A Case Study of the Effects of English Stories Teaching on Learners’ English Proficiency

Jing DUAN, Yinghui SUN

Abstract


The present case study intends to explore how English story learning and teaching promotes young learners’ English proficiency. Five students in Grade 4 of a primary school in Linzhi District, Tibet Autonomous Region were involved in this case study. The participants learnt 10 short stories in 9 months. Data were collected through interviews and classroom observations. The analysis shows that all of the five participants’ English proficiency had been developed by the end of the study. The present study aims to contribute to the enrichment of the knowledge about story teaching practice in foreign language teaching, to provide educational policymakers and teachers with insights into English reform in primary schools. 


Keywords


English; Stories; Language proficiency

Full Text:

PDF

References


Baker, C. (1988). Key issues in bilingual education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Baker, C. (1992). Attitudes and language. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Brown, H. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

Carrell, P. L., & Grade, W. (2008). Reading. In N. Schmitt (Ed.), An introduction to applied linguistics (pp. 233-250). Beijing: Beijing World Book Publishing Company.

Chao, X. (2004). Enhancing young learners’ reading comprehension and the ability to use vocabulary through a big book approach. Unpublished MA dissertation, Capital Normal University.

Chen, R. (2004). Tentative survey on story teaching method. Teaching Research for Primary and Middle Schools, (7), 23-25.

Chen, L. (2005). English story teaching in higher grades in primary schools. Journal of Basic English Education. 7(4), 78-80.

Cheng, X., & Wang, J. (2008). The significance and methods of English story teaching in primary schools. Heilongjiang Education, 10, 36-37.

Cooper, R. L., & Fishman, J. A. (1977). A study of language attitudes. In J. A. Fishman, R. L. Cooper, & A. W. Conrad (Eds.), The spread of English. pp. 239-276. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Ding, N. (2011). English teaching in primary school with story telling. Education Science & Edcuation Magazine, 2, 142-143.

Dornyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the langauge classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ellis, G., & Brewster, J. (1991). The storytelling handbook for primry teachers. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Gardner, R. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitude and motivation. London: Edward Arnold.

Gardner, R. (2006). The socio-educational model of second language acquisition: a research paradigm. EUROSLA Yearbook, 6, 237–260.

Gardner, R., & Lambert, W. (1972). Attitudes and motivations in second language learning. Massachusetts: Newbury House.

Gibbons, P. (1993). Learning to learn in a second language. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Handler, A. I. (1993). The English storyteller. Israel: University Publishing Projects Ltd.

Hamer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching. Pearson Education.

Irwin, P. A., & Mitchell, J. N. (1983). A procedure for assessing the richness of retellings. Journal of Reading, 26, 391-396.

Isbell, R. (2002). Telling and retelling stories – learning language and literacy. Young Children, 57(2), 26–30.

Jing, Y. (2009). Cohesion and coherence in English story teaching in primary schools. Jiangsu Education, 3, 50-52.

Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. Harlow: Longman.

Lei, H. (2011). Research on the story theme teaching method for English teaching of primary school. Unpublished MA dissertation, Southwest University.

Li, C. (2011). The role of stories in English teaching in Kindergartens. Journal of Taiyuan Normal University: Social Science Edition, 10(5), 147-148.

Li, C., & Xu, Z. (2011). Making English stories for students in lower grades of primary schools. Foreign Language Teaching in Schools (Primary Version). 3, 10-15.

Lin, B. (2009). The strategies of reading English story in primary schools. Journal of Xiamen Education College, 11(2), 82-84.

Lin, X. (2011). Teaching phonetics with stories in Grade 5 of primary schools. Education Planning and Management, 2, 33-34.

Liu, Y., & Gao, G. (2008). English story teaching: from the perspective of psycholinguistics. Liberal Arts in Secondary School: Teaching and Research Forum, 12, 36-37.

Lu, X. (2006). English story teaching in lower grades in primary schools. Educational Practice and Research, 12, 41-42.

Lu, B. (2008). The Teaching of Story in the English Teaching for Primary Students. Unpublished MA dissertation, Central China Normal University.

Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2005). How languages are learned. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

Murray, D. E., & Christison, M. A. (2010). What English language teachers need to know volume I: understanding learning. New York: Routledge.

Murray, D. E., & Christison, M. A. (2011). What English language teachers need to know volume II: facilitating learning. New York: Routledge.

Nunan, D. (2010). Teaching Enlgish to young learners. California: Anaheim University Press.

Pesola, C. A. (1991). Culture in the elementary foreign language classroom. Foreign Language Annals, 24(4), 331–346.

Rubin, J. (1994). A review of second language listening research. Modern Language Journal, 78, 199-221.

Rost, M. (1990). Listening in language learning. London: Longman.

Schmidt, R. (2001). Attention. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp.3-22). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Scovel, T. (2001). Learning New Languages: a guide to second language acquisition. Heinle & Heinle.

Shan, J. (2012). Using English stories in higher grades in primary schools effectively. Foreign Language Teaching in Schools (Primary Version), 35(2), 7-11.

Skehan, P. (1989). Individual Differences in Second-language Learning. London: Edward Arnold.

Slattery, M., & Willis, J. (2001). English for primary teachers: A handbook of activities & classroom language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Smeets, D., & Bus, A. (2012). Interactive electronic storybooks for kindergartners to promote vocabulary growth. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 112(1), pp. 36-55.

Sun, Y., & Sui, Y. (2008). Class design of English story teaching in primary schoos. Foreign Language Teaching in Schools (Primary), 12, 1-6.

Tian, M. (2011). Application of the method of teaching reading in English vocabulary teaching in primary schools. Journal of Educational Institute of Jilin Province. 27(5), 97-98.

Tsou, W., Wang, W., & Tzeng, Y. (2006). Applying a multimedia storytelling website in foreign language learning. Computers & Education, 47, 17-28.

Watts, I. N. (1992). Making stories. Markham, Ontario: Pembroke Publishers.

Wang, F. (2011). Choreography and performance of English pantomime. Suiyue, 4. 81-82.

Wang, Q. (2000). A course in English language teaching. Beijing: Higher Education Press.

Wang, Q. (2003). A course in primary English language teaching (In Chinese). Beijing: Higher Education Press.

Wang, Q. (2009). Primary English in China: Policy, curriculum and implementation. In M. Nikolov (Ed.), The age factor and early language learning (277-310). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

Wang, Y. (2012). Some issues in English story teaching in primary schools. Foreign Language Teaching in Schools (Primary Version), 35(3), 33-37.

Wenden, A. (1991). Learner strategies for learner autonomy. London: Prentice Hall.

Wilson, J. A. (1997). A program to develop the listening and speaking skills of children in a first grade classroom (EDRS: ED 415566)

Wright, A. (1996). Storytelling with children. New York: Oxford University Press.

Wu, G. (2011). The application of multimedia in English story teaching in higher grades of primary schools. Educational Communications and Technology, 1, 31-32.

Xu, H. (2005). Stories teaching with song and dance. English Teaching & Research, 9, 8-11 &16.

Zhang, W., & Li, Y. (2003). Tentative survey on storytelling in English listening teaching. Journal of Suzhou Teachers College, 1, 114-116.

Zhang, Q. (2010). A study of the application on story-telling method in primary school English teaching. Jiannan Wen Xue, 166-167.

Zhang, P. (2011). The strategies of improving the effectiveness of English story teaching in primary schools. Fujian Education and Research, 12, 41-42.

Zhou, H. (2011). Revision lesson based on English stories in lower grades in primary schools. Foreign Language Teaching in Schools (Primary Version), 34(6), 16-20.

Zhu, W. (2011). Blackboard design in English story teaching in primary schools. Foreign Language Teaching in Schools (Primary Version), 34(4), 12-15.

Zhu, J. (2012). Teaching English by making stories. Jiangsu Education, 1, 50-51.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/10112

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2018 Jing DUAN, Yinghui Sun

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


Share us to:   


Reminder

  • How to do online submission to another Journal?
  • If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:

1. Register yourself in Journal B as an Author

  • Find the journal you want to submit to in CATEGORIES, click on “VIEW JOURNAL”, “Online Submissions”, “GO TO LOGIN” and “Edit My Profile”. Check “Author” on the “Edit Profile” page, then “Save”.

2. Submission

  • Go to “User Home”, and click on “Author” under the name of Journal B. You may start a New Submission by clicking on “CLICK HERE”.


We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases:
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

 Articles published in Higher Education of Social Science are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

HIGHER EDUCATION OF SOCIAL SCIENCE Editorial Office

Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mail[email protected]; [email protected]

Copyright © 2010 Canadian Research & Development Center of Sciences and Cultures