Story Reading: Tasks as Tools to Facilitate Values among Second Language Learners

Abstract

Values are integral part to the process of education. The main aim of education is to development of personality, pursuit of knowledge, preservation of culture, character building etc. It is difficult to achieve these aims without giving importance to values. In order to achieve the aforementioned aims, it is necessary to design curriculum, desirable knowledge attitudes, skills, values to transmit to children. Education in its aims, curriculum, and methods linked with values. Teachers and parents play vital role in value development among children. They act as agents by stimulating, provoking, informing, and sensitizing about the values which are integral part of human life. Teacher and parents constantly try to facilitate values by providing varied experiences to children. It is necessary to make them think what is good and bad? They should be exposed to discussion, dialogues, practical activities, work of art, beauty in nature, in human relationships, actions of moral worth and moral sensibilities. Most of the values children acquire in home and school. To facilitate values teachers and parents can make use stories as tools. Teachers and parents with or without collaboration story reading tasks can be designed and assign those to the learners. Teacher's role is very important in facilitating values among children through sustained and continuous efforts via story reading tasks.Why values in 21st century?Bring desirable changes in children: Education is a means of bringing desirable changes in the way one thinks, feels, and acts in accordance with one's concept of the good life; in this sense education necessarily involves the transmission of values. Value education is not the process of indoctrination of dogmas, exhortation. It is not viable to inculcate set of values which are predetermined. The goal is not to promote passive conformity and blind obedience to whatever values are passed on.Develop thinking skill: To motivate and encourage critical and reflective thinking, to cultivate imagination, rational choice and responsible behavior, to make them think, to reason, to question, to reflect, all these can be facilitated via values.Personality development: For the development of total personality of individual, intellectual, social, emotional, aesthetic, moral and spiritual it is necessary to develop sensitivity to the good, the right and the beautiful.Modify behavior: Value education helps to choose the right values in accordance with the highest ideals of life. Values help children modify their thought and action by internalizing and realizing.Human faculties: Human faculties plays important role in human life. Value education is essential to develop human faculties such as knowing, feeling, doing, to care, to feel appropriate emotions, concern and commitment, exercise the will to do the right thing, educate emotions and strengthen will and to train in mental health.Stability of the social order: Values helps to develop appropriate social behavior, civic rights and duties, encourage socially acceptable behavior, and avoid anti-social activities. They provide the general guidelines for conduct in doing so they facilitate social control. Values are the criteria people use in assessing their daily lives, arranging their priorities, measuring their pleasure and pains, choosing between alternative courses of action.Lead happy and peaceful life: Values helps individual to lead happy and peaceful life. Happiness is the result of good conduct. This in turn helps to lead a peaceful life. One who do not inculcate values in their day to day life, it is difficult to lead happy and peaceful life.Classroom learning tasksValues get transmitted via both the implicit or hidden and planned curriculum. Value education is a highly comprehensive and complex one that involves a wide range and variety of learning experience. All forms of learning cannot be provided through single sources. …