The Place of Language in Story-Telling

Excerpt taken from Laine, E (1997) ‘The Place of Story-telling in Language Teaching’. In P. Falvey & P. Kennedy (eds) Learning Language through Literature: A Sourcebook for Teachers of English in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press:

‘ … in classes where there are children who are not motivated by the foreign language, who have no real need for the language and who may be poor achievers, a well-chosen and well-told story can do something important. It can help to change attitudes tot he language; it can make the language enjoyable and comprehensible; it offers a holistic comprehensible input; it revises or introduces vocabulary in a given context or natural setting and finally, language forms also occur in a natural context … awareness of language in all its shapes and sizes is being realized … structure and systems, the narrative discourse, communication about experience, thought and feeling, register, function, concepts …woven together in stories and their telling …’

Stories which work well in second language language primary classrooms include the following:

· The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Picture Puffin 1970

· The Great Enormous Turnip (traditional) Ladybird 1970

· Bears in the Night by Stan and Jan Berenstain, Collins 1971

· We’re going on a bear hunt by Michael Rosen, Walker Books 1989

· How do I put it on by Shigeo Watanabe , Picture Puffin 1981

· Funny Bones by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, Picture Lions 1980

· My cat likes to hide in boxes by Eve Sutton, Picture Puffin 1982

· The Fat Cat by Jack Kent, Picture Puffin 1980

‘The table below lists the titles of storybooks selected …. Illustrates that storybooks for children often contain authentic language we all want to teach in an English curriculum …’

‘Authentic’ is defned as ‘written and spoken language used every day in a language community … encompasses language use on a broad spectrum of formality to informality dependent on subject and context .. also means that the language used I not, in an arbitrary way, homogenized or made suitable for children according to some preconceived notions of what constitutes ease of access …’

Titles and Authors

Examples

Meg and Mog

By Helen Nicoll and Jan Pienkowski

Describing clothes, colours and size: ‘She (Meg) got out of bed to dress for the party. She put on

Her black stockings

Her big black shoes

Her long black cloak

And her tall black hat.’

Describing food:

‘She took out of the cupboard

3 eggs

bread

cocoa

a kipper

milk

jam

She put it all in her cauldron’.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

By Eric Carle

Days of the week, number, names of food/fruit:

‘He (The very hungry caterpillar) started to look for some food.

On Monday he ate through on apple. But he was still hungry.

On Tuesday he ate through two pears, but he was still hungry.’

Funny Bones

By Janet and Allan Ahlberg

Learning natrual repetitions and rhymes:

‘This is how the story begins,

On a dark, dark hill

There was a dark dark town.

In the dark dark town

There was a dark dark street.

In the dark dark street

There was a dark dark …

And in the dark dark cellar …

Some skeletons lived.’

Rosie’s Walk

By Pat Hutchins

Location:

‘Rosie the hen went for a walk

across the yward

around the pond

over the haycock …’

Jack and the Beanstalk

By Fran Hunia

Natural repetition:

‘Fee, fi, fo, fum, little children, here I come.’

The Magic Seed

By Irene Yim

Describing events in the past tense

Daniels’ Dinosairs

By Mary Carmine (illustrated by Martin Baynton)

Describng hobbies:

‘Daniel loved Dinosaurs.

He loved big dinosaurs

And he loved little dinosaurs.

At the library,

He read books about dinosaurs.

When he drew pictures,

He drew pictures of dinosaurs …’

Describing a character:

‘Daniels’ teacher was a nice,

firendly plant-eating Diplodocus,

but sometimes … she turned into

a big, fierce Tyrannosaurus!’

Frog and Toad Together

-A List by Arnold Lobel

Writing a list:

‘A list of things to do today:

Eat Breakfast

Get dressed

Go to Frog’s House

Take walk with Frog

Eat lunch …’

Castle Adventure

By Roderick Hunt

Using colours to describe things:

‘Three witches lived in the castle.

They were nasty witches.

One was a black witch.

One was a red witch.

One was a green witch.’

Describing action:

‘Gran pushed the witch.’

‘Gran put a net over the witch.’

‘Gran threw the witch on the floor.’

The Three Billy-Goats Gruff

By Fran Hunia

Describing sizes and what people like to do:

‘Little Billy Goat Gruff likes to jump.’

Middle-sized Billy Goat Gruff likes to have fun.’

‘Big Billy Goat Gruff likes to eat grass.’

The Place of Story-Telling in Language Teaching

by Peter Falvey and P. Kennedy