Telling stories has been the bedrock of transmitting truths, legends, morals and history for thousands of years.  It has also been an essential contribution in developing language in babies and toddlers as parents would spend time each evening reading and telling stories to their children before going to bed.  

 

Storytelling has been the foundation of history and communication enriching culture and enjoyed by millions.

 

Yet this aspect of communication is rarely practiced in schools as it is not perceived to be useful for the current curriculum of teaching which emphasises reading and writing skills and so is not regarded as being relevant and a useful contribution to the children’s learning.  A pupil participating in the current system of evaluation of English at UPSR can obtain 100% in the exam without either hearing or saying one word in English.  So what is the point of storytelling?

 

I would argue that storytelling is a vital part of any child’s education, particularly related to the learning of a foreign language for the following reasons:

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1. The foundational skills of language acquisition are listening and speaking.  Learners need to internalise concepts and ideas before they can reproduce these in the form of reading and writing.  In other words you need to have something inside you, before you can get it out.

2. Storytelling – when done correctly – can be fun and interesting for the pupils providing them with positive motivation to use the language rather than learning through repetition and memorisation which is usually tedious and produces negativity rather than positive participation.

3. Stories can be used as a springboard to grammar exercises that can now be produced in a context that the children understand instead of having isolated random sentences to work out the principles and rules being taught.

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It has been known for over 100 years that language is processed in a different part of the brain to cognitive thinking.  Traditional methods of memorisation and repetition stimulate the cognitive aspects of learning, while storytelling stimulates both.

While there may be massive progress in the use of internet and computer applications as alternatives to telling stories, at present there is no substitute for the direct interaction between story teller and listeners as they engage in an age-old communication game where the teller constantly receives feedback from the listeners and adjusts their delivery accordingly.  I feel sad that phenomenon has permeated into families where children go to bed with a device, rather than spend time with parents who will tell them a story.

I am reliably informed that storytelling is an integral part of the teacher training curriculum, but having worked on projects in primary schools for over 10 years I find that it is rarely practiced in the classroom.  If I am mistaken about this I apologise, but I do wonder if teachers today are under so much pressure for their pupils to perform in assessments that do not include listening and speaking, therefore they do not see storytelling as being relevant to the current curriculum.

You will notice that I deliberately use the word storytelling and not story reading.  There is an art in telling stories that demonstrates to the listeners the correct use of intonation, stress, facial features and body language that illustrates the story.  All these characteristics are rarely – if ever – taught to children but are an essential part of real communication.