Teach English in Gaoxian Zhen - Linfen Shi

English is an international language and it is a global language. Most people use it in media, books and all kinds of technology. Learners who learn English in early age has easier way of communication, understanding and all aspects of life. Stories have power which can bring the young learners into a world of imagination and a colorful picture with many interesting character in the story. Engaging young learners through story telling have a good chance to discover, experience for real life and language learning experience. Telling a story is a teaching method that promotes brain storm development to the young learners, knowledge, literacy, imagination, creation and critical thing. Therefore, story telling would be useful to teach foreign language for young learners (Rebecca Isbell,2002). According to Isbell, storytelling promotes expressive language development in oral and written form and present new vocabulary and complex language in the powerful form that inspires children to emulate the model they have experienced. On the other words, storytelling is an important tool for language teaching and learning. Story telling for young learners is vitally important to create constructive and creative comprehension. Storytelling motivates children to be active participant in the construction of meaning of the story. In this activity, children involved while listening to the story so they can response the language to gain the comprehension response. They experienced in different mental process. The first process is they create mental picture where they try to figure out the meaning of what they listen to. Next, they try to imagine the characters, the situation, and the theme in the story. So using storytelling can give the experience of language learning in fun situation. Children are natural language learners. Curtain and Dahlberg stated that children’s natural language learning ability may seem to suggest that the best way to help a child learn a language is simply to place him or her in the target language setting, but, unfortunately, this is not foreign language, children have their own psychological characteristics, which are different from those of adults. These characteristics include their an approach that will be available to most children (Curtain & Dahlberg, 2009). As learners of a Children as young learners Children are natural language learners. Curtain and Dahlberg stated that children’s natural language learning ability may seem to suggest that the best way to help a child learn a language is simply to place him or her in the target language setting, but, unfortunately, this is not an approach that will be available to most children (Curtain & Dahlberg, 2009). As learners of a foreign language, children have their own psychological characteristics, which are different from those of adults. These characteristics include their ways of thinking, their attitude, and their aptitude. Those characteristics will influence the way they are taught. To give them the best quality of English teaching, their teachers need to know and understand the children. Pre-school children are in a sensitive period for language development. Curtain and Dahlberg noted that children absorb languages effortlessly and are adapt imitators of speech sounds (Curtain & Dahlberg, 2009). Because they are very self-centered, they do not work well in groups, and they respond best to activities and learning situations relating to their own interests and experiences. Although they have a short attention span, they have great patience for repetition of the same activity or game According to Brown, children in the age between 4-6 years old categorized as very young learners (Brown, 2007, p. 101). Egan explained that the mythic educational layer term reveals to children at the ages 4 to 5. Young children tend to draw an idea of the world of the imagination is in vivid and real (Egan, 1989, p. 86). Learners in the mythic layer often believe that the real world as a fairy tale world operates. Using story form is the ideal approach for teaching young learners. Teacher could teach not only language but psychological term of emotion and morality for children. According to Harmer, in the process of teaching and learning, teachers should use appropriate media and techniques based on the students’ ability, and that instruction is vital in foreign language classrooms because it can provide comprehensible input for the learner at the right level (Harmer 2007). Understanding linguistic and psychological theory, showing consideration of learner differences, and understanding the principles of child development and the characteristics of children at different stages of development will help prepare the teacher to create curricula and activities that bring languages and children together effectively. 2007). Understanding linguistic and psychological theory, showing consideration of learner differences, and understanding the principles of child development and the characteristics of children at different stages of development will help prepare the teacher to create curricula and activities that bring languages and children together effectively. Penny Ur stated that there are three very important sources of interest for children in the classroom; they are pictures, stories and games (Ur, 1996, p. 130). Teaching English to young learners is both a difficult and enjoyable experience. It is difficult for teachers, because they always have to find new and interesting methods and approaches in order to stir the learners' interest, but in the same time it is enjoyable because teachers are given the chance of becoming child again, of seeing the world through a child's eyes, when working with children. As far as young learners are concerned they, mostly, find these lessons enjoyable, as they are active parts in the process. They use the language in order to communicate ideas, to play games, and later on to tell stories. The concept of storytelling why should teachers use stories? Most of children love stories. Stories use an approach to language learning that emphasizes children’s involvement with the use of foreign language. Young learners also learn language unconsciously so teachers should formulate activities that will foster this kind of acquisition. Teachers can use stories to help children practice their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. Storytelling becomes an effective technique for teaching English to early foreign language classes. Story time also creates a safe space for young learners and provides listening experiences with fun activity. People in all times and places have told stories. In the oral tradition, storytelling includes the teller and the audience. The story teller creates the experience, while the audience perceives the message and creates personal mental images from the words heard and the gestures seen. Most of the children love stories, and storytelling was regarded as a learning tradition. It plays a very important role in children’s language learning. With meaningful contexts, natural repetition, lovely characters and interesting plots, stories can be used to develop children’s language skills, such as listening, imagination and predicting. Young learners exercise their imagination through stories. They “can become personally involved in a story as they identify with the characters and try to interpret the narrative and illustrations (Brewster, Ellis, & Girard, 1992, p. 1). This imaginative experience helps” students develop their own creative potential. Stories also “develop the different types of ‘intelligences’ that contribute to language learning, including emotional intelligence” Stories “develop children’s learning strategies such as listening for general meaning, predicting, guessing meaning and hypothesizing”. “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” (Brewster et al., 1992, p. 2). Cameron said, ”it seems a pity to deprive learners of opportunities to hear authentic uses of past tense forms and contrast with the other tenses, in the meaningful contexts of stories, and I can see no intrinsic reason for supposing that use of past tense would prevent children understand a story. In fact, if they are familiar with stories in their first language, they will probably expect to hear past tense forms and may misconstrue the verbs” (Cameron, 2001, p. 166). According to Mart, storytelling combined with total physical response can motivate young learners and is beneficial to their learning of English vocabulary, sentence patterns, and comprehension (Tugrul Mart, 2012). Through participation in storytelling experiences, students learn to build a sense of story by anticipating features of the genre, including how a The development of a sense of story allows students to make better predictions, to anticipate what is next, to increase awareness of cause and effect, sequence events, and develop other skills that aid comprehension. Storytelling further assists in the development of a sense of story by incorporating the use of essential story elements. These elements include point of view, plot, style, characters, setting, and theme (Haven & Ducey, 2007). Comprehension, critical listening, and thinking skills are also developed by combining storytelling with questioning, imagery, inference, and retelling (Miller & Pennycuff, 2008). This development of a sense of story to increase comprehension is particularly critical to people of diverse cultures. Some cultures organize the way they relate events around topics rather than a main idea (Miller & Pennycuff, 2008). Hence, for some cultures, stories are told as more of a chronicle of particular relationships that focus on the humor of the situation or sharing the feelings of another rather than as a sequence of events. The authors point out that these cultural patterns often result in children being referred for specialized services that may not stem from a disability but from their cultural experiences regarding the use of language. By participating in storytelling experiences that build a sense of story, these students are able to demonstrate increased success in reading comprehension. Some researchers have focused on the practical application of storytelling as a pedagogical strategy to build reading comprehension. Storyteller-in-residence at Robert E. Clow Elementary School in Naperville, Illinois, offers some concrete examples of how to incorporate storytelling to improve comprehension. There are many reasons for using storytelling in language teaching. Wright states that stories which rely so much on words, offer major and consonant source of language experience for children. Moreover, stories can motivate children, stimulate children’s imagination and arouse children’s interests, etc. Stories provide meaningful contexts. Language is used to communicate. Using storytelling, teachers are not only using language in the text but also the whole context which brings out the meaning. In the teaching and learning process, when the teachers are telling the stories while the students are listening, they focus on meaning first. Some teachers might present the new language by repeating saying them several times, and they require students to listen carefully. They think that the more the teacher repeats the new language, the better the children will remember it. In this way, children learn some single words or some sentences. 2. Stories can provide natural repetition. When the students read the stories, they tend to pay attention to the key words or new language can be naturally repeated in stories. 3. Children’s listening skill can be developed. The use of storytelling in TEYL is also enhancing students’ listening skill. While children listen to stories, they try to guess the meaning of the new words and to grasp the main idea. While listening, children just concentrate on the pronunciation of the words or sentences, but not the meaning of it or the meaning of a context. 4. Stories, along with songs allow children to hear and understand far more English than any other method. 5. Enhancing storytelling with gestures, action, colorful illustrations, relevant games and role-plays increases language retention and acquisition and makes for really fun lesson. According to Emily, general reasons for choosing storytelling as follows: 1. Stories and storytelling are Universal aspects of human communication: connecting people through time and across cultures. 2. Storytelling for sharing cultural heritage: Stories as ‘artifact’s’: they are preserved in people’s memories and shared with others through time. Storytelling for Literacy: Storytelling supports literacy development in the National Curriculum. 4. Storytelling for curiosity and motivation to learn across the curriculum: A good storyteller can engage interest and enthusiasm for a range of subjects such as History, Religious Studies, Geography, English Language, Literature and Drama. 5. Storytelling for changes in values and attitudes: Storytelling can stimulate a questioning attitude and expand people’s emotional, cultural and moral responses to a variety of issues. The distancing frame of a story can enable sensitive issues to be explored and considered. 6. Storytelling for increased self-confidence: A storyteller can teach storytelling skills to participants. Storytelling has been proven to raise self-confidence amongst children who have low self-esteem or are ‘low achievers’. 7. Storytelling for inspiration and creativity: Many storytellers offer workshop sessions, which may either teach storytelling skills or engage participants in creative activities linked to the stories for example using art, drama, music or puppets. 8. Storytelling for empathy, citizenship and peace: Storytelling has long been recognized as a formidable tool for reconciling differences and building peaceful relationships. If we think of conflict as the clash of divergent stories centering on real or imagined wrong-doing and superiority, then we can take advantage of the ethical underpinning of stories, in general, and of storytelling, in particular, to defuse these harmful narratives. 9. Storytelling for performance: Listening to a good storyteller brings something akin to a literary experience to a performing arts event. 10. Storytelling for helping people to ‘read’ objects as cultural artifact’s by giving them meaning, purpose and context. This is particularly relevant From the reasons presented above, storytelling can be used as one of the techniques in TEYL. We found in storytelling the characteristic needed to improve and motivate students of young learners because children can absorb the structure of language subconsciously as well as hear familiar words they know. Several Research on Storytelling Several studies have been conducted regarding the effectiveness of the use of storytelling as a pedagogical strategy. According to a study conducted by Isbell, researchers studied the impact of storytelling and reading stories on the development of language and comprehension of children ages three to five. The participants were divided into two groups but the same twenty-four stories were heard by all students. The first group had the stories told to them. The second group listened to the stories as they were read from a book. The results showed that both groups benefited from their instruction. The group who heard the stories told experienced greater comprehension as demonstrated in their retelling of the stories (Rebecca Isbell, 2002). The storytelling group was more able to identify the setting, the moral of the story, and the characters from the stories. According to Isbell, storytellers tend to use more repetition, sounds, and gestures than a person merely reading a story. They also suggest that storytelling requires a greater use of the visual imagination than in story reading as there are no pictures to share in storytelling. Storytelling is also considered a more personal experience as the listener frequently has greater levels of eye contact with the teller as compared to listening to a story read from a book that storytelling is considered an effective strategy for developing listening skills and keeping students engaged (Rebecca Isbell, 2002) Mello (2001) conducted a meta-analysis of eight studies regarding the use of storytelling as a pedagogical strategy. Her analysis included information from pre and post interviews with participants, student retellings, measures of fluency, and writing samples from the students. The studies demonstrated that the literacy of the participants was enhanced in the academic areas of fluency, vocabulary acquisition, writing, and recall. Additionally, she found that storytelling served to improve self-awareness, visual imagery, and cultural knowledge (Mello in Miller & Pennycuff, 2008). The human factor that emerges from instruction in storytelling led researchers to consider its cultural elements. Eder’s (2007) examination of Navajo storytelling practices revealed that in the Navajo culture, stories are used to help construct important concepts and as the instrument through which knowledge is passed from one generation to the next. She also learned that the stories seemed to focus on key concepts such as respect and moral responsibility to oneself, others, and the environment and that the stories were primarily told by the elders. Eder notes that families who have used stories to help their children learn important life lessons are considered to have raised their children properly. As part of the study, Eder interviewed David Martinez, a Navajo storyteller. He expressed that a Navajo person who knows legends, folktales, and ceremonies is considered to be a resource and a wealthy person in his culture (Eder in Miller & Pennycuff, 2008). How to Choose Stories? There are many kinds of stories, such as fables, myths and legends. Teachers should choose stories which relevant to their students. When we use stories in our teaching, the stories will be for our children, we should consider more about children and their interests language level. It is important to choose a story that suits children’s language level. Besides this, we can choose stories according to their topics, characters and plots. In choosing stories, teachers should pay attention to topics linking to children’s interests or experience to arouse their interests. Children concern more about what they have experienced or what they are interested in. Also, we need to consider children’s age. Characters of stories also play important role in a successful teaching and learning process. Students of young learners like animal, cartoon and fiction. In addition, choosing stories that have simple and interesting plot or a surprising ending will be helpful so that children can remember them and enjoy them, and that the language in the stories will be more memorable. On the other hand, stories can be used to introduce children to new language, improve students’ skills especially practice listening skill and to revise learned language or vocabulary. Storytelling can also be used to stimulate children’s imagination, to expose children to varied language, to enrich children’s language and to access children. Technique to teach storytelling There are some recommended storytelling techniques from Brewster, Ellis and Girard as follow: a) if students are unfamiliar with storytelling, begin with short session which do not demand too much from them and over extend their concentration span, b) read slowly and clearly. Give the students time to relate what they hear to what they see in the pictures, to think, ask questions, make comment. However, do vary the pace when the story speeds up, c) make comments about the illustrations and point to them to focus the students’ attention, d) encourage students to take part in the storytelling by repeating key vocabulary items and phrases. Teachers can invite students to do this by pausing and looking at them with a questioning expression and by putting the hand to the ear to indicate that we are waiting for them to join in. then repeat what they have said to confirm that they have predicted correctly, and if appropriate, expand by putting the word into a full phrase or sentence, e) use gestures, mime, facial gestures to help convey the meaning, f) vary the pace, volume and your voice, g) pause where appropriate to add dramatic effect or to give children time to relate what they hear to what they see, and to assimilate details to the illustration, h) disguise your voice for the different characters as much as you can to signal when different characters are speaking and help convey meaning, i) ask questions to involve children. The questions can be the characters of the story or their attitudes in the story, j) do not be afraid to repeat, expand and formulate. This increases opportunities of exposure to the language and gives children a second chance to work out the meaning and have it confirmed, k) in the end of the storytelling, teachers must stimulate the children to the message or moral values in the story (Brewster et al., 1992). Whaley (2002) stated that several ideas for storytelling: a) Round-Robin or sentence stories. Select story topics that are familiar to young children (animal stories and fables are good choices), begin a story, and then ask children to determine what will come next, b) theme stories. Have children choose the theme for the story (e.g., a story about monkeys) and then proceed to create your own story as a teacher focusing on the identified theme, c) descriptive stories. Once children have gained confidence in round-robin storytelling, help them expand their language through the use of more descriptive words to tell their stories, d) pictures stories. Children can choose photographs, or pictures from magazines, to the starting point for their stories. As they describe what they see and think is happening, their story unfolds, e) grab bag stories. Prepare a bag full of familiar objects. Have children take one from the bag to tell their own story or add to a group story already in progress (in Henniger, 2002, pp. 432–433). Every toy and piece of equipment in the early childhood classroom can lead to language learning. Some options, however, are particularly important in stimulating linguistic exploration. These include: a. Flannel board stories. Form younger children, having a board covered with flannel material and figures that relate to popular books help them to retell familiar story lines. Older children can benefit from a collection of flannel pieces that they can use to tell their own stories. b. Magnetic boards. As the name implies, pieces stick to a metal board rather than flannel. By attaching magnetic strips to the backs of figures that can be used to tell stories, adults can crate figures that children can manipulate to tell familiar or invented stories. c. Puppets. Children can use another versatile material, puppets, for extensive language experiences. Handmade and commercial puppets stimulate increased verbal interactions in the classroom. Many quiet children end up being much more verbal with a puppet on their hand. It may also be a powerful tool for second language learning. Conclusion Storytelling can be a very effective teaching tool as long as it is adapted to the pupils’ proficiency level, interests, age and needs. It is more efficient in the case of younger learners, who have not developed their abstract thinking yet, and who are very creative and imaginative. An important aspect to consider when bringing stories to class is that the teacher should start with something shorter and easier and, as the pupils progress, (s)he can increase the length and difficulty of the story and follow-up activities as well. Also, it is worth mentioning that, if combined with other methods and approaches to teaching, it really helps pupils advance slowly but surely on their path as learners of a foreign language - in our case, English. The follow-up activities must be doable and fun, so that the pupils can cope easily and eagerly with them. As teachers, we do not want to overwhelm our pupils, but rather motivate them and engage them actively in the teaching- learning process. And finally, from time to time, we should listen to what our pupils would like to do and bring to class something that would meet their wishes, so as to motivate them and give them the feeling that their work and progress are acknowledged. Reference: Brewster, J., Ellis, G., & Girard, D. (1992). The primary English teacher’s guide. Penguin English. Brown, H. D. (2007) Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. Pearson Education. Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching languages to young learners. Cambridge University Press. Curtain, H. A., & Dahlberg, C. A. (2009). Languages and children: making the match: new languages for young learners, grades K-8. Egan, K. (1989). Teaching as story telling: an alternative approach to teaching and curriculum in the elementary school. University of Chicago Press. Emily Johnsson. (2006). Telling tales A guide to developing effective storytelling programmers for museums. Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching. Pearson Longman. Henniger, M. L. (2002). Teaching young children: an introduction. Merrill. Miller, S. THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS AT “PERMATA IMAN” KINDERGARTEN MALANG Article Septi, & Pennycuff, L. (2008). The Power of Story: Using Storytelling to Improve Literacy Learning. Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives in Education, 1(1), 36–43. Retrieved from http://wmpeople.wm.edu/asset/index/mxtsch/storytelling Rebecca Isbell. (2002). Telling and Retelling Stories: Learning Language and Literacy. Retrieved from http://ici-bostonready-pd-2009-2010.wikispaces.umb.edu/file/view/Telling+and+Retelling+Stories.pdf Tugrul Mart, C. (2012). Encouraging Young Learners to Learn English through. Jakarta-Indonesia, June 11th -12th 2015 ISBN:978-602-342-045-2©Zikrul Hakim 1st International Seminar Childhood Care and Education – Aisiyah’s Awareness on Early Childhood and Education – at Muhammadiyah University of Prof. DR. HAMKA (UHAMKA) 570 Stories. English Language Teaching, 5(5). https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v5n5p101 Ur, P. (1996). A course in language teaching: practice and theory. Cambridge University Press. Wright, A. (2013). RBT: Creating Stories with Children. Oxford University Press. On the in-service programmed studied here (see below for details), teachers were introduced to a model of CTs proposed by Cameron (2001). In this three-stage model, preparation activities lead into a core communicative activity, characterized by meaning-focused oral interaction, which is then consolidated by follow-up activities. ... ... The two curricula differ significantly in the extent to which they are learner-centered and communicative, with little evidence of these characteristics in the older curriculum. Having said that, even the new curriculum was not designed around CTs as defined by Cameron (2001), and teachers working with it still needed to adapt the course book if they wanted to incorporate CTs into their lessons. Two of the teachers in this study worked exclusively with the old curriculum while one (Sarah) also taught the new curriculum in the last 18 months of the course. ... ... In the previous section the focus of our analysis was on the use of closed pair work and group work activities, including peer correction. Here we analyze the observational data with specific reference to the presence of meaning-focused CTs (Cameron 2001), in the sense we discussed (in Section 2) earlier. Table 3 provides a simplified summary of the analysis of the extent to which the teachers used meaning-focus CTs.... Development in the practical knowledge of language teachers: A comparative study of three teachers designing and using communicative tasks on an in-service BA TESOL programmed in the Middle East ... The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is used to refer to the difference between a child's ability to achieve things on its own and the child's ability to achieve things with assistance (Lightbown & Spada, 2000). However, because they are young, they need more support and scaffolding by the teacher (Cameron, 2001). Scaffolding is further enhanced through the use of different stimuli such as visuals, regalia and games and by adjustment of the language to the students' level in order to make the input more comprehensible (Shin & Crandall, 2014). ...