Storytelling in classroom

Stories are an essential part of being human. People have always told stories for communal as well as educational purposes. Storytelling in a traditional sense developed to strengthen the sense of community (Zipes 1995: 4). Originally storytelling was a familiar feature of everyday life. In the course of time, however, the role of stories as a daily event has changed through the invention of printing, modernization and industrialization. Although stories as oral traditions in everyday life have practically died out, there is a trend of consciously reviving the art of storytelling by teachers and students (Colwell 1992: 14-16).

The distinction between a narrative and a story is quite ambiguous and in everyday language the two are used to refer to same thing: an account of actions. A narrative can be defined as an extended piece of language that has got rhythm, shape and often an affective force (McEwan and Egan 1995: 7). Furthermore, a narrative sets a context and has a subject. In other words, narratives are always told from a perspective. Unlike a story, a narrative can be embedded in a conversation or in interaction. Hence, stories can

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be regarded as a sub-category of narratives. Children deal with narratives of all kinds, including stories (Engel 1995 as cited in Van Oers 2003). For the purposes of this study, it is relevant to focus more on the definition of stories.

The word story has many uses and takes many forms. A story is a narrative of real or fictitious happenings (Colwell 1992: 16). This definition is complemented by Engel (1995: 16), who argues that a story is an intentionally told and experienced entity that has a particular meaning, order and casting. Moreover, the basic story format consists of a beginning that sets up a conflict, a middle part that complicates it and an end that resolves it (Sutton-Smith 1995: 74). In addition, these can be divided into smaller parts such as introductions, preparations, complications and resolutions. Stories can have a great variety of functions and objectives. Whether the objective is to teach, entertain or inform stories provide outstanding resources. Moreover, one essential feature of a story is its ability to engage the hearer emotionally through its events and characters (Egan 2003 as cited in Van Oers). With the power of imagination a story can bridge the gap between different times, places and cultures.

Stories form a framework within which we make our actions and thoughts intelligible (McEwan and Egan 1995: 11). When it comes to the various functions of stories, a story may allow people to enter empathetically into another person's life and situation. Stories help us to visualize imaginary situations and see ourselves in other person’s shoes.

Through stories we can visualize new possibilities for human action and feeling (Witherell 1995: 40-41). Stories provide a framework to think and imagine beyond the reality. Thus there is no reason to exclude them from teaching and learning. As Lodge (1990: 141) comments: “Narrative is one of the fundamental sense making operations of the mind, and would appear to be both peculiar to and universal throughout humanity.”

Stories function on multiple levels simultaneously. Stories have informative, transformative and epistemological functions (Jackson 1995: 4). In other words, teachers have to consider what they want students to know as well as how they want them to develop as human beings. On the one hand, stories contain the knowledge teachers want their students to possess. On the other hand, stories have the power to change students through new perspectives, moral lessons and different tones and moods (Jackson 1995 as cited in McEwan and Egan 1995: 5-10). In the educational setting, stories are utilized both to inform and transform the people involved. In addition, stories

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have a major effect when it comes to children's social development in a broader sense.

As Van Oers (2003: 16) argues, a story is a social tool for acculturation of children into their cultural community. This process of acculturation can be regarded as the epistemological function of stories. In other words, stories provide people with a possibility for involvement in the community and essentially make them participants of that community (Jackson 1995 as cited in McEwan and Egan 1995: 5-7). Due to their cultural and social significance stories are also used for educational purposes.

The knowledge and information that stories contain has the ability to teach an infinite number of issues from different areas of expertise. A narrative approach has been used in a variety of disciplines ranging from literary criticism and semiotics to psychology and history (Gudmundsdottir 1995: 24). When it comes to language learning, listening and telling stories does not only contribute to literacy, speaking and listening skills but also help to develop thinking strategies. In addition to these educational benefits, storytelling promotes children's emotional and social development (Fox Eades 2006:

12). These educational as well as emotional advantages of narrative learning and the use of stories are well acknowledged, yet their full potential is seldom realized in the teaching of foreign languages.

The benefits of storytelling in the language classroom can be viewed both from the perspective of an individual and that of a community. On the one hand, the opportunity to participate in storytelling and story making can be very empowering for an individual. According to Zipes (1995: 16), storytelling is a means of self-discovery and animation. Stories activate students' imagination and enable the ordinary to become extraordinary. On the other hand, the educational setting can promote co-operative uses of stories and thus strengthen the sense of community. Storytelling has the ability to bring teachers and children closer to each other when meanings are being shared and new ideas created. Stories offer a special medium for exploring areas of meaning and boundaries between reality and fantasy because they contain both the meanings and distinctions important to the culture (Engel as cited in Van Oers 2003: 41). Stories are both bound to the expectations and rules of the real world and a vehicle for violating those regulations. Therefore, the use of narrative techniques is a diverse tool for thinking and rearranging meanings. Taking into account this significance of stories, it is important to examine the features encountered in children’s stories. Firstly, the

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characteristics of children's stories will be described. Then the focus moves on to children's skills as storytellers.