THE USE OF STORYTELLING TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL OF

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Aries Utomo, Imroatul Ma’fiyah, and Sigit Mukti Nugroho

(English Graduate Program, Sebelas Maret University)

Abstract: Speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning

through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of
contexts, and is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching.
For elementary school students, there is confusion how to speak English
based on the rule by using grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and
fluency. This article aims to give descriptions of how storytelling can be
used to improve speaking skill in elementary school. The method used
in this article is a literature study. Story telling gives students an
opportunity to speak at length, helps develop oral language proficiency
as well as reading comprehension, and allows students to give
knowledge about important aspects of story beginnings and endings,
settings, characters, and plot lines.

Keywords: Elementary School, Speaking Skill, and Storytelling Technique.

A. BACKGROUND

English has been taught since early ages, one of which is in elementary school.
Speaking is one of the English skills taught. Elementary school students are expected
to be able to speak English for daily use in simple conversations. According to
Herminda (2013), students’ speaking skill is defined as “capacity, fitness or tendency
to act or be acted on specific way or competent in doing to express though, idea,
feeling, etc.” Furthermore, she argues that speaking skill consists of producing
systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning. It is an interactive process of
constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving, and processing information.

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Many elementary school students feel that speaking in a new language is difficult due
to two reasons. First, speaking happens in real time; usually the person they are
talking to is waiting for them to respond right away. Second, when a student speaks,
he will not be able to correct and revise what he has said, as what is possible in
writing. The other difficulty of speaking is more caused by some factors including the
students’ learning anxiety, the uninteresting topics, the in-conducive learning
atmosphere, and the lack of feedback from speaking partner (Jianing, 2007). To solve
this problem, storytelling is proposed as one of the teaching techniques to teach
speaking. According to Woodhouse (2007, p.68), storytelling is a useful teaching
strategy for language development and exploring meanings of experiences.

B. LITERARY WORKS
1. English Speaking Skill
English speaking skill is one of English skills which have to be mastered by
students. From the skill, learner can express what they want orally. Thornbury (2005,
p.8) stated that speaking is so much a part of daily life that we take it for granted. The
average person produces tens of thousands of words a day, although some people
may produce even more that.
It can be concluded that speaking skill has an important role in daily life.
Speaking can help people to express their ideas, feelings to another. It aims to get
some useful benefits in their communication.

2. Storytelling
According to Handayani (2013, p.1), storytelling can encourage students to
explore their unique expressiveness and can heighten a student's ability to
communicate thoughts and feelings in an articulate, lucid manner. Barnes (1997, p.1)
argued that storytelling is the art of telling a story that includes telling a story with the
use of the written word, with the use of song, acting, mime, dance and other
mediums.

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 Plourde (1985) suggested activities that emphasise on role playing, generating
character, helping students find an appropriate voice, and developing the ability to
make logical conclusions. He reveals a variety of techniques suitable for children in
kindergarten through grade 6. One of which is storytelling.
Based on the theories from the experts above, a conclusion is drawn that story
telling is an alternative teaching technique which involves the combination of written
word, song, acting, mime, dance, and role play that provides ability to generate
character and make logical conclusion.

3. Procedure of Storytelling
According to Jianing (2007), there are six steps in conducting storytelling, as
follows:
1. Warming Up.
2. Divide the students into groups and each group prepares a story.

3. Ask each student to prepare a story (about two minutes long) in advance.

4. Divide the students into four to five groups and each group is given an
opening of a story and asked to finish the story in about 20 minutes.

5. Ask each group to hand in an incomplete story and redistribute them among
the groups.

6. The teacher gives the first sentence to the class and then each student adds one
more sentence to make a whole story impromptu.
In the process of using stories, the teacher could, in different cases, choose to
encourage the students to rewrite the stories, using their own language or ask them to
keep the original language as much as they can. The former way encourages the
students to understand the stories and adds their own characteristics to the stories and
the latter prompts them to learn to use new words and expressions. Besides, pictures,
movies and other materials would also be great help in storytelling.

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C. QUESTION
1. How is storytelling technique used to improve speaking skill of the students of
elementary school?
2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of storytelling on English speaking skill of
elementary school students?

D. DISCUSSION
1. Modified Steps of Storytelling
Jianing (2007) had proposed a series of steps about how to use storytelling.
However, the steps include writing task. In this article, the other variation of how to
use the same technique is offered. Based on the empirical experiences in teaching in
an elementary school, the storytelling technique is used as follows:
1. Begin with visual aids show
By showing visual aids, students will more likely be attracted turn their
attention to the teacher. For instance, teacher brings a big picture showing
animals in a jungle.

2. Make sure students pay attention and get enthusiastic. Some simple
questions can also be raised.

Once the students have fully pay attention, been fully attracted, and
enthusiastic, it will then be easier for teacher to begin the storytelling. Before
doing so, the teacher can also raise questions related to the pictures.
For example:
Teacher : students, what picture is it?
Students : that’s an elephant!
Teacher : yes, that’s right. Great!. Now, where is the elephant?

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 Students : mmmm.... (thinking) di hutan!
Teacher : yes, right. Di hutan. In a jungle. The elephant is in a jungle.
Students : (repeat: the elephant is in a jungle)

3. Tell the story by involving dynamic gestures, mimes, and intonation

according to the plot.

In this session, teacher tells the story in the complete version. Dynamic
gestures, mimes, and intonation are highly recommended to use as these
paralinguistic features are strongly influential to make the students
emotionally engaged and easy to understand. The teacher has to use concrete
and doable vocabularies only because as young learners, the students can only
catch concrete things. In this process, the students are being exposed to the
vocabularies used in the story; how they are pronounced, used, and practised
contextually.
Teacher : the lion runs into the jungle and then jumps so high (teacher
practises running and jumping as if he were the lion).

4. Students can be asked to repeat certain vocabularies or mime the gestures

This session is to give the students a chance to practise the vocabularies. By
doing this, the students are more likely to remember the vocabularies in a
longer period as well as to be able to make sense of the vocabularies
contextually.
Teacher : okay, everybody. Let’s follow me!
Students : the lion runs into the jungle and then jumps so high (students
practise running and jumping as if he were the lion).

5. After the story ends, activate students by assigning them with roles of
characters of the story

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 As the story ends, the students already have vocabularies related to the story
in their minds. Now it is the time to activate what they have acquired from
the story by giving them a task of performing the story. Each of the students
is given a role based on the story. This session can also be called role play.

6. Students practise the story by acting it out. They have a chance to practise
speaking English contextually.

By having a chance to use the English vocabularies they have just acquired,
the students’ speaking skill will improve; the vocabularies, pronunciation,
the fluency, and especially the comprehension will increase due to the given
contextual situation that is created from the story.

2. The strengths and weaknesses of storytelling on English speaking skill of

elementary school students
Alterio (2001) wrote that to learn through storytelling is to take seriously the
human need to make meaning from experience, to communicate that meaning to
others, and, in the process, learn about ourselves and the worlds in which we reside.
Meaningful storytelling processes and activities incorporate opportunities for
reflective dialogue, foster collaborative endeavour, nurture the spirit of inquiry and
contribute to the construction of new knowledge.
On the other hand, Woodhouse (2007, p.67-68) argued that
storytelling has its limitations, and its use should be kept within a suitable
time frame. It should be recognized that it may not suit the individual
learning style of the student, and care and consideration should be given
to the subject matter that the story is trying to convey. The preferred
teaching style of the lecturer also needs to be included in the equation.
Akhyak and Anik (2013) found that the weakness of storytelling is the
teacher/lecturer must learn the story well enough to tell it without the book because
he/she might some mistake in English and sometime the class need more time.

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E. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION
1. Conclusion
Storytelling is an alternative teaching technique which involves the combination
of written word, song, acting, mime, dance, and role play that provides ability to
generate character and make logical conclusion. It is one of alternative techniques to
improve speaking skill, especially in elementary school. Besides that, the steps of executing
storytelling can be modified based on teacher’s style, students’ needs, and learning
atmospheres. The strenghts include students’ affective filters are decreasing. Moreover,
it can incorporate opportunities for reflective dialogue, foster collaborative
endeavour, nurture the spirit of inquiry and contribute to the construction of new
knowledge. However, there are some weaknesses of storytelling comprising limitation of
time, the need of a good preparation of the story, and the strong demand of having a
good understanding of the story.

2. Implication
As has been indicated, storytelling is proven to have influences on the students’
speaking skill, especially those of elementary school. Hence, teachers are highly
recommended to use storytelling when they are teaching speaking skill. In executing
the technique, there are several things to consider, including the materials,
vocabulary, time allotment, genre of story.

F. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alterio, Maxine. (2001). Using storytelling to enhance student learning. Retrieved
from
http://www.new1.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/resources/database/id471
_using_storytelling_to_enhance_learning.pdf

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Akhyak & Indramawan, Anik. (2013). Improving the Students’ English Speaking
Competence through Storytelling (Study in Pangeran Diponegoro Islamic
College (STAI) of Nganjuk, East Java, Indonesia). Retrieved from International
Journal of Language and Literature, Vol. 1 No. 2, December 2013.

Barnes, June. (2011). What is Storytelling?. Retrieved from

http://www.australianstorytelling.org.au/txt/b-whats.php.

Handayani, Heny. (2010). Story Telling Can Improve Speaking Ability for Beginner.
Unpublished Thesis. Bogor: University of IBN Khaldun.

Herminda. (2013). The Effectiveness of Using Story Telling Technique to Improve

Speaking ability of Second Year Students at SMPN 1 Boyolangu, Tulungagung.
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using-story-telling-technique-to-improve-speaking-ability-of-second-year-
students-at-smpn-1-boyolangu-tulungagung/.

Jianing, xu. (2007). Storytelling in the EFL Speaking Classroom. The Internet TESL
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Storytelling.html.

Plourde, Lynn. 1985. CLAS: Classroom Listening and Speaking: K-2. Tucson,
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Thornbury, Scott. (2005). How To Teach Speaking. Edinburgh: Longman.

Woodhouse, Jan. (2007). Strategies for Healthcare Education: How to Teach in the
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