Enya Watling: What are the benefits of storytelling in primary education?

Storytelling in the Classroom

What are the benefits of storytelling in primary education?

Stories have the ability to captivate attention, evoke emotions, shock, scare and humour an audience or individual. They are a universal language and a gift crafted from generation to generations. Therefore, storytelling has significant advantages in facilitating a child's awareness, development, awareness and personality.

‘‘ Stories create magic and a sense of wonder at the world. Stories teach us about life, about ourselves and about others. Storytelling is a unique way for students to develop an understanding, respect and appreciation for other cultures, and can promote a positive attitude to people from different lands, races and religions.’’

(TeachingEnglish ,BBC, 2009).

Storytelling is a tool which can be adapted and improvised within the classroom and teachers can make stories engaging, relevant to their subject and influential. However, it is argued that teachers do not utilize this tool enough, or indeed take advantage of its benefits (Raines & Isbell, 1994). Other researchers reiterate this by stating that reading to children introduces them to the language of higher complexities and new ideas; opening a door to their imagination (Bearne and Reedy, 2017). The benefits of hearing stories through oral telling, rather than through a visual medium, is that the child is able to imagine the plot, characters, places and adventures of a tale thus enabling the child to think more freely and openly (Shah, 2019).

Malo and Bullard are passionate advocates for this approach and outline some of the significant benefits of reading stories to children. Individuals who are regularly told stories through oral methods are later more successful readers (Ferreiro & Teberosky, 1982; Kontos, 1986). Storytelling teaches children numerous skills  including:

• Comprehension of vocabulary
• Metaphors and figures of speech
• Listening and visualization skills
• Patterns and natural rhythms of language
• Concepts about the world
• Prediction skills

(Malo and Bullard, 2007)

Stories provide role models, heroes,  history, heritage and promote the importance of culture. Although a story may be basic, it can often hold hidden meanings and have an underlying theme of honesty, kindness, loyalty to friends or respect to parents. Thus, children can understand the importance of acting morally and recognise that generally the ‘baddies’ always lose. Stories are a great resource for improving listening and responding skills and academic abilities such as reading achievement grades. Silvern recognised other improvements in communication which included a child's ability to use letter and symbol recognition in grammar eg.knowing when to use of an exclamation mark (1985). Reading aloud to children also develops a child’s ability to use a larger variety of vocabulary which can result in a child’s using more complex and mature sentences (Silvern, 1985). Interestingly, children who are exposed to stories learn the unique patterns in rhyme and language that they wouldn't be exposed to in everyday conversation. Poetic techniques such as alliteration, vivid descriptions and use of expression and tone provide children with an awareness of alternate and unusual structures of language (Malo and Bullard, 2007.) Other research suggests that storytelling enables children to develop more positive attitudes toward reading and also encourages the student to read independently (Bearne and Reedy, 2017, Silvern, 1985).

"By making storytelling an interactive event we can help children feel comfortable enough in storytelling to be confident of their own emergent narrative ability, to take risks, to elaborate, to invent, to explore, and thereby to grow" (Trousdale, 1990, p. 173).  It is incredibly important to encourage storytelling within the home and classroom, and enable children to explore their imagination and creativity whilst confidently expressing their opinions. Children who are exposed to stories learn the unique patterns in rhyme and language that they wouldn't be exposed to in everyday conversation. Poetic techniques such as alliteration, vivid descriptions and use of expression and tone provide children with an awareness of alternate and unusual structures of language (Malo and Bullard, 2007.)A report from Robinson, Smith, & Dixon found that children from families of lower income were less likely to be regularly engaged in storytelling. Although parents were literate, they did not actively encourage reading and writing outside of school. Children from lower-income families had fewer books in their home, and results showed they were instantly more disadvantaged than that of their peers from higher income families who had greater access to books. Indeed, the children who were not engaging in storytelling fell behind in their reception schooling (Robinson, Smith, & Dixon 1992).

Fox’s research study in 1993 reiterates the importance of storytelling. Fox focussed his study on what children learn during storytelling. The research revealed storytelling facilitates children’s exploration of sentences structure and encourages the expression of the different tenses, past, present and future. This can begin at a young age. Enabling the child to grasp the concept of time, although tenses can be unclear and inconsistent within early years stories. As children continue to develop throughout their school years, their speech and stories become clearer and more precise (Fox, 1993).

Conclusion

It is clear that stories are a successful, adaptable resource that can be used freely within the classroom. Stories can also help children understand the concept of time and aspects of the hidden curriculum such as social norms. With the rise of technology in schools, there is the potential for storytelling to be reduced within the classroom. Since it is such a beneficial and engaging way to teach and promote literacy, it should be celebrated and encouraged to continue in schools and at home.

Word Count- 907

Enya Watling - St20112026

Reference

Bearne, E., & Reedy, D. (2017). Teaching Primary English: Subject Knowledge and Classroom Practice. London; Routledge.

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/storytelling-benefits-tips

Fox, C. (1993). At the very edge of the forest: The influence of literature on storytelling. London: Cassell.

Malo, E. and Bullard, J. (2007). Storytelling and the Emergent Reader.. [ebook] College of The University of Montana. Available at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED448464.pdf [Accessed 4 May 2019].

Raines, S. & Isbell, R. (1994). Stories: Children's Literature in Early Education. USA: Delmar.

Robinson, Smith, S., Dixon, R. (1992). Language Concepts of low and middle-class preschoolers. ED345225

Shah, P. (2019). 10 Amazing Benefits Of Storytelling For Kids. [online] MomJunction. Available at: https://www.momjunction.com/articles/benefits-story-telling-yor-kids_0036903/#gref [Accessed 4 May 2019].

Silvern, S. (1985) Parent involvement and reading achievement: Research and implications for practice. Childhood Education, 61, 44-51.

TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC. (2009). Storytelling - benefits and tips. [online] Available at: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/storytelling-benefits-tips [Accessed 3 May 2019].

Trousdale, A. (1990). Interactive storytelling: Scaffolding children's early narratives. Language Arts. 67, 164-173.