Abstract
The
present research proposal is developed for the reason of having noted most
students in Mozambican secondary schools, especially at Chambone Secondary
School in Maxixe they end their grade 12 without speak English. It is a fact
that the success in learning a language at first can be seen from the ability
of the learner’s speaking. However, it is very hard for the beginners to speak
the foreign language, especially English. There are a lot of reasons why they
get difficulties in speaking, such as lack of ideas to tell, lack of
vocabularies to express the ideas, lack of the chance to speak, and lack of the
interesting teaching method that can motivate them to speak. Thus, this study
attempts to investigate the effect of storytelling on students’ speaking
ability and students’ attitudes toward its implementation of storytelling
technique.
1. Introduction
English
is not easy to learn by the students in Mozambican secondary schools. One of
the basic skills in English is speaking. For the students, speaking exercise is
difficult to try. Naturally, they feel confused on the rule, like: grammar,
vocabulary, pronunciation, and fluency. Some of the students are afraid to be
active in speaking. This phenomenon makes many students have low scores in
speaking class. The English teachers state the most of the students complain
that they do not understand how to speak English correctly. They say that
learning English is confusing activity. It is caused by the teaching technique
which is applied by them. The English teacher still implements the direct
method, which places the teacher as a center of the class, while the students
are less active. The teacher also not makes a good interaction with the
students in teaching speaking process.
According to Zamdani
(1998) teacher is not central focus in learning. Teaching speaking focuses on
making the students active and creative. The students dominate the process of
learning speaking; afterwards, it is dominated by the teacher or instructor. In
this case, teacher is only the facilitator and controller who create the
material, method and technique. Suggested by National Department (2004) the
students should be able to communicate appropriately and correctly, in the
interaction context and in simple short monologue, especially in describing
something. Because of that thing, the teacher must conduct another technique to
make the students more interesting to learn English, especially in teaching
speaking process.
Therefore, this
research proposal is aimed to analyze the use of storytelling as a technique to
improve students’ speaking skills. The work is divided into three (3) chapters
whereby, the first chapter is literature review. In this chapter, it will be
presented different concepts of speaking ability as well as the concepts and
use of storytelling to improve students ‘speaking abilities. The chapter two is
about methodologies. This chapter will mention what methodologies the researcher
will use to collect data in the field to validate the hypothesis of this paper.
And in the last chapter 3, the researcher will say how data will be presented,
discussed and analyzed.
Background of the problem
During
my internship process at Chambone Secondary School I noticed that students end
their grade 12 without speaking English. This was a big barrier to work with
them, especially when we were dealing with speaking activities because they
were not able to discuss the tasks in English.Therefore, we assume that one of
the reason that enable students to speak the language is because teachers do
not use storytelling as a technique to develop students speaking skills and
desire. When teaching speaking English for the students, especially in teaching
speaking, it constantly have to keep in mind the fact that what we have in
front of us is admixed class with expectations, motivation level, knowledge and
last but not least, different learning styles. Thus, we need to vary our
approaches and offer as much opportunity as possible to make the whole class
find a little something to hold on too, expand and grow.
So,
we think that as storytelling is at one of the simplest and quickest ways of
establishing a happy relation between teacher and students in teaching and
learning speaking process, and one of the most effective methods to make the
students more interest in learning speaking and make the students to speak up
bravely, it should be emphasized by teachers. Storytelling is a creative
problem solving technique that relies on the background and experiences of
students.
1.2 Objectives
1.2.1. Aim
The
purpose of the present research is to investigate how storytelling can improve
students’ speaking skills.
1.2.2 Objectives
·
To find out if teachers
use storytelling to improve students’ speaking skills;
·
To find out how to use
storytelling to develop students’ speaking abilities;
·
To propose strategies
of effective use of storytelling technique to promote students’ speaking
skills.
1.3
CriticalQuestions
·
Does the teacher use
storytelling?
·
Does the teacher plan
storytelling that match with the topic?
·
How does the teacher
use storytelling technique?
1.4.
Hypothesis
·
Teachers do not use
storytelling to motivate the students to speak the language since they tend to
teach much grammatical than communicative activities.
·
Teachers do not plan
storytelling that brings students’ speaking desire since the stories that
teachers bring are usually strange to the students’ reality.
·
The strategies used by
the teacher to monitor storytelling in the classroom create laziness to the
students on practicing speaking skills.
2. Rationale/justification
In general the purpose of the present
study is to investigate if teachers use storytelling to promote students
speaking skills in the classroom at Chambone Secondary School - Maxixe. We
expect to find from teachers and students problems related to the use of
storytelling in the classroom in order to promote students’ speaking skills.
This paper will provide more subsidies either to the teachers or the students
since it will suggest some strategies to effectively use storytelling to
promote speaking in the classroom. This
study helps to
determine the effectiveness
of using storytelling
in teaching speaking
in the classroom. It
provides language teachers
with the rationale
to carry out
oral storytelling activities
in class to improve
students’ speaking skills.
This study also
gives suggestion to teachers
to develop successful storytelling activities
as they can
identify the major
problems faced by
their students. Thus, teachers are conscious with the
advantages of this technique in teaching and learning process. The
students will be involved
as participants and
decision-makers in storytelling
activities. Besides, the value of
storytelling in the classroom will be determined. Hence,
this study is
helpful to provide
knowledge on ways
to develop natural ways in speaking activities.
CHAPTER I - LITERATURE REVIEW
In
this chapter, the researcher will present concepts of storytelling and speaking
skills, how to use storytelling basing on different authors idea that have
written about this issues in the past. This chapter is also intending to discuss what has been
stated about teaching speaking. A number of theories have been suggested in how
to teach speaking in language classroom, this way stating, it may seem
unnecessary to still writing on this topic, however, Richards and Rogers (1986),
they rightly contend that methods or theories are culture bound. In other
words, what so far has been suggested in FLT seems to be alien to the people it
is aimed to. Moreover, Nunan (1999) states that the best method in England may
be the worst in Congo. Therefore, none method is the best than another, it
all depends on where, how and with whom teachers apply the methods.
1.1 CONCEPTS OF STORYTELLING
Storytelling
is a means for sharing and interpreting experiences. Peter L. Berger says human
life is narratively rooted, humans construct their lives and shape their world
into homes in terms of these groundings and memories. Stories are universal in
that they can bridge cultural, linguistic and age-related divides. Storytelling
can be adaptive for all ages, leaving out the notion of age segregation.
Storytelling can be used as a method to teach ethics, values and cultural norms
and differences. Learning is most effective when it takes place in social
environments that provide authentic social cues about how knowledge is to be
applied.
As
we all know, stories have always played a significant role in student’s growth.
Stories not only help in stimulating student’s growth. Stories not only help in
stimulating student’s imagination and understanding of the world, but also in
developing students speaking ability (Alex, 1988; Cooper, 1989; Koki, 1998;
Zobairi and Gulley, 1989).
The
reason to recommended story telling in teaching speaking process is that
stories are motivating and immensely interesting, can best attract listeners
and promote communication. According to Cooter (1991) cited in XuJianing
(2007), “The excitement and drama of storytelling provide a context that holds
students attention”.
There
is common perception that all learning should be serious and solemn in nature
and that if ones are having fun and there is hilarity and laughter, then it is
not learning. This is misconception. It is possible to learn a language as well
as enjoy oneself the sometime. One of the best methods to speaking teaching for
students is by adding storytelling technique.
According
to Fisher (1985), storytelling is a creative art form that has entertained and
informed across centuries and cultures and its instructional potential
continues to serve the teachers. Storytelling or oral literature has many of
its roots in the attempt to explain life or the mysteries of the world and the
universe to try to make sense out of things (Tway, 1985). In doing so, the
characters and themes in the stories have become cultural and often cross-cultural
archetypes of historic and continuing importance (Lasser,1979). Even in today’s
technological world, we have not changed to such a degree that the archetypes
presented in traditional oral literature are no longer applicable (Livo and
Reitz, 1986). Preece (1987) says, “Storytelling, probably the oldest form of
narrative in the world, is not the same as reading a loud, because in
storytelling, the interaction between teller and listener is immediate,
personal, active and direct”.
There
are many reasons a teacher uses storytelling technique in teaching speaking. It
gives the learners chance to use English orally, it means that they can
practice and develop their ability to speak English. Storytelling provides fun
and relaxes while remaining very much within the framework of language
learning. It is expected for shy or slow learners can be active participants to
show their ability and find their confidence in communicating in English.
1.1.1The use of storytelling
For
speaking class teacher who wishes to use storytelling, it is best to begin by
choosing a simple story with only a few characters and an uncomplicated plot.
The story should have action, the plot should be understandable to the
students, and the events of the story should have a definite climax that leads
to a conclusion the students will find satisfactory. According to Ramey (1986),
Folk and fairy tales are the easiest kinds of stories for beginning
storytellers to communicate. In selecting these or any story, it is important
to keep in mind the characteristic of the students.
The
students listen to some stories and repeat as they listen. This gives them an
opportunity to improve their speaking ability. They are offered three stories
each time and required to practice the one they like best. A competition is
held every two weeks. When every student has learned to tell three to five
stories naturally and expressively, they feel much more confident in telling
stories in English than before.
1.1.2
Strategies to organize storytelling activities
Ø Activity 1
Divide the students
into groups and each group prepares a story. Each member of the group tells two
to three sentences and the next one continues until the end of the story could
gradually increase from two or three minutes. Before the lesson, the students
could divide their tasks in advance and practice their own parts. They could
also be given a few minutes to practice in class the whole story if necessary.
The teacher moves among the groups and chooses two or three groups to present
their stories before the class. Because the students have enough time to
prepare and they are working together, this helps them build confidence and
create a lively and brisk atmosphere.
Ø Activity 2
Divide the students
into four to five groups and each group is given an opening of a story and
asked to finish the story in about 20 minutes. Then select one student from
each group to tell their story in the class and the best one wins 10 points for
their group. To get everyone fully involved and avoid the liability that each group
just asks their best storyteller to do the job, the storyteller are selected by
drawing lots instead of being chosen by them. This is also helps enliven the
atmosphere of the classroom. So each group must work together to make the story
as interesting as they can. An alternative way is to ask each member of the
group to tell a part of the story and make a whole.
Ø Activity 3
Ask each group to hand
in an incomplete story and redistribute them among the groups. Give the
students 20 minutes to read their stories and finish them. After each group
presents their story, compare it with the original one. The most interesting
one and the one closest to the original win.
Ø Activity 4
The teacher gives the
first sentence to the class and then each student adds one more sentence to
make a whole story impromptu. Because there is no preparation and nobody has an
idea about what the next person will say and where the story is going, there
are often lots of fun and surprise in the game.
It is few example of
using storytelling technique in speaking class arranged in order of difficulty.
At first, if the students are not confident in their speaking skills, it is
recommended that the students be given enough time to prepare. As the students
build their confidence and the classroom language environment becomes more free
and active, the teacher could gradually increase the difficulty and make the
game more versatile. To motivate and encourage the students, points and prizes
are granted to good tellers and groups each time.
In the process of using
stories, the teacher could, in different cases, choose to encourage the
students, points and prizes are granted to good tellers and groups each time.
In the process of using
stories, the teacher could in different cases, choose to encourage the students
to rewrite the stories, using their own language or ask them to keep the
original language as much as they can. The former way encourages the students
to understand the stories and the latter prompts them to learn to use new words
and expressions. Besides, pictures, movie and other materials would also be
great help in storytelling. After a few months, the students speaking ability
can be improved to considerable degree
1.1.3
Benefits of Using Storytelling
Using storytelling can
bring to the students many benefits such as:
1. It can introduce the students to a range
of story experiences.
2. It can provide the students with models
of story patterns, themes, characters and incidents to help them in their own
writing, oral language and thinking.
3. It can nurture and encourage the
students’ confidences
4. It can help put the students own words in
perspective.
5. It can increase knowledge and
understanding of other places, races, and beliefs.
Storytelling also
encourages children to be creative and use their imagination to picture the
setting, the characters, and the story as it unfolds. Rather than being given
the imagery to accompany the words, which is the case when watching a film, the
child is able to build the world within which the story is set for themselves.
Through storytelling
children are encouraged to listen to others, whether it be the storyteller or
others listening to the story. They learn to be more patient and to let others
speak; they begin to understand that others may not interpret things in the
same way they do.
Their focus and
listening skills are developed as they concentrate on what the storyteller is
saying as, if they do not listen, the will miss out on part of the plot.
Storytelling provides
children with a window to new worlds. It gives them the opportunity to learn
new ideas and information; without realising it, they are learning valuable
life lessons through hearing an engaging, exciting story.
1.2
CONCEPTS OF SPEAKING
1.2.1 Attempting to define speaking
When teaching speaking
English for the students, especially in teaching speaking, it constantly have
to keep in mind the fact that what we have in front of us is admixed class with
expectations, motivation level, knowledge and last but not least, different
learning styles. Thus, we need to vary our approaches and offer as much
opportunity as possible to make the whole class find a little something to hold
on too, expand and grow.
Storytelling is at one
of the simplest and quickest ways of establishing a happy relation between
teacher and students in teaching and learning speaking process, and one of the
most effective methods to make the students more interest in learning speaking
and make the students to speak up bravely. Storytelling is a creative problem
solving technique that relies on the background and experiences of students.
“Speaking as an
operating system of stress, rhythm, intonation and conjunction, involves the
use of greeting formulaic, slang, idiom and cliché, it also requires familiarity
with images, illusion even current linguistic fashion, and it means the use of
the scale of formality-information mentioned earlier” (Porren, 1968:211)
Actually, it is visible
that speaking is the only mechanism in which humans use to express their ideas,
thoughts, and feelings and exchange ideas with others and then provide their
views on something. On the other hand, speaking requires a good combination of
rhythms and intonation so that the message can be delivered and received
positively. However, as language is not lips and tongue, there are other
aspects to be taken into account when we are to speak about speaking namely the
brain, which is believed to the central and commander of the whole body systems
and subsystems.
“Speaking is the
process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and
non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts” (Chaney, 1998, p. 13).
It is true that
speaking is a process of constructing and sharing verbal and non-verbal
communication in a sense that we cannot communicate without any meaning of what
we are talking, also we need to share different ideas from others verbally. On
the other hand we not only use verbal language, we need gestures to support
what we say, so that our audience can understand the message clearly.
Hadfield Jill and
Charles (1999:19) believe that speaking is the ability of using a language for
an everyday situation; this language is used to help students to develop
communicative skills through the production of language that can be seen how far
their learning abilities have been reached.
We concur with the
aforementioned authors, because if we say that we know and we can use language,
we should be able to use such language in many different situations, for
instance solving a problem or asking a help as well as expressing our feelings,
emotions giving an opinion, etc, sharing different ideas from others verbally.
It is within this
theoretical background, we believe that perhaps speaking is the most important
skill, moreover, linguists agree that we write what we say, (Ngunga: 2014).
1.3 Theoretical framework
In
this section, it is going to be highlighted a view point of the author who
inspired the researcher to take on a research about the use of group work to
promote speaking in the classroom.
CHAPTER II:
METHODOLOGY
2.1.
Type of Research
This
is an applied research because the answers to the critical questions will be
highly concrete and specific. KERVIN et al (2006) argues that, applied research
is motivated by a particular practical problem. He goes on defending that, for
educators this type of research is more common as teachers want to know which
strategies will enhance the learning of their students. Therefore, this is
undoubtedly an applied research as it seeks to improve student’s communicative
skills through group work.
Both qualitative and quantitative approaches will be
used in this research, with special focus to qualitative approach. KERVIN et al
(2006) points out that the qualitative research in a language classroom would
be, for instance, the teacher as a researcher to find out which techniques and
activities can improve students’ performance in class. He also highlights that
case studies are also research qualitative methods.
The quantitative approach will be used taking into
account that this research is partly descriptive as it will involve collecting
data in order to test hypotheses through questionnaire, interview and
observation whereby the data will somehow be numerical.
2.2.
Population and Sample
According
to KERVIN et al (ibid) "participants are selected because their
involvement will contribute to the research focus. The first thing is to
identify the target population from which you will select your sample". In
this line of thoughts, this research will deal with a sample of 60 students of
9th grade at Chambone Secondary School and 4 teachers of English.
There is a population of 280 students and 6 teachers of English. The sample of
students to be selected is 64 respondents corresponding to 22.4% of the whole
population.
2.3.
Methods/data Collection Techniques
To
collect data will be used mainly the direct observation, questionnaire and interviews
to find out how the teachers use group works to promote speaking in the
classroom. According to KERVIN et al (2006, p.84-85) "the observation of
participants in a setting is a traditional form of data gathering. It helps the
researcher to gain understanding of what actually happens within that
particular setting."
2.3.1 Questionnaire
Most researchers use questionnaires to collect data
because they allow for data to be collected from a large number of people
(KERVIN et al, 2006, 97). In this research, it will be used questionnaire for
students of grade 8 will be another instrument of data collection for this
study. It will allow participants to answer the questions on their pace in
their free time although in questionnaires, responses are limited to answers to
predetermine questions.
The
written questionnaire has some advantages.
For one thing, it is likely to be less expensive, particularly in terms
of the time spent collecting the data. Questionnaires can be given to large
numbers of people simultaneously; they can also be sent by mail. Therefore, it is possible to cover wide
geographic areas and to question large number of people relatively
inexpensively. Another advantage of
questionnaires is that subjects are more likely to
feel that they can remain anonymous and thus may
be more likely
to express controversial opinions.
This is more difficult in an interview, where the opinion must be given
directly to the interviewer. Also, the
written question is standard from one subject to the next and is not
susceptible to changes in emphasis as can be case in oral questioning. There
is always the possibility, however,
that the written question will
be interpreted differently by different
readers, which is one reason for
carefully pre-testing questionnaires.
2.3.2 Observation
According
to Marconi and Lakatos (2010:31) “Direct observation is an instrument of data
collection aiming to get information. It does not only consist on listen and
see what is being done but also consists on examining facts and phenomena to be
studied, it also helps the researcher to identify and obtain proves concerned
to objective basing on direct contact with the reality”. So In this paper it
will used observation as the base of data collection since this method allow
the observer to get confident information in the field.
2.3.3 Interview
Lakatos
and Marconi (2003:197) say that Interview is an instrument of data collection
consisting on getting information, whereby the interviewer follows an outline
already set. The interview will be addressed to the teachers, students and two
deputy directors of that school where the research will be conducted. In
interviews, since the interviewer is present with the subject, there
is an opportunity to collect
nonverbal data as well and to clarify the meaning
of questions if the subjects
do not
understand. Interviews have many advantages, the most significant of
which is questioning people who cannot write their responses. This category also includes illiterate
subjects or subjects who do not write as frequently as they speak. Oral responses from these individuals will
contain much more information than would their written responses. Another
advantage of the interview method is that is actually results in a higher
response rate than does the questionnaire.
Many people who would ignore a questionnaire are willing to talk, with
an interviewer who is obviously interested in what they have to say. Another advantage of the interview
technique is that you can plan to ask questions at several levels to get the
most information from the subject. This
approach is unique to the interview.
2.4.
Method of Analysis
It
was previously said that this study will use both qualitative and quantitative
approaches, thus will also be analyzed both qualitative and quantitative data.
The qualitative data analysis is basically text-based and images that require
analysis (KERVIN et al, 2006:140). It is important to refer that will be
applied the data analysis spiral for analyzing qualitative data, this process
consists of familiarization with data; categorization of data and synthesis of
the data (KERVIN et al, 2006:147).
For quantitative data will be used statistical
analysis given the fact that this type of data is basically numerical.
2.5. Data Collection Plan
|
Date
|
Activity
|
Place
|
Who
|
|
08/07/2019
|
Observation of 2
lessons of English
|
Chambone Secondary School
|
Grade 9
classes/stream 1/5
|
|
09/07/2019
|
Observation of 1
lessons of English language
|
Chambone Secondary School
|
Grade 9 classes/
streams 4
|
|
10/07/2019
|
Observation
of lessons of English language
|
Chambone Secondary School
|
Grade 9 classes
streams 5
|
|
11/07/2019
|
Interviewing
students
|
Chambone Secondary School
|
40 students of
Grade 9 streams1/5
|
|
12/07/2019
|
Interviewing
students
|
Chambone Secondary School
|
20 students of
Grade 9 streams 4
|
|
15/07/2019
|
Questionnaire forstudents
|
Chambone Secondary School
|
20 students of
grade 9 in streams 4
|
|
15/07/2019
|
Questionnaire for students
|
Chambone Secondary School
|
20 students of
grade 9 in
streams 1
|
|
15/07/2019
|
Questionnaire for students
|
Chambone Secondary School
|
20 students of
grade 9 in
streams 5
|
|
15/07/2019
|
Questionnaire forTeachers
|
Chambone Secondary School
|
4 teachers of
English.
|
Chapter III: Data Presentation, Analysis and
Discussion
In
this chapter will be described how the data will be presented, analyzed and
discussed during the development of this study. The data will be presented in
the form of tables, graphs and pictures.
3.1. Dissemination of results
The
results of this investigation will be published at the seminars and at the
meeting of English teachers at my school and at Up-Maxixe when I will defend my
monograph, the same results will be presented as a workshop in different
sections.
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Heni. (2010). Storytelling Can Improve
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http;//universityofibnkhaldunbogorindonesia.blogspot.com/2010/01/storytelling-can-improve-speaking.html.
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Xu. (2007). Storytelling Can in the EFL
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Storytelling.html.
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Nola. (1988). Storytelling by Children.
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