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What is the importance of stories for English learning in early childhood? Stories play a vital role in early childhood development, particularly when it comes to learning English. This role is not limited to only native English speakers neither is it limited to non-native English speakers, but encompasses both groups as an excellent way in which children can gain a better understanding of the English language. The importance of stories can be understood through various avenues such as basic language, ideas, and context clues. Stories provide a creative and attractive method in which to aid in memory recall those basic words, and related idioms, expressions, and sub context with ease. When learning English as a child vocabulary is high on the list of things that must be learned. However, a native English speaker does not sit down day in and out drilling the massive amount of English vocabulary into a child's mind, in fact it is not until a much later age around 7 or 8 that an emphasis on acquiring new vocabulary words in that particular way is introduced. In fact the words in that child's vocabulary are instead clarified and given contextual meaning by the teacher. Why is that? Simply put, most children will encounter over 21,000 words on a daily basis. Now they may not know what each word means but they are cognitively aware of those words and storing them passively. So how are these mass number of words encountered each day. The main way would be through exposure of conversation overheard, as well as words they attempt themselves, and through stories read aloud. How many times children are read to daily? During preschool (if they attend), at home, before they go to bed, children are being read to and exposed to stories and all the words held within them. Aside from the aid that stories bring in terms of increasing vocabulary count, stories provide context in which to understand the vocabulary given. Think of the classic fairy tale beginning. “Once upon a time..” now a child may not understand the word “upon”, or even “once” but they are aware of “time.” A word so commonly used every single day in any household. So when encountering the story they now know that this story happened “at a time.” If you continue with the story, “There lived a beautiful princess in a tall tower. She had long hair and a pretty voice and was the daughter of a king.” For a young English there is a challenge in the first sentence. What is a princess and what is a tower? One is beautiful and one is tall. The understanding of a tower is fairly simple to learn within the context of the first sentence. Something is “living” in something “tall” which is called a “tower (the aid of pictures in a story books is highly effective in this instance since it provides a visual). However, the understanding of what a princess is would present a little more difficulty for the young learner without the context of the second sentence. “She had long hair and a pretty voice and was the daughter of a king.” The main clue is the “she” in the sentence. It has now been established that a princess is a girl. Nevertheless, not every girl is a princess, and the context gives clues that princesses have to have and be certain things for them to be a princess. Such as long hair, pretty voice, beautiful, and be the daughter of a king. Now the child might not know what a king is, but for a girl to be a princess she has to be the daughter of a king. And so on the story continues. Each sentence within the stories provides a new word, and each sentence gives clues as to the meaning of the words introduced. It is important to remember that this venue in which young learners absorb is not limited to just native speakers. As much a young children of English learn through stories so do foreigners children learn through stories. Stories all around provide an exciting and mesmerizing way of retaining information. Most adults are better able to retain information that is told as a story simply because it gives background and context, and it is not constant and repetitive drilling. It then makes sense to incorporate stories frequently and consistently in a young learners curriculum and use not only the contextual aids but also the visuals aids that might accompany a storybook.
