Storytelling is an enjoyable and engaging activity for children and adults alike as any parent or primary school teacher would confirm. Stories encourage children to listen, to imagine, to predict, to comment, to participate and to express opinions, and so offer huge potential for primary languages. Being involved regularly in storytelling can help children realise that they can access longer texts without necessarily having to understand every word.

Choosing a story

It’s important to pick your story carefully as not all work for language learning. Try to ensure that the language is not too complicated and that the illustrations and story line are suitable for the age and maturity of the children you are teaching. Generally speaking, the qualities that usually work well include:

- Traditional tales or stories that the children may have read before. As they already know the story line, children can use this prior knowledge to deal with more complex language. Older children also often don’t mind revisiting, in the new language, stories which, in their first language, they might consider too babyish e.g. Goldilocks, The enormous turnip, The very hungry caterpillar.

- Use of repetitive language. Children will quickly become familiar with the repeated lines and can be encouraged to participate in telling the story themselves e.g. Une histoire sombre, Sieben im Bett by Petra Probst.

- Simple language which includes a link to the theme you are studying. Children will be reassured that they understand the gist of the story through the opportunity to practise familiar language in a real context.

- Attractive illustrations which can be seen by the whole class. The illustrations should support children’s understanding of the story line and should ideally allow them to comment and express opinions using familiar language, e.g. The rainbowfish by Marcus Pfister.

Introducing the story

How you lead in to the story and whether or not you choose to pre-teach some of the vocabulary will largely depend on the context in which the story is being told.

Sometimes pre-teaching won’t be necessary. If you are using a story with simple repetitive language and supporting illustrations, your children may well be able to understand enough of the story for you to be able to launch straight in e.g. Las aventuras de Nicolas: La gata perdida by Chris L Demarest (Berlitz Kids, 981-246-823- 4).

If you are using a story which links to the theme you are studying, you are likely to have covered much of the key vocabulary already, e.g. if your children know colours, then a simple story like, Toutes les couleurs by Alex Sanders (Lutin poche, 2-211-061-559) would not only give an opportunity for children to practise this language in a real context but would also introduce them to parts of the body with no pre-teaching necessary.

If you do decide to pre-teach vocabulary, here are a few, simple guidelines to consider:

- Identify the key vocabulary. This should include different word classes where possible not just nouns.

- Limit the vocabulary to no more than six new words or phrases.

- Decide on your objective for the children learning this vocabulary. Do you want them to be able to identify by listening, pronounce accurately, identify by sight, read aloud or write the words?

- Decide on your strategy for introducing the new vocabulary so that all the children can participate. This might be with the interactive whiteboard, flashcards, actions and gestures, realia, rhymes, etc.

Telling the story

When you tell the story in its entirety for the first time, again consider your objective. Do you want the children to listen, speak or read? With younger children, you may not want to introduce the written word at this stage, whereas for older children, the written word may be a support to their understanding of the storyline.

Remember that you are telling the story, not just reading it so don’t forget to use plenty of expression, different character voices and gestures, point to key parts of the illustrations and engage the children with lots of eye contact.

Involve the children in the story right from the start. This might mean that the children:

- perform an action or gesture or hold up a picture whenever they hear the corresponding words;

- chorus repeated words or phrases;

- complete repeated sentences that you have started;

- hold up the appropriate word card when they hear the corresponding language;

- remember key language before you turn the page or show the next visual;

- practise key sounds which feature in the story, e.g. Le mouton et moi;

- answer simple questions about the illustrations.

Do remember, however, not to overdo the involvement and thereby interrupt the flow of the story. It’s very easy to spoil, by constant questioning, the pleasure of simply listening to and enjoying a story being told. You may find that some children want to give a running commentary in English. This is fine – they are merely reassuring themselves that they understand.You can affirm that understanding with a nod or smile, or repeat or rephrase the sentence that might have been misunderstood.

Developing the language

Once the children are familiar with the story there are many ways in which you can develop the language.

Identifying aspects of the story
Children have sets of cards showing key vocabulary, characters, animals etc. You read out a phrase or sentence from the story and the children hold up the card with the vocabulary, character or animal associated with that sentence.
Matching words and pictures
Children have two sets of cards, one showing illustrations from the story and another with the corresponding text and have to match the two sets. This could be developed into a game of pelmanism.
Listening and drawing
You read out details or events from the story and the children draw the corresponding picture. You could extend this by giving the children the text from the first activity and asking them to select the correct phrases to cut out and glue with their pictures.
Sequencing
Children have a set of cards showing pictures from the story. As you retell the story, they have to place the cards in the correct order. This could also be done with sets of text cards and the children sequencing these from memory.
Making sentences
Children have sets of word cards which they must rearrange in the correct order to make a sentence from the story. They could go on to make silly sentences of their own by changing an element in their sentence, e.g. the noun, verb or adjective.
Drama
Children take on the role of characters in the story and provide the dialogue for these characters as the story is retold. Children could develop the story into a script and perform it as a play for a friendly audience.

Remember to provide opportunities for children to celebrate their learning. This might be by creating a display of their work, performing to another class or in assembly, writing new versions of the story for a younger class to read or filming the final storytelling for the whole class to watch and comment on together.

For lots more ideas on using storytelling in language teaching, make sure you take a look at Young Pathfinder 3 Are you Sitting Comfortably? and Young Pathfinder 9 The Literacy Link.