Improving vocabulary for young learenrs through storytelling in efl classroom

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IMPROVING VOCABULARY FOR YOUNG LEARENRS 
THROUGH STORYTELLING IN EFL CLASSROOM 
Bui Hoai Huong, Dang Thi Quynh Trang 
Department of Academic Foundations, International School, 
Vietnam National University, Hanoi 
Abstract: Building vocabulary plays an essential role in English learning since it could 
assist learners greatly with their learning process. Particularly, a rich vocabulary 
possibly leads to the confidence and success in using the language. However, enhancing 
learners’ lexical resource is a challenging task for teachers due to the tedium of the 
traditional teaching methods. This study, therefore, emphasizes on using storytelling to 
develop vocabulary for young learners in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) 
classroom. The paper focuses on four main issues. First, it discusses the definition of 
storytelling and different types of stories to tell in EFL classroom. Second, it introduces 
the characteristics of EFL young learners. Third, researcher analyzes the benefits of 
storytelling and strategies to use storytelling in EFL classroom. Fourth, the paper 
reviews the considerations when using storytelling in EFL classroom. Findings of this 
study based on the review of the literature would be benefit to improve EFL young 
learners’ vocabulary. 
Keywords: storytelling, EFL classroom, vocabulary, language, methods. 
Received 18 November 2019 
Accepted for publication 20 December 2019 
Email: huongbh@isvnu.vn 
1. INTRODUCTION 
As it is mentioned, developing vocabulary is an integral part of English learning. 
Teaching vocabulary for young learners is, to some extent, more challenging than many 
people believe because children often have a short attention span. In addition, young 
learners tend to forget new words if they learn mechanically. Consequently, creativity of 
teachers is required in this case to make the teaching and learning process more intriguing 
and motivating. There have been multifarious methods to enhance learners’ vocabulary 
including using songs, movies, games and stories. Storytelling is probably one of the most 
widely - used ways of teaching vocabulary in EFL classroom. The paper focuses on 
teaching vocabulary for young learners through storytelling in EFL classroom. 
Accordingly, this research will discuss: 
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(1) The definition of storytelling and types of stories to tell in EFL classroom for 
young learners 
(2) The features of young learners 
(3) The benefits of storytelling in EFL classroom 
(4) The strategies to apply storytelling to improve vocabulary in EFL classroom 
(5) The considerations when using storytelling in EFL classroom 
The purpose of the research is to introduce a new method of improving vocabulary for 
EFL young learners. Specifically, the researcher aims to yield a detailed insight into using 
storytelling in EFL classroom, which could be beneficial to EFL teachers and learners. 
With this innovative teaching method, young learners are likely to learn vocabulary 
effortlessly and effectively. Findings of this study could be a practical and constructive 
suggestion for teachers and educators when they desire to find a useful way of enhancing 
learners’ lexical resource. 
2. MAIN CONTENT 
2.1. Definitions of Storytelling 
Storytelling is a method of communication conveying the different events or incidents 
into words and sounds. There are manifold ways to define the term “storytelling”. 
According to McDrury and Alterio [7], storytelling is “uniquely a human experience that 
enables us to convey, through the language of words, aspects of ourselves and others, and 
the worlds, real or imagined, that we inhabit. Stories enable us to come to know these 
worlds and our place in them given that we are all, to some degree, constituted by stories”. 
Other authors propose different definitions of storytelling. Roney [10] defines this term as 
following: In its most basic form, storytelling is a process where a person (the teller), using 
vocalization, narrative structure, and mental imagery, communicates with other humans 
(the audience) who also use mental imagery and, in turn, communicate back to the teller 
primarily via body language and facial expression. 
Others may agree with the interpretation of Matthew [6] that storytelling is an “oral 
presentation of a story from memory by an individual to a person or group”. Likewise, 
Ellis and Brewster [2] in their book Tell it Again! The Storytelling Handbook for Primary 
English Language Teachers offer readers another definition of storytelling as “telling a 
story to people who are willing to listen.” Specifically, a story to be told can be “from a 
book by reading it aloud”, “without a book by word of mouth in the age-old oral tradition 
or telling an anecdote or even a joke”. 
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Despite a variety of definitions, storytelling can be generally understood as a way of 
sharing stories by oral communication. Currently, storytelling can be seen as a practical 
teaching method in EFL classroom. Although teachers may use storytelling for various 
teaching purposes, this study focuses on applying this teaching method to develop learners’ 
range of vocabulary. 
2.2. Types of stories used in EFL classroom for young learners 
Teachers and educators have a wide range of choices from a reliable source of 
children’s literature stories including fairytales, picture stories with no text, traditional 
stories, modern retelling of fairytales, funny stories, stories with funny twists, rhyming 
stories, cumulative stories with predictable endings, and so on [2]. Teachers can also use 
short and simple fables or short stories with moral messages to teach children not only the 
vocabulary but also the valuable lessons in life. These stories could act as a powerful 
educational tool in teaching and learning environment. Miller [8] suggests several types of 
stories that can be used for teaching and learning including: 
- Traditional stories (folktales, epics, legends, myths) 
- Experiences from everyday life and other true, historical stories 
- Original creative stories 
Teachers can use stories of personal experiences as storytelling activities in which 
teachers may tell their own stories to the learners, or learners tell their stories to the whole 
class. This can get learners involved in the activity, which probably generate their 
motivation in the classroom. 
Stories are also classified into genre and topic, so teachers can choose stories to use in 
EFL classroom depending on the content of the lesson or the teaching purposes. For 
example, if the topic of the lesson is animals, teachers can choose the story The clever 
tortoise to teach learners animal vocabulary that exists in the story such as elephant, hippo 
and tortoise. 
The stories used in EFL classroom should be short, simple in English language and 
easily comprehensible to children so that children can accept them willingly. As a result, 
the lesson is likely to be more engaging and motivating. However, teachers should take 
learners’ level, age, interests, mental and emotional development and background into 
consideration when deciding types of stories to tell in EFL classroom. The careful selection 
of stories based on these factors would yield beneficial results, and the storytelling 
activities in EFL classroom possible become effective and successful. 
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2.3. Young learners 
To deliver the content of the lesson to learners effectively and efficiently, teachers 
have to understand them thoroughly. Teachers and educators need to know the specific 
characteristics of young learners including their age and their conceptual and language 
development. 
Phillips [9] refers young learners to “children from the first years of formal schooling 
(five or six years old) to eleven or twelve years of age.” Scott and Ytreberg [11] divide 
young learners into two groups- learners aged from five to seven and those from eight to 
ten, and they pointed out the characteristics of young learners at different age groups. 
Drawing on their viewpoints, young language learners have the ability to use the language 
skills “long before they are aware of them” (p. 2). In addition, eight to ten year old children 
acquire all the basic elements of the language, and they can use their mother tongue 
competently with the awareness of grammatical rules of the language. Scott and Ytreberg 
[11] state that by the end of ten, children can: 
- understand abstracts 
- understand symbols (beginning with words) 
- generalize and systematize 
This can be seen as the general language development of children. According to 
Dolzhykova [1], as young learners of a foreign language, children have their own 
psychological features, which are not the same as those of adult learners. These features 
including their ways of thinking, attitude and aptitude would have an effect on the way 
teachers teach them. Knowing it could help teachers prepare and organize their lesson 
properly and appropriately. 
However, teachers should also consider the conceptual development of young learners. 
They are often self-centred and see things from their own perspective, and when they do 
not know something, they pretend to understand [11]. 
Knowing and understanding the features of young learners may help teachers to give 
children the best quality of teaching and plan their teaching activities in the classroom 
easily and rationally. Also, teachers can get the learners involved in the lesson, and they 
are probably more engaging and motivating in the activities. 
2.4. Benefits of storytelling in EFL classroom 
Teaching English as a foreign language now cannot be seen simply as introducing the 
rules of grammar or the morphology, but also helping learners to understand the socio-
culture aspects and to have the proficiency in using the language in real communication. 
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Teachers can enable learners to expose to these aspects by using literature. Lazar [5] 
believes that literature can educate the whole person as “it can help to stimulate the 
imagination of our students, to develop their critical abilities and to increase their 
emotional awareness”. 
Storytelling is widely regarded as one of the most effective and motivating approaches 
to teaching English to young learners. Children enjoying listening to stories, and they can 
remember linguistic items better through stories. Ellis and Brewster [2] list a number of 
reasons for teachers to use storytelling as following: 
- Stories are motivating, challenging and enjoyable and can help develop positive 
attitudes towards the foreign language, culture and language learning 
- Stories exercise the imagination. Children can become personally involved in a story 
as they identify with the characters and try to interpret the narrative and illustrations. 
- Stories are a useful tool in linking fantasy and the imagination with the child’s real 
world. 
- Listening to stories in class is a shared social experience. 
- Children enjoy listening to stories over and over again. This frequent repetition 
allows certain language items to be acquired while others are being overtly reinforced. 
Many stories contain natural repetition of key vocabulary and structures. This helps 
children to remember every detail, so they can gradually learn to anticipate what is about to 
happen next in the story. 
- Listening to stories allows the teacher to introduce or revise new vocabulary and 
sentence structures by exposing the children to language in varied, memorable and familiar 
contexts, which will enrich their thinking and gradually enter their own speech. 
- Listening to stories helps children become aware of the rhythm, intonation and 
pronunciation of language. 
- Stories provide opportunities for developing continuity in children’s learning since 
they can be chosen to link English with other subject areas across the curriculum. 
- Learning English through stories can lay the foundations for secondary school in 
terms of learning basic language functions and structures, vocabulary and language-
learning skills. 
Storytelling can serve multiple functions in EFL class including “sparking student 
interest, aiding the flow of lectures, making material memorable, overcoming student 
resistance or anxiety, and building rapport between the instructor and the students, or 
among students themselves” [4]. 
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In general, storytelling produces multifarious benefits in foreign language teaching 
and learning, and it has become an efficient teaching approach that is well worth applying 
in EFL classroom. 
2.5. Strategies to use storytelling to improve vocabulary in EFL classroom 
As mentioned before, benefits of storytelling in EFL class are undeniable and 
indisputable. However, not every teacher knows for certain how to use this approach in 
class. There are multiple factors teachers should take into account before using storytelling 
activity in EFL classroom including the school curriculum, syllabus, the content of the 
lesson, learners, teaching facilities and materials. However, this study places emphasis on 
the use of storytelling to improve vocabulary for young learners in EFL classroom, so the 
author focuses on the ways to develop lexical resource through storytelling for children. 
First, vocabulary in stories is often placed in a vivid and apparent context, which helps 
learners guess and remember the meaning of the words better. Therefore, teachers should 
have learners guess the meaning of the new words basing on the context of the story 
instead of offering children the words’ meaning. Ellis and Brewster [2] illustrate this point 
with the example of children’s ability to remember the lexical items in The Very Hungry 
Caterpillar and to learn the animals and their related colors in Brown Bear, Brown Bear 
Second, children tend to remember words better if they are put in groups with 
common features. Consequently, teachers should collect the new words in stories and 
classify them into group words including lexical sets (for example, shops, fruit, animals), 
rhyming sets, color sets (for example, grouping together objects that are green - a pea, a 
leaf, an apple, a caterpillar, a bird) and grammatical sets (for example, adjectives, verbs, 
prepositions, nouns). By doing this, learners can relate the new words with the words they 
already know, which enhances retention and recall [2]. 
Another strategy when using storytelling in EFL classroom is the repetition of the 
stories. Children love listening to stories repeatedly, for they can realize the next events in 
the story and remember more details. Exposing to the language consistently through 
storytelling may help drill learners’ lexical resource and broaden their vocabulary range. 
Additionally, teachers should have children participate in the story by role-play or retelling 
the story in order to recycle the language. This may build the learners’ confidence and 
competence in using English in the class. Their confidence is bolstered when they realize 
they could remember more vocabulary items and repeat along with teachers [3]. 
Finally, teachers should make storytelling activity more appealing and engaging by 
using illustrations including pictures, objects and gesture or body language. Young learners 
will remember the words better when they connect the meaning with the illustrations or 
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movement. Furthermore, related activities, for example asking questions about the story to 
check comprehension, should be included in storytelling activity to get learners involved 
and to reinforce their concentration and recollection. 
 2.6. Considerations when using storytelling in EFL classroom 
Storytelling should be a pragmatic teaching method for EFL teachers if they know 
how to use it properly and appropriately. There is a number of factors teachers should 
contemplate before the storytelling activity. The first one could be the selection of stories, 
which requires teacher’s ability to evaluate and assess stories. Stories to tell for children in 
EFL classroom should base on the learner’s current level and their cognitive development. 
As a result, stories in EFL should be linguistically easy and comprehensible to children. 
Also, stories should be appealing and intriguing that can motivate learners and foster their 
positive attitude to learning. 
Some authentic storybooks, however, are too complex and exceed their current level. 
This case requires teachers’ ability to adapt the stories in their class. In particular, teachers 
should modify or simplify the stories if the language is too advanced to learners. Ellis and 
Brewster [2] provide some guidelines, accompanied by examples, for adapting stories in 
classroom including checking vocabulary, general meaning, grammar, organization of 
ideas and the length of the story. 
Another point to consider is the storytelling techniques of teachers. Teachers are the 
models for learners to follow, and this activity requires teachers to have several storytelling 
skills. Pronunciation, stress, intonation, rhythm, variation of speed and volume of the voice 
and eye contact are what teachers should be ready to contemplate. Teachers should 
rehearse and self-assess their performance before storytelling activity. To help teachers do 
this, Ellis and Brewster [2] create a list of self-assessment questions to evaluate their 
potential and talent as a storyteller. 
Finally, storytelling is a time-consuming activity so that teachers should possess time 
management skills to ensure the success of the lesson. Teachers should have a 
comprehensive plan for each part of the activity with details of time and, they can think of 
the unpredictable problems that could occur in the classroom. These issues may interrupt 
the storytelling activity and negatively affect its smoothness and efficiency. 
3. CONCLUSION 
Overall, storytelling is a pragmatic teaching approach worth pursuing in EFL 
classroom for young learners. Using storytelling in EFL class brings a substantial number 
of advantages. It could build the positive learning environment with the full concentration 
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of learners, and it possibly helps develop learners’ range of vocabulary without putting any 
pressure on them. Critical factors including characteristics of young learners, their current 
linguistic level, teachers’ ability to choose stories, tell stories and manage the time should 
be taken into account to ensure the triumph of the lesson. 
The research could act as a valuable and constructive suggestion of teaching approach 
to enhance learner’s lexical resource in EFL classroom. The paper provides reliable 
information about reasons and benefits of using storytelling, ways to use and 
considerations when applying this approach in EFL class in details with evidence from 
other related research. Teachers may have a further insight into using literature, stories in 
particular in English teaching to improve young learners’ vocabulary. The research 
introduces a rational and practical teaching approach that can produce positive results in 
teaching vocabulary for EFL young learners. 
However, due to the limitation of time and the scope of study, the paper fails to cover 
several important points. Further study should be needed to investigate the problems of 
storytelling in EFL classroom and the solutions to tackle these issues. Also, the practical 
application of storytelling with story-based activities in EFL classroom