Teachers perceptions and reported use of storytelling for vocabulary teaching at vus english center m a

v ABSTRACT Storytelling practice is believed to be a highly effective application in second language teaching, especially in vocabulary teaching and learning.. Thus, teachers of very yo

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND REPORTED USE

OF STORYTELLING FOR VOCABULARY

TEACHING AT VUS ENGLISH CENTER

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL)

By

TRAN VAN DOAN

TESOL 2019A

Supervisor

Bui Thi Thuc Quyen, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2022

i

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND REPORTED USE

OF STORYTELLING FOR VOCABULARY

TEACHING AT VUS ENGLISH CENTER

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL)

By

TRAN VAN DOAN

TESOL 2019A

Supervisor

Bui Thi Thuc Quyen, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2022

ii

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby certify that the major thesis entitled “TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND

REPORTED USE OF STORYTELLING FOR VOCABULARY TEACHING AT VUS ENGLISH CENTER.” is the result of my own work

This major thesis has not previously been accepted for any degree and submitted in any other institutions

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2022

TRẦN VĂN ĐOÀN

iii

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, TRAN VAN DOAN, being the candidate for the degree of Master

of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use

of Master’s theses deposited in the University Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan or reproduction of theses

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2022

TRẦN VĂN ĐOÀN

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my warm and deeply sincere to all of those people who have

supported me to shape this thesis

First and foremost, I am grateful to my thesis supervisor, Dr Bui Thi Thuc Quyen, for

her thorough guidance, valuable comments, positive encouragement and suggestions

in the completion of this thesis Without her help, this M.A thesis would be far from

accomplishment

I am greatly indebted to my VUS campus manager, Ms Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh, for

her support in reaching the qualified participants of this study

I would like to thank all of my colleagues for their great participation throughout the

process of data collection in this research

My sincere thanks also go to my classmates who have supported me in the process of

data analysis

Last but not least, my deepest gratitude and sincere thanks are sent to my family for

spiritual support and encouragement during the time of the study completion

v

ABSTRACT

Storytelling practice is believed to be a highly effective application in second language teaching, especially in vocabulary teaching and learning With regards to very young children, they are assumed to possess unique characteristics when it comes to learning

a foreign language Thus, teachers of very young learners, in the lesson with storytelling, may encounter a huge number of different difficulties in teaching them vocabulary which may result in distinctive opinions of this teaching practice

This thesis dealt with the teachers’ perceptions of storytelling application in vocabulary teaching in the class of very young learners, namely “Smartkids”, at VUS English Centers Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were included in the process of data collection which involved 60 experienced teachers teaching this level

of learners at this center While the survey was designed to gather the teachers’ reported practice of storytelling and their perceptions on this research issue, the interviews were also conducted in order to deeply comprehend the teaching activities and techniques applied in the lesson as well as their thinking on the effectiveness and difficulties of this teaching method The comparison of local and foreign teachers was also involved to better understand the research problems

The findings of the study showed that teachers applied various activities in the lesson

of storytelling so as to capture the students’ attention at most While most teachers appreciated the benefits of this practice to vocabulary teaching and learning, students were believed to be the main reason causing the most challenges in this lesson In addition, no significant differences were found between two groups of teachers regarding both reported practice and perceptions

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Statement of originality ii

Retention and use of the thesis iii

Acknowledgements iv

Abstract v

Table of contents vi

List of abbriviations ix

List of tables x

List of figures xi

Chapter 1: Introduction 1

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.2 Research aims 4

1.3 Research questions 5

1.4 Significance of the study 5

1.5 Scope of the study 6

1.6 Organization of the study 6

Chapter 2: Literature Review 8

2.1 Teachers’ perceptions 8

Perceptions 8

Language teachers’ cognition 8

2.2 Teaching English vocabulary 9

2.2.1 English vocabulary 9

2.2.2 English vocabulary teaching 10

2.3 Teaching English vocabulary to Very Young Learners 12

2.3.1 Very young learners 12

Very young learners’ characteristics in learning English 12

2.3.2 Teaching vocabulary to very young learners 13

2.4 Applying storytelling in teaching 15

2.4.1 Stories and storytelling 15

2.4.2 Storytelling and factors involved 18

2.4.3 Practice of storytelling in the class 20

vii

2.5 Benefits of stories and storytelling in language learning 24

2.5.1 Boosting motivation and attitudes 24

2.5.2 Increasing creativity and imagination 25

2.5.3 Improving language knowledge and skills development 25

2.5.4 Storytelling and vocabulary development 27

2.5.5 Storytelling as a methodological teaching approach 29

2.6 Challenges in using storytelling to teach vocabulary to very young learners 31

2.6.1 Derived from teachers 31

2.6.2 Derived from students 32

2.6.3 Derived from materials and other factors 33

2.7 Conceptual framework 33

Chapter 3: Methodology 37

3.1 Research design 37

3.2 Research site 38

3.3 Participants 39

3.4 Research instruments 42

3.4.1 Questionnaires 42

3.4.2 Interviews 44

3.5 Pilot study 46

3.5.1 Pilot questionnaires 46

3.5.2 Pilot interviews 47

3.6 Data collection procedures 48

3.6.1 Questionnaires’ procedures 48

3.6.2 Interviews’ procedures 49

3.7 Data analysis procedures 51

3.7.1 Questionnaire data analysis 51

3.7.2 Interview data analysis 54

3.8 Chapter summary 56

Chapter 4: Results and discussions 58

4.1 Results 58

viii

4.1.1 Teachers’ practice of storytelling to vocabulary teaching to very young

learners 58

4.1.2 Teachers’ perceptions of storytelling application for vocabulary teaching 72 4.2 Discussions of the results 91

4.2.1 Research question 1: How do teachers apply storytelling to teach vocabulary in a VYLs class? 91

4.2.2 Research question 2: What are the differences between Vietnamese teachers’ and foreign teachers’ reported practice? 94

4.2.3 Research question 3: What are the teachers’ perceptions towards the application of storytelling to vocabulary teaching in the VYLs class? 96

4.2.4 Research question 4: What are the differences between Vietnamese teachers’ and foreign teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness and difficulties of storytelling application? 98

4.3 Chapter summary 98

Chapter 5: Conclusion, suggestions and recommendations 100

5.1 Conclusion 100

5.2 Pedagogical implications 103

5.3 Limitations of the study 104

5.4 Recommendations for future research 105

5.5 Chapter summary 106

Appendices 117

ICT – Information and Communications Technology

SPSS - Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

x

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2 1 Table 2 1: Conceptual framework of the study 35

Table 3 1 Table of participants of the questionnaires 40

Table 3 2 Summary of questionnaire to teachers 42

Table 3 3: Table of reliability of the pilot questionnaires 47

Table 3 4: Data collection procedures table 51

Table 3 5: Table of reliability of the questionnaires before items removed 52

Table 3 6: Table of reliability of the questionnaires after items removed 53

Table 3 8:Correspondence of Research questions, Analysis procedures,Data source 57 Table 4 1: Teachers‟ practice of teaching vocabulary to very young learners 59

Table 4 2 Teachers‟ overview opinions on the practice of storytelling in very-young-student classrooms 59

Table 4 3: Teachers‟ opinions on the definitions of storytelling 60

Table 4 4: Teachers‟ practice of storytelling in a VYL classroom 61

Table 4 5: Frequencies of pre-teaching activities in storytelling application 64

Table 4 6: Frequencies of while-teaching activities in storytelling application 66

Table 4 7: The techniques of getting students‟ attentions 67

Table 4 8: The use of Vietnamese in storytelling teaching 69

Table 4 9: Frequencies of post-teaching activities in storytelling application 70

Table 4 10: Teachers‟ perceptions of the effectiveness of storytelling application 72

Table 4 11: Teachers‟ perceptions of the difficulties of storytelling application derived from teachers 75

Table 4 12: Teachers‟ perceptions of the difficulties derived from students 77

Table 4 13: Teachers‟ perceptions of the difficulties derived from others 79

Table 4 14: Teachers‟ perceptions of the general effectiveness of storytelling application 81

Table 4 15: Teachers‟ perceptions of the effectiveness of storytelling application to vocabulary learning and teaching 82

Table 4 16: Teachers‟ perceptions of the difficulties of storytelling application 85

Table 4 17: Teachers‟ perceptions of the difficulties of storytelling application 86

Table 4 18: Teachers‟ suggestions for better storytelling application 89

xi

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3 1: Interview contents 46

Figure 4 1: Mean scores of Vietnamese and Expat teachers about storytelling practice 63 Figure 4 2: Mean scores of Vietnamese and Expat teachers about storytelling effectiveness 74 Figure 4 3: Mean scores of Vietnamese and Expat teachers about storytelling difficulties derived from teachers 76 Figure 4 4: Mean scores of Vietnamese and Expat teachers about storytelling difficulties derived from students 78 Figure 4 5: Mean scores of Vietnamese and Expat teachers about storytelling difficulties derived from other factors 80

Figure 4 6: Thematic network analysis 55 Figure 4 7: The use of Vietnamese in storytelling teachingError! Bookmark not defined.

1.1 Background to the study

It is obvious that learning vocabulary is a critical part in the language learning process which affects the learners’ language proficiency Wilkins (1972) affirms the central role of vocabulary, with regards to communication that “while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (p.111–112) This statement emphasizes how vocabulary acquisition makes a significant contribution to the success of language learning Learning vocabulary, however, comprises a wide range of difficulties which might be derived from distinctive factors The way that the words are acquired in second language learning, for instance, is unquestionably different from the process of first language acquisition in which children learn the word knowledge by experiencing the three processes of labelling, categorizing and network building (Thornbury, 2002) As a result, second language learners, as stated by Thornbury (2002) that, “need a critical mass of vocabulary to get them over the threshold of the second language” and this achievement might require

“intentional and incidental learning” (p.30) Sharing the same perspective with the above idea, according to Schmitt (2000), with regards to vocabulary acquisition, it is impossible for second language learners to memorize all of the native-speaker words, but this is still a considerable achievement to learn them as much as possible Accordingly, teaching vocabulary to non-native students is demanding and challenging

as there is a great deal of obstacles to deal with

2

For different types of learners, teachers are required to have appropriate teaching methods in order to give effective vocabulary lessons because those students all have their own characteristics considering second language learning Very young learners (VYLs), for instance, are believed to acquire languages better than adults In other words, children are superior compared to adults in terms of learning second languages due to the flexibility of their brain (Lenneberg, 1967; Penfield & Roberts, 1959) This feature enables them to immerse themselves in language learning resulting in better achievement in several aspects mentioned in later chapters However, they also possess a great number of distinctive characteristics when it comes to learning foreign languages (Reilly & Ward, 1997) that might cause a wide range of difficulties for teachers For example, it seems to be an arduous task for teachers to draw attention from their very young children for long in an educational environment People should not expect a classroom with this type of learner to be silent, with children sitting still

in rows and paying their full attention to the teachers only (Halliwell, 1992) as they possess very unique characteristics in language learning Thus, teachers are required to provide them with a series of different teaching activities so as to keep them focused

on the lesson without getting bored

A variety of useful instruments for teaching English vocabulary has been applied effectively in teaching this type of learners such as games, dramas, songs and chants, especially storytelling According to the results of Kent (2004) and Sneddon (2008), children tend to participate in learning more actively when repeating, practicing chants and taking part in the telling of the story In other words, storytelling application in language teaching is an intriguing teaching method to both teachers and students that provides them with rich contexts in which teaching and learning occur From students’ perspectives, it has been shown that this educational teaching method benefits language learners in terms of boosting motivations and attitudes in their learning and developing their language knowledge and skills through intensive interactions (Gonzalez, 2010; Gomez, 2010; Safdarian & Ghyasi, 2013) Meanwhile, teachers’ practice of storytelling is believed to have great impacts on learners’ engagement

In Vietnam, the language of English is considered to be an important compulsory subject in the formal educational system and it is also a necessary skill people should possess in order to achieve a proper profession The Ministry of Education and Training desired to enhance the system of learning and teaching foreign languages in Vietnam and a National Foreign Language 2020 Project was launched in 2008 As a result, English was introduced to students of grade 3 in primary schools across Vietnam In addition, a large number of learners, including very young language learners (or pre-primary children), are practicing this language at a variety of private English centers in big cities throughout the country (Hoang, 2010) Hence, it is necessary to provide them with effective teaching methods from teachers to ensure their language proficiency, especially their vocabulary acquisition In terms of storytelling, some workshops and seminars sharing experience and training of storytelling application in Vietnam appear not to be practical for teachers (Huong and Yeo, 2016) Additionally, the current storytelling practice, normally conducted in a mechanical way, concentrate on generating the language forms that might block the communicative practice (Bui, 2019)

4

From the researcher’s perspective, the practice of storytelling in teaching these age children at his teaching site is, by some means, various depending on the teachers’ personal perceptions More than five years teaching at this English center, I have had plenty of opportunities observing his colleagues’ teaching practices since peer observation is one of the performance criteria that teachers should fulfil in order to enhance their own practice From his observation, different ways of giving a storytelling lesson, with numerous purposes, are being applied to teach stories in this center which might have resulted differently in students’ performances This motivated him to conduct a study on this aspect so as to investigate the teachers’ practice of storytelling and their distinctive perceptions on this application

early-From broader viewpoints, there were several experimental studies exploring students’ vocabulary retention through storytelling application in language teaching (Nguyen, 2018; Pham, 2017) However, the teachers’ practice and perceptions on this application, from the researcher’s knowledge, appears not to have been widely researched in Vietnam Furthermore, during the vocabulary lessons in a very young learner class, both Vietnamese and foreign teachers may possess different opinions of the use of storytelling, which directly affect the teaching and learning process The comparison of those differences in practice and perceptions is expected to considerably contribute to better future storytelling application Overall, it would be of interest to have profound understanding of the teachers’ practice and perceptions of the storytelling in vocabulary teaching to very young learners, which, to some extent, are critical to the students’ learning process

1.2 Research aims

With regards to the nature of an exploratory research, which is to closely scrutinize people insights towards research problems as well as to develop more understanding about them, this study shares the same objectives It aims at exploring teachers’ insights on the use of storytelling to teach vocabulary in a very-young-learner class In particular, the research study’s aims are to investigate (1) the teachers’ reported practice of storytelling in vocabulary teaching in VYLs classes (2) the differences

5

between Vietnamese and foreign teachers’ reported practice of storytelling (3) the teachers’ perceptions of the application of storytelling including the effectiveness and challenges in their VYLs classes (4) the differences between Vietnamese and foreign teachers’ perceptions of storytelling Based on the aforementioned aims, the practice and perceptions of storytelling were collected from teachers with the use of different instruments before being carefully analyzed to present the findings

1.3 Research questions

In the light of the study problem, the following questions emerged:

RQ1: How do teachers apply storytelling to teach vocabulary in a VYLs class?

RQ2: What are the differences between Vietnamese teachers’ and foreign teachers’ reported practice?

RQ3: What are the teachers’ perceptions towards the application of storytelling to vocabulary teaching in the VYLs class?

RQ4: What are the differences between Vietnamese teachers’ and foreign teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness and difficulties of storytelling application?

1.4 Significance of the study

Recent studies on the effectiveness of this method in the classroom focus on experimenting students’ retention rather on teachers’ views on this issue (Mauro Dujmovic, 2014; Elaf, 2012; Soltani et al, 2015; Pham, 2017) In addition, even though there are a number of studies about storytelling practice, few studies in Vietnam focused on the teachers’ perceptions of this application regarding the relationship between this method and vocabulary acquisition of very young learners as well as the teachers’ problems This paper which focuses on the teachers’ viewpoints

on the research problem is of importance in terms of several dimensions

First and foremost, this study will yield some pedagogical implications to the researcher himself as well as his colleagues at this teaching site considering the

6

practice of storytelling in a vocabulary lesson with very young children How other very-young-learner-teaching teachers teach storytelling and how they think of this teaching technique will become convincible preferences for him and his working fellow in this centre and other institutions As a result, we can all enhance our teaching performances that puts positive impacts on students’ performances and achievements

In terms of theory, the results of this study are expected to provide several noteworthy contributions to the teachers’ perceptions of storytelling use in vocabulary teaching to very young learners Particularly, it is hoped that better understanding of this teaching application can be achieved through the description of the teachers’ thinking and opinions considering its effectiveness and difficulties in this thesis

1.5 Scope of the study

This study focuses on investigating the teachers’ practice and perceptions on the use of storytelling to teach vocabulary in very-young-learner classrooms The effectiveness and difficulties of storytelling in enhancing vocabulary development were primarily focused in the research Three campuses of VUS English center including where the researcher is currently working, were chosen as the research sites Sixty teachers having more than two-year experience of teaching very young learners using storytelling in these sites participated in the data collection process The findings and discussion were generated from their reported practice and opinions in the study

1.6 Organization of the study

This study comprises of five chapters as recommended by the Faculty of Linguistics and Literature: Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Findings and Discussion and Conclusion

Chapter 1 is the paper introduction which sets the background of the study I also

mention the aims and the research questions regarding the teachers’ practice and perceptions on the method of storytelling Finally, the significance and organization of the study are presented

7

Chapter 2 reviews the existing literature about the utilization of storytelling in

vocabulary teaching to VYLs The terms and different aspects of storytelling teaching are reviewed so that the researcher can grasp certain ideas on the research issues Additionally, the researcher presents the previous studies including both local and foreign research

In chapter 3, the current researcher focuses on the methodology used in the research

This includes sections of research design and research questions, the research site and participants, the instruments for data collection, the procedures of analyzing the data

Chapter 4 shows the findings reported the data from the three instruments in the data

collection They are discussed to identify the teachers’ practice and perceptions of storytelling application

In chapter 5, the researcher concludes the study with some implications, limitations

and recommendations for future relevant studies

8

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

“We all need stories for our minds just as much as we need food for our bodies.”

Andrew Wright 2.1 Teachers’ perceptions

Perceptions

Perception is well-defined in dissimilar ways by various authors According to Quick and Nelson (1997), this term refers to the process in which people interpret the information to others In particular, sensory stimulations are processed by selecting, organizing and interpreting into purposeful information regarding people’s working environment (Rao & Narayan, 1998) Sharing the same view, Michener, Delamater and Myers (2004) voiced that perception is the way people organize the data they obtain through their senses in order to establish the social world understanding In this study, the term of perception refers to the teachers’ thinking and opinions on the application of storytelling in vocabulary teaching for very young children

Language teachers’ cognition

The understanding of how the language teachers’ cognition is shaped is highly critical

in language teaching as it supports us, teachers, to have a great insight into the real classroom practice (Borg, 2006; Macalister, 2012) In other words, through the perspective of teachers who are supposed to be deeply involved in the students’ performance in every lesson, people might have better comprehension of the teaching and learning process Studying about the teachers’ cognition, as claimed by Lai (2015), is of great value to the gradual spread of innovative teaching As a result, the more people understand about the teachers’ thinking processes including the lesson planning, instructions giving and the teaching reflection (Woods, 1996), the greater improvement as well as effectiveness of learning and teaching languages might occur

Lexical acquisition is an essential part of second language acquisition According to Schmitt and Schmitt (2020), second language vocabulary acquisition includes a large variety of variables such as the mother tongue, age, cultural factors, language exposure

or even motivation which might make it somehow burdensome to formulate a theory

of vocabulary acquisition This ensured the statement of Nation (1995) on this issue that “there isn't an overall theory of how vocabulary is acquired” (p.5) Instead, there are several models about vocabulary knowledge that substantially contribute to explain how this process occurs

In the discussion of Schmitt and Schmitt (2020), he mentioned the three dimensions of incremental development in vocabulary knowledge, proposed by Henricksen (1999) These include the knowledge of limited vocabulary, the extensive vocabulary knowledge and the understanding of receptive-productive vocabulary Specifically, while the comprehension of vocabulary knowledge is connected with the first and second dimension, the receptive-productive dimension relates to the ability of the vocabulary knowledge application Based on these dimensions, Schmitt and Schmitt (2020) concluded that “not only is vocabulary acquisition incremental, but it is incremental in a variety of ways” and “word learning is a complicated but gradual process” (p.120) This author believed that lexical knowledge is constituted by different types of word knowledge together with the idea that learners cannot learn them all at the same time Different word-knowledge types may develop along different clines so that learning individual word knowledge can be as incremental as

10

word learning in general Schmitt suggested that it would be preferable to analyze the degree of receptive or productive control of the distinctive word-knowledge aspects than just thinking about how that word is known

In terms of learners’ strategies for learning second language vocabulary, Cook (2016) suggested that learners of second language can come to an understanding of unfamiliar words by the predictions from the contexts, checking words in dictionaries, inferring the word form or linking to the cognate languages and words In addition, to acquire the new words, it is also important to make use of strategies ranging from learning words by heart, connecting the new lexis to the learners’ background knowledge, to organizing the words in groups in the students’ mind (Cook, 2016) These can actively support students’ vocabulary acquisition

2.2.2 English vocabulary teaching

Schmitt (2020) claimed about the second language teaching and learning that “a learner must also know a great deal about each item in order to use it well” (p.33) He also emphasized that form and meaning are the most essential aspects for students to learn while it is considered more difficult to teach them how to use it in particular contexts Sharing the same view, Cook (2016) stated in his work about second language learning and teaching that getting the meaning of new vocabulary across the learners appears to be one of the fundamental issues in teaching languages Cook emphasized that when teaching a language, it is necessary to notice that besides meaning and pronunciations of words, students also have to learn how to use them properly Hence, teachers need to consider how their teaching methods and techniques are appropriate with the way their students acquire the vocabulary

According to Nation (1990), for the infrequently occured words, the teaching time should be used to give learners strategies to learn these vocabulary on their own In terms of pronunciation, spelling and word parts, according to Nation (2001), acquiring words demands learners to know that words are constituted by affixes and stems which can occur in other vocabulary This asserts the significance of providing learners the phonological knowledge in learning a foreign language

11

In addition, the significant role of using mother tongue in teaching languages should

be well-recognized since it has contributed to the success of students’ learning According to Rajathurai Nishanthi (2020), applying native language in language teaching to preschool learners allows not only teachers but learners to teach and learn effectively This author also asserted that not only appropriate teaching materials provided but also the way students are given the lessons contribute to the success of teaching and learning at these early years The more learners comprehend the teachers’ instructions thoroughly, the more effective that the lessons can bring to the classroom (Rajathurai Nishanthi, 2020) As a result, abandoning the local language in second language teaching and learning is still a controversial issue

Furthermore, it is necessary for both teachers and students to take into account the significant role of explicit learning and incidental learning in their vocabulary learning and teaching process In explicit learning, students are directly drawn to focus on the knowledge in the lesson in order to get the greatest opportunity for the language acquisition On the contrary, when the language is being utilized for communication, it

is called incidental learning It is recommended that students of second language learning should consider both explicit and incidental learning as necessity and complementary (Schmitt, 2000) In terms of vocabulary teaching, Nation (1995) recommended that it is necessary to consider this aspect of language teaching considering the cost or advantages and teachers need to identify frequent words, which should be taught explicitly, and the uncommon vocabulary in general English, which are believably best left to the other learning type

Overall, there is no best or right practice in teaching English vocabulary, as stated by Schmitt (2000, p.121), “ the best practice in any situation will depend on the type of student, the words that are targeted, the school system and curriculum, and many other factors” Teachers, students and institutions should be all involved in order to make the vocabulary teaching properly and effectively

12

2.3 Teaching English vocabulary to Very Young Learners

2.3.1 Very young learners

Reilly and Ward (2003) identified very young learners as “children who have not yet compulsory schooling and have not yet started to read” (p.5) This way of definition strongly emphasizes the illiteracy of very young learners who are not in their school age yet This research uses the term very young learners to refer to children aged from

3 to 6 who are not literate or given any special education for literacy

Very young learners’ characteristics in learning English

Very young learners possess their own unique characteristics compared to other types

of learners when it comes to learning languages According to Mooney (2000), these children are expected to be curious, egocentric, energetic and actively involved in both

in social and educational activities They possess a very limited attention span in learning but they are eager to learn new and diverse concepts about their surroundings and general life (Mooney, 2000)

Additionally, according to Reilly and Ward (2003), there are four main characteristics

of very young learners in learning foreign languages including the individual attention, the short attention span, the silent period and the pre-school teaching feature The first element, individual attention, is when the children love to be close with their teachers, demanding a lot of concentration from them than from their classmates This feature is aligned with Cameroon’s words (2001) that children at this age desire to please their teachers more than their classmates in the classroom While this feature can be advantageous as teachers are able to ask their kids to participate in teaching activities easily, it might also bother them as it is difficult to take care of all learners in the class simultaneously

In addition, this type of learner has short-attention span that makes it almost impossible for teachers to draw their attention for long throughout the lesson They tend to lose their interest as well as motivation in learning things more quickly in comparison with other types of learners such as adults or adolescents, especially when

13

they encounter difficult tasks (Cameroon, 2001) As a result, an effective teaching activity for the other class of different students’ levels might not fit in with the this VYLs class

vocabulary-Another important characteristic of VYLs is called the silent period According to Reilly and Ward (2003), “it is important for the language teacher to remember that young children may spend a long time absorbing the language before they actually produce anything” (p.7) This characteristic, according to Cameroon (2001), could be interpreted by the truth that very young learners of second language, differently from adults or teenagers, do not have access to metalanguage which teachers often use in giving explanations in language teaching However, there is no need for teachers to force their very-young students to speak in the target language which causes a lot of emotional stress Some learners tend to be quiet during the lesson but then report what they have learned to their parents at home Children are still able to acquire the language by being exposed to repetitive songs, games or choral work (Cameroon, 2001)

The last feature mentioned in Reilly and Ward’s book is called preschool teaching, in which the class of VYLs is considered to be less stressful and pressure than others If students enjoy a particular activity, teachers can do it repeatedly while things don’t need to be rushed All of these learning characteristics have both positive and negative impacts and influences in the process of acquiring foreign languages

2.3.2 Teaching vocabulary to very young learners

The process of how young children acquire language and how teachers teach them, particularly in vocabulary teaching and learning, have been discussing by various authors with different theories and studies Piaget (1970) voiced that very young students tend to establish their own environment of learning things that is engaged with their surroundings, and those immediate settings can support them to be more active in learning Meanwhile, according to Burner (1983), children learn things effectively with adults or their proficient friends through scaffolding This way of learning provides children with opportunities of complex learning over time since their

14

creativity is somehow monitored and circumscribed by what they know and do not know Through interaction with other people, children build up the necessary knowledge within their zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1962), which helps them achieve their optimum capacity to address the problems with the teachers’ support Hence, when students encounter difficult tasks beyond their current abilities

in learning, their existing knowledge and new knowledge should be connected through scaffolding so as to better their understanding

It is also believed that better acquisition of things is occurred at a very young age Long (1990) indicated the necessity of early acquisition that after 6 years old, it is unfeasible to obtain the native-like phonological competency, and certain issues in morphology and syntax may arise beyond the age of 12 Specifically, Nunan (2011) pointed out several pros and cons of learning and teaching English at a very young age One advantage of starting to learn second language at this early stage is that theoretically, it allows young beginners to exploit their advantages of being a child, and as they grow older, they can make use of the benefits of adult learners’ characteristics On the contrary, young children are considered to be highly dependent

on their teacher, so the teacher’s training and education is of paramount importance The heavy dependence on oral language in teaching kids a foreign language, in one way or another, might be requiring much time, effort as well as careful attention from their teachers (Cameron, 2001) Moreover, since language learners are becoming younger and younger (Shina & Crandall, 2014), teaching them might demand teachers with pedagogical and psychological knowledge

There are quite a few approaches to teach vocabulary in the classroom of young learners which can also be utilized for a class of pre-primary children Morrison (2007) stated that for this type of learners, experiencing concrete objects can help boost their learning According to the theory of cognitive development from Piaget’s, children, in their stage of preoperational intelligence, are not able to use cognitive operation yet but are understanding at a symbolic level Additionally, according to Cameroon (2001), teaching languages is actually about acquiring knowledge about children’ learning In order to build outstanding lessons and activities, it is the students’ needs in

15

learning that should be carefully considered, rather than focusing on the teachers’ interests or the text-book unit demands Hence, we need to “unpack the generalizations

to find out what lies underneath as characteristic of children as language learners” in

an attempt to “adjust the way we think about the language we teach and the classroom activities we use” (Cameroon, 2001, p.1) In other words, it is significant to take serious considerations of students’ needs to decide appropriate teaching approaches for their language learning

In summary, teaching languages to children at early age appears to be beneficial in a variety of aspects since these students possess the ability to acquire languages better than adults, proven by different authors over time This type of learners has both advantages and disadvantages in learning languages, especially when it comes to vocabulary learning Teachers can utilize the teaching techniques of other types of learners when carrying out the vocabulary lessons with very young learners However,

it is undeniable that a diverse of difficulties may arise in very-young-learner classrooms which requires teachers’ knowledge and efforts

2.4 Applying storytelling in teaching

2.4.1 Stories and storytelling

2.4.1.1 Stories

According to Maynard (2005), “stories” is a broad term that can be defined as the way people exchange experience, how they perceive others’ experience, the way people liberate their own imaginations, how they view their own world as well as the way they position themselves within that world From this definition, stories appear to include most of the familiar events people might encounter in their lives, which can be somehow familiar with people from all languages He emphasized that stories are of paramount importance to people, politics and education that can possess more depth than the use of a simple example

A story might tell about several certain circumstances, different particular characters and everything happening to them These are also the three features of a story’s

16

structure mentioned by Garvie (1990) The first element of a story involves the setting, which is about where and when the story occurs, while the characters, the second feature, are the people such as friends or enemies, helpers or hinders or themselves in the story in which the audience might relate to or be able to identify The plot is also

an important prototypical feature, according to Garvie (1990), which comprises a series of events logically linked via the sequence of causes and effects explaining what takes place in the story All of these characteristics, through Green and Brock’s (2000) words, are capable of engaging our thoughts, our feelings and also make contribution

to the development of mental imagery

With regards to the field of education, the use of stories can be “a holistic approach to language teaching and learning that places a high premium on children’s involvement with rich, authentic uses of the foreign language” (Cameron, 2001, p.159) When mentioning the words “holistic approach”, Cameroon lays a great stress on the cumulative characteristics that a narrative possesses as an effective teaching technique

or invaluable language resources Sharing the same perspectives, Green (2004) specifically voiced about stories that it can fulfil distinctive classroom purposes including stimulating learners’ engagement, facilitating the flow of the lessons, making content memorable, overcoming students’ resistance and fear and creating a good rapport between the teachers and the students or among learners themselves Hence, a lot of teachers have been utilizing stories in their teaching settings for quite some time making storytelling one of the most extensively applied approach in language teaching

2.4.1.2 Storytelling

The term “storytelling” has drawn great attentions of a wide range of different authors over a period of time Each of them has their own ways of expressing what storytelling

is in education and how this tool can be beneficial to second language learners

According to Gere et al (2002), when the series of settings are constructed through the process of exploiting vocabulary and gesture in colorful ways, it is called

“storytelling” In this way, storytelling is the combination between language and

17

action from the storyteller in order to create a sequence of events Besides the roles of language and actions involved into storytelling, according to McDrury and Alterio (2004), storytelling is defined as “a uniquely 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” (p.31) This explanation of storytelling emphasizes the “language of words” which is employed to make the story understandable to the audience It is also taken into account the views of the characters reflecting in the story and the environments, both real or imaginary, in which people settle In general, these two definitions, in combination, detail the features such as languages, actions or perceptions embraced in the concept of storytelling However, to some extent, this way of defining storytelling appears to have some limitations in pointing out the objectives and the way people narrate the story

From broader perspective, storytelling is “an art of creating and connecting with people in the past that you never knew” (Splauding, 2011, p.13) Splauding called storytelling “an art”, which refers to the process of producing or doing of something beautifully and intriguingly with an aim to bring enjoyment and amusement to people This author considered this unique art as a bridge connecting together people from all generations from past to present, both known and unknown This captivating way of defining storytelling demonstrates the objects of this method as well as its gripping purposes Nevertheless, the audience of the story is not mentioned

Ellis and Brewster (2014, p.25) supplemented Spaulding’s expression of storytelling

by adding that storytelling is how people tell “a story to people who are willing to listen” They stressed the significant role of the audience in the process of storytelling

In other words, this is also the reminder for the storyteller to focus on drawing the listeners’ attention to the story that they actually want to hear These authors also mentioned the types of storytelling that “this can be telling a story from a book by reading it aloud, telling a story without a book by word of mouth in the age-old tradition or telling an anecdote or even a joke” (Ellis & Brewster, 2014, p.25) In accordance with the above authors, Harvey (2013) added to the definition of storytelling that this is a connection among three elements including the teller, the

18

story itself and the listeners All of these components link with each other in triangulation way Overall, storytelling is, in Kim’s words, “an encompassing method” (Kim, 2013, p 54) This combines distinctive features of the story which reflects the human’s experience with an attempt to provide the language learners with better language acquisition

From all of the above definitions of storytelling, it can be seen that this is a useful educational tool with the focus on providing the second language learners with specific context so that better language acquisition can be occurred The researcher would desire to give an operational definition for this term regarding this study as follow:

Storytelling is a methodological approach in the combination of language and gestures, which involves the teller, the audience and the story, in an attempt to connect people from all generations together

2.4.2 Storytelling and factors involved

A variety of factors are involved in storytelling teaching approach including types of storybooks being taught to learners, the differences between storytelling and reading

story as well as various forms of storytelling

2.4.2.1 Storybook selection

Gomez (2010) brought up the questions of whether teachers should use simple books

or authentic ones for teaching their children While simplified stories are fast approached by people, especially children, the stories for native English-speaking children are of use with a variety of real-language examples (Ellis and Brewster, 1991) Gomez (2010) then recommended that it would be best to choose the appropriate stories based on the students’ age and their levels of linguistics Meanwhile, Davies (2007) advised teachers to customize their own stories in teaching languages and that adjusting the content to the students’ needs would benefit their learning in several aspects such as the story comprehension and the tellers’ styles

19

In addition, there are a number of available stories published by different publishers, which are applied to teach language in different situations These kinds of provided storybooks must be carefully well-chosen so as to match with the students’ ages and levels as reported by Davies (2007) due to the fact that children may not prefer adults’ stories and vice versa In this study, the researcher would choose the available stories chosen by the center This is due to the fact that the stories are parted from the center’s coursebook which has been examined and applied by their own department

Storytelling and reading story

There are certain differences between the two terms of storytelling and story reading which might have various valuable contribution to language learning Gallets (2005) reported that the approach of storytelling might provide learners with more tremendous success The explanation for this might come from the disadvantages of story reading in students’ learning Reading stories requires materials such as texts in which students could probably have difficulty producing vivid imagination as they highly depend on narrative documents On the contrary, as explained by Haven and Ducey (2007), the interaction during the lessons created by the storyteller and the audience is what makes storytelling more effective, as the learners tend to be more attentive in the lesson (Gallets, 2005)

2.4.2.2 Forms of storytelling in teaching and learning

It is necessary to differentiate the forms of storytelling in education which might result

in different impacts on students’ performance There are two main forms of storytelling which are face-to-face storytelling and digital storytelling According to Spaulding (2011), mentioned in his book about storytelling, the authentic storytelling

is face-to-face storytelling In particular, this author emphasized the important triangulated relationship among the story, the narrator and the listeners during the in-person storytelling Through the process of narrating the story, the teller and the audience are able to not only build up intimate connection but also involve in the direct interaction within the classroom environment As a result, the sense of

of audios and videos This study involves digital storytelling as the teachers are provided with available stories and supplement resources from the institution

2.4.3 Practice of storytelling in the class

The reasons for using storytelling in the class are various depending on the teachers’ purposes This method could be employed in the classroom to enrich the pupils’ learning experience through real life situations, to allow teachers to work with emotional and social aspects and to introduce traditional stories to children which emphasizes the main features and beliefs of their national culture

2.4.3.1 Effective storytelling lessons

In order to carry out a successful lesson of storytelling, teachers should notice the important characteristics of this method As claimed by Wilkin (2014), this educational approach demands the learners to be involved in actions in the plot; and the stories should be generated from image to image, not from word to word (Harvey,

21

2013) In addition, the narrators are required to concentrate on the actions to make the stories understandable (Wilkin, 2014) while the issues of dropping some same words sometimes do not matter

Sharing the same perspective, Haven and Ducey (2007) agreed that this way of teaching would not be efficient if the focus is on memorizing as much as possible Instead, the story should be divided into scenes and the teller should learn those scenes

by remembering the first and the last thing of each scene carefully Besides, it is recommended that body language should be employed so as to support the storyteller

in visualizing the story and to deepen the audience’s understanding of it

In addition, the learning environment stands out to be an important factor in acquiring second language, especially for the case of very young learners Holding such great energy but with little concentration on the tasks, children are recommended to be engaged in total physical response activities within certain teaching sites Scott and Ytreberg (1990) supported the idea that immediate environments, surrounding the learners, are dominant in their learning so that they could understand this world through different senses such as touch, see or hear Moreover, the world that children build up for their learning including visuals and objects might help them engaged and involve in the learning tasks in addition to become further responsible for the realia they learn with (Moon, 2000) Hence, instructors are suggested to set up a relaxed learning environment in which learners might feel at ease with their classmates encouraging a broader sharing and exchanging of ideas

2.4.3.2 Student engagement in storytelling

It is essential, as the matter of fact, that children need to be deeply involved in the lesson Regarding second language learning and teaching, the engagement of students

is the involvement of them in learning activities focusing on the meaning and the ability to use the language and ideas (Philp & Duchesne, 2016) This aspect, as mentioned by Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris (2004), includes cognitive engagement, emotional engagement and behavioural engagement While the cognitive engagement refers to the learners’ mental efforts which is critical for their understanding, the

22

emotional dimension is all about the students’ feelings and emotions within the classroom environment, which decides their willingness for joining the activities The behavior engagement indicates the involvement and taking part in the learning activities which contributes to their future development In a storytelling lesson, it is also necessary for teachers to take into consideration of these factors of engagement throughout the process of learning and teaching

2.4.3.3 Use of storytelling to vocabulary teaching

When carrying out the lesson of vocabulary with storytelling, teachers might have their own teaching practice as well as their personal uses of different techniques A wide range of activities can be employed with telling stories in teaching second language learners For instance, teachers might start the lessons by leading the students

to the theme of the story such as showing pictures or objects about the story and telling them key words as most children might prefer pointing and dramatizing the stories as much as possible (Reilly & Ward, 2003) Another suggested activity by Spencer et all (2013) is that teachers can carry out “word by word story” in which students will take turns giving a word to make a story By describing the past events, learners then can practice the past tense with their teacher and classmates This author also mentioned another activity named “guessing what happens next” that the teacher will start telling

a small piece of a story and it is the students’ task to make predictions what occurs in the story This can be an intriguing method to deepen learners' cultural knowledge (Spencer et al, 2013)

Different frameworks for teaching storytelling method in classrooms are proposed, which provide teachers with a number of references Elley (2000) applied in the teaching application with the three-stage lesson The lesson gets started with pictures’ discussion involved the new words and the plot of the story Afterwards, teachers and students join the reading and discussion, in individuals, in pairs or in groups Some follow-up activities such as role playing, crafts or writing are given in the third stage to ensure the knowledge Through this way of teaching, words are learned and reinforced

at the same time and students have plenty opportunities of practicing the language

23

Sharing some similarities with the above framework, a model named Hook Book Look Took is applied in teaching language Tedjaatmadja and Renandya (2012) clearly described the framework including four main stages First, children are introduced and prepared for the lesson with different intriguing activities Next, their attention is drawn into the content of the story with the help of the teachers’ narration and the subsequent activities Teachers then grasp the students’ focus on the language features shown in the story and end the lesson by stressing the key points of the story that they want their kids to remember

Applying this practice into real teaching context, Gonzalez (2010) examined the effectiveness of storytelling in the students’ vocabulary acquisition This study involved eight-trainee teachers at Universidad Cooperative de Colombia and they participated in creating the proposal for teaching the language to young children in a meaningful and interesting approach In particular, syllabus and stories, along with the lessons, are built based on the students’ needs analysis generated from the instruments such as observation, questionnaires and a diagnostic test Gonzalez (2010) carefully described the process of applying the stories in the elementary school As a result, the lesson of three stages: pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading was given to students The class started with the story’s posters decoration with an attempt to create

an at-ease environment Then the students participated in the vocabulary-introducing activities such as games, songs or matching The teachers continued the lesson with telling the story in which body language and flashcards were employed for better understanding A variety of teaching techniques, namely concept checking questions, asking for the predictions from students, were then applied in order to activate the students’ background knowledge and to check on their comprehension After the reading, students joined the follow-up activities in which teachers introduced the guided writing The findings indicated that the field of attitudes, motivation as well as the learners’ participation appeared to be enhanced along with their understanding and acquisition of vocabulary This proves that the practice of storytelling might be of use

in vocabulary teaching involving plenty of benefits

24

2.5 Benefits of stories and storytelling in language learning

The effectiveness of storytelling on the development of language learning has been proven by ample authors throughout the years It is indicated that besides increasing the language knowledge and skills, storytelling can also strengthen the learners’ motivation and attitudes, creativity and imagination skills in their language learning process

2.5.1 Boosting motivation and attitudes

As stated by Ellis and Brewster (2014), students tend to be more active in taking part

in the activity of storytelling, which is a vigorous teaching tool, and their motivation is somehow boosted during the lesson so that better understanding can be easily achieved This is supported by Wright’s statement (1995) that storytelling, with the appropriateness of factors such as the teachers’ teaching techniques and the stories’ messages and content, is able to deeply immerse the learners in their educational process and build up their interests in the stories’ reading and listening

A variety of studies have shown how storytelling supports second language learning with better motivation and attitudes Learners’ attitude and motivation are both strengthened by the implementation of storytelling This is examined, for instance, in the study carried out by Elkilic and Akca (2008) in which they investigated the elementary children’ motivation and attitudes through a qualitative study The research findings revealed the positive attitudes of 21 Turkish grade-four students towards the application of storytelling in the classroom

Sharing the same interests in studying how storytelling has its impacts on second language learners’ motivation along with their educational achievements, Safdarian and Ghyas (2013) conducted a study with 100 elementary students aged 12 to 13 Based on data collected from different instruments such as tests, questionnaires and interviews, the results indicated the improvement in students’ achievement and emphasized the importance of appropriate storybooks which must align with the learners’ age, needs as well as the language proficiency

25

2.5.2 Increasing creativity and imagination

Students in language learning, with their own imagination applied, will not only be provided with their own ideas, questions and theories, but also be able to evaluate their friends’ ideas and products (Kampylis & Berki, 2014) Telling stories to learners in language learning can be a great source for stimulating their creativity as well as their imaginative ability This has been well-analyzed in several studies applying storytelling approach Huffaker (2005) and Sneddon (2008), for example, indicated in their research findings that the second language learners’ creativity and imagination can be exploited through the potential storytelling method In addition, this could also

be a wonderful tool to boost students’ confidence in using the language (Anderson & Chung, 2011; Bell, 1998) In addition, Walters (2004) supposed that learners can use a wide range of provided clues to establish their own understanding, such as illustrations, sound or spelling resemblance in the local language, and the knowledge

in general

2.5.3 Improving language knowledge and skills development

Storytelling application might help enhance the second language students in the process of language knowledge and language skills development This educational effectiveness, ranging from the knowledge improvement of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation to the development of skills such as reading, listening, speaking and writing, has also been examined by many researchers

As a matter of fact, stories in language learning provide students with rich contexts supporting the comprehension of knowledge Nation and Coady (1988) voiced about this issue that there are two sorts of contexts: the context within the text and the general context referring to the background knowledge people have about the subjects being read According to Nation (2001), acquiring knowledge from a specific context, which storytelling can be considered a great resource, entails not just learning from extensive reading, but also participating in discussions, and learning from listening to stories or the media Thereby, different skills of language learning can all be learned and reinforced through the use of the educational tool of storytelling

26

The skills of listening and speaking appear to be effectively enhanced in students’ performance during the lesson with storytelling Regarding listening, the findings in the study of Keshta (2013), which analyzed the data from students of Palestinian schools, showed the effectiveness of storytelling in activating students’ interest in learning since better understanding of stories were shown through the connection of events, concepts and evocative images In addition, speaking competence is also in better performance with the application of storytelling As aforementioned about the students’ imagination in storytelling lesson, students can link imaginativeness to what

is told in the story so that language can be improved, especially in speaking performance (Marzuki, Prayogo, & Wahyudi (2016) Hence, storytelling is an interactive activity which can connect, share and interpret the meaning of words so that communication can be achieved easier

Additionally, two reasons for this oral effectiveness of storytelling pointed out from the research of Akhyak and Indramawan (2013) are worth considering They took into consideration of factors namely fluency, pronunciation, ideas, grammar and words choice so as to testify the leaners’ oral performance in the action research The first reason, mentioned as an explanation for the five-element improvement among the participants, is that the content in storytelling utilization given by teacher is suitable for individual students These authors added, as the second rationale, that learners are better in understanding the stories through storytelling than that of reading out loud, because of the strong motivation and models provided by the storytellers This also emphasizes the significant role of the teacher as a storyteller, a modeler and even an actor in the lesson with storytelling

Idioms are also the field of knowledge that can be improved with the application of telling stories This is examined in Asl’s experimental study (2013) about the effectiveness of stories towards idioms learning Accordingly, 60 second-language learners, divided into three different groups of twenty, participated in this research Each group was given the lesson of idioms differently, one with definitions only, one with sentences and the other with short stories The study findings from the tests indicated that there was an outperformance in the group learned with short stories in

27

comparison with the others The reasons explained for this effectiveness, as stated by Asl (2013) were that the students’ background knowledge was activated to handle the information of the stories which somehow supported learners with better retentive idioms’ memorization

Besides the above advantages, this educative tool is also an ideal technique for developing children’s understanding of syntax and story’s structure, according to Glazer and Burke (1994) and Mallan (1991), which lead them to higher success in narrating their own stories and sharing their personal comprehension to other people down the road

2.5.4 Storytelling and vocabulary development

Storytelling is a great teaching technique for vocabulary learning As stated by Nunan (2011), learners can acquire vocabulary better when they learn it along with grammar and stories are then an excellent vehicle for teaching vocabulary and grammar together

in a holistic way providing learners with particular contexts that support them in vocabulary acquisition

A study conducted by Rashid (2011) indicated the positive impact of storytelling method on students’ vocabulary acquisition In this study of Rashid, the researcher only investigated the effects of this educational method on students of age 12, who are considered to be less skillful Hence, the findings, as its limitation, just generalized the significance of stories on this type of respondents only Accordingly, more stress and less engagement may occur when the materials are too demanding for this level of students Meanwhile, with storytelling application in low-proficiency class, more enthusiasm and better motivation are concurrently generated from students

Different from Rashid (2011) in terms of participants, Abdul- Ameer (2014) conducted

a research about how students’ vocabulary learning process can be beneficial in the application of digital storytelling Forty primary-school students were equally divided into two groups, an experimental group and a control group While the former group watched the stories on the computers which were provided with internet access, in the

28

latter one, stories were taught with the teachers’ instructions The two researchers believed in their conclusion that digital storytelling, with thoroughly selection and construction, could help second language learners acquire the knowledge pleasurably They also pointed out the two primary reasons for this effectiveness In the first place, students’ concentration was drawn into the story’s plot through the recreation, built up from the online experience with digital storytelling As a result, the understanding and comprehension were successfully achieved The second factor for this productiveness

is the self-pace learning in digital storytelling lesson which enables participants to watch the stories several times so as to assist them in understanding the words they learnt

A recent study carried out by Kalantari and Hashemian (2016), they researched the Iranian learners’ vocabulary and attitudes in storytelling lesson through the look of an experimental study Two classes were compared in this research, one was taught normally with the textbook of Backpack and one as an experimental group was given storytelling lessons customized by the teachers and the researcher preparation In this research, storytelling was applied in the three stages: pre, while and post First, the students were familiarized with the new lexis in the story through participating in games, reading and listening tasks In the phase of while-teaching, teachers facilitated the students’ understanding with visual aids assisted by PowerPoint presentation At the end of the lesson, activities of role-play the story and vocabulary games were employed The results from the pre and post tests showed that there was a considerable increase in students’ performance of vocabulary knowledge in comparison to the class without storytelling application In addition, it was also noticeable that the participants became more engaged while listening to the story

Soltani, et al (2015) voiced in his study which investigated the application of pictorial storytelling in language teaching that it is about things students watch, listen and think Through the pre-test and post-test embedded in a quasi-experimental design, the author confirmed the effectiveness of pictorial storytelling in enhancing students’ vocabulary learning This shows that, in terms of learners’ long-term memory and retention, visual storytelling application in the classroom can help elementary students improve their