Reasons for using storybooks
Children enjoy listening to stories in their mother tongue and are familiar with narrative conventions. For example, as soon as they hear the formula Once upon a time… they can make predictions about what to expect next. For this reason, storybooks can provide an ideal introduction to the foreign language as they present language in a repetitive and memorable context. Storybooks can also provide the starting point or act as a springboard for a wide variety of related language and learning activities, which are described in the accompanying notes.
Below are some further reasons why teachers use storybooks
. ● Stories are motivating, challenging and enjoyable and can help develop positive attitudes towards the foreign language, culture and language learning.
● Stories exercise the imagination. Children can become personally involved in a story as they identify with the characters and try to interpret the narrative and illustrations. This imaginative experience helps develop their own creative powers.
● Stories are a useful tool in linking fantasy and the imagination with the child’s real world. They provide a way of enabling children to make sense of their everyday life and forge links between home and school.
● Listening to stories in class is a shared social experience. Storytelling provokes a shared response of laughter, sadness, excitement and anticipation which is not only enjoyable but can help build up the child’s confidence and encourage social and emotional development.
● Children enjoy listening to stories over and over again. This frequent repetition allows certain language items to be acquired while others are being overtly reinforced. Many stories contain natural repetition of key vocabulary and structures. This helps children to remember every detail, so they can gradually learn to anticipate what is about to happen next in the story. Repetition also encourages participation in the narrative, thereby providing a type of pattern practice in a meaningful context.
● Listening to stories allows the teacher to introduce or revise new vocabulary and sentence structures by exposing the children to language in varied, memorable and familiar contexts, which will enrich their thinking and gradually enter their own speech.
● Listening to stories helps children become aware of the rhythm, intonation and pronunciation of language.
● Storybooks cater for individual interests and diverse learning needs by allowing children to respond at their own linguistic or cognitive level.
● Storybooks cater for different learner types and intelligences and make learning meaningful for each child.
● Storybooks reflect environments and the culture of their authors and illustrators, thereby providing ideal opportunities for presenting cultural information and encouraging intercultural understanding.
● Storybooks develop children’s learning strategies such as listening for general meaning, predicting, guessing meaning and hypothesising. In particular, they can develop the child’s listening skills and concentration.
● Stories provide opportunities for developing continuity in children’s learning since they can be chosen to link English with other subject areas across the curriculum.
● Storybooks add variety and provide a springboard for creating complete units of work that constitute mini syllabuses and involve pupils personally, creatively and actively in an all-round whole curriculum approach. They thereby provide a novel alternative to the coursebook.
● Learning English through stories can lay the foundations for secondary school in terms of learning basic language functions and structures, vocabulary and language-learning skills.
Cross-curricular links
Carefully selected stories can be used to develop other subjects in the curriculum:
● Maths: time, numbers (counting and quantity, addition and subtraction), measuring
● Science: the life cycle of insects, animals, skeletons
● Art and Design: making a box, making books
● Computing: using technology safely and respectfully, using technology purposefully to create, organise, store and retrieve information
● Design and Technology: drawing, making masks, hats, cards, collages, puppets
● Geography and the Environment: using a map, using an atlas, different shopping places, conservation
● History: prehistoric animals, understanding chronology/the passing of time
● Music and Drama: singing songs, playing instruments, role play, miming, acting out stories and variations the children make up
● Physical Education: moving like different animals, moving to music
resource: Tell it Again! The Storytelling Handbook for Primary English Language Teachers. British Council.
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