LEGENDARY Teacher's Guide - Book - Page 8
5. The Value of Stories
Legendary is a story-based program for young learners of English. The use of “children’s literature can be an
effective and enjoyable way to teach language” (Brown 2004: 4). The stories provide an authentic,
contextualized framework through which vocabulary, language patterns and chunks, as well as emergent
reading concepts are illustrated and activated. The storybooks provide “a springboard for a wide variety of
related language learning activities” (Ellis 2014: 6) that are designed to develop pupils’ language skills. As
such, the language that pupils are taught and exposed to in each unit is reinforced and practiced through the
stories.
Stories provide an entertaining and enjoyable language learning tool (González 2010). The sense of
excitement, curiosity, and motivation they invoke enables the young pupil to acquire language without the
stress that might accompany it, making the acquisition process smoother and less frightening. “Stories are
motivating, challenging and enjoyable and can help develop positive attitudes towards the foreign language,
culture and language learning.” (Ellis 2014: 6). Children want to find meaning in the story; they listen with a
purpose and are motivated to develop comprehension skills, such as searching for meaning, predicting, and
hypothesizing.
Pupils with different interests and learning styles can all engage in meaningful learning through stories.
Storytelling is an experience that enables the pupils in the class to share emotions and encourages social and
emotional development alongside language learning. Stories exercise the imagination, present universal
themes, and can be a natural opportunity to include multidisciplinary material in the English classroom (Ellis
2014).
Furthermore, “listening to stories allows the teacher to introduce or [review] new vocabulary and sentence
structures by exposing the children to language in varied, memorable and familiar contexts, which will enrich
their thinking and gradually enter their own speech.” (Ellis 2014: 7). Vocabulary and lexical chunks are
presented in this authentic contextual framework that involves natural repetition. Because children enjoy
listening to stories over and over, language items can be acquired and practiced, whether they are directly or
incidentally taught. This repetition helps pupils “gradually learn to anticipate what is about to happen next in
the story” (7) and they are encouraged to participate in its retelling.
Through the authentic context of stories, pupils are given an opportunity for natural communication. They
are motivating and interesting for young learners, encouraging them to ask and answer questions in the
target language. Stories expose pupils to the rhythm and intonation of a language, while also providing
ample opportunity for review and reentry of vocabulary and lexical chunks. Listening to stories is essential in
helping pupils develop literacy skills, which then, enable the acquisition of reading and writing.
6. Implementation of the Storybook Approach
The stories in Legendary were written to encompass the Ministry of Education’s Foundation word list and
cater to the cognitive and interest levels of the pupils. The stories are presented and taught in four stages:
Stage 1: Preparation for the Story
In order to make the story accessible, pupils are introduced to the major vocabulary and lexical
chunks that appear in the story before it is read. Pupils are introduced to the characters and context
of the stories through short reading texts and activities prior to advancing to the reading of the
story. This provides a minimal base of content which enables the pupils to follow the basic plot of
the story.
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