Teach English in Xiamen Zhen - Jinzhong Shi

Maintaining a story time in a child’s daily routine has no cultural boundaries; the universal act of tucking in a child and sending them off to sleep with narratives of princesses and heroes seems to bring comfort to all. Fictional tales are not only great for parents to bond with their children each night, but they can also help teachers encourage their students’ unfettered creativity. Teaching with stories can present children with a basic idea of another culture or help them learn about morals in an approachable manner. Learning through literature provides children with a well-integrated combination of all the skills that they learn as individual subjects, like grammar and vocabulary, and they can be easily introduced in the classroom’s daily activities. Stories, whether true or fictional, connects cultural characteristics and grammar lessons in an enchanting and entertaining package for children. Children have active imaginations that can present as distractions in class. Channeling their energy in a creative direction can help to avoid disturbances during lectures. Inviting role-play in the process of storytelling promotes productivity and innovation in the classroom. The students are learning about the ideas and stories that they are reading in a more effective manner, academically and kinetically. Invoking an imaginative project in a lesson can also help students who are not as inclined towards drilling and repetitive activities process the new information. Moving in a different direction would allow students who may not excel on worksheets and exams to shine while discovering another talent, perhaps those who are more artistic in nature. Telling stories, especially if there is a theatrical component in the lesson, promotes further learning and practice in multiple areas of skill. Acting out a scene would strengthen both processing skills, like reading, and production skills, like speaking. Children who are maybe not yet as adept in speaking can watch YouTube clips from well-known, child-friendly movies like The Lion King or Matilda or listen to an audio book while reading along quietly. A well-selected story could also combine different lessons in grammar and vocabulary. A short clip from a Halloween episode of Arthur can be retold practicing different tenses and holiday vocabulary. Exposing children to simple narratives will help them learn terminologies and structures as they are used in context, grammatically and culturally. Fiction and non-fiction texts provide a simple entryway into the community’s culture. Every place has its own version of “classic” childhood stories, like the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales and Aesop’s fables in the West, and their narratives give a glimpse into the mindset of those people. For example, classic British children’s stories are fantastical sagas like Harry Potter or Winnie-the-Pooh whereas well-known American literature focuses on the realistic struggles of the everyday rural family, like Little House on the Prairie and Charlotte’s Web. Although each country’s stories have spread to the other and around the world, their origin does exemplify a difference in cultural values even within English-speaking countries. In addition, children can learn about significant historical events through stories or become interested in a historical figure that impacts their lives today. Telling English stories to children learning the language provides many practical advantages for both the teacher and the student. Not only does the instructor get a chance to provide them with entertaining narratives in an educational environment, but the children also learn from those tales. The stories provide cultural context for the lessons being taught in the classroom, and they also allow students to practice their abilities beyond traditional academics. Stories present a sign of universality in a classroom; it is a time for the children to be entertained and educated.