For the course LGA3033E, we learn about the teaching of English through

stories. It includes identifying the features of the different types of children's stories,

choosing appropriate stories, applying teaching strategies and techniques while

using stories as well as staging a storytelling performance. In short, they are the

elements of storytelling skills that could create an effective Malaysian primary ESL

learning environment which I will discuss in this essay based on my opinions.

Before this, I never expect that children stories consist of different genres.

Through this course, I have learned to identify different genres of children stories,

each with different features. For instance, legend story usually has the feature of

having traditional narrative focusing on a specific location or a historical figure

(Lombardi, n.d.). I believe this is the fundamental knowledge in acquiring storytelling

skills. This is due to the specific benefits of different genres which a teacher can

achieve a certain lesson objective easily by focusing on intended aspects in a story.

For example, a folktale story acts as a base for the pupils to understand the intended

taught culture through the story setting, narration and explanation of a cultural event

(Teaching Storytelling, n.d.). When a teacher is certain of a method to reach the

lesson objective, the flow of the storytelling session is most likely to be smooth and

results in an optimum learning environment. Therefore, the ability to identify different

genres of children stories as one of the storytelling skills is important for an effective

English lesson.

When it comes to storytelling skills, ability in choosing a story is no doubt

included. It is important to take the audience into consideration. This includes the

pupils’ proficiency and the syllabus in the teaching and learning context. The quiz I

had taken as one of the assignment tasks acted as a practice to justify my choice of

a story in the future through reviewing the criteria of selecting a story. For example,

‘The Hare and The Tortoise’ is suitable for lower primary pupils due to the repetition

of discourse pattern, hence aiding the memory and practices of a particular language

pattern (Read, 2010). Nonetheless, it is undeniable that the cultural background of

the pupils affects their satisfaction for a storytelling session, especially when it

reinforces a value or belief (Haven & Ducey, 2007). For instance, one of the main

characters- ‘Hare’ does not exist in Malaysia and may interfere the pupils’

understanding, therefore, a teacher may modify the character into ‘Sang Kancil’

which pupils in Malaysia context recognize it as an agile animal and aids to their

understanding of the story. Consequently, selection of stories as one of the

storytelling skills is crucial in ensuring the effectiveness of a lesson input.

As for the staging of a storytelling performance, I have received feedbacks from

the lecturer and my course mates which greatly help me in improving my storytelling

skills. Storytelling is an oral presentation of a story, hence delivering of verbal words

is emphasized as one of the storytelling skills. For instance, my voice projection was

decent, however, some of my enunciation of words during the storytelling affected the

presentation of my story. I have noted the words such as ‘black’ and ‘bag’ that I need

to pay attention in terms of enunciation. Other than that, due to my lack of experience

in storytelling, I did not encourage the participation of audience during the storytelling

session which may cause the loss of attention of the audience on my story. I should

have constant eye contact with my audience which may result in having them

thinking that they are involved in the story. I could enhance this effect by having a

‘conversation’ with the audience as I tell the story. Such methods taken will act as the

cue that can build and vary the intensity of the story and aid to the audience’

understanding towards the story (McWiliams, n.d.). From this task, it has proven the

importance of storytelling skills such as pronunciation and enunciation, and the ability

to encourage participation are essential in creating an effective English lesson.

Overall, throughout the completion of the assignment tasks, not only I have

gained new knowledge in the field of using stories to teach English, it had also affirm

my views on the effectiveness of having good storytelling skills. Last but not least,

this had allowed me to reflect on my strengths and weakness and improve my

storytelling skills.

Reflection

Haven, K. F., & Ducey, M. (2007).Crash Course in Storytelling, Volume

388.

Santa Barbara: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Lombardi, E. (n.d.). Defining Terms: Myth, folklore, legend, etc. Retrieved

Spetember 14, 2015 from

http://classiclit.about.com/es/10th14thcentury/a/aa_definemyth.htm

Read, C. (2010). Storytelling and drama. Retrieved September 14, 2015

from

http://www.onestopenglish.com/children/stories-and-poems/storytelling

-and-drama/

Teaching Storytelling. (n.d.). Retrieved September 14, 2015 from

http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b355/Storytelling/documents/

TeachingStorytelling2007.pdf

McWillaims, B. (n.d.). Retrieved September 14, 2015 from

http://www.eldrbarry.net/clas/ecem/cstm.pdf