RESTORE THE JOY TO TEACHING
By Oksana Chebotareva
The over emphasis on teaching grammar and punctuation in teaching English can deprive both teachers and students of some of the joy which comes with learning. Students can easily become bored and demotivated. Therefore, we we need a flexible methodology which can encompass different ways of studying. Storytelling might just encourage students to see learning languages as an alluring adventure.
BOREDOM
Ask many students of English what they really think of studying and the one main and common complaint is "it is boring " or "impractical". An old joke in Russia is that "the students learns all the rules of grammar but can't speak a word of English". For some reason learning English has been reduced to the study of grammar and learning a list of vocabulary by heart where they then do a test of dictation. Learning English by rote and repetition can be overdone to the point of demoralizing not only the students but the teachers themselves. Is it not time to bring back some of the joy in learning at schools? How might we counter this boredom? Perhaps using storytelling carefully in the classroom might remind people that language is not just grammar, but also beautiful poetry.
Unfortunately, storytelling does not receive the attention it deserves because it demands a lot of attention and effort from teachers. It often seems easier to give grammar tests, listening comprehension and reading which can be easily downloaded from the internet. There is something to be said for reading. The effectiveness of reading in improving students' comprehensive skills and increased vocabulary has been proven by experts such as Rebecca Isbell {2002}, Rubin and Wilson{1995}, and Snow{2001}. But reading a text can become difficult for a long time. Students can be easily distracted and lose the narrative thread and hence interest.
Watching a video and electronic board might not be appropriate as not all Russian teachers have such facilities and it can strain the eyes of students. Indeed, some of my own students asked me to switch off a video because it was hurting their eyes.
So why not use storytelling? Although it is much more time consuming than reading a text or doing grammar exercises, it helps students maintain concentration and motivation very effectively. The reasons for this might be the eye to eye contact that the teacher manages to maintain with students. This effect was noticed by academics Zeece {1997} and Malo and Bullard{2000}. They claimed that eye contact made the experience more personal and interactive.
Real dialogue unfolded between teachers and students. This research was also supported by Myers{1990}, who conducted a study of children from the 2nd to the 5th grade where some stories were read and some told. In her study she found both children and the storyteller teacher enjoyed and interacted more during storytelling than reading. in contrast, children fidgeted and looked away during story reading.
WHAT KIND OF STORIES?
Of course, the question arises as to what kind of story we might use. It is worth asking ourselves 'What do we define as a story?' Children often tell stories which are far from being absolutely logical, but they can be creative nevertheless.
Susan Engel{1994} refers to Jerome Bruner offering some criteria for a narrative. He claims that a narrative must have a number of characteristics such as a sequence, a plot, or a climax, and 'a tension that meets some kind of resolution.'
Engel claims that a narrative is 'indifferent to facts '. So it does not always matter whether the story is untrue or not. It does not matter if the story is absurd, irrational or lacks 'an explicit moral'. A teacher should not scold a pupil for inventing an illogical story, but encourage him to be adventurous with new words.
What kind of sources and materials can we use to obtain good stories? Well, because not all stories will appeal to every student it is worth having a rich and diverse repertoire of stories. A teacher can go to folklore works as well as rely on Hans Christian Anderson, the Brothers Grimm and so many unread Russian folk tales. Not all stories will appeal. While ghost stories might be popular among Scottish and English students, not all Russian students are enticed by them.
What the Storytelling sessions project discovered while narrating stories was that tales of American Indian stories as well as old Celtic tales had a great appeal to many Russians {Stephen Wilson 2019 and Mairi Koloreva 2010}. While this might work among highly educated students at Moscow State University, it may not be appropriate in schools. Not every pupil likes ghost stories.
USING PICTURES
What materials might teachers use to assist the storyteller and students? The universal material for this is a picture . It is possible to photo copy some pictures from a book or simply open up a book of pictures while narrating the story. In our personal experience we told Japanese stories with the aid of pictures to a class.
After telling a story along with showing pictures to the class, students were asked to retell the stories using the same pictures.They adored it! The students enjoyed it very much and the pictures served as mental notes allowing them to remember the sequence of events and even the vocabulary of the story better. In addition, the pictures help provide the story with a solid shape and make it what psychologists call 'a shaped cognition'.
Secondly, pictures can be used in a different way with small groups of children or teaching students individually. For example, small pictures of any story can be copied from any book or textbook. And they can be practically any quality. The only prerequisite for this set of pictures is that they must represent a kind of sequence or be one theme. In this way they must comply with the definition of a story. If they are cut out and given to a student they can be asked to tell any story he can think of that goes with the pictures. So the student will be involved in some kind of creativity such as inventing his or her own story thus giving them additional satisfaction. It is not a good idea to discourage students in this situation by interrupting them to correct all their grammar mistakes. It is not a case of ignoring mistakes, but correcting them later at a more appropriate time after telling the story. The teacher has to be tactful and not shout loudly at students. What the student attains from this process is confidence in expressing his ideas and inventing a story of his or her own.
But this method must be applied with reservations related to the level of the students. If the students' level is high you can use certain stories, but if you use the same story in a class of elementary students the children will become frustrated and even switch off.
A third way of using pictures is by asking students to draw the pictures themselves. Students of any age and level of English, show great enthusiasm when asked to create their own comics or stories and draw them. This works really well, particularly if it is given as homework. Even if the level of English is not high among students, drawing pictures can give a lot of satisfaction. And the student can help the student with the story and vocabulary afterwards. We used this activity with the primary school children aged 8, 9, or 10.
To sum up, a story constitutes a universal activity that works well in the classroom because it is entertaining, and appealing and therefore helps the teacher to keep the attention of students. This is because a story helps maintain eye contact and thus strengthens rapport between the student and teacher. Storytelling is also economical in the sense you don't need a lot of resources or even technology. But the best material is often pictures which can be used in different and novel ways. So storytelling can be an effective method in not only boosting the motivation of students through countering boredom, but improving imperative linguistic skills such as narrative abilities, and listening comprehension. Students learn that language is not some abstract and academic activity, but something alive which people use to communicate a profound meaning of their experience. But storytelling can also play a vital role in emphasizing the important role of the teacher. In an age where it is fashionable to uncritically endorse digital technology, storytelling stresses how valuable teachers are. They can't be replaced by robots or computer courses. This is because there is always something magical about face to face interaction between students and teachers. So almost everyone might be able to actually enjoy teaching and studying again.
REFERENCES :
1. Bruner J. {1987} Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Harvard University Press,
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2.Isbell R. The Effects of Storytelling and Story reading on the Oral Language
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3. Engel S. {1999}. The Stories Children Tell. W.H. Freedman and co
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4.Malo , E, and Bullard, J{2000} Storytelling and the Emergent Reader .
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5.Mayer , M {1973} Frog on his Own. New York : Dial Books for Young
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8. Zeece, P. D. {1997} Bringing books to life : literature-based storytelling .
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