Using storytelling to improve speaking skill for efl young learners at primary schools

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY HOANG THI VAN ANH USING STORYTELLING TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL FOR EFL YOUNG LEARNERS AT PRIMARY SCHOOLS MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghe An, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY HOANG THI VAN ANH USING STORYTELLING TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL FOR EFL YOUNG LEARNERS AT PRIMARY SCHOOLS Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Code: 60140011 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, Ph.D Nghe An, 2018 CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I certify that this thesis is the result of my own research, except where otherwise acknowledged, and that this thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted for a degree to any universities or institution Nghe An, July, 15th 2018 Hoang Thi Van Anh I AKNOWLEDGEMENT For the completion of this thesis, I have received great assistance and support from my teachers, colleagues, students and my family First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, for her invaluable guidance, criticism and her encouragement in the process of completing the minor thesis I am also grateful to all lecturers and the staff of the Department of PostGraduate Studies, Vinh University, for their useful lectures and guidance during my study at the Institution I truly wish to thank all the colleagues and the students at Tay Son Primary School for their assistance and co-operation in giving me valuable information Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge my debt to my parents and my husband, whose patient love enabled me to complete this work II LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as a foreign language III LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Participants’ speaking performance between two groups before and after using storytelling ………………………………………………………… 30 Table 2: Participants’ speaking performance within two groups before and after using storytelling ….……………………………………………………… 31 Table 3: The results from the semi-structured interviews ………………… 33 IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iii LIST OF TABLES iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v Chapter – Introduction 1.1.Rationale 1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Methods of the study 1.5 Organization of the study Chapter 2– Literature Review 2.1 Speaking Skill in the Classroom 2.1.1 Definitions of Speaking 2.1.2 Function of Speaking 2.1.3 The Elements of Speaking 2.1.4 Speaking Activities in the Classroom 11 2.2.5 Speaking Problems in the Classroom 12 2.2 Storytelling Using in the EFL Classroom 12 2.2.1 Definitions of Storytelling 12 2.2.2 History of Storytelling 13 2.2.3 Benefits of Storytelling 14 2.2.4 Types of Storytelling 15 2.2.5 Storytelling Strategies 16 2.2.6 Storytelling Activities 17 2.2.7 The Benefits of Using Storytelling Activities in the 20 V Classroom 2.2.8 Storytelling as Speaking Activity 20 2.2.9 Storytelling as an English speaking teaching 22 technique with young learners at primary school Chapter III – Methodology 25 3.1 Participants 26 3.2 Research methods 26 3.3 Research procedures 26 3.4 Data collection instruments 26 3.4.1 Speaking Tests 27 3.4.2 Semi-structured Interview 27 3.5 Data analysis methods 27 3.5.1 Quantitative Data Analysis 27 3.5.2 Qualitative Data Analysis 27 Chapter -Findings and discussions 29 4.1 Results 29 4.1.1 Results of the Evaluation of the Development and 29 Efficiency of Storytelling in improving Speaking skill for EFL young learners at Tay Son primary school 4.1.2 Results of the Improvement of Speaking skill for EFL 30 young learners at Tay Son primary school through the storytelling 4.1.3 Results of EFL young learners’ opinions toward 30 learning Speaking skill through storytelling 4.1.4 Participants’ speaking performance at the two points 30 of measurement within two groups 4.1.5 Participants’ opinions toward Studying English speaking skill through the use of storytelling VI 31 4.2 Discussions 35 4.2.1 Improvement of EFL young learners’ English 35 Speaking Skills through the use of the Storytelling at Tay Son primary school 4.2.2 EFL young learners’ opinions toward learning 36 Speaking skill through storytelling Chapter – Conclusion 38 5.1 Recapitalization 38 5.2 Suggestions for further study 38 REFERENCES 40 APPENDICES VII CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION This part gives a brief introduction to the study which focuses on the problems of teaching and learning English speaking at primary schools in Vietnam It covers the purposes, the research questions, the significance and the limitations of the study, the definitions of the key terms, and a summary of this part 1.1 Rationale English has become an international language that is taught in almost all levels of education in the world People realize that the main purpose of learning foreign language is to use it in communication both in oral or written form The data revealed by British Council shows that the number of English speakers have reached 1.75 billion people or about a quarter of world population This large number is caused by the existence of English language in almost all aspects of life According to Gudu, O Benter(2010) statement, the mastery of speaking skill in English is a priority for many second-language or foreign language learners He said that speaking is a primary basic skill to tell and share ideas in communication Thus, speaking is one of the language skills that must be learned to start the communication Considering the importance of mastering the speaking skill in language teaching, the national policy through the regulation of minister of national education reflects the importance of English in the standard of content Also, Vietnam establishes English as prominent foreign language taught as school and one of subjects tested in national exam This determination is intended to prepare Vietnamese students at schools in facing globalization era Therefore, they are able to compete with other people from where English becomes the second or first language Focusing on the problem in English Foreign Language (EFL), the problems observed by the researcher in teaching and learning English especially in teaching speaking Dealing with the expectation of the objective in English speaking skill is not easy and simple, either for the teachers or students They face some difficulties in the teaching and learning of speaking Based on the researcher’s experience and observation in classroom activities, the researcher found some problems CHAPTER 4- FINDINGS AND DICUSSIONS This part presents the research findings which are organized according to the three main purposes of the present study Therefore, the findings are divided into three sections The first section presents the results of the development and efficiency evaluation of the use of storytelling to improve English speaking skills The second section presents the results of the improvement of EFL young learners’ English speaking skills Finally, the results giving the students’ opinions toward learning speaking skill from the use of stories are presented In addition, discussions of the results are also presented in the last section of this part 4.1 Results Participants’ speaking performance at the two points of measurement (from the pre-test to post- test) The speaking tests were delivered before and after the use of stories to evaluate participants’ speaking ability The analytic marking scale was used to grade the participants’ versions separately by three raters The score ranges from as the minimum to 10 as the maximum Then, all test scores were analyzed The following section will present the results of participants’ speaking performance before and after the use of stories: (1) between two groups and (2) within the two groups (draw data can be found in appendix 2) 4.1.1 Results of participants’ speaking performance at the two points of measurement between two groups The Descriptive Statistics Test was run to analyze the participants’ speaking ability between the two groups at two points of the study The mean score of the participants’ speaking performance was analyzed by using the All tests were conducted at the level of 05 and their results were presented in Table below Speaking Test Mean Condition N Min Max Control 30 3.20 9.25 6.8939 Experimental 30 4.27 8.40 6.6039 (M) Pre-test 29 MD 29 SD 1.5 1.2 Control 30 4.50 8.75 7.0106 Experimental 30 5.90 9.30 7.7047 Post-test 69 1.1 94 Table 1: Participants’ speaking performance between two groups before and after using storytelling 4.1.2 Participants’ speaking performance between the two groups before the study The results indicated that the initial level of students’ speaking performance (before using the storytelling) between the control group and experimental group was the same (t = - 79, df = 58, p = 43) 4.1.3 Participants’ speaking performance between two groups after the study The Independent Samples T-test was conducted to test the mean differences of participants’ levels of speaking performance from the two groups Table shows that the mean score of speaking performance in the experimental group (Me = 7.71) was higher than that of the participants in the control group (Mc = 7.01) After the use of storytelling, the mean difference (MD = -.69) in participants’ performance in English speaking between the two conditions was statistically significant (t = 2.63, df = 58, p = 01) Participants in the experimental group learned to speak English better than those in the control group after using storytelling In other words, participants in the experimental group gained more in their speaking ability after the use of storytelling 4.1.4 Participants’ speaking performance at the two points of measurement within two groups The Descriptive Statistics Test was used to analyze the participants’ speaking performance within the two groups at the two points of measurement Then, the mean score of the participants’ speaking performance was compared by using the Independent Samples T-test The test was analyzed at the level of 05 The results of these tests are displayed below in Table 30 Questi Condition onnair N e Pre-test 30 Mi M n ax 3.2 Pre-test n (M) 9.25 6.8939 8.75 7.0106 8.40 6.6039 Control 4.5 Post-test Mea M D -.12 SD 1.58 1.10 30 4.2 Experimental -1.10 1.25 7.7047 Post-test 5.9 9.30 94 Table 2: Participants’ speaking performance within two groups before and after using storytelling As shown in Table 2, the mean score of participants’ speaking performance after the study (M post = 7.70) was higher than that before the study (M pre = 6.60) Moreover, this mean difference (MD = -1.10) was statistically significant (t = 5.269, df = 29, p = 00) These results show that participants in the experimental group performed better in their speaking after the use of storytelling Table shows that the mean score in English speaking skill of the control group before and after the study was the same (t = -.486, df = 29, p = 630) After administering the pre-tests and post-tests, the researcher interviewed nine participants, one male and eight female participants, in the experimental group The interviews were conducted to gain insights into the participants’ perceptions of the implementation The interviewees were selected on the basis of those who gained the most (from 3.5 to 4.15), an average (from 1.0 to 2.0), and the least (from -.97 to -.35) in their speaking performance The score scheme ranged from to 10 The overall result of the study showed that participants liked speaking activities The following section presents the results of these interviews 4.1.5 Participants’ opinions toward Studying English speaking skill through the use of storytelling 31 These results use the information obtained from the interviews A total of twenty students were interviewed in this study and the interviews were conducted after they had finished taking the speaking lessons The interviews were semi-structured and consisted of six main questions to elicit the participants’ opinions towards studying through the use of storytelling The topics are related to the attitudes to studying through the use of storytelling and their improvement in their English speaking skills The results from the semi-structured interviews are presented in Table Review opinions Percent Question 1: How you feel about using the storytelling in English 16/20(80% speaking class? ) Storytelling is enjoyable to study 16/20 (80%) Storytelling is an interesting & attractive way to learn English speaking skill 4/20 (20%) Question 2: Do you enjoy using storytelling? Why? Or Why not? Enjoy using storytelling 20/20 (100%) Storytelling makes me more confident in speaking English 10/20 (50%) I had a chance to practice speaking English by myself through the use of storytelling 6/20 (30%) Storytelling is easy to use 4/20 (20%) Question 3: Do you think your English speaking skills have improved? Storytelling can help improve my English speaking skills 20/20 (100%) Question 4: If your English speaking skills are better now, how did the use of storytelling help you? Storytelling promotes independent learning 32 16/20 (80%) By doing the activities in the storytelling 4/20 (20%) Question 5: Do you have any problems studying through the use of storytelling? What are they? Not much of content and exercises in the storytelling 20/20 (100%) Question 6: Do you have any suggestions for the improvement of the use of storytelling? More content and exercises are needed in the lessons 20/20 (100%) Table 3: The results from the semi-structured interviews Young learners were asked how they felt about using the storytelling All of the students had positive attitudes towards using the storytelling Sixteen students said that it was enjoyable to study by them through the storytelling and four students thought that the use of storytelling was interesting and attractive Here are some examples of the students’ opinions: “I like it I think it is very enjoyable I can practice my English speaking skills by telling the story I can tell my story whenever I want and nobody laughs at me when I say something wrong.” (Student 12) “Stories are very interesting and attractive Moreover storytelling is very easy to use I can learn vocabulary from the stories” (Student 10) From Table 3, it can be seen that all of young learners enjoyed using the storytelling Ten students stated that they enjoyed using the storytelling because it gave them more confidence in speaking English Six students mentioned that they had a chance to practice speaking by themselves through the use of storytelling, and four students though the use of storytelling was easy to use Some examples of the students’ opinions are shown below: “It makes me confident when I was assigned to tell stories in English I feel more confident to speak English” (Student 3) 33 “I am so excited that I can improve my English speaking skills by telling interesting stories.” (Student 6) “It is so easy to use the storytelling and the lessons are easy to understand more I really enjoyed using the storytelling.”(Student 4) The students were asked if their English speaking skills had improved All of them agreed that the use of storytelling helped them improve their English speaking skills When they were asked the use of storytelling helped them to improve their English speaking skills, sixteen students replied that it promoted independent learning They had a good opportunity to practice English pronunciation Furthermore, four students thought doing the activities in the storytelling also helped improve their English speaking skills Some examples of the students’ opinions are shown below: “I think my English speaking skills have improved because it makes me happy with speaking activities It is very enjoyable to improve my English speaking skills.” (Student1) “It makes me more interested in the speaking process and doing activities Moreover I also have an opportunity to think of creative storytelling It is an interesting activity.” (Student 8) Although the results from the qualitative data indicated that the participants had positive attitude towards the use of storytelling in this research, there were still some problems Twenty students stated that the contents and exercises were not enough and some of them were too difficult for them to understand Some examples of the students’ opinions are shown below: “There are few exercises for me to practice” (Student 15) “Some of tasks are too difficult” (Student 7) The students were asked to give suggestions for the improvement of the storytelling Twenty students wanted to have more contents and exercises in the lesson Some examples of the students’ opinions are shown below: “I think it will be better if there are more exercises.” (Student 11) “I need more tasks to practice” (Student 6) 34 As a result, the results of the semi-structured interview revealed that most young learners at Tay Son primary school had positive attitudes toward using the storytelling They strongly agreed that the storytelling made their studies more enjoyable and the content was more interesting Moreover, the students said that the storytelling could increase their confidence in speaking English because the storytelling offered them a chance to practice speaking with interesting stories Besides, they said the storytelling was easy to use In particular, the students were able to improve their English speaking skills by doing the exercises which also helped them to understand the meanings of the vocabulary However, some students said that they needed more contents and exercises because they wanted to practice more in order to understand the lessons better 4.2 Discussions As students presented their stories, they experienced the authentic use of English because they had to use the kind of language appropriate for their stories and audience to relate to the theme of their stories Students clearly exhibited this guideline during their story presentation In addition, as students learned to use English in an authentic manner, they did not necessarily associate learning English as only a school subject limited to the classroom, but rather saw learning English as an opportunity to learn to use the language outside of the classroom At the methodological stages of the thesis, every step of the lesson, speaking was based on discussion With storytelling, students were surrounded by English language in the classroom and that made it easy to use the language Speaking was limited only to telling stories because young learners at primary school always want to speak about interesting subjects that are similar to their surrounding lives 4.2.1 Improvement of EFL young learners’ English Speaking Skills through the use of the Storytelling at Tay Son primary school Based on the results of the study from a comparison of the pre-test on speaking and the post-test on speaking, the mean scores of the post-test were significantly higher than those of the pre-test This means that using storytelling helped young learners to improve their English speaking skills This was because after the students presented their own storytelling, they felt more confident in 35 speaking English Students indicated that their self-confidence had increased after learning English speaking skills through the use of storytelling (by 50% according to the semi-structured interview) They were confident when speaking English because the storytelling encouraged them to practice their English as much as possible Moreover, we found that storytelling engaged the students more deeply in the content of the story not only by giving them more confidence in learning English, but also by developing their motivation and interest As a result, young learners with high motivation, a high level of self-confidence and low anxiety tend to be successful language learners It can be believed that storytelling production potentially encourages students to speak more actively Storytelling is a second language learning tool with the potential of enhancing speaking skills Thus, storytelling helps to improve young learners’ language skills, especially their speaking skills and also their pronunciation of English It can therefore be concluded from this that using storytelling helped students to improve their English speaking skills and that they were satisfied with their progress 4.2.2 EFL young learners’ opinions toward learning English speaking skill through storytelling According to the findings, it can be seen that students had positive opinions on using the storytelling to improve their English speaking skills Most of them enjoyed using the storytelling From the semi-structured interview, they agreed that the storytelling was a very useful tool for education This kind of learning tool helped them to improve their English skills Young learners found that using the storytelling was an enjoyable activity in the classroom It is important to consider whether the students will enjoy studying English when designing appropriate lessons and activities In addition, students like the storytelling because it is easy to use for practicing English speaking The storytelling can be easily implemented in the classroom and most students rated the ease of creating and using the storytelling in the “normal” range Using the storytelling is a compelling activity for the language classroom 36 which is easy to use for speaking practice It can be a good way to motivate students to use the language both inside and outside the classroom Furthermore, the storytelling includes experience sharing So the storytelling is a usable technology especially for the study of English speaking skill Teachers should encourage their young learners at primary school to design their own storytelling for sharing their stories with their friends as part of the learning activities in the classroom Also, independent learning is promoted when students study from the storytelling They felt independent in learning English while they were using the interesting stories Independence in learning encourages learners to gain more knowledge, to make more progress in learning with interesting content and various activities Young learners can choose the activities and practice speaking by them from the storytelling So, self-learning encourages students to learn to speak more effectively In addition, the students commented that the contents and the exercises were not sufficient There were only three exercises in each lesson The students suggested that each lesson should have more contents and exercises Therefore, a variety of contents and exercises for students to learn and practice should be designed and included in each lesson Teachers should include many types of activities and exercises in storytelling activities because it provides students with opportunities to learn in an open-ended learning context However, in this research, the researcher aimed at developing only two lessons as examples of using the storytelling 37 CHAPTER – CONCLUSION This chapter will provide a brief summary of the findings which includes the purposes of the study, the sample, the research procedures, the instruments, and the results In addition, recommendations for future research are included 5.1 Recapitalization The present study has been conducted in order to develop the use of Storytelling to improve the English speaking skills of young learners at Tay Son school, to determine the efficiency of use of Storytelling to improve English speaking skills in EFL classroom, to investigate whether learning English through use of Storytelling can improve students’ English speaking skills, and to explore students’ opinions toward learning from use of Storytelling The results of the research can be summarized as follows (1) The efficiency of use of Storytelling to improve the English speaking of young learners in EFL classroom at Tay Son School (2) The post-test results were significantly higher than the pre-test results which shows that learning English through the use of Storytelling improved students’ English speaking skills (3) Students had positive opinions toward learning from the use of Storytelling In conclusion, using the storytelling was a suitable way for developing the English speaking skills of young learners at primary schools in Ninh Binh province It trained the students to develop effective English speaking skills and their creativity The students engaged in their own personal learning process by designing, creating, and presenting their own stories 5.2 Suggestions for further study The following recommendations based on the results of this study are proposed for the future The research on using Storytelling should be conducted with other levels of the students, such as primary schools or secondary schools because it has various interesting storytelling It can encourage the students for the English classroom There might be different results 38 It would be useful to explore the various types of stories for young learners There is a variety of new approaches available that could develop ways of improving stories which would encourage students to practice more and to improve their English language skills 39 REFERENCES [1] Armstrong, T (1994), Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development [2] Brewster J., Ellis, G and Girard, D 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English 35 Speaking Skills through the use of the Storytelling at Tay Son primary school 4.2.2 EFL young learners? ?? opinions toward learning 36 Speaking skill. .. study is to: - find empirical evidence that storytelling technique can improve young learners? ?? speaking ability at primary schools - help young learners can improve their speaking ability in EFL classroom