CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I. Theoretical part. Storytelling and Its Theoretical Implications

for Young Learners
1.1 Children and Storytelling
1.2 Relationship between the story and the fairy-tale
1.3 Reasons for using storytelling in the lessons of English
1.4 Storytelling from the Point of View of Teaching

CHAPTER II. Storytelling and Development of Creative Speech

2.1 Basic Features of Oral Speech
2.2 The Role of Context
2.3 Classroom Implications: Teaching Materials
2.4 The Types of Communicative Exchanges

CHAPTER III. Practical part. Lesson Plans for Using Storytelling

3.1 Lesson plan 1. Little Red Riding Hood
3.2 Lesson plan 2. Little Red Riding Hood
3.3 Lesson plan 3. The Tortoise and the Hare

CONCLUSION
THE LIST OF USED LITERATURE
 Introduction
English is a language I like very much and I do appreciate the fact I have the
opportunity of studying it. English has become a language that is used among
many people, not only in English speaking countries. People learn English in order
to be able to communicate whenever they travel abroad, cooperate with other
countries when the English is often the only possibility how to make oneself
understood, or just because they want to improve their abilities. But there may be
many more reasons leading them to learning English. Many people consider it to
be a necessity in terms of social life and successful carrier.
The advantage of being able to communicate in English has its
foundations and that is why the language has become a compulsory
subject at most of the Czech primary schools. Children learn English
from the age of about 8 to 15 and then continue in its studies at secondary
schools. The time when children start their language studies differs
depending on the particular type of school and its direction or
specialization. It is, among other reasons, important to let children create a
positive attitude towards English language learning, because the approach
they form almost at beginning of their studies may strongly influence their
whole-life attitude towards English.
My thesis concentrates on young learners – children at the age of 10 – 12 at
an elementary and pre-intermediate level. I have chosen simple stories and mainly
fairy-tales as useful sources for teaching English, especially because they are the
kind of literature they would most probably enjoy. Children may love fairy-tales as
well as other types of stories for their happy endings, for the opportunity to “live”
the stories together with their characters, or because the stories enable
children to escape from reality.
This work is to show and point out that stories and mainly fairy-tales
do not have to serve only as entertaining literature but as a useful source of
information and topics for creating activities. In the theoretical part I shall
explain the reasons for and the background of using storytelling in the
lessons of English language. The aim of the practical part is to prove that
stories can be used practically in the lessons of English. The thesis is
focused on developing two language skills – listening and speaking –
which, according to some sources, are typically the first forms of
communication in all languages.
The thesis does not suggest how often storytelling should be used in
the lessons of English because teaching and learning conditions may differ
in various classes. Storytelling is recommended to be used occasionally,
according to the teacher’s consideration and in an addition to common
work with a textbook, workbook and other materials.
 Chapter I. Theoretical part. Storytelling and Its Theoretical
Implications for Young Learners
1.1 Children and Storytelling

Classical stories and predominantly fairy-tales provide sources for

mothers, fathers, grandmothers or grandfathers to tell and entertain their
children and grandchildren. Stories represent means of conveying morals
we intend children to acquire. The amount of time spent by listening to
fairy-tales may become a meaningful contribution to the psychological
development of children in terms of differentiation between good and evil,
while acquiring good manners at the same time and forming a wide scale of
values important to children.
Scott and Ytreberg consider telling stories to be an unseparable part of
educational process every child should experience. They say that stories
from the psychological and educational points of view represent essential
parts in the child’s development and the development of the child’s
language. 1
Stories have their magic function as through reading the plot the
reader may feel to have become someone else for a while and imagine
someone else’s thoughts and feelings. They offer similar potential for
development of personality in mother tongue as well as in foreign language
learning. Stories bear a great deal of significancy within acquiring
language skills. They abound in phrases, grammatical structures and
repetitions. 2
Kolsawala 3 says that storytelling is an unthreatening way of how
children may acquire and produce a language:

1
Scott, W.A., Ytreberg, H. Teaching English to Children. New York: Longman, 1990. ISBN 0-582-74606-X
2
Wright, A. Creating Stories with Children. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
3
Kolsawala, H. “Teaching Vocabulary Through Rhythmic Refrains in Stories.” In Rixon, S. Young Learners of English: Some
 “By listening to stories children are introduced to a number of words
in context. Very often repeated use of words in the same context, or in
varying contexts, helps them to infer the meanings of words and gradually
assimilate them into their growing lexicon.” 4
Children absorb new words. At first they do not comprehend their
precise meaning, they only repeat the words and phrases they have heard,
but they apprehend the context in which a particular expression or a phrase
can be used. Having heard the story several times, they are able to grasp
the meanings of the particular words.
From the children’s point of view the storytelling may be perceived
only as listening to the teacher narrating a story. But it is a far more
complex process. Karrer and Silverman 5 express their opinion that “stories
should provoke students´ asking questions, make comments, tell other
versions, and maybe also relating stories from their own countries.”
Storytelling is uniquely a human experience that enables us to convey,
through the language of words, aspects of ourselves and others, and the
worlds, real or imagined, that we inhabit. Stories enable us to come to
know these worlds and our place in them given that we are all, to some
degree, constituted by stories: Stories about ourselves, our families, friends
and colleagues, our communities, our cultures, our place in history.
McDrury and Alterio.
Storytelling is a great way how to encourage young learners of English
language to be actively participated in the process of learning a foreign
language. Storiesprovide the things that are familiar to children and
therefore storytelling is a useful way how to introduce new things in the
context which is well-known for children. If there is a topic which is hard

4
Kolsawala, H. “Teaching Vocabulary Through Rhythmic Refrains in Stories.” In Rixon, S. Young Learners of
English: Some Research Perspectives. England: Longman, 1999, p. 18-31. ISBN 0-582-42082-2
5
Kasser, C., Silverman, A. Stories We Brought with Us: Beginning Readings. New York: Pearson Education, 2002.
to explain to children we can integrate the topic to a story. This particular
example of the topic, the introduction and solution of the problem might
help children to visualise the problem and understand the topic better. Brno
Barzaq 6 defined storytelling as a knowledge management technique, a
way of distributing information, targeted to audiences and a sense of
information , she added that stories provide natural connection between
events and concepts and finally , she added that visual storytelling is away
of telling stories through images.
"Telling is the live , person to person oral and physical presentation of
a story to an audience "Telling" involves direct contact between teller and
listener.
It mandates the direct presentation of the story by the teller. The
teller's role is to prepare and present the necessary language, vocalization,
and physically to effectively and efficiently communicate the images of a
story " (Barzaq 2009:7)
She emphasized that the listener's role is to create a vital images,
actions , characters, and events. The story in the listeners' minds based on
the teller's performance. Additionally, she cited in (Egan,1995:116-125)
that storytelling is a linguistic activity that is educative because it allows
the listeners to share their personal understanding to other people and that
it is a performance art that has been revitalized in recent years, and in
these days storytellers perform texts that listeners have learned it from
books.
According to Pellowski (1990), there are seven prominent theories
towards an origin of storytelling based on research conducted across the
disciplines including anthropologists, archeologists, folklorists,
philologists, semioticians, linguistics and the discipline of literature. They

6
Barzaq.M.( 2009)Integrating Sequential Thinking Thought Teaching Stories in the Curriculum.Action Research.
are as follows:
1) That it grew out of playful, self-entertainment needs of humans; 2)
That it satisfied the need to explain the surrounding physical world; 3)
That it came about because of an intrinsic religious need in humans to
honor or propitiate the supernatural force(s) believed to be present in the
world; 4) That it evolved from the human need to communicate experience
to other humans; 5) That it fulfilled an aesthetic need for beauty,
regularity, and form through expressive language and music and body
movement; 6) That it stemmed form the desire to record the actions or
qualities of one’s ancestors or leaders, in the hope that this would give
them a kind of immorality; and 7) That it encoded and preserved the norms
of social interaction that a given society lived by.
Traditional versus Modern In traditional social culture, stories weren’t
only(addressed) to a few people but to a large audience (Güney, 1971). The
stories included heroic acts, and legends which united people (Karweik,
1999). They expressed stories about today, yesterday and tomorrow and
expressed realities powerfully and thus they explained how a person
perceived the outside world. According to Riesman, from the era of
Homerous to our present time, people who listen to these stories and
people who live in similar places become one.
Storytelling provides an opportunity for students to expand their
vocabulary as they decode the meaning of words, based on the context of
the story they hear or read. Listening to stories also improves a students’
understanding of grammar and literary devices as they see them within a
story 7 .
Storytelling is a unique method of communication and students
express their thoughts and ideas in their own unique ways. As students

7
Wojciechowicz, L. (2003). The power of storytelling: 8 reasons for infusing storytelling into your curriculum.
prepare their stories and go through the writing process, it provides them
with opportunities for social interaction and an opportunity for self-
expression 8 . Storytelling is not only used for communication purposes, but
storytelling has been used to teach literacy skills, cooperative learning
skills, critical thinking, and to build knowledge of different contexts
(Mello, 2001). When students develop reading and writing skills, teachers
are able to use storytelling in a written form to teach and convey meanings
with students. Much of the traditional literature used in schools has
evolved from folk tales and oral stories that were edited and published to
teach and convey messages about a culture (Mello, 2001).
Storytelling became the domain of librarians and was thus
traditionally situated within a story hour. Seen as having more of an
entertainment than education value and combined with fears that students
were not getting the skills needed to compete for jobs, storytelling never
found a foothold outside of the kindergarten classroom. Reilly (2007) Parr
and Campbell(2007:19) state that storytelling is a powerful tool to improve
students’ writing because it provides “opportunities to identify important
details and dialogue, understand and recall stories and story elements, and
practice oral language skills such as vocal expression and exaggeration.
Story telling is a means, of creative expressions which are still
important nowadays. By using this method, educational subjects can be
taught, transferred and developed. Through mass media, storytelling is
being done in a variety of ways. It has no limits because it is applicable to
every branch of science with interactive tools. Changing roles and ways of
interaction in storytelling through various media introduce a new scope of
understanding and use of that art. No matter how we tell our stories, it is
the content of the message conveyed through different channels and forms
8
Craig, S., Hull, K., Haggart, A. & Crowder, E. (2001). Storytelling: Addressing the literacy needs of diverse
learners. The council for exceptional children, 33(5), 44-51.
which counts.
Belmonte and Verdugo (2007) state that, at an early stage of language
acquisition, stories can be a valuable way of contextualizing and
introducing new language, they can also make new language meaningful
and memorable to the learners. In the same concern, (Niemann, 2003)
reports that, with stories children have an access to literature and culture
that otherwise they would not get.

1.2 Relationship between the story and the fairy-tale

Distinction between the terms “story” and “fairy-tale” is not strict in

this thesis, they are closely related one to another. This idea is supported
by some authors of methodology books that focus on storytelling. They
consider both fairy-tales and other types of stories to be a useful source of
material when teaching children. The term “fairy-tale” refers only to fairy-
tale as a specific type of a story, whereas the term “story” has a more
general meaning, and is used when particular information is valid to all
stories.
There are many definitions explaining the meaning of the term
“story”. For methodological purposes a story can be defined as “a piece of
fiction that narrates a chain of related events.” (Accurate and Reliable
Dictionary)
Not only fairy-tales are appropriate for children. Teacher can take the
opportunity of using fables, myths or legends, since they are suitable types
of stories for storytelling purposes for children as well.
Shelly claimed that reading stories to one's kids is a crucially
important part of his or her job as a parent. As a baby and toddler, the little
one is picking up language skills at a phenomenal rate. She added that
reading stories to young people helps them to increase their vocabulary,
understand the parts of language, and learn the rules of English. There is
nothing else one can do that has more of an impact on the child's future
ability to read and learn than a daily story time. Finally she recommended
at least thirty minutes a day of reading stories together even with children.
One may conclude that stories affected the listeners either adult or kids by
teaching them the language; the structure, new vocabulary, the grammar,
and to help the children to think about different new ideas. When one
points to objects and name them, his or her toddler can quickly learn to
identify many more objects than s/he can verbalize. She asked any parent
to ask his or her pre-verbal little one to point to the ball or shoe and the
parent will be amazed at how much he can comprehend, even before s/he
can speak. As one 's child grows, story time becomes a bonding, connected
time that his or her child can count on. The emotional security that can
grow from taking the time to sit down and read together is truly priceless.
It lets the child know first that s/he is important to her or his parents and
second, that reading and learning are fun. And by pointing to the words on
the page as the parent read, s/he is helping the child learning to recognize
words. Before the parent knows it, the child will be sight reading several
words just because the child has had the repetition of hearing the word and
seeing it on the page so many times before. By using story to discuss moral
lessons, develop problem-solving skills, and improve comprehension, one
can have a deeply meaningful conversation with the child every day. This
can discover more about who the child is and what s/he values by asking
questions about the story that indicates the importance of the stories.
Young people can come up with some pretty creative solutions when given
the opportunity to brainstorm with an open, accepting adult.
Harmer considered storytelling one form of the intensive listening or
the live listening that provides excellent listening material; the students
can predict what is coming next, and they can be asked to describe people
in the story or to comment on any part of the story .
Valenzuela stated that stories are important to people and education.
Stories are how people make sense of themselves and their worlds. In
young children's spontaneous stories that they act out as they play, one can
see how they believe people relate to one another, who they hope to
become, and how they will behave.
ArmstrongBy(2010:80) emphasized that storytelling technique has
been a traditional literary which relied on an individual author or
storyteller to craft worlds and characters to inhabit them. Even in ancient
times, prior to the advent of a literate society, the tradition of storytelling
was a vital basis for communicating values, but it still required the inspired
contribution of an individual to put ink to paper. Collaboration stories that
aimed to ease the communication, most certainly took place, usually with
one author expanding on, or adapting the work of another.
In addition to expanding works, some authors chose to simply create
new adventures for existing characters, or to create new characters in
worlds already written by other authors.
Barzaq (2009:21) mentioned that stories can achieve several functions
and purposes as follows:
-Stories create interest; the writers of journal articles are advised to
write their findings into a story form due to the stories' effects that make a
suspense by the chain of the events that the writers can create that evoke
the learners' interest and suspense to know the other details about that
issues.
-Stories provide a structure for remembering course material, it is not
easy to the learners to remember the concepts in isolation, but if the
concepts and the difficult definitions existed in the flow of a story , it will
be easier for the learners to remember them, additionally, stories may also
help to create vivid mental images.
- Stories are a familiar and accessible form of sharing information; the
stories may help the learners to ease their learning in mastering and
understand the material, and a narrative opening in any scientific task
simplifies allows the learners to grasp a concrete example before moving
to the most difficult points.
Stories are considered to be means of comprehension, and it existed
from the existence of human beings and still until now.
Considering storytelling technique affects human beings, specialists
recommended this technique by the following; firstly, providing several
purposefully stories at homes, schools, educational centers that aims to
make a habit of reading useful stories.
Secondly, to read different realistic stories to the children before
sleeping that helps them to understand whatever happens around them.
And, finally, to encourage the students to write their own stories and to
consider them. In general , it is very effective to teach by using literature
style , Keshta (2000:20) stated that literature is a microcosm of an entire
society , a little window that permits people to look into the cultural values
, traditions and lifestyle of people. As a person's word reflects character.
Alsofi (2008:15)cited in Ghosn (1998:34) mentioned several benefits of
using literature in teaching as follows : (1) authentic literature provides a
motivating, meaningful context for language learning that presents to
students natural language engages the learners in others culture . (3)
literature develop critical thinking skills towards such situation that
students faced. (4) good literature presentation leads to understanding to
life circumstances.
 Moreover, Alsofi (2008:15-16) mentioned five reasons for teaching
literature for the secondary graders: (1) Literature helps students
understand and appreciate cultures and beliefs different from their own. (2)
Literature is 'genuine' or 'authentic material that helps students to
understand the other types of authentic materials like, cartoons, city maps,
timetable and advertisements. (3) Literacy texts can serve as an example of
certain types of language patterns and structures, for example, vocabulary
usage.
(4) Literature provides the learners enjoyment and connects them more
with the text. (5) If students like the literacy text that may evokes them to
read more literary works , that leads them to develop their capacity of
reading Alsofi (2008:22-23) stated that storytelling technique is an
important and effective one that the listeners may shared and experienced
the language learning experiences much more collaborative. Additionally,
the listeners or the learners may reconstruct the general meaning and ideas
along with their own feeling and existing knowledge.
When the learners listen to a dramatic story, it may expand their
imaginative and creative powers, additionally, they will be evoked to retell,
remember, predict and memorize, as a result, they will develop their
predictive skills. Finally, the audiotape listening also provides the listeners
with moods , cues ,clues through music and sound effects .( Garcon,
2001:4)
Barzaq (2009:5) stated that storytelling plays an important role in
teaching: thus more learners remember what they learner easily when it is
explained in a narrative way and she specified some benefits of storytelling
technique as follows:
1- It sparks students' imagination and interest in the language skills.
2- It builds vocabulary, comprehension, story sequencing.
 3- It improves listening and oral communication skills. She also added
that storytelling offers teachers a chance to explore into their students'
background experience. She also mentioned some benefits of the
storytelling technique, firstly, the learners may gain verbal skills' that can
improve the ability to resolve interpersonal discussion and many other
skills. Secondly, it provokes the imagination by either telling or listening
that may help the learners to think about new ideas and build self-
confidence. Finally, it may help the learners to learn from others'
experiences and other's wisdom in behaving in such situation .Storytelling
technique enhances the learners' imagination (Raines & Isbell, 1994:264-
265), additionally, it supports and extends children's social lives (Britsch,
1992:80).

1.3 Reasons for using storytelling in the lessons of English

The essential reason to use storytelling as a form of a classroom

activity is connected with entertaining function which contributes to
motivation, involvement of imagination, and sharing of emotions at the
same time. Nevertheless, stories offer a considerable and constant source
of language experience. They present another resource for learning new
vocabulary, phrases and sentence structures. And basically, “stories are
particularly important in the lives of children because they help children to
understand their world and share it with others.” (Wright 1995: 3)
When the storytelling is being provided at school, the learners fail to
feel they are involved in the process of learning, they feel they are playing.
Watts (1995: 6) says that “the children learn when they are having fun.”
The merits for which storytelling should be included in the lessons of
English are illustrated more in details in the following paragraphs.
 1.3.1 Motivation and Imagination

One of the principal arguments constricted by many methodology

books concerning storytelling and subsequent activities in the classroom is
that learners are fond of listening to stories and they are often anxious to
listen to them over and over again. This idea is supported by what Wright
states: “children have a constant need for stories and they will always be
willing to listen.” (Wright 1995: 4)
It is the teacher’s attitude to children, his/her methods and means
he/she applies when teaching that may provoke children’s interest. If the
interest is being provoked, then the children’s motivation and contentment
can move forward. Stories are means of keeping learner’s interest, thereby
maintaining a high degree of motivation. They make lessons amusing, help
children to deepen their concern about the particular foreign language and
generally positive attitude towards learning the language. (Harmer 1991: 8;
Brewster and Ellis 1992: 158)
Stories provoke imagination and encourage its usage. Children often
associate with the characters, admire them and identify with them. Thus the
children themselves become a part of the story, develop their imagination,
and make their own versions. The involvement of imagination and fantasy
can help children develop their creative thinking. (Brewster and Ellis
1992: 158)
Through identifying with the characters and the situations, stories may
as well enable children to make sense of their everyday life. This
presumption may further lead to comparing or contrasting their experiences
with the experiences and deeds of the hero, and also thinking about their
own values in contrast to those found in the story. (Brewster and Ellis
1992: 158)
Listening to a story in a classroom is a moment of sharing emotions
and social experience. One of the aims of using stories is to make children
feel free to show and learn to express their emotions.
“Storytelling provokes a shared response of laughter, sadness,
excitement and anticipation which is not only enjoyable but can help build
up the child’s confidence and encourage and social and emotional
development.” (Brewster and Ellis 1992: 159)
Activities carried out after the storytelling and the discussions
resulting from such activities may similarly bring forvard the moments of
sharing opinions, personal experiences and attitudes towards the characters
of the story. The notions of 10-12 year-old children may be concerned with
expressing agreement with the deeds of a protagonist or, opposite to it with
disagreement concerning the behaviour of an antagonist, as well as with
antipathy to some specific situation. Scott and Ytreberg (1990: 3-4)
consider the children at the age of about 10 years mature enough to have
developed their own opinions in relation to human behaviour.

1.3.2 Repetition
Children enjoy listening to one and the same story more than once,
which is an advantage that positively contributes to acquiring new
expressions and phrases. Repetition helps children remember the details of
a story and follow the meaning. By repetition children are encouraged to
participate in the narrative, they learn to foresee the events in stories, as
the plots of stories often develop according to certain patterns. (Brewster
and Ellis 1992: 159)
Natural repetition of key vocabulary and structures often appear in
some stories. Great variety of traditional fairy-tales contains repeated
phrases. For example, Little Red Riding Hood says several times: “You’ve
got very big eyes/hands/teeth, Grandmother!” Even if the story is
performed once only, children hear or repeat these phrases several times,
which contributes to their learning.
Listening to a story is an opportunity for children to meet both
familiar and new language patterns. They get acquainted with new
vocabulary or they hear already familiar words and learn new contexts for
their usage. (Teaching Storytelling [17])
The more are children exposed to listening to stories, the better they
become familiar with predicting the events that might appear in the story.
“Those who regularly hear stories, subconsciously acquire
familiarity with narrative patterns and begin to predict upcoming
events. Both beginning and experienced readers call on their understanding
of patterns as they tackle unfamiliar texts.“ (Teaching Storytelling [17])
The paragraph above deals with the children listening to stories and
suggests that children’s understanding to narrative patterns of one story
leads to creating general patterns which children can apply to other stories.
Byrne (1988: 21) emphasises the necessity of providing pupils with
something that helps them open up and talk, they need such a topic they all
are familiar with, they are confident with, and which is at the same time
appealing and interest provoking.
Properly chosen story is likely to become a stimulus for the children,
even for those who are shy, afraid of expressing themselves and the ones
feeling they have nothing to say. Pupils are motivated to reflect upon
situations which take place in the stories. Wright confirms this idea saying:
“The experience of the story encourages responses through speaking.
It is natural to express our likes and dislikes and to exchange ideas and
associations related to stories we hear or read.” Wright (1995: 5)
 1.2 Storytelling from the Point of View of Teaching

1.2.1 Selection of Proper Stories

Stories intended for children need to be chosen carefully. Since the

aim is to find a story appropriate for the young learners, the attention
should be paid to the language level as well as to the topicality of the story
which should be squared with the language level and with the fields of
interest of 10 – 12 years old children. Watts (2006: 9) recommends for 7-
12 years olds using linear stories with a sequence of different events with
the focus on form, grammar and meaning.
Teachers can choose stories from a wide range of storybooks. Brewster
and Ellis say that traditional tales and fairy-tales are meaningful sources
for storytelling because the children are already familiar with some of them
in their mother tongue. Brewster and Ellis add that fantasy stories,
humorous stories and animal stories are suitable as well to be used as a
source for storytelling. (Brewster and Ellis 1992: 160)
The teacher should be aware of the fact that all the activities
associated with the particular story are based on its text, therefore the
language level of the text and also the main theme of the story need to be
chosen properly.
1.2.2 Suitable level of a text
The teacher, when selecting a story for the classroom, should always
pay attention to the following criteria. The text should be simple enough
for the children to understand. The teacher should carefully consider the
demandingness of every storytelling activity and the language level the
pupils are at. They must be able to understand and solve concerning tasks
successfully. At the same time the story should be sufficiently stimulating
in terms of containing new words, phrases and language means. However,
the story should be comprehensible for children so that they could feel
satisfied with their work and be positively motivated. (Phillips 1993: 7)
According to the Krashen´s theory of language input, referring to the
language learners hear or read, the language should be slightly above
learners´ level and capability of using, but at the level they are capable of
understanding. (Harmer 1991: 35)
In case that the teacher decides to use an authentic storybook, which
had not been originally aimed at teaching children, then it is appropriate to
simplify the story. Wright recommends replacing less common words with
more common ones, substituting idioms by the words with exact meanings,
simplifying tenses, word order, and shortening long sentences. For learners
who are not familiar with storytelling or whose knowledge of English is
not at needful level, the authentic stories might be too demanding and
difficult to understand. Shorter and simplified stories are appropriate to be
used. (Brewster and Ellis 1992: 159-160; Wright 1995: 24)
The content of the story should be appropriate for children to
understand and follow its plot. They should be able to comprehend the
main theme well to enjoy it. Wright says that the teacher may use the story
with slightly childlike topicality, as the children are likely to enjoy such a
story in the foreign language, whereas in their mother tongue they might
consider it childish. (Wright 1995: 11)
Other criteria for selecting stories, recommended by Morgan and
Rinvolucry (1983: 9), distinguish between the stories that the teacher
would enjoy telling and the stories that would be entertaining and thought-
provoking. Wright (1995: 4, 11) explains that the teacher’s task is to target
a story he/she likes and the one he/she would be able to narrate properly.
Wright adds that the teacher should focus on helping children enjoy the
stories and let them use, develop and improve their limited amount of the
foreign language creatively.
The teacher’s objective is to have a general overview of the areas of
pupils´ interests. It is one of the presumptions for selecting a story with a
proper subject matter. Byrne (1988: 26) claims that texts providing such
ideas and topics would lead learners to discussions about them.

1.2.3 Preparation for Telling a Story

It is quite obvious that before telling a story the teacher should spend
certain time with preparation out of the class. He/she should be confident
of the storyline and know exactly how to begin and finish the story.
Careful preparation provides teachers with great amount of confidence
within storytelling, it contributes to the fact that learners grasp the
teacher’s narration clearly, and it enables the teachers to concentrate on the
pupils as well, not solely on the story. (Wright 1995: 16 - 18)
The teacher does not necessarily have to learn a story by heart.
Making a story skeleton helps him/her remember the main points of the
story and subsequently tell the whole story clearly, without any confusing
pieces of information. The preparation of the skeleton means writing
down a plot outline and major information about the characters in minimal
form. The skeleton then provides a bare frame of the story, records the
essential parts, whereas the teacher’s task is to focus on the development
of such elements. The skeleton enables him/her to look occasionally into it
during narrating. He/she should avoid memorising the story except from
the expressions and phrases typical for the particular story or fairy-tale, for
example repetitions like Little Red Riding Hood’s speech: “You’ve got
very big eyes/hands/teeth, Grandmother!” (Morgan and Rinvolucri 1983: 9
- 10)
Classroom management
The teacher should organise all the activities in such a way that the
children know exactly what their task is. Thus it is essential that all the
follow-up activities are given clearly, without any confusing instructions.
The teacher should always explain all the activities briefly, and it is
appropriate to check whether the learners have grasped what they are
expected to carry out. If necessary, the teacher may use the learners´ native
language for clarifying the instructions. (Hamer 1991: 239)
The classroom should be organised in a suitable way in order to
provide learners with a comfortable environment for storytelling. The
desks can be organised in “U” shape and if the class enables, children are
recommended to sit on the floor in a circle while the teacher is presenting
the story. What is also appropriate is that the teacher sits or stands as near
as possible to his/her listeners and faces them. The main purpose of such
organisation of the particular class and classroom is to make pupils feel
released, to see the teacher properly and to cooperate with other pupils.
Then the teacher can make sure everyone follows the story and pays
attention, everyone can face him/her as well as the illustrations in the
book. If the lights in the classroom are on, one of them can be turned off.
All these techniques contribute to providing maximum benefit for children
from storytelling. (Scott and Ytreberg 1990: 28)
Introducing a story
Before the teacher starts telling or reading the story itself, he/she may
tell learners some important facts about the author of the story, about the
place in which the plot is set, or speak about children’s experience with the
main topic of the particular story.
Some stories describe relationships among family members. The
teacher may make use of this theme as a tool for asking children about
their brothers, sisters and other family members. Another way to start such
an activity is providing a short introduction to the story: “I’m going to tell
you a story about a little girl, who …”, and then tell it. Another possibility
is to begin without any preparation, saying the first line of the story, or
starting with the typical phrase “Once upon a time …” (Wright 1995: 15)
If the story contains some difficult or for the children unknown words,
then it is reasonable to teach them before telling/reading the story itself. It
will help children understand these words and the whole story as well, as
the expressions might bear certain importance and help learners grasp their
meaning. (Wright 1995: 16)
Telling a story
Telling a story means telling it without looking into a book. It is a task
more independent than reading. The advantage of telling a story is a
possibility for the teacher to shape the story to the learner’s needs, adapt
the language to learners of various levels and simplify the language. If
there is a good reason for doing so, he/she can go back and repeat some
parts, add, omit, change, and emphasize some information. (Scott and
Ytreberg 1990: 29; Wright 1995: 17)
Telling a story enables teachers to see how the children react. Since
the teacher can keep eye contact with the pupils for most of the time,
he/she can be constantly conscious of their response and act according to
the situation.
“The storyteller looks into the eyes of the audience and together they
compose the tale. The storyteller begins to see and re-create, through voice
and gesture, a series of mental images; the audience, from the first moment
of listening, squints, stares, smiles, leans forward or falls asleep, letting
the teller know whether to slow down, speed up, elaborate, or just finish.”
(Teaching Storytelling [17])
The teacher has enough space for dramatising the story and he/she can
communicate with children. He/she takes the role of an actor – adapts
his/her voice and uses such expressions that are most suitable to the events
of the story – he/she can whisper, roar, twist hands. (Watts 2006: 8)
Using non-verbal communication when telling a story
The teacher can influence the effect of telling a story by non-verbal
communication. Morgan and Rinvolucri (1983: 8) say that he/she can
maintain a high degree of attention between him/her and the pupils,
because he/she addresses them directly.
A great advantage when telling a story is the possibility of moving and
using gestures, which enables the teacher to perform some characters, for
example to pretend movements of Little Red Riding Hood as she picks the
flowers. He/she can also use minor movements of a face - for example,
move his/her eyebrows when expressing an astonishment, disagreement,
etc. (Wright 1995: 17)
Scott and Ytreberg (1990: 23) claim that movement, gestures, mimics,
emphasizing or changing pace can bring some kind of drama into the class
and make the story come alive. All these means may help to keep the
children’s attention as well as to clarify the meaning of particular words.
Reading a story
Reading a story from a storybook differs from telling a story in some
aspects. When the teacher reads the story, he/she does not have to learn it
at all. Reading a story is different from any other activities requiring
changes and varieties. It may happen that children will listen to one and
the same story for several times. They want it to be read word by word,
they do not like changes in this way. (Scott and Ytreberg 1990: 29)
Through reading a story, in contrast to telling it, the story loses some
spontaneity, though, but gains on other aspects. It may be constructed
much more carefully, expressed in a better way, and the narrative may be
more fluent and longer. The length of the story should not exceed about 10
minutes. (Ur 1984: 63 – 64; Wright 1995: 18 – 19)
The children might fail to pay attention to the teacher reading the
story for they see no visual material – it is just reading for them. The
teacher should therefore make children participate as much as possible and
help them join their other senses. It is suitable to use a book with pictures,
pictures from other sources concerning the particular story and the
characters in it. Using self-made pictures and showing them to learners
during the reading can be another possibility of illustrating the plot and the
characters. An interesting enrichment of a story during its reading can be
changing voice in terms of indicating figures and imitating sounds of
animals. (Slattery and Willis 2001: 96-101)
The teacher should spend as much time as possible reading to
children, as they are naturally anxious to listen to stories. Reading a story
is a way how to introduce new voices into the class, new varieties of
language and various situations when people communicate. (Scott and
Ytreberg 1990: 30)
Pausing in the course of reading a story
Brewster and Ellis (1992: 165) suggest giving pupils time to think. As
for the teacher it means to read slowly and clearly. It is also important to
change the pace and make pauses for making comments, for asking and
answering questions.
Using a pause is one of the most powerful elements in dramatic
storytelling and it should be used at key moments. Pausing influences the
quality of storytelling and also keeps listeners active in terms of trying to
predict what will happen next. (Wright 1995:17)

Using pictures to support storytelling

Pictures can be a significant part of the lesson focused on storytelling.
The reason for using them is to help children understand the story. Pictures
are enjoyable and they convey more information in connection with the
story, as they provide visual support. The pictures must be obviously
connected with the story, just then they clarify and complete the text.
The teacher should choose pictures according to the area of
vocabulary he/she wants to access and according to the content of the story
as well. Many things can be illustrated with pictures: namely objects,
qualities, or actions. Pictures should be complemented with the teachers´
comments. While saying a particular word, the teacher points at the picture
at the same time. (Wright 1995: 24; Brewster and Ellis 1992: 165)

Listening
Listening is the first skill children acquire when they learn their
mother tongue as well as when they learn a foreign language. By listening
to teacher children get most of the information necessary when learning a
foreign language, especially at the beginnings of their studies. (Scott and
Ytreberg 2000: 21)
Byrne (1988: 26) considers teaching listening skills to be an uneasy
task. He points out that listening is at the same time a significant
classroom activity as children “need to have a good receptive knowledge of
the foreign language”, which means that their ability to understand should
be better than ability to produce. Byrne adds that for children it is crucial
to gain confidence in listening skills first because it lays the basis for the
ability to communicate.
According to Byrne (1988: 26) and Underwood (1989: 21), children
should be exposed to listening experience as much as possible. Underwood
also recommends using stories as a valuable source of listening material, as
they include a variety of language.
Wright says that listening to a story itself can be an enriching
experience. Children enjoy the story if they are able to understand it.
Realising that they can understand a relatively extensive text in English,
children are encouraged to work on developing their listening skills.
Wright considers this situation to be the best possibility of practising
listening fluency. (Wright 1995: 136)
Taking the cultural point of view into account, listening to stories
enables children to meet different traditions, values and get an insight into
a variety of life experience. Increasing awareness of the world around them
is the possible result of listening to stories.
Not only do the stories help children understand their own cultural
roots, they also enable children to create new ideas about the world in
general, and verify their existing ideas on concrete examples. (Stoyle [15])
Interaction between teacher and learner
Byrne says that children need to listen to the teacher speaking because
he/she is a living user of the language and can talk to the class flexibly.
Thornbury confirms the idea of the teacher as an important model of a
language user and emphasises the advantage of listening to the teacher
speaking in comparison with listening to the story recorded on a
CD/cassette. The teacher has the possibility of being interactive because
he/she can change his/her talk according to the learners´ level of
understanding and decide independently when it is necessary to make a
pause. He/she is familiar to the children and physically present in the
classroom, which is a powerful motivation for them. The advantage for the
teacher is the opportunity of receiving a feedback from the children
through their questioning as well as through a variety of nonverbal signals.
(Byrne 1988: 23 - 24; Thornbury 2005: 57).
Telling or reading a story by the teacher offers more possibilities for
repetition. He/she can repeat a part of the story immediately when some
pupils seem to be lost in the continuity of the storyline or when they do
not understand some part of the text. If the teacher elicits that children
want him/her to repeat some information, he/she can repeat the key facts,
remind the details or ask some pupils to do it instead. He/she can also
clarify some language items – e.g. use a periphrastic expression in order to
provide an explanation of unknown words, explain cultural background of
events and links between events, or refer to some other work he/she has
covered before. (Brewster and Ellis 1992: 164 - 165)
While-listening and post-listening activities
Though listening to stories may seem to be a passive activity, the
listeners are not “passive”, they receive and process a lot of information in
their heads. They observe storyteller’s gestures, associate the visual aids
shown simultaneously with the text they are listening to, create their own
notions, and they guess the meanings of new words. While- listening
activities help children keep their attention, as the children have a
particular task to fulfil during listening. (Ellis and Brewster 2002: 27-28)
According to Wright, the activities that may be done at while-listening
and possibly at post-listening stage are generally used to help children
understand the story and at the same time they show if children’s
understanding of the story is good. (Wright 1995: 34, 39)
Underwood (1989: 74) says that some while-listening activities may
be extended and children can continue with their fulfilling at the post-
listening stage.
True of false statements
If using this activity at while-listening stage, the teacher should make
it simple - in the sense of easy to handle. It is important to realise that the
story is in a foreign language, thus it might be difficult for the children to
listen and write at the same time. This activity is aimed at supporting
children’s concentration and guiding them through the text, not at
examining whether the children are able to create accurate sentences that
exactly correspond with the content of the listening text. Children’s
responses should be based on their opinions or interpretations rather than
on facts. (Underwood 1989: 48, 63)
Multiple-choice questions
Multiple-choice questions are based on the information given directly
in the text and they require learners to choose the answers at the while-
listening stage. If the multiple- choice questions are well prepared, they
can help children benefit from the text. The multiple-choice questions may
either be in the same order as the events they refer to or they may be set
together in different sequence which requires children to listen more
carefully. (Underwood 1989: 39, 64)
The opportunity of looking into the printed text, even if these are
questions with offered answers, can be useful for learners to feel some kind
of visual help. The learners should see the multiple-choice questions before
they listen to the text in order to know which information they are looking
for. (ibid)
Using pictures
Pictures can be used as a meaningful support for children during
listening to a story, and they can make a basis for some further activities
done at post-listening stage as well. Activities based on work with pictures
use mainly the pictures illustrating things, characters, or events from the
story.
The tasks are intended to show children’s understanding of the story
and let them participate. For example, the teacher prepares a set of pictures
illustrating the story and asks the children to put the pictures into the
correct order according to the story. (Wright 1995: 36; Scott and Ytreberg
1990: 25)
Another way of working with pictures is using a set of various
pictures - some of them are connected with the plot and others are not. The
children must pick up those pictures they consider to be related to the text.
They may be asked to explain what is the link between these pictures and
the text. (Morgan and Rinvolucri 1983: 19)
Post-listening activities
According to Underwood (1989: 74), these are all kinds of activities
done after the listening part itself is finished. Wright (1995: 40) says that
activities pertaining to this sub- chapter are mostly traditional exercises
showing children’s understanding of the story.
The purpose of post-listening activities according to Ellis and
Brewster (2002: 28) is to check learners´ comprehension of the story more
in detail. Underwood (1989: 74 -75) adds that these activities enable to
check learners´ answers immediately, whereas the teacher has the
opportunity of finding out why some learners were not able to understand
the story.
Split sentences
The teacher can use split sentences for practising basic grammar
structures that appeared in the text of the story. He/she prepares and prints
out several sentences, cuts up and mixes them together. These sentences
can be either exact sentences from the text, simplified or paraphrased
sentences. The children’s task is to match the beginnings with the proper
endings of the sentences and put them together. (Morgan and Rinvolucri
1983: 21; Cotter [4])
Gap-filling and information gap-filling
Wright says that gap-filling provides a whole range of activities based
on work with gapped text. He further mentions that gap-filling can be
combined with information gap- filling in order to make the lesson more
attractive. Children’s task within these activities is to fill in the gaps with
the proper expression. Ur says that these activities make children predict
and reconstruct the missing phrases or sentences of the story. (Wright
1995: 42; Ur 1984: 142)
Rixon suggests giving children copies of gapped text before they
listen to the story, since asking them to fill in the gaps directly after the
listening stage might be too demanding. If children have a chance to read
the gapped text before they listen to the story, they can guess the missing
word easier. (Rixon 1986: 102-103)
Using a gap-filling exercise at post-listening stage can be
advantageous for children. Since they are already aware of the whole
context, they can guess the word suitable to the particular gap better. They
have heard the particular word during listening to the story, which is also
important.
Find the mistakes
“Find the mistakes” is an activity that shows learners´ understanding
of the story as a whole. It focuses on children’s orientation in connections
within the story and examines their ability to find the discrepancies in
content which were purposely made by the teacher.
The teacher rewrites a reasonably long part of the story, which means
about 10 sentences, whereas he/she changes some information – he/she
makes some mistakes in content, not in grammar at this stage. Children’s
task is to find and correct them. There is a possible variation of this
activity: the teacher says or lets the pupils say a sentence in which they
have changed some information and another pupil has to say it correctly.
(Wright 1995: 43)
Spot the mistake
This activity is based on the usage of pictures or facts conveyed
through the story. The story, pupils have listened to, can be retold by the
teacher who deliberately makes some mistakes. It is important for children
to be acquainted with the correct version of the text before in order to
recognize when the mistake is being made. He/she can eventually use any
picture illustrating the story and talk about it. Pupils´ task is to point out
every time they hear the mistake. (Underwood 1989: 68)
Children may indicate the mistake by clapping their hands, putting
hands up, standing up or saying a particular word, for example “stop”.
Then the teacher makes a pause and children try to correct the mistake.
Speaking
According to Scott and Ytreberg, speaking can be the most demanding
skill for the teacher to teach as well as for the learners to master. Some of
the children may equate learning foreign language with learning to speak
it, which may in their mother tongue appear as an easy task. Children have
been learning their mother tongue for many years, thus they are able to use
it to communicate, express their feelings and intentions, and explore the
rules of their first language. In order to be able to do the same in a foreign
language, they have to overcome some kind of limitations – mainly lack of
actual vocabulary and grammar knowledge. The teacher can and should
help them develop their speaking abilities by providing a lot of input and
practice. (Scott and Ytreberg 1990: 33; Ellis and Brewster 2002: 29)
 Speaking activities
Two major techniques covering up a range of speaking activities
related to storytelling are retelling and role-playing. Since they provide a
lot of opportunities for speaking practice, they both focus on developing
speaking abilities. At the same time they make children think about the
story, enable them to insert their own thoughts and feeling into their
versions of stories as well as into the characters the children are to
perform.
The aim of speaking activities is to develop and support learners´
fluency in speaking - fluency predominates accuracy. According to Byrne,
children are going to make mistakes and the teacher should tolerate this,
but not all the time. He/she should correct when the learners are making
the same basic mistakes. Nevertheless, most of the corrections of language
mistakes should not be done until the activity is finished. Only the
repetitious errors should be pointed out and corrected in the course of
activity itself (Scott and Ytreberg 1990: 34; Byrne 1988: 25)
Retelling a story
Retelling a story by the pupil enables the teacher to receive a feedback
referring about pupils´ understanding of the main events in the story.
Concerning learners, retelling offers possibilities for practising their
speaking skills as well as the opportunity of using creativity and personal
expression. (Brewster and Ellis 1992: 69)
The teacher should bear in mind that children often have a limited
range of vocabulary and knowledge of grammar. It is Wright’s opinion that
children are able to retell most of the stories even if they do not know the
proper expressions that would be the most suitable for the particular
context. Therefore, the teacher should accept their versions of the story,
even if it is not entirely grammatically correct, rather than strictly insist
on accuracy. (Wright 1997: 46 - 47)
The feedback, provided by the teacher after the activity is over, should
assess how well the learners managed to fulfil the activity, how they
performed. It is a content feedback. (Harmer 1991: 237)
The teacher should expect pupils to tell simplified versions of a story
and he/she should be prepared to help them whenever they lack a word or
phrase needed to say something. It is useful to repeat the key words and
phrases before children start retelling.
The teacher may write the words on the board, or use pictures instead.
These techniques can help children feel more confident when they are
asked to reconstruct some parts or the whole story, and it helps them
remember the particular words. (Brewster and Ellis 1992: 69; Slattery and
Willis 96-101)
Retelling more or less exactly
According to Wright, the children who are asked to retell the story
more or less exactly, will not tell the story exactly as they heard it from the
teacher. Every child, using his/her creativity, will produce his/her own
version. That is the reason why stories are possible to be retold several
times. Wright says: “if children like a story, they can see a reason for
learning to retell it – they can share it with others and learn to savour it
more for themselves. It also boosts their confidence to see that they can
really tell a story in English.” (Wright 1997: 47)
Retelling with changes for personal reasons
A tendency to change a story while retelling may simply source from
personal reasons. People who retell a story often select, intensify, omit and
add some information in order to increase its importance and
attractiveness. They may have favourite parts, thus children as well might
be asked to retell only their favourite bits instead of retelling the whole
story. Children may participate in retelling – one pupil tells a piece of the
story and other pupil continues. (Wright 1995: 48 – 49)

Retelling from a different point of view

Stories usually have more than one character, thus they can be retold
from the point of view of their protagonist or antagonist. Pupils may be
asked to retell the story about Little Red Riding Hood from the Wolf’s
point of view, who could say: “I met a little girl and I wanted to eat her.
But I was very hungry so I wanted to eat her grandmother, too.” Another
way of retelling from a different point of view is pretending to be an object
in the story, for example: “I’m a tree in a forest. There are a lot of flowers
in the forest. One day Little Red Riding Hood came…” (Wright 1997: 49)
Expanding or reducing the story

This type of activity encourages children to use their imagination as

much as possible. Children may be asked to make up their own episode
that preceded the story, followed up, or happened during the story. They
may put in an extra person into the story, add some more details about
characters and place, or cut out a scene they consider unnecessary.
Children can also choose one character and remove it to a different place
or into a different time period. (Wright 1995: 50)
Role-play
According to Byrne, role-play teaches children to use language in a
meaningful way. It is the way how to show children that language is not
just words and grammar. Role-play enables children to accompany
language by facial expressions, movements, gestures and lets them try to
combine verbal communication with body language and body movements
on their own. (Byrne 1988: 91)
 Through role-playing children practice and extend their practical
language usage and develop behavioural skills in a “safe environment”,
which means they rehearse various life situations in the classroom. These
situations are mostly fictious, they provide children with confidence about
their conversational skills, which they can apply in real life situations.
(Scott and Ytreberg 1990: 41; Role Plays in the ESL Classroom [12])
During the role-play pupils are expected to perform and produce
language, therefore they have to be acquainted with useful and necessary
words and phrases before they start to prepare their roles. A role-play,
which is used as a common practice in lessons, teaches children to
communicate and react, ask questions as well as answer. Children also
work with word stress, intonation, rhythm, or with the usage of different
tones of voice. (Scott and Ytreberg 1990: 40 - 41)
Children need to get clear instructions before they start preparing their
roles. Role-play cards made by the teacher can be very helpful in this case.
They should contain basic information about a particular scene from a
story and suggest some ideas children are supposed to develop through
their performance. Role-plays need not be scripted out too much in detail;
they should rather provide children with a certain space for their own
interpretations. (Role Plays in the ESL Classroom [12])
The teacher should intend to make children fail to feel they are
fulfilling a task. The role-play has the potential to become an enjoyable,
enriching and motivating activity.
 CHAPTER II. Storytelling and Development of Creative Speech

2.1 Basic Features of Oral Speech

One of the basic features of speaking is that it takes place in real time. Due to
the time constraints that allow speakers only limited planning time, speech
production requires „real-time processing‟ (Thornbury 2005: 2). This is one of the
main reasons why language learners, and this is not only restricted to true
beginners, tend to find speaking difficult. Strategies used to „buy planning-time‟
(Thornbury and Slade 2007) significantly shape the nature of speaking and
distinguish it from writing. Crystal and Davy also mention time as “the main factor
which distinguishes written from spoken language” (1979: 87).
Consequently, „instances of disfluency‟ (Thornbury and Slade 2007) like
hesitations, word repetitions, false starts, unfinished utterances and repairs make
speaking look less neat and tidy than writing when transcribed. Therefore one
might assume that speaking is disorganised or even inferior to writing. But this is
not true in reality. As Halliday explains “the formlessness of speech is an artefact
of the transcription”. If judged from the perspective of written texts, spoken
language will always look chaotic on paper because first and foremost, “it wasn‟t
meant to be written down”. (Halliday 1989: 77)
Burns and Joyce also state that “[...] speech, far from being disorganised, has
its own systematic patterns and structures – they are just somewhat different from
those in written language” (Burns and Joyce 1997: 7). For this reason, judging
speech through the measures of writing means to deny its basic characteristics and
the purpose for which it is used. Likewise if written texts like contracts, articles
and reviews are rendered in spoken form, they also sound unnatural. Moreover,
they are difficult for listeners to follow because they were originally created to be
used for a different purpose and through a different channel (Crystal and Davy
1979). An analogy, albeit inverse, is also true for spoken texts.
As early as in 1989, Halliday argues that “the spoken language is every bit as
highly organised as the written, and is capable of just as great a degree of
complexity. Only it is complex in a different way.” (Halliday, 1989: 87) In the
book Spoken and Written Language, he also suggests that unlike written texts,
spoken texts are dynamic and tend to have a lower degree of lexical density. By
dynamics he means the tendency of spoken language to represent experience as
processes. According to his words, written language describes the world in terms
of its products and makes a greater use of nominalization, e.g. improvement
instead of improve. By contrast, when one talks, one says that “something
happened or something was done” (1989: 81) and one therefore tends to use more
verbs. In reference to lexico-grammatical structures, Halliday states that written
texts are lexically dense and their sentence grammar is simple, whereas spoken
texts having a lower level of lexical density have a greater degree of grammatical
intricacy. In conversation, however, this intricacy may be realized across turns.
Illustrating his view on a number of examples, he further explains that by
grammatical intricacy he means the tendency to use a broader variety of tenses and
aspects in speaking. According to him, spoken discourse makes a frequent use of
clauses and employs a greater variety of both syntactic and semantic relationships.
He says that “it is often thought that sequences of conversational discourse […] are
simply strings of „ands‟. […] Rather, they are intricate constructions of clauses,
varying not only in the kind of interdependency (parataxis or hypotaxis) but also in
the logical semantic relationships involved.” (1989: 86)
On the same subject, in particular syntactic relationships in spoken texts,
Crystal and Davy state that “the most obvious continuity feature is simple addition
of another structure, itself grammatically independent, using a conjunction”
(Crystal and Davy 1979: 88), a view that Halliday seems to find too simplistic as
suggested above. More than two decades later and building on the present research
evidence, Thornbury reports that the „grammaring‟ of spoken texts is “constrained
by how much information can be held in working memory at any one time”
(Thornbury 2005: 4). As a result and as a way to compensate for limited planning
time, speakers use the so-called „add-on strategy‟ in places where written texts
might use embedding or subordination. This strategy means that utterances,
phrases or clauses, are added one after another and “glued together by the insertion
of the appropriate grammatical markers” like articles, auxiliary verbs and word
endings (2005: 4). Thornbury therefore describes speech as not only spontaneous
but also as „essentially linear‟. By linearity he means the fact that speech is
produced „utterance-by-utterance‟. Thornbury and Slade also talk about “layering
of phrase on phrase rather than forming sentence by sentence as in written texts”
(2007: 13). This linear aspect of spoken texts is also dealt with in detail in A
Grammar of Speech by David Brazil (1995). In this highly interesting and
innovative book, the author analyses grammatical, syntactical, discoursal and
intonation patterns that arise from the real-time processing demands and the
interactional character of spoken language. Expressing his dissatisfaction with the
poor representation of speech in conventional grammars, he suggests a new way of
looking at the structure of spoken grammar. Rather than thinking of words and
other entities as “occurring at places in a hierarchically arranged structure”, he
analyses spoken language in terms of “chains of elements occurring in time”
(1995: 47). On a systematic basis, he thus manages to demonstrate a clear structure
of a spoken grammar dealing with its individual elements. Since this is rather a
unique work, it would be desirable if more studies into the nature of spoken
language emerged and also if the link between spoken data and speaking skills
teaching was further explored. Going back to the subject of lexical density
mentioned earlier in this section, advocating Halliday‟s notion, Thornbury and
Slade say that “another characteristic of spoken language which is attributable to
its spontaneity is the fact that information is relatively loosely packed.” (Thornbury
and Slade 2007:13) Therefore both informational (as in Thornbury and Slade 2007)
and lexical sparsity (as in Halliday 1989) of spoken texts can be explained by the
real-time processing and the time constraints speakers need to deal with.
In addition, it can also be observed that both these aspects of spoken language
are inevitable from the listeners‟ perspective as well because while written texts
allow readers to read a text as many times as necessary, spoken texts do not (Burns
and Joyce 1997). Consequently, listeners need enough time to process the content
of the utterances. Should it be too packed with information or lexis, listeners would
find it hard to absorb all that is being said. Moreover, should the situation also
require interaction from their part, it would be quite likely for such a
conversational exchange to shatter. In summary, the aim of this section was to
show that spoken language “is structurally patterned, and displays an orderliness
that is neither chaotic nor random but, rather is tightly organized and coherent”
(Thornbury and Slade 2007: 27). The main point that has been presented is that
speaking has its own patterns and structures that are different from those of
writing. For example, when compared to writing spoken language uses more verbs
and clauses rather than nominalization. Furthermore, in places where embedding or
subordination might appear in a written text, speech freely adds utterances one
after another. In terms of its lexical and informational content, spoken language is
loosely packed–both to allow its audience time to process the content of utterances
and as a result of real-time processing that a speaker faces. All in all, speaking is
dynamic and is operating under conditions that are substantially different from
writing. This means that it does not always involve using „grammatically complete
and written-like sentences‟ because while written texts can be redrafted, spoken
texts are results of one-shot production. (Burns and Joyce 1997: 14) All these facts
have important implications for LT, which are to be presented in the section that
follows.
 2.2 The Role of Context
As Hughes points out speaking is „fundamentally transient‟ and words are
produced “within the „co-ordinates‟ of a particular place and moment”. (Hughes
2011: 10) What follows is that speech, unlike writing, is context-dependent. Nunan
(2010) defines context as:
The linguistic and experiential situation in which a piece of language occurs.
The linguistic environment refers to the words, utterances, and sentences
surrounding a piece of text. The experiential environment refers to the real-world
context in which the text occurs. (p. 304) Therefore spoken texts are not created
independently, regardless of the environment, the situation or the listeners. On the
contrary, speech production takes place in a shared context between the speaker
and the listener, whereby both these participants shape the final form of a spoken
text.
The more shared context there is, the easier it is for the listener to participate
in a conversation. Tannen even describes a Tannen even describes a listener as a
co-author and speaker as a co-listener (Tannen 2007).
As a result, spoken texts carry a number of specific features: frequent use of
referents like pronouns or deictic words (this, that, there) pointing to the physical
context ellipsis (deliberate omission of certain items), the meaning of which can be
reconstructed only from the context non-clausal stand-alone expressions such as
„Yeah.‟ or „Mm.‟, whose interpretation is heavily context-dependent (based on
Thornbury and Slade 2007)
It is the context that primarily helps us reconstruct the meaning of these
utterances. By contrast, in writing, these elements are used less or avoided
completely because written texts being decontextualised, need to be as
selfexplanatory as possible (Burns and Joyce 1997). While ambiguities are not
desirable in written texts because there is no opportunity to provide further
explanations; the meaning of utterances that are ambiguous can be easily
negotiated in speech. Moreover, ambiguous utterances in speech are frequently
welcome because they are a source of humour, an important ingredient of daily
conversation.
Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, spoken texts also contain numerous
examples of imperfect language and instances of disfluency such as hesitations,
errors or repairs, which can again only be understood in the context they are used.
Still on the subject of context, it also needs to be pointed out that context is
generally regarded as an important contributor to LA. Netten and Planchat-
Ferguson (1995) list context-defined cues along with socio-cultural framework as
one of the three principles of LA6. They further state that “without these context
cues and cultural norms, sensory input for acquisition purposes may be
insufficient” (1995: 35).
2.3 Classroom Implications: Teaching Materials
As has been indicated, spoken texts are not normally placed out of context in
real life. The same fact should be reflected in the classroom setting. Structures and
vocabulary should be viewed in their immediate context. Longer stretches of
spoken discourse can prove extremely useful in demonstrating how different
elements combine and work together to create a successful conversational
exchange.
Consequently, teachers should consider if materials and textbooks they use
reflect the features of spoken language both in their recorded and transcribed
forms. If not, they may want to consider searching for other samples of spoken
language which can be transcribed for a later systematic training in class.
Recordings are more accessible nowadays than they used to be and it is not
difficult to find desirable samples online. More high-tech teachers may even
consider recording their own spoken texts. In fact, this is something which can be
done quite easily, e.g. while on holiday chatting with your friends or asking your
native-speaking colleagues to talk on a certain topic, using specific language, etc. I
personally have good experience with both using recordings from the Internet and
working in class with my own mp3 recordings and I have seen both techniques
being used with a few other teachers, too.
More than thirty years ago, Crystal and Davy (1979) complained of the
tendency of textbooks not to be real: People in textbooks, it seems, are not allowed
to tell long and unfunny jokes, to get irritable or to lose their temper, to gossip
(especially about other people), to speak with their mouths full, to talk nonsense, or
swear (even mildly). They do not get all mixed up while they are speaking, forget
what they wanted to say, hesitate, make grammatical mistakes, argue erratically or
illogically, use words vaguely, get interrupted, talk at the same time, switch speech
styles, manipulate the rules of the language to suit themselves, or fail to
understand. In a word, they are not real. (p. 3)
All these features are still deliberately being omitted from LT and simplified
and unauthentic materials are used. According to Burns and Joyce (1997),
inauthentic materials create a false impression of speech presenting them with
„unrealistic models of spoken interactions‟ (1997: 87). Burns and Joyce (1997)
claim that: If the overall aim of language programs is to prepare students to use
spoken language effectively in social situations, then teachers need to present
students with authentic spoken texts in the classroom. This may include the use of
recordings and transcripts of authentic discourse.
Teachers need to know how authentic texts differ from scripted and semi-
scripted texts and how to use this knowledge to assist second language learners to
develop speaking skills. (p. 85)
Furthermore, even though the authors recognise some of the potential benefits
of scripted dialogues especially at the beginning stages of learning, they warn
against their exclusive use and point out that:
(...) if students are restricted to scripted dialogues they will develop an
unrealistic view of the features of spoken language and will not be prepared for
their role as participants in spoken interactions in social contexts. For students to
be able participate in spoken interactions outside the classroom, the teacher will
need to introduce authentic discourse gradually into the classroom. Authentic
spoken texts are more difficult for students to deal with and how and when
students are introduced to authentic discourse will depend on their level of
language and their goals. (p. 86)
Burns and Joyce report that to eliminate the big discrepancies between
unscripted and scripted texts, some material writers choose to use semi-scripted
texts that are created by presenting several people with a particular spoken
language to be used in their interaction. In a semi-scripted interaction, the context,
purpose for interaction and specific authentic language to be used are identified
beforehand. Burns and Joyce conclude that “these texts are a good transition
between scripted and authentic texts because they introduce students to the feature
of authentic speech in a controlled way” (1997: 88).
2.4 The Types of Communicative Exchanges
Having discussed the question of context, let us concentrate on the types of
communicative exchanges that can be identified within certain communicative
contexts. Based on a communicative situation and its purpose, two main types of
communicative exchanges can be classified: transactional and interactional. Bygate
suggests that conversations are comprised of predictable routines. He distinguishes
between information routines (called transactional by other authors) and
interactional routines (Bygate 1987). Both types differ in their purpose and
structure. Information routines consist of a number of highly predictable language
structures. Their purpose is mainly to transact goods and services, therefore
transactional (Nunan 2010). They include service encounters such as buying a train
ticket, booking a room or negotiating a loan. By contrast, interactional routines are
not product-oriented. They are social interactions and fulfil a phatic function, i.e.
they signal friendship and establish social relationships within groups (Thornbury
and Slade 2007). Nunan (2010) illustrates different functions of both types of
exchanges in the following conversational extracts: Extract 1: Store attendant:
Morning Customer: Morning. Store attendant: Nice day. Customer: Uh-huh. Can
you give me two of those? Store attendant: Sure. Customer: Thanks. Extract 2:
Father: Morning, Darling. Daughter: Morning. Father: Sleep well? Daughter: Uh-
uh. The thunder woke me up. Father: Loud, wasn‟t it. And the lightning . . . . What
are you doing? Daughter: I‟m going to finish watching that . . . Father: Well, don‟t
have it on too loud. Jenny‟s still asleep. (p. 228) Although it is self-evident that the
purpose of the first situation is transactional, there is an interactional element in the
first part of the exchange. Similarly, while the second extract fulfils mainly an
interactional function, the last line of the dialogue is clearly transactional (Nunan
2010). Nevertheless, even though “many speaking situations can be a mixture of
interactional and transactional purposes” (Burns and Joyce 1997: 5), Nunan reports
that “Bygate‟s routines facilitate communication for first language speakers
because they make the interactions more predictable” (Nunan 2010: 229). Finally,
citing Brown and Yule (1983), Thornbury and Slade add that “primarily
interactional language is primarily listener-oriented, whereas primarily
transactional language is primarily message-oriented” (Thornbury and Slade 2007:
20). Viewed from this perspective, one can come to a realization that listener-
oriented interactions will tend to be freer in terms of their structure.
This is mainly because interactional conversational exchanges can easily
deviate from their primary focus reflecting the listener‟s personal involvement. On
the other hand, message-oriented conversations will be more clearly structured, as
evidence shows, pursuing their ultimate objective to deliver a message.
 CHAPTER III. Practical part. Lesson Plans for Using Storytelling

Lesson plan 1. Little Red Riding Hood

Level Elementary

Age 10 – 12 years old

Time 45 minutes

Aims Listening for general understanding, retelling the story

Interaction Pairs or groups of three
Preparation 1 Photocopy pictures (APPENDIX 2: LITTLE RED
RIDING HOOD, BASKET, NIGHT-CAP, DOOR, WOLF,
WOODCUTTER, HOOD) and cut them up.

1 Photocopy sentences from the text and pictures (APPENDIX 3,

APPENDIX 4). Prepare enough copies so that each group can get one set
of pictures and one set of sentences. Cut up picture sheets into separate
pictures.
Inclass 1 Write the title of the story on the board and tell the
children you are going to read them a story about Little Red Riding Hood.
You may translate the title into Czech.
2. Read the story and concentrate on your voice – try to imitate
particular characters. During reading the story you can stop to show the
children the illustrations accompanying the text.
3. Take the pictures from APPENDIX 2 and show them one by one to
the children. Each time you show some picture, ask the children: Who is in
the picture? They should try to answer. Keep asking who/what is in the
picture. If the children do not know the answer, say it. After the
children/you say the correct answer, attach each picture to the board and
write the answers - the target words under the pictures. Ask the children to
copy them into their exercise books.
4. In pairs or in groups of three, the children get one set of sentences
from APPENDIX 3 and one set of pictures from APPENDIX 4.
5. Explain that each sentence relates to one of the pictures. The
sentences are printed in the same order as they follow in the story.
Children’s task is to put the pictures into the correct order to correspond
with the sentences.
6. Check the answers. Ask the children to read the sentences aloud one
by one and say which is the letter of the corresponding picture.
7. Collect the sentences. Groups of children will keep the pictures for
further work.
8. Retell the story in shortened version, use sentences relevant to the
pictures.
9. Now the children should make up their own versions of the story.
Give them so time to prepare a short narration of about 15 sentences. Tell
them to make notes into the exercise books. Pictures will help them
orientate better within the storyline.
10. Ask one or two groups to tell their versions of the story aloud.
 Lesson plan 2. Little Red Riding Hood
The text of the story can be found in APPENDIX 1.
Level Elementary

Age 10 – 12 years old

Time 45 minutes

Aims Listening for details and fluency in speaking Interaction

Individual work and groups of three
Preparation 1 Photocopy the true/false exercise (APPENDIX 5) - one
copy for each pupil.
1. Photocopy pictures (APPENDIX 6).
2. Divide the story into three scenes and make role-play
cards for each scene. Make enough cards for each child to have one. If
there are more than three groups of children, some of the scenes may be
rehearsed by two groups. You can use role-play cards from APPENDIX 7.
In class 1 Introduce the words you want to pre-teach: COAT,
TUMMY, AXE, BREAD, FOREST, WARDROBE.
Ask the children if they know some of these words.
Take the pictures from APPENDIX 6, show them one by one to the
class and say the word corresponding with the shown picture.
Explain the principle of “stand up if” exercise (the teacher provides
statements and the children respond by physical activity – they stand up if
the statement is true for them). The statements should be based on the
words in capital letters above. You can use these statements:
Stand up if you wear a coat in winter.
Stand up if you have got some bread for a snack. Stand up if you like
going to the fores t.
Make up a few more statements.
Let the pictures pass the pictures around the class and ask them to say
the names of the particular pictures.
Whisper the words and ask the children to repeat them aloud.
Attach the pictures on the board and go back to difficult words.
Then write all the words on the board and ask the children to copy
them into their exercise books.
Hand out the copies of true/false exercise before you start reading or
telling the story. The children should decide and make their choices during
your narration.
Tell or read the story about Little Red Riding Hood.
Check the answers. Ask the children to read one sentence each and say
whether it is true or false.
Now tell the children they are going to be actors and actress and they
should rehearse the scenes from the story they have heard. Children in
groups of three (eventually four – some children can take roles of the
narrators), will be given a brief oral description of the scene they should
act. You can use the following descriptions (if necessary, adapt the
language to be suitable for your class):
a) The mother sends Little Red Riding Hood to her
Grandmother’s who lives in the forest. Little Red Riding Hood meets the
wolf who wants to know where she is going.
b) The wolf rushes right to the Grandmother’s house.
Pretending he is Little Red Riding Hood, Grandmother lets him in. He
wants to eat her, but she jumps into the wardrobe. He lies down into
Grandmother’s bed and pretends to be the Grandmother. Little Red Riding
Hood comes and sees Grandmother. She asks Grandmother about her
strange appearance.
c) The woodcutter, Little Red Riding Hood’s father, comes to
Grandmother’s house. He finds Grandmother in the wardrobe and goes to
find Little Red Riding Hood, too.
3. Give each group a set of role-play cards. Let them
choose the roles.
Explain the children these are only basic instructions - they are
expected to create the dialogues by themselves. They will make up what
their characters might say or do using their imagination and then perform
it. While the children are preparing their scenes, walk around the
classroom and help when necessary.
Ask some group/groups to act their scene in front of their classmates.
Provide a feedback so that the children know how well they
performed.
 Lesson plan 3. The Tortoise and the Hare

Level Pre-intermediate

Age 10 – 12 years old

Time 90 minutes

Aims Listening for general understanding, listening to extract

specific information, dialogue making
Interaction Individual work and pair work Preparation Photocopy
the illustrations (APPENDIX 9).
Photocopy the multiple-choice exercise (APPENDIX 10) and the gap-
filling exercise (APPENDIX 11). Make enough copies for each child to
have one.
Photocopy split sentences (APPENDIX 12). Make enough copies for
each pair of children to have one.
In class 1 Ask the children if they know what the words “tortoise”
and “hare” mean.

1. Explain “tortoise” is a word for a special kind of turtle living in

fresh water and “hare” is an animal, which is very similar to a
rabbit.
2. Ask them questions concerning turtles and rabbits, for
example: Where do turtles/rabbits live? What do they eat?
3. Tell the children you are going to read them a story about these
animals.
 4. Expose the illustrations in a right place so that the children can
see them well. Then read the story. The exposed illustrations
should make comprehension of the plot easier and help the
children imagine particular scenes of the story.
5. Hand out the multiple-choice exercises. Tell the children to
work out the exercises while you are reading the story for the
second time. Then check.
6. Tell the children they are going to listen to the story once
again. This time you will make some mistakes. Ask them to
clap their hands whenever they detect a mistake. At this point
you should stop and correct the mistake together with the class.
7. Hand out the gap-filling exercises and let the children work
individually for a few minutes. Then check.
8. Divide the class into pairs and hand out the split sentences. Tell
the children to put the sentences together. Let them work on it
for a few minutes, then ask the children to take turns to read
the completed sentence aloud.
9. Now tell them they are going to make an interview with the
Turtle and the Rabbit. The children work in pairs – one child
accepts the role of a journalist and the second of a
Rabbit/Turtle. The journalists ask questions about the race and
the Rabbits/Turtles answers. Tell the “journalists” to write
down the questions before they start their interviews.
Encourage the children to change the roles in that way each
group will rehearse all three characters.

Follow-ups 1 Discuss with the children what might happen after the
end of this story.
 Ask them if they think the Rabbit understood the moral and learnt.
2 Ask the children if they know a person who behaves like the Turtle
or the Rabbit. You may also ask which one they would rather have as a
friend and why.
 Conclusion

The aim of the thesis is to show that stories are suitable materials for
teaching purposes for the children of 10 to 12 years and to present a
variety of possibilities of using storytelling that would make lessons of
English an enriching experience. All four chapters included in the
theoretical part prove that stories help in the effort to motivate children
and they make learning English enjoyable.
The first chapter of the theoretical part demonstrates the positive
influence of stories on children’s inner world and explains the importance
of storytelling within psychological development of children as well as
within the development of language. The usage of storytelling can notably
form children’s opinions and values. This chapter also points out that
stories provide children with certain space for using imagination within
their learning in the class. The other reasons to use storytelling as a form
of a classroom activity are described further in the chapter.
The second chapter shows the importance of the teacher’s preparation
before telling/reading the story. This chapter describes the difference
between telling a story and reading a story with regards to the subsidiary
techniques that can accompany both telling and reading the story.
The third chapter is focused on listening skills and explains the reason why it
is important for children to master these skills – listening makes the basis for
developing their ability to communicate. This chapter proves that stories provide
sources for several types of activities and divides them into two main groups: the
activities that may be done at while-listening and possibly at post-listening
stage, and the activities that should be done at entirely post-listening stage.
The fourth chapter discusses why teaching children to speak is
considered to be an uneasy task. The theoretical background of the
speaking activities pictures how these activities can contribute to the
development of children’s speaking skills.
The aim of the practical part is to verify and confirm usability of the
theoretical background in practise. All three lesson plans included in the
practical support and prove the fact that stories can be used practically in
the lessons of English, and they show that the teacher can combine
activities centred both on the listening and speaking skills while using one
story. Such activities can be modified and applied when working with
various stories.
This bachelor work “Storytelling in a Classroom and Its Usage for
Development of Listening and Speaking Skills“ is focused on teaching
English to children from 10 to 12 years of age. The theoretical part
presents the reasons why stories and mainly fairy-tales should be used in
the lessons of English language. It describes criteria the teacher should
take into account when selecting a story suitable to his/her pupils. The
attention is paid to the theory of telling and reading stories. A part of the
thesis deals with the two language skills – listening and speaking - that
children can develop when working on the activities based on stories.
The practical part is composed of three lesson plans containing
examples of activities focused on practising and developing of the two
already mentioned skills. By using the text and the pictures from the fairy-
tale “Little Red Riding Hood”, and the text of the fable “The Tortoise and
the Hare” it is shown that stories can be used practically in the lessons of
English.