Storytelling to Young EIL Learners in Taiwan: A Cautionary Tale

Abstract

The practice of storytelling in young learner foreign language classrooms is gaining increasing attention around the world and considerable benefits are claimed for it, yet it is largely absent from English as an International Language (EIL) instruction in Taiwan state elementary schools. Moreover, much that is written in favor of story-telling is based on L1 experiences and not founded on any research in L2: L2 studies that do exist are often small scale and/or lack a control group. The Taichung Ministry of Education therefore funded a large scale intervention over a semester in ten state elementary schools in central Taiwan, using classes of matched grade level in each school (covering grades 3-6), 40 classes and 1036 learners in all, either receiving or not receiving a daily storytelling session and related listening/reading support. In order to ensure scalability and sustainability after the study, the project utilized only teachers, teaching time and other resources which were normally available in elementary schools and the storytelling was based on existing published Rainbow Time Magazines (RTM) and associated materials provided by Cornel Co., Ltd, and the Cornel English School. Results show a pattern of favorable attitudes, together with considerable gains between pre- and post-tests of reading and listening, but interestingly no overall significant difference between the score improvements in the storytelling classes and those in the control classes. Likely reasons for this are discussed, with considerable implications both for the Ministry, researchers and teachers wishing to use storytelling in the young learner classroom.