STORYTELLING with young children in EFL Sophie Ioannou-Georgiou Επιμόρφωση για τα Νέα Αναλυτικά - Παιδαγωγικό Ινστιτούτο Κύπρου 2010/2011

“Why stories?” Stories are: motivating for children. Interesting and enjoyable. a rich source of language and experiences. a source of natural, authentic language Stories offer: a connection to the children’s life and interests language in meaningful contexts multiple possibilities for activities involving multimodality Insights into the culture of the author/s a structure/plot that can be followed and often a natural repetition of vocabulary and structures. opportunities for developing reading/listening skills a way to develop children’s attention spans a way to develop a lifelong love for reading and books

want to listen (motivation) listen with a purpose and become involved in meaningful communication) develop learning strategies (not all is understandable, searching for meaning, predicting and guessing strategies). become aware of the general “feel “ and sound of the L2. develop general learning (issues/topics linked to other curriculum subjects), cognitive skills and creative thinking So children…

How to choose a story A story should always be suitable to the interests and developmental level of the child. For younger learners a story should have: –a clear storyline –plenty of repetition –helpful illustrations –opportunities for joining in –at a level where children can understand most of it (with appropriate help) –linked with a topic you are working on (curriculum)

How to choose a story For older learners, a story should be: –at an appropriate language level –related to the students’ interests and age –when possible linked to other topics/subjects of the curriculum either offer subject content, or be suitable as a springboard for subject-content work

How to tell a story Decide if you will tell or read the story. Decide if you will modify the language and how Prepare Act out the story Find opportunities for students to join in

Storytelling … a process Usually there are 3 stages in storytelling: Pre-storytelling stage (to prepare the students to follow the story) While-storytelling stage (to engage students in the storytelling process) After storytelling stage (expanding the story to further creative activities, consolidating/evaluating understanding)

Some ideas for pre-storytelling activities: Pre-storytelling for younger learners –Pre-teach key vocabulary –Use a song connected with the theme –Introduce and talk about the main characters Pre-storytelling for older learners –Give words or phrases from the story for children to guess what it is about –Show pictures from the story and have students guess what the story is about –Give title and students guess story –Give part of the story and students predict the story –Give gapped summary ands students have to create the story

Some ideas for while-storytelling activities: While-storytelling for younger learners –students hold up pictures of objects or characters when these are mentioned in the story –join in the story –asked to guess what comes next –sequence pictures While-storytelling for older learners –hold up words when these are mentioned –sequence sentences –joining in the story –predicting what’s to follow –taking notes

Some ideas for after-storytelling activities: After-storytelling for younger learners –draw a picture of a favourite scene –make a class book of the story –act out the story –learn the story in the form of a chant After-storytelling for older learners –Make their own story –Create their own ending or make other changes to the story –Complete worksheets about the story –Create posters about the story –Put a class play about the story –Carry out an investigation into similar stories/ the characters or countries in the story / etc