STORYTELLING with young children in EFL

1. STORYTELLING with young children in EFL Sophie Ioannou-Georgiou sophiecy@yahoo.com Επιμόρφωση για τα Νέα Αναλυτικά - Παιδαγωγικό Ινστιτούτο Κύπρου 2010/2011

2. “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

3. So children… • 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

4. 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)

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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)

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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