary two. Thus, this writer will explore two papers done on language class rooms, first about the interaction between fairy tales and language learning, and the second on what storytelling can do for the first language, or literacy classroom. Then, as an ESL instructor, she will further speak on how storytelling can be used in her own language classroom.
In “Re-Reading Gender: Fairy Tales and Language Learning, Burke and Curran set out to show through critical analysis that not only can storytelling facilitate language acquisition, it can also “raise awareness and provoke discussion of cultural assumptions about beauty, and the construction and performance of gender roles.” To this end, it describes the use of a variety of media to tell and re-tell common fairy tales and different versions of the same fairy tales. For example, one tale that is explored is the classic “Cinderella”. Students are shown this, plus the Hollywood movie, “Pretty Woman”. Then, gender roles are discussed for both, including a discussion on “good girl”/”bad girl”. Several methods are used, for example working together in groups and re-telling and changing the story. The teacher might opt to have the students, for example, change the evil stepmother in “Snow White” into a wise, just and beautiful character while adding an evil male character, “Lord Hunter” in the new version called “Snow Night”. This opens the door to an entire set of activities where students can critically question gender roles, assign new roles, compare and contrast and ultimately re-tell stories. Burke and Curran show that “Asking the students to reverse the gender of the characters as they retell the story will remind them of the stereotypical basis for many stories.” I believe this method to be incredibly engaging and far more effective than simply lecturing students on historical themes and gender roles of common stories.
Similarly powerful were the results that Carroll (1999) found in her studies, the results of which she wrote about in “Storytelling for Literacy”. She had conducted research over a six month period. The first three months were in an ESL classroom with all Chinese students. She worked closely with the tutors who would in turn tutor the students. They began by learning everyday idioms, but instead of requiring rote repetition of the sentences in the book, the students were asked to come up with a story from their lives to illustrate the point. The result was that real communication occurred and the students were able to completely master the idioms. A side, but not insignificant bonus was that the experience was pleasurable.
Next, during the second three months of her research, Carroll worked with adults in a literacy course. These adults were also asked to share from their lives, and because literacy had been lacking in their lives, they had experienced frustration and failure, so many of their stories were sad. However, Carroll noticed that trust was built in the telling of their tales. She worked with this group by using folk literature and later teaching them to tell fables. Finally, she had an end goal where the students were able to put together a puppet show for local pre-school children which was a success. So, overall she found there to be a greater mastery of the language.
My idea too is to utilize the method of Storytelling in the ESL classroom, but to expand it to teach grammar-both in form and use. Teaching grammatical form alone mostly bores most people. In following most ESL texts, students are then asked to do repetitive drills on grammar. If they are asked later what they learned, one might not get a satisfactory answer because the learning did not “take”. Without a practical application of some sort, it’s extremely difficult for the meaning to “stick”. My idea is that Storytelling or some sort of personal reflection and narration is a necessary component of lasting acquisition of language. I believe writers of ESL textbooks have a difficult job, since they do not know the audience they are writing for. For example, in one text, in order to teach modals, the story chosen was about rather or not parents should be punished for their children's crimes. But how does one choose a story that relates to the students in a particular class? It really can’t be done, a particular story might temporarily keep the learners’ attention. However, if one could use the stories that come from the student’s perspective and interests, then one already has a captive audience. In getting to know one another’s tastes in storytelling the students get to know one another, and so already, the activity is that much more interesting. And interest will also lead way to lasting comprehension. This method eventually leads us back to Carrol’s storytelling being “language in context.” So, at its core, embodied within storytelling is the very essence of language learning.
Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen. "The Telling of a Tale: Discourse Structure and Tense use in Learners' Narratives." Pragmatics and Language Learning 3, (p144-161, 1992).
Burke, Erin. “Re-Reading Gender: Fairy Tales and Language Learning.” The Language Teacher, 2002 Vol. 26. Kyoto: Japan Association of Language Teachers, 2002. (pp. 77-81)
Carroll, Sheila Dailey. Storytelling for Literacy, 1999.
Coulter, Cathy, Charles Michael, and Leslie Poynor. "Storytelling as Pedagogy: An Unexpected Outcome of Narrative Inquiry." Curriculum Inquiry 37, no. 2 (06, 2007): 103-122.
Kazuyoshi, Sato. “Contagious Storytelling”. The Language Teacher, 2002. Vol. 26. Kyoto: Japan Association of Language Teachers, 2002 pp. 73-76.
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/language
