Storytelling as a Tool for

English Classes with Young

Learners: A Literature

Review

Genoveva Sagurie Seguel

October 18th, 2019, Concepción, Chile.

To begin this Literature Review regarding storytelling as tool for English classes with

young learners, it is fundamental to establish what a Young Learner is. Legally, a ‘young

learner’ may be anyone under the age of 18. However, for the purposes of this literature

review, we will follow the definition given of Young Learners as those at pre-primary and

primary level, roughly from the age of 3 up to 11 or 12 years old (Ellis, 2014, p.76).

Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) has been increasing in the last few years.

In a recent survey applied to English for Young Learners (EYL) teachers from 55 countries

around the world, Shin and Crandall (2011) found that more than 50 percent of these

countries introduced compulsory English language courses by third grade. Even in countries

where families may choose the foreign language for their children to study, English is

“overwhelmingly the first choice” (Garton, Copland, & Burns, 2011, p. 5).

In the Chilean context, the Ministry of Education has been working on the development

of new improvements to the current English Education Curriculum (English as a foreign

language, Primary Education: Curricular Basis, 2012). Since 2005, the Chilean EFL

curriculum for primary education is compulsory from 5th Grade (10+) on. Nevertheless, in

2013, the Ministry of Education (MoE) launched a suggested National Curriculum for EFL

starting from 1st Grade (6+).

Some of the activities used in the classrooms to engage children with the English

language are games, songs, Total Physical Response (TPR) activities, and stories. This last

activity is the one I would like to focus on, given that, according to many experts, Storytelling

is an excellent tool for improving English language and social skills. Also, according to

Wright (2013) stories can motivate children, stimulate their imagination and arouse their
interests, etc. Considering all the information above, I have developed this literature review

in order to gain insights to respond to the following question: “What is the real impact of

using stories in English in elementary schools, especially in the Chilean context?” To gather

information on this topic, I reviewed recent academic articles and selected five articles that

addressed the issue of using stories in English in the English classroom. After reading the

articles, I identified ‘storytelling to enhance children’s social values’, ‘storytelling to enhance

motivation to learn English’, and ‘difficulties found while using storytelling in the English

classroom’ as themes that appeared repeatedly in the articles and so will provide a summary

by dividing the information according to those themes.

Storytelling to Enhance Children’s Social Values

Several academic studies related to Teaching English to Young Learners have shown

that Social Values are fundamental principles that children can acquire by interacting with

society, which allow them to develop an integral personality and to construct their own

conceptions of life (Silva, 2004). To understand the role of social values in children’s life it

is necessary to discuss the concept of moral reasoning, which, according to Sigelman and

Rider (2009) is “the thinking process involved in deciding whether an act is right or wrong”

(p.425).

Furthermore, in a study carried out by Gómez, Rodríguez and Rojas (2013), in a group

of second language learners of third grade at a public school in Bogotá, Colombia, the

researchers applied three instruments (a pre-interview, questionnaire and final individual

interview) to 17 students whose ages ranged from seven to nine years old. These instruments

aimed to gain insights into the use of storytelling and to analyze the way students reflect upon

their own social values. The researchers found that children’s social values at home and in
school were reflected in the stories they told. The researchers affirm that the use of stories

helped to construct these children’s social values, given that they identified themselves with

the characters from the stories analyzed during the English classes. The authors concluded

that storytelling not only promoted the development of language skills, but also was a catalyst

that encouraged students’ thoughts. Storytelling allows students to question the form in

which they developed their moral life with respect to the ideal and/or questionable behaviors

in the stories. Also, storytelling evoked students’ own stories and promoted the description

of their own ethical decisions. In the study it was also discovered that students involved their

everyday actions at school and home in reflections they completed after listening to the

stories, as is shown in the following excerpts.

The excerpts presented above show that students used storytelling to remember with pride

and satisfaction the events in which they had done a good deed. Engaging in storytelling

and hearing stories, therefore, evoked children’s thoughts related to their own moral life

which they could compare with the stories presented.

Storytelling to enhance students’ motivation to learn English

Studies have shown that storytelling is one technique that can enhance English learning

in Young learners. According to Gómez, Rodríguez and Rojas (2013), storytelling allows

both interaction and construction of knowledge at the same time.

de Colombia started a research project in a public elementary school. The student teachers

performed a needs analysis through direct observation, a survey, and a diagnostic test. Once

the student teachers analyzed the results of the needs analysis, they started to design a course

syllabus and created stories by taking into consideration children’s proposals based on their

interests and likes. Then the student teachers executed the pre- activities through games; the

stories by using body language and pictures, in order to make children understand better; and

the post- activities to check knowledge. The author reported that while students were

listening to the stories, they were able to make connections between the story and their life;

make predictions about what could happen next; and ask questions about the story. During

the implementation of the lessons, students showed motivation for learning; first, because

they loved playing the games and second, because the stories were appealing and interesting

to them. When children were playing the games, the student teachers could verify that when

using well- planned games with a pedagogical purpose, children learned while having fun.

Also, games helped to create a confident and stress free learning environment. Moreover,

the children were not only motivated by the stories but, also, they demonstrated their

understanding of the stories and their language learning. Stories made children’s learning the

foreign language more interesting, amusing and memorable. In the following excerpt, we can

see a student’s reaction at the moment she realized a story was going to be told.
The excerpt shows that the student was very excited and motivated to hear the story.

Difficulties found while teaching in the English classroom

This theme emerged in a study carried out by Kalantari and Hashemian (2015). In the study

thirty young EFL learners, who were between 8 and 14 years old, were selected for the

research which took place in Paya Language Center, Isfahan, Iran. Based on the units of

Backpackbooks—taught in Paya Language Center—some stories were prepared and adopted

by the teacher along with a visual presentation using the PowerPoint software. First, the

participants were taught the key vocabulary via pictures and gestures. Once the participants

had identified the new words, the teacher started telling and introducing the stories. While

reading the stories, the teacher directed the participants’ attention to the PowerPoint

presentation that included the visual representation of the story to facilitate the

comprehension process. After the story, there was a post-test to assess the participants’

improvement. The results of data analysis revealed that the participants experienced a

significantly meaningful increase in their vocabulary knowledge and there was a boost in

motivation. However, to the researchers’ best knowledge, teaching English to young learners

by using stories in the Iranian context is a job that has been haphazard, given that English in

many institutes can be taught by people with low English language proficiency and little

language teaching background.

Summary

The purpose of this research was to explore the impact of using stories in English

classes in elementary school, with the goal of reflecting especially in the Chilean context.

Using storytelling in English classrooms has been shown to have varied benefits. One is

related to the Social Values that students acquired through the stories, given that students can
identify themselves with the characters from the stories analyzed during the English classes.

As we saw in the studies, Students “tend to involve their everyday actions at school and

home”, and moreover, “storytelling allowed them to question the form in which they

developed their moral life with respect to the ideal or questionable behaviors presented in the

stories”.

The second benefit is related to how storytelling can enhance students’ motivation to

learn English. As we saw in the study supervised by Porras (2010), by using storytelling and

games related to the story in the English classes, students were able to make predictions;

make connections; and make questions about the story. Also, students showed high

motivation for learning when the lessons were implemented. That is because children loved

playing games, and games help to create a confident and stress free learning environment.

Moreover, the stories were appealing and interesting to them, and students showed

understanding of the stories and their language learning, promoting the development of

language skills (listening, reading, comprehension, vocabulary).

Finally, storytelling is not absent of difficulties. As Kalantari and Hashemian (2015) said,

related to the Iranian context, “using stories is a job that has been haphazard”, given that

English teachers lack of proficiency and have little language teaching background. . In the

Chilean context, the story is not different. According to the last report given by Education

First (2013), Chile was placed at number 44 of 60 participating countries, in the category

‘very low proficiency’ which is the lowest level of achievement in language use. The lack of

proficiency of English teachers is affecting the quality of students’ learning of the English

language. Teaching English to young learners in a fun and meaningful way, like using

storytelling, is important to make learning more meaningful, and could be the key to motivate
students with the language. However, unfortunately, there are few studies on teaching EFL

via storytelling approach in the Chilean context.

These three themes were found as main impacts of storytelling in the English classroom. The

first two themes arise as benefits of storytelling when it is used as a pedagogical resource to

teach young learners. However, the low level of English and the low proficiency of the

English teachers can opaque the benefits of using storytelling in the English classroom.

References

Abrahams, M. J., and Farías, M. (2009). Struggling for change in Chilean EFL teacher

education. Paper presented at the Sixth International Conference on Language Teacher

Education, George Washington University, Washington DC.

Ellis, G. (2014). ‘“Young learners”: clarifying our terms’. ELT Journal 68/1: 75–8.

Garton, S., Copland, F., & Burns, A. (2011). Investigating global practices in teaching

English to young learners. London, UK: British Council and Aston University.

Gómez, C, Rodríguez, M, and Rojas, V. (2013). Social Values Reflections Through the Use

of EFL Storytelling: An Action Research with Primary Students. Bogotá, Colombia.

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moral/ethic decision-making. Multicultural Perspectives, 12(4), 223-228.

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