using stories as a teaching strategy for low-motivated 9th...

ISSN 2411-9563 (Print) ISSN 2312-8429 (Online)

European Journal of Social Sciences Education and Research

September-December 2015 Volume 2, Issue 4

363

Using Stories as a Teaching Strategy for Low-Motivated 9th Grade Pupils

Elona Ziu, Phd Cand.

[email protected]

Abstract

The teaching of foreign languages is a challenging and demanding process for teachers. Such a teaching requires skillful and qualified teachers in their linguistic and methodical knowledge with creative abilities to find, adapt, and present the teaching materials and use techniques that encourage motivation and learning of foreign languages especially with those pupils who have difficulties or don’t show interest during classes. In contemporary teaching, teachers use a range of techniques for the acquisition of English as a foreign language. A technique that is viewed as very efficient is the use of narratives. This study shows the effectiveness of narration for the 9th grade pupils who at the end of the academic year have to sit A2 level English exam. The study was conducted in one of the secondary schools of Korca.2 classes were chosen for the study. These pupils had a weak performance in English. The pupils of both classes took a test at the beginning of the study. For the next 3months with one of these classes, stories were used as a teaching strategy to help and motivate them to acquire English skills. At the end of the academic year both classes took another test which showed that pupils that used stories during English classes had better results.

Keywords: motivation, stories, low motivated pupils, English skills

1.Introduction

Being a teacher is such a pleasant and difficult profession. Teaching offers the satisfaction of linking two generations; teachers and pupils. It is a profession which guides pupils towards their future. Being a teacher requires devotion and motivation. Achieving good results means equipping pupils with the necessary knowledge and what is the most important thing, finding ways of easing the process of learning, finding ways of motivating them.The best way is demolish the traditional and routine classroom and to find ways to motivate pupils, trying the best to teach them in the easiest and at the same time efficient way. So why not use stories?

1.1 Stories

We must consider that the use of narratives increases motivation as language fulfills its communicative purposes which are the goal of a language class. Stories bring pupils closer to the authentic language. They help pupils in developing new learning strategies and thinking critically. Stories motivate pupils to communicate and help them to be positive towards the language which eases the process of learning and that of teaching too. Stories are widely used and accepted in the English language classroom which enables interaction between pupils furnishes them with a rich vocabulary. Stories focus on comprehension of the whole. It enables them to think creatively and make use of the language knowledge they have already gained .The story is a unique way for students to develop, respect, understand and appreciate other cultures too. Stories in the classroom build a close bond between the narrator and others, in our case teachers and, pupils. According to William Gasser and ‘his choice theory ‘for the quality school teacher, there must be a warm, supportive classroom environment. Stories create this warm classroom involving atmosphere. Pupils feel good that they are the not lead by the teacher but they interact with one another, not compete and sometimes they choose to share their own narratives. By using stories the pupils are lead to learn useful material .They don’t compete, but they collaborate with one another. According to Krashen, students can develop skills of a second language either by learning or acquiring them. Learning is regarded as a conscious process and students’ attention is on the structure of the language. While acquisition, is viewed as a similar process to that of acquiring our mother tongue which represents the subconscious activity by putting emphasis on the message (rather than on the form). Acquisition is the naturalistic way. Krashen believes the productive skills (speaking and writing) evolve from the receptive skills (listening and reading) and, consequently, they should be given much more emphasis. He believes that acquiring a second language is better achieved through reading.




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2. Research method

For the reasons mention above stories were used as a teaching strategy to motivate pupils to learn English as well as to improve their grades. The class, in which the stories were used as a teaching strategy, was the 9th class of a secondary school. The class was composed by 26 pupils .They had been learning English since the 3rd grade, but their level of English was poor, and most of the were reluctant to learn English. They were passive during class. The 9th class had English class three times a week. Thus it was thought to use stories, once a week during the English class to make them be willingly active during classes and help them acquire English. It should be mentioned that for the first time the Albanian Ministry of Education passed a law that the 9th grade pupils had to sit an English exam. The level of the exam was approved to be A2 level according to the CEFR.1Stories were was once a week for a 3 month period, beginning from March tills the end of May.

At the end of February an A2 level test was completed by the 9th grade pupils. At the same time the test was done by the 8th grade pupils. (It consisted of 22pupils) The reason why even the 8th grade pupils did the test was to compare the result between those two classes at the end of the 3month period. The 9th grade was the experimental class and the 8th grade the control class.The test consisted of three sections: reading section which had 20 points, use of English section which had 20 points and writing section which had 10 points (The assessment of the pupils concerning the writing task was done based on the: task completion 2 points, mechanics 2 points, grammar 2 points, and vocabulary 2 points, organization 2 points) So, the whole test had 50 points.Afer both classes did the test, it was checked by the teacher and they got grades. The grades in accordance with the points were as follows. :0-12 points grade 4 13 -18 points grade 519-24 points grade 625-30 points grade 731-36 points grade 837-42 points grade 9 43points-50 grade 10

2.1 Stories in an English classroom

9 stories were used by the teacher once a week from March till May. The titles of the stories used are as follows:1) A tale with no name

2) The lizard and the damsel

3) The vain little mouse

4) Little red riding hood (a modern version)

5) The three feathers

6) Dear child

7) Hansel and Gretel

8) Never again

9) The selkie wife

Through these stories pupils reinforced different grammatical structures, enlarged their vocabulary got involved in various class activities, so as they could get the chance to use English. The activities used focused mainly on the communicative aspect of the language. Through stories exploitation pupils practiced all the four skills –speaking, writing reading even listening. Their reading comprehension improved, but what is most important is that their motivation to learn English increased. When asked questions about the stories, or while trying to retell the stories, they used the language productively. Those questions were asked by the pupils themselves to their classmates. In pairs they wrote dialogues discussing the stories or pretending to be one of the characters. An interesting activity for them was when they were asked to write the end of the story, after having read only half of it.Those stories encouraged them to participate during the English class because the atmosphere at class was not that of a normal class where pupils are under constant observation. They felt free to express their opinions, to ask each other questions about the stories, to retell or rewrite the stories.

1 CEFR refers to the Common European Framework of Reference for Language




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During each of these classes all the pupils got engaged in classroom activities. Those stories helped the teacher to work with all the pupils, from the ones who had a low level of English to those who had a good level of English. The ones who had a low level of English were the ones who read the stories during classes. Those stories were read aloud by them in turns twice or even three times .Stories entertained them and at the same time taught them English. The role of the teacher was to manage the class and the activities she introduced. Pupils were the ones who had the control, and this gave them confidence.

3. Results

After the three month period both classes, the experimental class and the control class, sat another A-level test which was structured in the same way as the 1st one. The reading part had 20 points, each correct answer one point, the use of English part 20 point and writing 10 points. The whole test had 50 points. The Albanian school assessment beginnings with the grade 4 which is the lowest grade and continues up to 10 which is the highest grade. After checking the tests of both classes, the pupils got the below results as shown in the tables.1

3.1 Control class results

a)The results (points) of the control class for both tests

Pupils 1st test 2nd test

N1 10 0

N2 13 16

N3 27 32

N4 35.5 30

N5 39.5 40

N6 43 42

N7 18.5 20.5

N8 35 31.5

N9 45 46

N10 9 8

N11 12 6

N12 29 22

N13 4 8

N14 8 12

N15 8 7

N16 2 3

N17 9 9

N18 9 13

N19 2 6

N20 9 10

N21 12 8.5

N22 12 8

Average 17.79 18.02

The change of the result averages is calculated as below:

Averages percentage change = [(A1st Test – A2nd Test) / A2nd Test] * 100

Averages percentage change = [(18.02 – 17.79)/17.79]*100

1 The SPSS Statistic (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences)was used to calculate the results




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Percentage change averages = 1%

b) Grades of control group of the 1sttest

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid 4.0 13 59.1 59.1 59.1

5.0 1 4.5 4.5 63.6

6.0 1 4.5 4.5 68.2

7.0 2 9.1 9.1 77.3

8.0 2 9.1 9.1 86.4

9.0 1 4.5 4.5 90.9

10.0 2 9.1 9.1 100.0

Total 22 100.0 100.0

c) Grades of the control class for the 2nd test




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Valid 4.0 12 54.5 54.5 54.5

5.0 2 9.1 9.1 63.6

6.0 2 9.1 9.1 72.7

7.0 1 4.5 4.5 77.3

8.0 2 9.1 9.1 86.4

9.0 2 9.1 9.1 95.5

10.0 1 4.5 4.5 100.0

Total 22 100.0 100.0

3.2 Experimental class results

a) The results (points) of the experimental class for both tests

Pupils 1st test 2nd test

N1 17 24.5

N2 41.5 42

N3 39.5 42

N4 36 38.5

N5 46 48

N6 24 30

N7 39.5 44.5

N8 24 28

N9 29.5 37.5

N10 0 0

N11 11 20

N12 25 36

N13 11 8

N14 23.5 39

N15 8.5 10.5

N16 19 30

N17 3 2

N18 6 7

N19 6 20

N20 7 13

N21 20 30

N22 15 19

N23 15.5 23.5

N24 21 22.5

N25 21 33

N26 0 0

Average 19.59 24.94

The change of the result averages is calculated as below:

Averages percentage change = [(A1st Test – A2nd Test) / A2nd Test] * 100

Averages percentage change = [(24.94 - 19:59) /19.59

Percentage change averages = 27%

1st Test 2nd Test Improvement

Experimental ClassAverage 19.59 24.94 27%




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Control Class Average 17.79 18.02 1%

b) Grades of the Experimental class for the 1st test


Valid 4 9 34.6 34.6 34.6

5 3 11.5 11.5 46.2

6 7 26.9 26.9 73.1

7 2 7.7 7.7 80.8

8 1 3.8 3.8 84.6

9 3 11.5 11.5 96.2

10 1 3.8 3.8 100.0

Total 26 100.0 100.0




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c) Grades of the experimental class for the 2nd test


Valid 4 6 23.1 23.1 23.1

5 1 3.8 3.8 26.9

6 6 23.1 23.1 50.0

7 4 15.4 15.4 65.4

8 2 7.7 7.7 73.1

9 5 19.2 19.2 92.3

10 2 7.7 7.7 100.0

Total 26 100.0 100.0

4. Conclusion

As it can be seen from the test results and the grades pupils got in the 2nd test, the pupils of the experimental class did much better than the pupils of control class. Their improvement is really significant. Using stories in our English classes is a very useful technique for our pupils to improve their language performance. It is a motivating teaching strategy which we need the most nowadays to encourage pupils to learn and use English. Stories give us the chance to exploit them and be better teachers and teach our students in the best way possible. Stories enable pupils to gain confidence and learn English easily .Stories teach and entertain pupils at the same time. Our classroom is in need of real situations. Stories are the ones which make it possible for us to be teachers who teach. Just like Bruner stated in his book” The culture of Education” the principle of narration which should be included in every school curricula.




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References

[1] Haven Kendal, (2000) “Super Simple Storytelling”, Teachers Ideas Press P. Karameta, (2014), ”Arsimi i Gjenerates Tjeter”, SaraS. Krashen, (1981), Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning, Oxford: Pergamon Press

[2] F. Micheal, (2005), Fundamental change, Springer

[3] Ellis and J. Brewster, (2002), “Tell it Again! The Storytelling Handbook for Primary English Language Teachers”, Pearson Longman

[4] Jeremy (2005), “The practice of language teaching“, Pearson Longman

[5] Brunner , (1997), ”The culture of education”, Harvard University Press

[6] Dewey, (1997), “Experience and Education”, Touchstone

[7] Dibra and N. Varfi, (2008), ”Gjuhesi Teksti”, Albatros

[8] S. Krashen, (1982), Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition, Oxford: Pergamon Press

[9] S. Krashen, (1985), The Input Hypothesis, Harlow: Longman.

[10] W. Glasser, (1992), ”The quality school teacher”. HarperPerennial

[11] Williams et al., “The Art of Storytelling”

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