THE ROLE OF STORYTELLING IN ENHANCING PRIMARY ESL STUDENTS

VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE

FARAH AIDAH BINTI MUHD FAIZAL

N7260326

Bachelor of Education Studies

(Primary TEFL)
May 2012

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research paper is made possible through the help and support from everyone, including:
lecturers, parents, family, friends, and the teachers and students of SK Convent Bukit Nanas
(1). First and foremost, I would like to dedicate my acknowledgment of gratitude toward my
research supervisor: Dr. Norherani Moning for her most support and encouragement. She kindly
read my drafts and offered invaluable detailed advices on ideas and organization of the paper.
Secondly, I would like to thank the headmistress of SK Convent Bukit Nanas (1) for her help in
assigning me to a research mentor and accepting me to conduct this research in her school. I
would also like to thank my research mentor, the teachers and students of SK Convent Bukit
Nanas (1) especially to my wonderful participants; the students of year 2 Zamrud. I sincerely
would like to thank my parents and siblings who were always there for me whenever needed.
The product of this research paper would not be possible without all of them. Thank you.

ii

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the role of storytelling in the development of primary ESL (English as a
Second Language) students vocabulary knowledge. A qualitative research design was used to
collect the data. The participants of this research were ten year 2 female students with low to
average English proficiency level. Data were collected from the video recordings of the
classroom interaction during the three storytelling sessions conducted by the researcher. A
video recorder, with the teachers permission, was placed at the back of the classroom to record
all the activities and interactions during the sessions. The video recordings were then
transcribed, coded and analyzed to inform the findings of this research. The findings of this
research shows that mere storytelling does not help in the development of students vocabulary,
however, the features of storytelling which are the usage of illustrations in the storybooks, the
practice of code switching by the storyteller and participants as well as the usage of realia
during pre-story talks contribute towards the building of students vocabulary knowledge.
Overall, the findings of the study reveal that the incorporation of storytelling in language
classroom together with the features such as illustrations, code-switching and realia help in the
development of ESL students vocabulary knowledge and therefore teachers need to consider
implementing storytelling activity in the language classroom. These will improve the students
achievement in English language subject and help them to become proficient user of English.

iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ii

ABSTRACT

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

iv

THE PROBLEM

LITERATURE REVIEW

INVESTIGATION PROCEDURE

FINDINGS

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

10

REFERENCES

13

APPENDICES

15

A Video Transcription Data

B Stories Used During the Storytelling Sessions
C Draft Interim Report

iv
1.0

The Problem

Lack of in depth knowledge of vocabulary among primary school students in Malaysia has been
a major concern. Despite the fact that literacy skills are given tremendous emphasis in the
English Primary Curriculum, ESL students in Malaysia especially those from the rural and suburban areas are still facing problem with comprehending texts and writing essays in English

because of their lack of vocabulary (Asraf & Ahmad, 2003). Besides that, the students also have
problems in verbalizing their ideas in English because of lack of proficiency as speaking
requires a good mastery of grammar, a wide range of vocabulary and the correct pronunciation
of words (Fook, Sindhu, Rani & Aziz, 2011, p. 27). Another factors that contribute to this issue
have been identified such as, the large classroom size of approximately 40 to 45 students per
class, the amount of interaction hours for English language subject which is only about 4 hours
per week, as well as teacher-centeredness and text-book oriented lessons (Philip & Lie, 2011;
Kamaruddin, 2011). These problems can be addressed by the implementation of storytelling
method into the teaching and learning process of English as it can help to enhance the students
development in vocabulary knowledge.
Vocabulary is a vital component in language learning. The connection between vocabulary and
reading comprehension and overall school performance is one of the most strongly established
in educational research. The studies revolve around the potential of stories in fostering
vocabulary development especially in early childhood education (Collins, Coyne, Elley,
Hoffernbeg & Manson, as cited in Rashid, 2011). Exposure to stories and narrative genre at an
early age helps children to acquire high frequency words which are necessary for their
language development (Rashid, 2011). The acquisition of these vocabularies is beneficial to
help children in developing the four macro skills of language which are speaking, writing,
reading and listening. For example, children are able to comprehend texts when they
understand the key words presented and able to produce good piece of writing if they have the
language and vocabulary to construct sentences (Robertson, 2009). Children who are often
exposed to a variety of stories are more advanced in terms of the development of vocabulary
and syntactic complexity in oral language compared to those who are not (Roney, 1989; Phillips,
2000).

1
Mastery of vocabulary is a crucial component in learning a second language and storytelling is a
strategic way to help students to gain vocabulary knowledge. Therefore, this research seeks to
discover the answer to the question of: How storytelling serves as a tool for second language
vocabulary acquisition among primary students?
2.0

Literature Review

Children develop sensitivity towards the way language works when they listen to stories and
draw their attention to the sounds of language (Isbell, 2002). The characteristics of stories such
as repetitive phrases, unique words, colorful illustrations and attractive description encourage
students to involve in the storytelling activity and develop their language skills. Storytelling is
also beneficial in encouraging active participation, increasing verbal proficiency and enhancing
listening skills amongst young children (British Council, 2003).
Many studies confirmed the advantages of storytelling in second language learning. A research
by Pennington (2009) discovered the relationship between storytelling activities in ESL
classrooms and the development of ESL students cognitive, emotional and linguistic aspects
and how storytelling serves as a vehicle for second language development. She discovered that
the twelve week storytelling session project served as a condition for second language
development. The pre-story talk and post-story discussions had improved significantly on the
participants vocabulary acquisition and provided them with opportunity to increase their
linguistic resources of the subject matter. Whereas Speaker, Taylor and Kamen (2004),
confirmed that stories play a huge role in affecting young childrens improvements in specific
literacy skills of vocabulary, grammar, length of utterance and sentence formation. The post test
results show significant improvement in the participants syntax and morphological markers thus
confirmed that increased exposure to storytelling may foster emergence of more advanced
stages of language development.

2
Storytelling activity is known to have many advantages especially to young ESL students.
Mooney (1994, p.7) believes that storytelling provides opportunity for teachers to improve the
students second language word count through the introduction of new, memorable language.
Introducing storytelling as part of the curriculum can be especially significant for supporting ESL
learners as it offers a flexible arrangement that simulates an 'at home' story time atmosphere,
which enable learners to approach literacy through discussion and meaning-centered activities

tailored to their needs (Cumming-Potvin, Renshaw, & Van, 2003). Carger (1993) observed an
improvement in second language word count and the increase of self-confidence and
communication abilities of ESL students after repeated readings of storybook. Besides that, a
research by Dansie (2001) proves that story reading and retelling to scaffold ESL learners oral
language has maximized student learning by creating conditions whereby students could
practice retelling stories prior to producing more complex language (Dansie, 2001).
Furthermore, Hook (2010) found in her research on a three week observation with Year 3 ESL
students that storytelling activities could support ESL literacy development when it is linked to
their prior knowledge and cultural background. This is also supported by Hornsby (2009) at a
literacy conference who emphasized that prior knowledge is fundamental to all students'
comprehension and teachers should provide practical activities to expose students' prior
knowledge before reading. Therefore, teacher should consider choosing books that reflect the
needs and interest of the students by considering the students level of maturity and cultural
sensitivity (Slaughter, 1993).
Although many studies talked about the benefits of storytelling to young children, none of the
studies above focused on how the elements of storytelling help in the building of ESL learners
vocabulary knowledge. Therefore, this research aimed to fill the gap to answer the question of
how storytelling functions as a tool for developing the vocabulary of students in a Malaysian
classroom.

3
3.0

Investigation Procedure (Methodology)

Participants
The participants of this research were ten year 2 female students from an urban school located
in Kuala Lumpur.
Research Design

This research employed a qualitative research design and data were collected through
classroom observations in which the researcher played the role as storyteller and observer. The
reason for choosing qualitative approach for this particular research is because the researcher
believed that observation of classroom interaction is the best approach to gather sufficient data
to understand the central phenomenon and to answer the research question. Classroom
observations also provide the researcher the opportunity to record information as it occurs in a
setting, to study actual behavior, and to study individuals who have difficulty verbalizing their
ideas (Creswell, 2012). In this research, three storytelling sessions were conducted with a
group of year 2 students and all the sessions were video recorded. The purpose of recording
the sessions instead of writing field notes was to save time and effort in writing down the
observations and to avoid the researcher to miss any important events during the sessions.
Data Gathering Procedures
Data were collected through the video recordings of three storytelling sessions conducted with
the participants. The participants were introduced with 4 different stories which three of them
were animal stories and one folk tale. The stories were Shawna the sheep, Ben and Rosy,
The Lion and the Mouse and The Wind and the Sun. Before the sessions were conducted,
the researcher had consulted the English teacher to confirm the suitability of the stories with the
students level of proficiency. Pre-story discussions were conducted during each session to elicit
verbal responses from the participants. A video camera was placed in the classroom to record
all the activities and interactions during the storytelling sessions.

4
Data Analysis
The analysis of data is critical for the integrity of the research project. The analysis of the
classroom interaction is important for the identification of the literacy practices and linguistic
interactions during the storytelling sessions (Pennington, 2009). The video recordings of the
three observations were transcribed and coded to demonstrate the learning of vocabulary of the
students. The transcribed data from the storytelling sessions were used to inform this research
about the impact of storytelling towards ESL students vocabulary development. Interpretation of
the research was made by analyzing and synthesizing the data gathered from the classroom
observations and the literature review.

4.0

Findings

Based on the data collected from the storytelling sessions, I found out that mere storytelling
activity does not help the participants to acquire the intended vocabularies, however, the
features of storytelling such as the illustrations in the storybooks, the usage of realia and
practice of code switching help the participants in the process of understanding the key
vocabularies presented in the stories. In this section, I will discuss about the findings of my
research by providing evidences from the video transcription data.
Finding 1: Illustrations
Illustrations in the story books used during the storytelling sessions help the participants to
understand the key vocabulary presented in the stories. The participants rely mostly on the
picture cues to understand the meaning of the words and to comprehend the content of the
story. For example, during the pre-story talk in the second storytelling session, St1 and St2
predicted the good and the bad characters in the story by looking at the illustration in the
storybook. St1 responded to my question by pointing to the picture of the sun which she
predicted as the bad character and the picture of the wind as the good character. When asked
for the reason for her answer, St2 quickly answered that the wind is cold and therefore she
thought that it was the good character whereas the sun is hot and therefore it was considered
as the bad character. St1 nodded in response to St2 answer to indicate that she agreed with the
answer given.

5
Although the storytelling had not started yet, the participants managed to use their thinking skill
to predict the good and the bad characters in the story just by looking at the illustration. The
participant also managed to give the reason of her answer by using adjectives such as hot and
cold which are the key vocabularies that I intended to teach during this session.

32

R: Now, look at this picture. Which one do you think is the good character
and which one is the bad character?

33

St 1: This one is bad and this one is good. (points to the picture of the sun
and the wind)

34

R: What makes you said so?

35

St 2: This one is cold and this one is hot.

36

R: Clever girl. The wind is cold and the sun is very hot.

37

St 1: (nods)
(Session 2: line 32-37)

Another evident of student learning vocabulary through the illustration in the storybook was
during the third session. At the beginning of the session, when I wanted to introduce the main
characters of the story which is Ben and Rosy, St3 responded to my question of where the
horses are by pointing to the picture of the two horses in the storybook. This shows that the
participant understand the meaning of the word horses which is the key vocabulary that I
wanted to teach during this particular session. This is also a proof that the illustration helps the
participant to understand the vocabulary in the storybook.

44

R: Ben and Rosy. Yes, the title of this story is Ben and Rosy. Ben and
Rosy are two big strong horses. Which one is Ben and Rosy?

45

Sts: The horses!

46

R: Yes. Where are they?

47

St 3: (Points to the picture of the horses)

(Session 3: line 44-47)
6

Finding 2: Code-switching
The practice of code-switching is another feature in storytelling which helps the participants in
building meaning of the key vocabularies presented in the story. I allow the usage of codeswitching throughout the three sessions as I believe that this strategy helps students in their
process of building their vocabulary knowledge. For instance, during the first session, St2
helped to translate the meaning of wool into Bahasa Malaysia, which is her mother tongue.
This respond was elicited through my question of whether the participants have touched a
sheeps wool before. When St1 responded by asking wool? which was probably because she
do not understand the meaning of the word, quickly, St2 helped St1 by code-switching the word

wool into bulu kambing biri-biri. This is a significant event during the session that
demonstrates the practice of code-switching during the storytelling sessions which help the
participants to make meaning of the unknown or unfamiliar vocabularies.

R: Today Im going to tell a story about Shawna the sheep. Whats the
sheeps name?

Sts: Shawna.

R: Have u ever touch a sheeps wool?

St 1: Wool?

St 2: Em..Bulu kambing biri-biri kan teacher? (Sheeps wool, is that right

teacher?)
(Session 1: line 1-5)

Another evident of the practice of code-switching was during the second session. St2 politely
asked me to read story in Bahasa Malaysia, which is her mother tongue. I believe that this was
because she found it easier to comprehend the story if it was in her first language rather than in
English, which is her second language. The same goes with the other four participants, as they
sighed when was told that I will be reading an English storybook.

7
18

St 2: Teacher baca buku bahasa melayu lah teacher. (Teacher, read

Malay story.)

19

R: No. Today, because this is an English lesson, so Im going to tell you

story in English.

20

Sts: Alaa. (Sigh)

(Session 2: line 18-19)

During this session, St2 put up her hand to ask a question which I believe was because she
needs to seek for clarification.

24

St 2: Tikus tu jahat ye? (Is the mouse bad?)

(Session 2: line 24)

This participant, whom at first suggested for the story to be told in Bahasa Malaysia, asked
whether the mouse in this story is bad using her first language. Although I replied her in English,
St2 responded by asking whether Tikus tu baik? (The mouse is kind?).
25

R: No. The mouse wanted to help the lion. So

26

St 2: Tikus tu baik? (The mouse is kind?)

27

R: UmYes. The mouse is kind because he wanted to help the lion.

(Session 2: line 25-27)

Interestingly, after I responded to her question in English, St2 confidently replied in English as
well. This demonstrates her ability to use the vocabulary taught in the story which is mouse and
good despite being given the opportunity to use her mother tongue to ask questions.
30

St 2: Oh! So the mouse is good.

(Session 2: line 30)

This event shows how the practice of code-switching during storytelling session motivates the
participants, whom at first were not really interested with the lesson, to learn and use English.
8
Code-switching was not only practiced by the participants but also by me, the storyteller. I used
code-switching to teach the participants the intended vocabularies. During the first session, after
I let the students feel the sheeps wool seat cover that I brought along to the class, I continued
explaining about the usage of wool and its texture. I purposely translated the word fine and
soft with the word lembut and halus which carry the same meaning in Bahasa Malaysia. The
participants nodded and smiled. This non-verbal cues indicates that they understood the
meaning of soft and fine after I translated the words into their mother tongue and agreed of what
being said is true as they had felt and touched the wools themselves.

R: I have a seat cover made of sheeps wool. Do you want to know how it
feels like?

Sts: Yes!

10

R: (Takes out the seat cover from her bag and show it to the students)

11

Sts: (Touch and stroke the wools)

12

R: You can make lots of things using sheeps wool. Like scarf, sweater,
carpets Do you want to listen to the story about Shawna the
She has really fine and soft wool. Bulu dia lembut dan
are soft)

sheep?
halus. (Her wools
13

Sts: (Nod and smile)

(Session 1: line 8-13)

Finding 3: Realia
The usage of realia during the pre-story and post-story discussions also contributed towards the
students learning of vocabulary. This was evident during the first session whereby I brought in
the seat cover made of sheeps wool. The reason for using this item was to teach the word
wool, the texture of the wool and its usage. The participants were excited to know how the wool
actually feels like. The realia helps them to construct the meaning of vocabularies such as wool,
soft and fine which are the key vocabularies I intended to teach during this session.

9
6

R: Yes, bulu kambing biri-biri. Sheeps wool. Do you know how the wool
feels like?

Sts: No.

R: I have a seat cover made of sheeps wool. Do you want to know how it
feels like?

Sts: Yes!

10

R: (Takes out the seat cover from her bag and show it to the students)

11

Sts: (Touch and stroke the wools)

12
sheep?
halus. (Her wools
13

R: You can make lots of things using sheeps wool. Like scarf, sweater,
carpetsDo you want to listen to the story about Shawna the
She has really fine and soft wool. Bulu dia lembut dan
are soft and fine)
Sts: (Nod and smile)
(Session 1: line 6-13)

When I paused halfway during the session and asked the question What do you think happen
next, St 1, quickly put up her hand to answer Her wool got stuck in the fence!. This shows that
St1, understood the meaning of the word wool and she was able to use the word in a correct
sentence to answer the question asked.
5.0

Discussion and Conclusion

Based on the above findings, it shows that although mere storytelling activity does not help in
the students vocabulary acquisition, but with the help of illustrations in the storybooks, the
usage of realia and the practice of code-switching during discussions, the students were able to
understand the key vocabularies presented in the stories.
Finding 1 shows that the illustrations in the story books used during the storytelling session help
to facilitate language use during the discussions whereby the participants were asked to predict
the good and bad characters in the story as well as to guess what happened next in the story.
The illustrations are seen as important tool during the pre-story and while story discussions as
they help the participants to understand the key words presented in the stories.

10
Nicholas (2007) believed that children who saw the pictures as a story was read had greater
indirect vocabulary development. This is also supported by Vukelich, Christie and Enz (2008)
who said that children are able to learn new vocabulary during storybook time as they point to
pictures they see in the book and when an attentive adult labels the picture or illustration. This
was exactly what the participant in my study did as she pointed to the characters to talk about
their characteristics and this interaction is believed to be the basis of a great deal of vocabulary
development (Woodward & Guajardo, 2002; Corkum & Moore, 1998).

Besides the illustrations in a storybook, the practice of code-switching during storytelling session
also helps in the understanding of vocabularies among the students. The findings show that the
participants in this research used code-switching mainly to ask questions for clarification and
also to confirm the meaning of the vocabulary with the storyteller. The findings by Takemoto
(2010, p.243) suggest that bilingual childrens code switching is neither random nor the result of
a linguistic deficit. He also argues that code switching was used as a communication tools that
allows children to convey linguistic and extra linguistic information. Becker (2001, p.113) added
that code-switching in storytelling discussions provide opportunity for students to gain
experience with the linguistic aspects of the targeted language. Therefore, the findings of this
research which is the benefits of code switching in storytelling and its relation to students
vocabulary acquisition supported the previous studies.
The usage of realia during pre-story talk also helps students in the process of learning the
intended vocabularies. Realia is the proponent of Communicative Language Teaching which
advocates the use of authentic and real-life materials in the classroom (Sumarni, 2008). The
findings in this research support the study by Sumarni (2008) whom concluded that children
understand and retain meaning better when they have seen some objects associating it.

11
Although at the initial stage of planning for this research I did not plan to focus on the features of
storytelling, the findings based on the recordings of the classroom interaction however had
given me new insights on how these features complement the storytelling sctivity and help the
participants to acquire some key vocabularies in the stories. I personally believe that without the
help of illustrations and if I had chosen to use books without pictures, the students would not be
able to understand the meaning of the vocabularies and therefore unable to comprehend the
whole story. Besides that, if code-switching was not allowed during the discussions of the story,
it might hinder the students learning of vocabulary and worst of all it might lead to frustration and

boredom among the students. I also believe that realia plays an important role during the
introduction stage of the story as it helps the students to understand meaning of the
vocabularies better and thus helping them to follow through the storytelling sessions.
However, I believe that if a better instrument to collect data for this research is used, I could
gained a much more rigorous and strong findings. For the purpose of future research, I
recommend that students work sample should be collected to inform more about the students
ability to understand the vocabularies. Therefore, a test or post-story activity should be
conducted each time the session ends. Besides that, an interview with the participants can also
help to provide more information regarding the students background and language proficiency
which would be beneficial for qualitative study. In addition, the researcher or storyteller should
as much as possible try to elicit verbal responses from all participants to gather more extensive
data.
In conclusion, storytelling with the help of illustrations, realia and code-switching facilitates
students in the process of acquiring the key vocabularies in the story. Storytelling is not only an
enjoyable activity for students but also as a tool for developing their linguistic competencies.
Apart from that, storytelling also helps to stimulate the students creative and critical thinking
through the pre story discussion and help to build their English vocabulary knowledge.
Therefore, the implementation of storytelling in classroom should be considered by teachers to
support and enhance the standard curriculum and help students in their learning of English.

12
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Horizons , 99-115.

British Council. (2003, July 8). Storytelling - benefits and tips. Retrieved November 1, 2011,
from British Council : http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/storytelling-benefits-tips
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Crager, C. L. (1993). Louie comes to life: Pretend reading with second language emergent
readers. Language Arts , 542-547.
Cumming-Potvin, W., Renshaw, P., & Van, K. (2003, June 1). Article: Scaffolding and bilingual
shared reading experiences: promoting primary school students' learning and
development. Retrieved September 11, 2010, from Highbeam Research:
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-136337790.htm
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Psychological Assessment , 27-47.
Herrick, K. (2010). The Importance of Shared Reading. Retrieved September 20, 2010, from
Buzzle.com: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/the-importance-of-shared-reading.html
Hook, E. (2010, June 1). ESL students: Learning through talking. Retrieved August 11, 2010,
from The Free Library:
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Kamaruddin, K. (2011). Management of Effective Schools in Malaysia:Issues and Challenges.
Faculty of Cognitive Science & Human Resource Development, Universiti Pendidikan
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Mooney, M. (1994). Exploring New Horizons in Shared Reading. Victoria: Nelson Australia Pty
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Nicholas, J. L. (2007). An exploration on the impact of picture books illustrations on the
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Slaughter, J. P. (1993). Beyond Storybooks: Young Childrena nd the Shared Book Experience.
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APPENDICES
A) Video Transcription Data
B) Stories used during the storytelling sessions
C) Draft Interim Report

15