Using storytelling to enhance grade 10 students listening comprehenhension at a high school an action research project

Trang 1 NGUYEN DUY HUNG USING STORYTELLING TO ENHANCE GRADE-10 STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION AT A HIGH SCHOOL: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT MASTER''''S THESIS OF SCIENCE IN EDUCATION Tr

INTRODUCTION

Rationale

Thanks to globalization and integration, English has become an indispensable tool to connect the whole world In every area, from business, research, etc to daily life, English is used worldwide That is the reason why English proficiency has become one of the most important criteria to consider when recruiting a candidate or promoting an employee

Understanding the significant role of English, the Ministry of Education has continuously updated the textbooks so that students have modern and constructive materials to study this international language The new textbooks are written in order to develop all of the four skills, listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills However, in the teaching process, the author realizes that students encounter a lot of difficulties practicing listening skills

In general, students cannot recognize some words due to their mispronunciation Intonation is also a barrier for them to understand Nevertheless, among the reasons, demotivation is the main cause of unimproved listening skills At school, teachers have to follow the curriculum; therefore, listening is taught in a traditional way That means students learn listening lessons passively When the teachers play the recordings, they listen and do the tasks in the textbooks According to my observation, the majority of students are not eager to learn listening lessons Therefore, they just try to fulfill the tasks because they follow their teacher‘s instructions The passive learning style causes demotivation among students, resulting in poor listening skills While listening is one of the most important skills for learners, most students find it hard to make progress

As a teacher, this matter has been my concern for a long time That is the reason why I have looked for a lot of materials to find ways to get my students involved in listening lessons I have found that storytelling can be a good way to improve the listening skills of students in general and my students at a high school in particular

Storytelling is interesting not only because of the pictures in it but also because the content of every stage in the story conveys meaningful thought and feeling in which the learners of English expect to get the knowledge and the message behind the story (Brewster, 1991) In addition, storytelling can draw students‘ attention and interest to the lessons Storytelling is a social experience because it connects a teller and a listener (Smyth, 2005)

Although storytelling can shed light on the process of teaching and learning listening lessons, it is still necessary to have a formal study in this matter to collect students‘ feedback so that it can be applied synchronously and effectively Therefore, the author would like to conduct the study ―Using Storytelling to Enhance Grade-10 Students‘ Listening Comprehension at a High School: An Action Research‖.

Aims and Objectives

- The study aims to investigate how tenth graders at a high school respond when applying storytelling in teaching listening lessons and how storytelling works in improving their listening comprehension skill

- Determining the response of students when applying storytelling in teaching listening lessons

- Identifying how storytelling works in improving their listening comprehension skills.

Scope of the Study

- The study focused on sixty 10-grade students at a high school, who were divided into two groups, experimental and controlled groups Each group has 30 students.

Research Questions

- Do the students positively respond to the application of storytelling in teaching listening lessons?

- To what extent does storytelling work in improving students‘ listening comprehension skills?

Significance of the Study

This study will have specific guidelines on how storytelling can improve students‘ listening comprehension skills and how students respond when applying storytelling in the classroom Therefore, the study can be a guideline for applying storytelling in listening lessons Besides, it can be a good source of reference for both teachers and students in the process of teaching and improving listening skills.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Theoretical background

Listening, according to Howatt and Dakin (1974), is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying This includes comprehending a speaker‘s pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, accent and grasping his meaning

Willis (1981:134) identifies the ―enabling skills‖ of listening, which are:

• predicting what people are going to talk about

• guessing at unknown words or phrases without panicking

• using one‘s own knowledge of the subject to help one understand

• identifying relevant points; rejecting irrelevant information

• retaining relevant points (note-taking, summarizing)

• recognizing discourse markers, e.g., Well; Oh, another thing is; Now, finally; etc

• recognizing cohesive devices, e.g., such as and which, including link words, pronouns, references, etc

• understanding different intonation patterns and uses of stress, etc., which give clues to meaning and social setting

• understanding inferred information, e.g., speakers‘ attitude or intentions

Listening is "the active and dynamic process of attending, perceiving, interpreting, remembering, and responding to the expressed (verbal and nonverbal), needs, concerns, and information offered by other human beings" (Purdy, 1997) According to Rost (2002), listening is a process of receiving what the speaker actually says, constructing and representing meaning, negotiating meaning with the speaker and responding, and creating meaning through involvement, imagination, and empathy Clark & Clark, (1977) and Brown (2001) divides listening comprehension into eight processes, in which, the hearer, after receiving the information, assigns a literal meaning to the utterance first and then assigns an intended meaning to the utterance In short, listening comprehension is not merely the process of a unidirectional receiving of audible symbols, but an interactive process (Brown, 2001)

2.1.2 The importance of listening skill

In the past, listening was treated as a ―forgotten skill‖, according to Burley- Allen (1995) In a research, Osada (2004) stated that listening was ―regarded as a passive skill, [ ] an ability that would develop without assistance‖ According to Vandergrift, (2007), listening is the ―least researched of all four language skills‖ This is, to some extent, considered the least important skill However, according to Mendelsohn (1994), listening takes up 40-50% of the total communication time; while speaking, reading, and writing account for 25-30%, 11-16%, and about 9% respectively Coakley & Wolvin (1997) claims that listening is central to the lives of students throughout all levels of educational development Listening is the most frequently used language skill in the classroom (Ferris, 1998) In conclusion, listening is also a significant skill, compared to the remaining macro skills

Yagang (1993) classifies the listening problems into four sources: the message to be listened to, the speaker, the listener, and the physical setting In which:

It is more difficult to understand a taped message than a text message because of the speed If it is a text message, the receiver can read it as many times as he wants to understand it well However, while listening, the listeners have to process the information in a much shorter amount of time Besides, it is quite impolite to ask the speakers to repeat many times

Another reason that causes difficulties for listeners is the unfamiliar topics Since the listening material may consist of a variety of topics, some of them are not familiar to learners In addition, in daily communication, speakers change the topics quite often, which makes the listeners have to well adapt to follow the conversations

Moreover, the content is usually not well organized Therefore, in many cases, listeners cannot predict what speakers are going to say, whether it is a news report on the radio, an interviewer‘s questions, everyday conversation, etc

Daily communication is far more different from what we have learned from the textbooks In a real conversation, the use of liaison (the linking of words in speech when the second word begins with a vowel, and elision (leaving out a sound or sounds) are common These phenomena cause difficulties for students in recognizing individual words in the stream of speech

Furthermore, if listening materials are made up of everyday conversation, people sometimes do not strictly follow the grammatical rules Some elements can be omitted or added due to the speaking habits In an informal conversation, the listeners also have to deal with colloquial words and expressions or even slang

―In ordinary conversation or even in much extempore speech-making or lecturing we actually say a good deal more than would appear to be necessary in order to convey our message Redundant utterances may take the form of repetitions, false starts, re-phrasings, self-corrections, elaborations, tautologies, and apparently meaningless additions such as I mean or you know‖ (Ur, 1984:7) This redundancy can cause more difficulties for students at lower levels

Accents can also be the factors affecting the listening comprehension process because students are normally trained to understand British or American English Therefore, if the speaker has another accent, students can find it hard to understand

Due to the limitation in communicating with native speakers, foreign-language learners are not familiar with clichés and collocations

According to Anderson and Lynch (1988), a lack of sociocultural, factual, and contextual knowledge of the target language can present an obstacle to comprehension because language is used to express its culture

Most foreign language learners are accustomed to reading materials rather than listening The lack of exposure to the different kinds of listening materials can be a challenge for them

Since they have to encounter a lot of difficulties in practicing listening skills, some students can be demotivated and discouraged

Noise is a distracting factor that affects the comprehension process Another factor is the lack of visual and aural aids In a classroom, the low-quality equipment can add more difficulties for students to understand the content

As listening is ranked the most difficult skill by most learners, it is essential for teachers to find effective methods and activities to help students to overcome the challenges Generally, listening activities are divided into three categories: pre- listening, while-listening, and post-listening activities

Pre-listening activities: Schema theory provides strong evidence for the effectiveness of pre-listening activities which includes the outline for listening to the text and teaching cultural key concepts The listening teacher may select certain words, difficult grammatical structures, and expressions to be explained through the discussion about the topic, and may also ask students to predict the content or what speakers are going to say, based on the information they have already got Pre-listening activities usually have two primary goals: (a) to help to activate students‘ prior knowledge, and build up their expectations for the coming information; and (b) to provide the necessary context for the specific listening task The teacher could follow with a listening comprehension activity, such as two people having a conversation about their daily life Students must answer true or false questions based on the previous listening activity

An example of a controlled practice activity could be a drill activity that models the same structure or vocabulary (Karakas, 2002)

While-listening activities: Listeners who participate actively in the listening experience are more likely to construct clear and accurate meaning as they interpret the speaker‘s verbal message and nonverbal cues During the listening experience, students verify and revise their predictions They make interpretations and judgments based on what they heard The listening teacher may ask students to note down keywords to work out the main points of the text Students answer comprehension questions while listening to the text and select specific information to complete the table provided with the text While-listening activities usually have some of the following purposes: to focus students‘ comprehension of the speaker‘s language and ideas; to focus students‘ attention on such things as the speaker‘s organizational patterns; to encourage students‘ critical reactions and personal responses to the speaker‘s ideas and use of language An open-ended activity could follow that allows students to have the freedom to practice listening comprehension in the class about their daily life and asking for further information Listening comprehension should begin with what students already know so that they can build on their existing knowledge and skills with activities designed on the same principle A variation on the ―filling in the missing word listening activity could be to use the same listening materials but to set a pair work activity where student A and student B have the same worksheet where some information items are missing (Karakas, 2002)

Post-listening Activities: Post-listening activities are important because they extend students‘ listening skills Post-listening activities are most effective when done immediately after the listening experience Well-planned post-listening activities offer students opportunities to connect what they have heard to their own ideas and experiences and encourage interpretive and critical listening and reflective thinking As well, post-listening activities provide opportunities for teachers to assess and check students‘ comprehension, and clarify their understandings; to extend comprehension beyond the literal level to the interpretive and critical levels Different comprehension questions can be assigned for students to discuss after listening, students then swap information to complete the whole class chart, correlating what each student has heard to arrive at the big picture If there are any questions that remain unanswered during the first or second listening, and after the information swap activity, the whole class can listen to the tape again The students will then try to find the answer to the questions that have not been previously understood, rather than the teacher providing the answers straight away (Karakas, 2002)

Literature Review

The purpose of this study is to determine the response of students when applying storytelling in teaching listening lessons and to identify how storytelling works in improving their listening comprehension skills Therefore, it was designed as classroom action research To apply storytelling in the classroom, the researcher took the role of the storyteller and observe how the students respond when applying storytelling teaching listening lessons

According to Kemmis and McTaggart (1988:11-14, cited in Burns 2010), action research typically involves four broad phases:

In this phase you identify a problem or issue and develop a plan of action in order to bring about improvements in a specific area of the research context

The plan is a carefully considered one which involves some deliberate interventions into your teaching situation that you put into action over an agreed period of time The interventions are ‗critically informed‘ as you question your assumptions about the current situation and plan new and alternative ways of doing things

This phase involves you in observing systematically the effects of the action and documenting the context, actions and opinions of those involved It is a data collection phase where you use ‗open-eyed‘ and ‗open-minded‘ tools to collect information about what is happening

At this point, you reflect on, evaluate and describe the effects of the action in order to make sense of what has happened and to understand the issue you have explored more clearly You may decide to do further cycles of action research to

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research design

The purpose of this study is to determine the response of students when applying storytelling in teaching listening lessons and to identify how storytelling works in improving their listening comprehension skills Therefore, it was designed as classroom action research To apply storytelling in the classroom, the researcher took the role of the storyteller and observe how the students respond when applying storytelling teaching listening lessons

According to Kemmis and McTaggart (1988:11-14, cited in Burns 2010), action research typically involves four broad phases:

In this phase you identify a problem or issue and develop a plan of action in order to bring about improvements in a specific area of the research context

The plan is a carefully considered one which involves some deliberate interventions into your teaching situation that you put into action over an agreed period of time The interventions are ‗critically informed‘ as you question your assumptions about the current situation and plan new and alternative ways of doing things

This phase involves you in observing systematically the effects of the action and documenting the context, actions and opinions of those involved It is a data collection phase where you use ‗open-eyed‘ and ‗open-minded‘ tools to collect information about what is happening

At this point, you reflect on, evaluate and describe the effects of the action in order to make sense of what has happened and to understand the issue you have explored more clearly You may decide to do further cycles of action research to improve the situation even more, or to share the ‗story‘ of your research with others as part of your ongoing professional development

This study was conducted following the above steps Firstly, the teacher came up with the problems that students were not interested in learning listening lessons Then, based on the data collected from the pretest and the pre-questionnaire, the teacher could identify the problems in details and made the appropriate plan (see below)

After applying storytelling to teach listening lessons, the researcher, also the teacher delivered the questionnaire to the participants to see how they self-evaluated themselves Based on the responses, the researcher could adjust his plan to help his students

After eight weeks, the researcher had the students take the posttest Then the test results and the data collected from the questionnaires were compared and analyzed quantitatively to draw conclusion on how effective the use of storytelling could help the participants improve their listening comprehension

The plan was implemented during eight studying weeks, from the end of February, 2022 to mid-April, based on the school schedule

The teacher told a story about a person who was a victim of phishing and had to deal with many problems due to identity theft

In pre-listening, teacher provided students with new vocabulary items as well as the cultural background of the story To help the students improve their understandings, teacher employs gestures, tones, and visual aids, such as images and videos

- Making inference Week 2 My first marathon

The teacher told a story about the first marathon of a man who thought that he would do best at the race However, he had to struggle a lot during the course and learned valuable lessons

The teacher told a story about how the use of slang, or in other words, teen code can cause misunderstanding between generations in the family

- Making prediction Week 4 My unforgettable holiday

The teacher, in the role of a tourist, told a story about an unforgettable holiday The stories consist of both good and bad memories about the trip

- Making inference Week 5 A simple life

The teacher told students a story about a family who decided to live a simple life They decided to leave noisy big cities to set up a new life in the countryside, where they could be close to the nature, use natural resources for daily activities so they could protect the environment

The teacher told a story about a surprised birthday party A family would like to organize a surprised birthday party to a man However, they themselves had a big surprise at the end of the story

Participants

The study focused on 60 10-grade students at a high school They are students in two classes that the researcher is in charge of.

Data Collection Instrument

In order to identify students‘ responses when applying storytelling in teaching listening lessons and assess how storytelling works in improving students‘ listening comprehension skills, the research instruments used in this research consisted of questionnaires and tests

According to Smart Survey website, compared to other research methods such as the interview, the questionnaire helps bring greater structure to any research, which can help maximize the success of whatever you‘re trying to investigate and answer A questionnaire can serve as an inductive method with the aim to formulate a new theory, where open-ended questions are used to ‗explore a substantive area‘ (Gill & Johnson,

2001) If administered properly, questionnaires can prove to be an excellent method to obtain quantitative data about people‘s attitudes, values, experiences, and past behavior (Bell 1999)

In this study, the questionnaires were used in two periods, before and after treatment Before treatment, the students were asked to complete the questionnaire so that the researcher could understand the current situation of learning listening skills of the respondents Both the questionnaire surveys consisted of two parts, part 1 – personal information and part 2 – survey Part 2 of the prequestionnaires consisted of both close-ended and open-ended questions so that students had more chances to raise their ideas The survey consisted of four questions, to collect different data for the research Question 1 was used to know how students think of the importance of listening skills Next, question 2 helps to investigate the attitude of the students toward listening Then, question 3 collected data on the students‘ attentiveness when they have listening lessons Finally, question 4 was created to know what difficulties the students had in listening Question 4 also provided room for the students to give comments on other challenges that they encountered when listening The estimated time for the students to complete the questionnaire was no more than ten minutes To ensure that all of the respondents understand the items well, all of the questionnaire items were translated into Vietnamese

After the eight-week treatment, the writer had the respondents complete the postquestionnaire survey to find out how the students felt about storytelling The postquestionnaire included three items Firstly, the purpose of question 1 was to find whether the students felt more interested in listening after the use of storytelling in listening lessons Secondly, question 2 aimed at investigating the students‘ attentiveness in listening lessons after treatment The purpose of question 3 was to know in detail what storytelling could help students in improving their listening skills

To ensure the respondents‘ comprehension, all of the items were also translated into

Vietnamese The survey also took the respondents a maximum of ten minutes to complete

Tests produce numerical scores that can be used to identify, classify or evaluate test-takers (Gay, 1996) To assess how storytelling works in improving students‘ listening comprehension skills, the process of collecting data should be divided into two stages: before and after the use of storytelling in teaching listening,

Test 1 (pretest): Before applying storytelling, the writer will let the participants take the listening test 1

Test 2 (posttest): After applying storytelling for eight weeks, the participants will take the listening test 2

Both of the tests were designed in the same format, which includes multiple- choice, gap-filling, and true-false questions The selected format was based on the format of the listening tasks in the students‘ textbooks

The results of the two tests were compared to determine the effectiveness of using storytelling in teaching listening comprehension for students.

Data collection procedure

Based on the identification and formulation of the problem through a questionnaire delivered to the participants, the researcher designed the questionnaires and tests which were in line with the objectives of the study The tests were also selected by the researchers based on authentic resources Both the questionnaires and tests were reviewed by peer teachers

To collect the responses of the students when applying storytelling in teaching listening, the teacher, also the researcher had the research participants complete the questionnaire survey The students were delivered two surveys in total The first one was done before the use of storytelling in listening lessons and the second one is after the experimental period The students‘ responses were interpreted and analyzed quantitatively so that they could be compared to see whether storytelling could make any positive changes and the attitude of the students toward listening

Besides, to collect information on how storytelling could help students in improving their listening skills, the researcher let the students take the pretest and posttest Two classes with 30 students in each class will be selected to serve as the experimental group and the control group Both groups took the pretest and the score was recorded by the researcher After eight weeks, the two groups took the post-test The result of both tests was compared to conclude the effectiveness of storytelling in helping students gain their listening skills.

Data analysis

Data collected will be processed by IBM SPSS Statistics 20 Some categories of parametric figures were analyzed quantitatively The statistics from both of the tests were compared to evaluate the responses of the students when applying storytelling in teaching listening and indicate how storytelling works in improving students‘ listening comprehension skills.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

Findings

4.1.1 Findings from the pre-questionnaires

Question 1: In your opinion, how important is listening comprehension in understanding the English language?

The purpose of the question is to identify how the students think of the significance of listening comprehension To answer this question, students select the option that best suits their idea

Figure 4.1 below shows the students‘ evaluation of the importance of listening comprehension in acquiring the English language

Figure 4.1 Students’ evaluation of the importance of listening comprehension in acquiring the English language

Students seemed to be so sure of the importance of listening comprehension that no one selected the ―not sure‖ option Also, nobody denied the significant role of listening Those who claimed that listening comprehension was very important and important accounted for 83.3% in total

Question 2: Are you interested in listening comprehension lessons at school?

Interest is a powerful motivational process that energizes learning, guides academic and career trajectories, and is essential to academic success Interest is both a psychological state of attention and effect toward a particular object or topic and an enduring predisposition to reengage over time Therefore, in addition to what the students think of the importance of listening comprehension, the writer would like to know whether listening comprehension could draw interest from the students or not

The following figure gives specific information on how the students were interested in listening

Figure 4.2 Students’ interest in listening lessons at school

According to figure 4.2, about two-thirds of the students said that listening they were not interested or just slightly interested in their listening lessons at school Those who claimed to be interested in the lessons just accounted for nearly two-thirds of the respondents Much worse, listening was considered very interesting by just 6.7% of the participants

Although most of the students could recognize the importance of listening skills in understanding a language, the skill could not draw their interests This alarming percentage as displayed in the figure above required the researcher to find ways to make listening lessons more interesting to the students

Question 3: How attentive are you in the listening comprehension lessons?

The question aimed at evaluating the attentiveness of the respondents when they study listening comprehension

As illustrated in figure 4.3 below, the slightly attentive students accounted for fifty percent, taking the major number of the respondents One-fifth of them even said that they were not attentive in the listening lessons Those who claimed to be very attentive and attentive only made up one-third of the respondents in total

Figure 4.3 Students’ attention to listening lessons

In summary, the results of the pre questionnaire on the students‘ attitude toward listening showed that although the students understood the important role of listening comprehension, most of them were not very interested in the lesson and their degree of attentiveness was not very high

Question 4: What are your difficulties in learning listening skills?

Question four aimed at investigating the specific difficulties that the students often had when learning listening skills The main difficulties of the students in listening could be summarized in table 4.1 below:

Table 4.1 Students' difficulties in listening

I find it hard to understand what I listen to without looking at the scripts 20 66.7%

I can‘t recognize familiar words when the speakers use different intonations 20 66.7%

I often don‘t understand the details of the texts I listen to 21 70%

I often lose focus when the listening text is long 19 63.3%

I don‘t know how to catch the keywords while listening 21 70%

I can‘t understand the oral text because of new vocabulary items

I often feel stressed when listening 19 63.3%

The difficulty that the majority of the students had were not knowing how to catch the keywords while listening and understanding the details of the texts (70%) The other two major challenges were understanding the oral text without referring to the scripts and recognizing familiar words when the speakers use different intonations The students who claimed to have those difficulties accounted for the same percentage (66.7%) 63.3% of the respondents also had trouble losing focus when the listening text is long The same number admitted that they often felt stressed when listening Half of the students blame the lack of new words for their inability of understanding the oral text

In summary, the seven major difficulties listed by the researcher were selected by from fifty to seventy percent of the respondents, which needed to be taken into account to find effective solutions to help students improve their listening skills

4.1.1.3 Other difficulties in listening listed by students

Besides close questions, there was an open-ended question, providing space for the respondents to add their extra ideas Based on their responses, other problems the students had when listening could be summarized as follow

Table 4.2 Students' other difficulties in listening

Students' other difficulties in listening Number of students

The speed of the oral text is too fast to understand 12 40%

The quality of the audio material is not good enough to understand

The lack of cultural knowledge prevented students from understanding the content

As illustrated in table 4.2, forty percent of the students found it challenging to understand the oral text due to its fast speed In addition, 26.7 of the students said the poor quality of the audio material could affect their understanding Ten percent of the students added cultural knowledge as another factor that made them unable to understand the listening text

4.1.2 Findings from the post questionnaires

4.1.2.1 Students’ interest in listening after using storytelling in classes

After using storytelling in classes, the researcher would like to know how storytelling could help in attract students‘ interests The statistics are specifically shown in figure 4.4 below:

Figure 4.4 A comparison of the students' interests in listening before and after using storytelling in classes

It could be seen that the students‘ interests were considerably improved The number of the students who were very interested in the lesson quadrupled, from 6.7% to 26.7% Those who were interested also increased, from 30% to 50% The number of the respondents who were not really find listening lessons interesting decreased significantly, from 63.3% to just 23.3%

4.1.2.2 Students’ attention in listening after using storytelling in classes

Similar to the student‘s interests, the student‘s attention to listening raised reasonably The figure below compared the students‘ attention to listening before and after using storytelling in classes

Figure 4.5 A comparison of the students' attention in listening before and after using storytelling in classes

As illustrated in figure 4.5, the students who claimed to be very attentive and attentive before applying storytelling in classes accounted for one-third in total After using storytelling, the number went up to 83.3% Accordingly, those who were not very attentive and inattentive decreased from 66.7% to 16.7%

4.1.2.3 Students’ evaluation of the effectiveness of storytelling in improving students’ listening comprehension

Table 4.3 Students’ opinions on the effectiveness of storytelling in improving students’ listening comprehension

It's much easier for me to recall vocabulary items that

I retain the meaning of words learned from stories for 18 60% a longer period of time

When I'm listening, I know how to identify keywords 18 60%

I can recognize the words in different intonations better 21 70%

The details of the stories I'm listening to make sense to me 19 63.3%

After listening to stories, I understand more about the culture of other countries 12 40%

For me, listening to stories is an enjoyable pastime 18 60%

I am more interested in listening lessons 20 66.7%

The statistics shown in table 4.3 reveal positive results, like previous studies Specifically, over two-thirds of the students (70%) said they could better recognize the words in different intonations Storytelling also helped them retain the meaning of new words for a longer period of time Students were also better at recognizing keywords when listening (60%) and focusing (67.6%), as well as grasping the specifics of the stories more easily (63.3%) Storytelling stimulated the interest in learning to listen in

Discussion

4.2.1 Students’ response when applying storytelling in teaching listening lessons

When the pre-test and post-test data were compared, it was discovered that both groups improved their post-test ratings Students in the experimental group, on the other hand, fared substantially better than those in the control group who did not receive any treatment after using Storytelling This meant that storytelling helped students improve their listening comprehension This finding was comparable to that of Hemmati, Gholamrezapour, and Hessamy (2015), Sánchez (2013), and Oluwakemi

Several factors may have contributed to the success of the Storytelling technique in training grade 10 students to listen According to Mallan (1992), students learn how to listen while listening to a story

The continuous exposure to listening made students become more familiar with the different aspects of pronunciation such as the pronunciation of individual words, word and sentence stress, intonation, linking, and ellipsis From this, students also learned to catch the content words to work out the meanings of sentences instead of trying to listen to every word of a sentence

Stories, as literacy texts, can be an example of certain kinds of language patterns and structures such as the use of certain vocabulary (Alsofi, 2008) Storytelling, therefore, is also useful in helping students learn vocabulary and structures, the elements that play important roles in conveying meanings Once knowing words and structures, it is easier for students to understand a listening text

Furthermore, because storytellers rarely use written pages, they are generally free to employ gestures, stroll, and pay greater attention to the audience Storytelling encourages students to pay attention and remain engaged in the plot (Hemmati, Gholamrezapour, and Hessamy, 2015) One of the most significant components in ensuring the efficacy of learning is paying attention while studying

Listeners engage in a variety of cognitive functions in order to make sense of the story (Hemmati, Gholamrezapour and Hessamy, 2015) Stories introduce vocabulary, pronunciation, grammatical structures, and meaningful utterances, among other features of a new language Storytelling improves sequential thinking (Barzaq, 2009), increases awareness of story structure, and aids students in recall and comprehension (Phillips, 2000) All of these factors aid students in listening, which explains why students in this study's experimental group found it easier to comprehend the intricacies of the listening text, grasp the meaning of the stories they heard, and remember the vocabulary, resulting in higher posttest scores

4.3.2 The effectiveness of storytelling in improving students’ listening comprehension skills

The results of the questionnaires revealed that under the influence of Storytelling, students' views toward learning listening skills changed The majority of students in the experimental group were not interested in learning to listen before using the storytelling technique According to the results of the post-survey, a lot of students found listening to be much more fascinating, which caused them to pay greater attention in listening classes It may be possible to explain the shift in students' attitudes toward the positive

They have the normal trait of students their age of being willing to seek out and engage in imaginative activities because they are early learners (Moylett, 2014) Storytelling has the capacity to interest students and meets their curiosity and exploration needs since it engages students' thinking, emotions, and imaginations (Green and Brock, 2000)

Students must follow each line while listening to a story to learn what happens to the characters Their curiosity about what will happen next and how the story will conclude keeps students focused and engaged, which is beneficial for listening comprehension As a result, it's not difficult to grasp how storytelling can drive children to improve listening comprehension and help them learn more attentively

The fact that students discovered that storytelling had a lot of advantages may have contributed to the favorable improvement in their attitudes toward listening Listening was made more delightful through storytelling Students were able to acquire new vocabulary, pronounce them correctly, and practice listening to intriguing content as a result of their constant attentive exposure to storytelling For a lot of students, listening through storytelling was not just a way to learn listening but also a form of entertainment, and the majority of students in the experimental group wanted to continue studying listening using this technique.

CONCLUSION

With the desire to provide specific guidelines on how to improve students‘ listening comprehension skills, the study investigates how tenth graders at a high school respond when applying storytelling in teaching listening lessons and how storytelling works in enhancing these skills

The main respondents of the study were 60 tenth grader Pre- and post-tests, as well as pre- and post-questionnaires, were used to collect data for the analysis The pretest and posttest had the same format, and were designed to compare the results obtained by classes that received treatment vs those who did not before and after the research periods Based on this information, the researcher expected to detect a substantial difference in the two groups' test results, implying that Storytelling has an impact on improving listening skills

Pre- and post-questionnaires were used to gather data on any noteworthy changes in their views regarding learning to listen and their thoughts on the effects of storytelling Before incorporating the Storytelling technique into listening courses, students were given a pre-questionnaire to explore their perspectives on the value of hearing, their enthusiasm and attention in learning, and some of the challenges they faced when learning this language ability After the research period, students were given a post-questionnaire to fill out about their degree of interest and attention in Storytelling listening courses, as well as the benefits they received from them

According to the findings of the prequestionnaires, before applying storytelling techniques, although most of the students appreciated the significant role of listening in comprehending English language, the majority of them were not interested in listening lessons and were not very attentive studying the skill The findings also revealed some main difficulties that the tenth graders had when learning listening, namely understanding the oral text without looking at the scripts, not recognizing familiar words when the speakers use different intonations, not understanding the details of the texts, losing focus when the listening text is too long, not knowing how to catch the keywords while listening, not understanding the oral text because of new vocabulary items, and feeling stressed when listening The data from the postquestionnaires proved that storytelling could change the students‘ attitude toward listening comprehension in positive ways A large number of the respondents claimed to gain more interest in the listening lessons and thereby, be more attentive in the classes The students also assert that storytelling helped them enhance their listening skills Most of the skills were claimed to be improved by more than half of the respondents

In addition, the pretest and posttest showed evidence that storytelling could improve the students‘ listening ability While the pretest score was the same for the students who did not join the experimental period and for those who were selected to be experimental group, the posttest showed some major differences Experimental group gained 1.2 points of average score after applying storytelling techniques Whereas, the other group gained only 0.5 point

In summary, storytelling was helpful in helping students enhance their overall listening comprehension skills It helped students learn vocabulary and pronunciation, as well as increase their capacity to listen to precise details and exercise various listening skills in order to comprehend the content of stories Following the research period, students in the experimental groups discovered that using the Storytelling technique made learning to listen more fascinating They also obtained a slew of other advantages from using the approach in listening classes Based on the findings in the previous chapter regarding the usefulness of storytelling in improving students' listening comprehension, storytelling could be a valuable strategy to incorporate into listening instruction Therefore, the researcher suggests that storytelling should be considered as a useful teaching technique when teaching listening comprehension to students in general and to tenth graders in particular

Based on the data from the preceding chapter regarding the usefulness of storytelling in improving students' listening comprehension, it can be inferred that storytelling could be a valuable strategy to incorporate into listening instruction

This section will offer some suggestions and guidelines for using narrative in the language classroom to teach listening To begin, teachers should clearly describe the benefits of storytelling in learning listening to better encourage students, as many students are unfamiliar with the usage of storytelling in learning hearing In order to optimize the activity's benefits, they should also provide clear guidance so that students understand exactly what they are expected to do when learning listening through Storytelling Knowing that students may face challenges at the start of the learning period, such as a stressed sensation if they do not understand the stories or the pressure of listening to long texts, the researcher recommended that teachers carefully select stories that are appropriate for students' levels Simple and appropriate language, intriguing stories, and clear concepts may be more appealing and less challenging

Students should be given appropriate things to undertake in order to increase their listening engagement When using Storytelling, visual aids like as image illustrations, videos, and realia can be used to make it more entertaining for students This is also a fantastic approach to get students to become more interested in hearing and hence more attentive For students, learning new words might be difficult at times

A story with a lot of new terms makes listening harder and demotivates the audience

As a result, teachers should provide adequate help, such as a dictionary for each story or pre-teach students the new challenging terminology to facilitate message interpretation

As a storyteller, teacher could refer to the following rules:

1 Be open, friendly, and share personal stories Teachers engage their students with sharing personal experiences to enhance the concepts being taught

2 Be aware of the quality of voice, gestures, and expression when telling a story Tell stories with a quality that helps the story come to life for the students

3 Be aware and realize that teachers tell stories The conscious awareness that teachers tell stories no matter what subject is taught is important to acknowledge and build upon

4 Connect to the stories of the culture that the school reflects Each school reflects some kind of culture, whether it is related to the environment or the people and the community in which it is located Find what those stories are and share them with the students

5 Model well developed stories that include: a beginning, middle, and end A strong beginning that hooks them, a well-developed middle, and a meaningful ending will capture students When all three parts are present, the teacher is modeling what is expected of students whether they are writing or telling a story

6 Develop some kind of consistent beginning to create a pause that alerts students that a story is about to unfold The pause signals to students that a story is forthcoming When this is demonstrated consistently, students will be ready knowing that a story is about to begin

Although this study focused mainly on teacher-led storytelling, it did not deny the usefulness of digital storytelling Digital storytelling could be utilized in addition to teacher-led storytelling This type of storytelling allows students to visualize story content and includes noises that make stories more vivid and create a fresh learning experience More significantly, instead of relying on their teachers, students might continue learning after class hours using digital storytelling

In addition, teachers could encourage students to share their own stories That way, the students could deal with different kinds of accent Also, the topic chosen by their peer could interest them more than by teachers Listening to friends‘ stories makes the class atmosphere less formal, and can draw interests of the students

As storytelling could help students to stimulate their imagination, it is advisable for them to keep imagining when they listen to a story This way would help the students not only understand the story but also remember vocabulary items longer

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