9789144081632

- developing communicative competence in English

What do you do when someone dumps rubbish in your street?

How do you deal with anti-social neighbours? How do you organize a street party? These are some of the questions faced by a class of 11–13 year olds working on “Storyline, Our Sustainable Street”.

For five weeks they took on the roles of families who had moved into a newly built street in the fictive English town of Danbury.

Working on tasks linked to the syllabus for English, they developed their skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing – and had fun.

| STORYLINE

STORYLINE

Sharon Ahlquist

Sharon Ahlquist, Doctor of Education, is a Senior Lecturer in TESOL and applied linguistics at Kristianstad University, where she works in teacher education. Her research interests are young language learners, Storyline, task-based education, as well as the role of emotions in language learning.

STORYLINE - developing communicative competence in English

Developing communicative competence in English is of central importance in the Swedish curriculum Lgr11. This book presents the results of a study into the impact of the Storyline approach on the second language classroom. It also provides excellent guidance for teacher education students and teachers of both younger and older pupils (aged 9–16) in how to adapt this Storyline for their own classes.

Art.nr 36154 ISBN 978-91-44-08163-2

www.studentlitteratur.se

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9 789144 081632

Sharon Ahlquist

2013-05-07 08:53

Copying prohibited

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

The papers and inks used in this product are eco-friendly.

Art. No 36154 ISBN 978-91-44-08163-2 First edition 1:1 Š The author and Studentlitteratur 2013 www.studentlitteratur.se Studentlitteratur AB, Lund Cover design: Jens Martin/Signalera Printed by Graficas Cems S.L., Spain 2013

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Contents

Chapter 1

Introducing Storyline 9

Introduction 9 Lgr11 11 English in the classroom 13 Textbooks 14 The Storyline Approach 17 Background 17 Storyline in Scandinavia 18 The teacher’s role in Storyline 20 Storyline in secondary education and beyond 20 Storyline and second language education 22 Terminology 23 Young learner 23 Second language acquisition 23 Acquisition and learning 25 Proficiency 25 Motivation 25 Chapter 2

A research perspective on second language education 27

A changing research perspective 28 The Zone of Proximal Development 30 A supportive environment for learning 32 Task-based learning and teaching 33 Language focus in TBLT 35 Criticisms of TBLT 36 The role of L1 in TBLT 37 © T he au th o r and S t u dentlitte r at u r

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Young language learners 38 The young language learner classroom 40 Creating enjoyment in the L2 classroom 42 The benefits of drama, thematic work and stories 42 Grammar teaching for young learners 44 Pair and group work 45 The role of L1 in the young learner classroom 47 A few concluding words 48 Chapter 3

Storyline in theory and practice 49

Storyline and TBLT 49 The story 49 The learner as a character in the story 50 Practical work 52 Group work 52 A celebration 53 A language focus in Storyline 54 Vocabulary 54 Grammar 55 A four-strand approach 55 The research 56 Conducting a study with young learners 58 Storyline, Our Sustainable Street 59 A sociocultural perspective 59 The subjects 60 The study 61 The classroom 64 A new life in Danbury 65 The procedure 65 Role of the teachers 65 Data collection tools and analysis 66 Findings 72

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Contents Chapter 4

Learning through Storyline 75

What the learners liked most about Storyline 75 Art work, imagination, variety 75 Group work 79 The language skills 83 Listening and reading 83 Speaking 86 Writing 89 The link between learning and fun 92 Less proficient learners 94 Conclusions 95 The link between enjoyment and learning 97 Storyline and individual differences 99 Chapter 5

Our sustainable street 103

Introduction 103 Getting started 104 Key Question 1: Who are you? 109 Creating the characters 109 The families 110 Bringing it all together 114 Vocabulary 115 Key Question 2: What is your house like? 117 Fat and skinny questions 121 Starting the session 123 Reflecting 124 Chapter 6

The story unfolds 127

Where is Rainbow Avenue? 127 For the most proficient learners 128 For the less proficient 129 Key Question 3: What is your impact on the climate? 130 Recycling vocabulary in Storyline 130 Evaluation 136 Looking ahead 138 © T he au th o r and S t u dentlitte r at u r

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Chapter 7

Problems in Rainbow Avenue 141

Key Question 4: What do you think we can do about the waste ground? 141 A vocabulary exercise 144 Describing things 145 Poor Mrs Brown 146 A campaign to clean up Danbury 152 Reviewing Key Question 4 155 Chapter 8

The new neighbours 157

Preparing for Key Question 5 157 Key Question 5: What do you think we can do about the problem with our neighbours? 160 Who are the new neighbours? 161 How can we all get along together? 163 Key Question 6: How do you think we can make our homes safer? 164 The Grimshaws are broken into! 165 The story approaches its end 167 Chapter 9

The story ends 169

Key Question 7: How do you think we can celebrate our first anniversary in Rainbow Avenue? 170 Letter to a friend 172 Evaluating the Storyline 174 Assessing pupils’ work 175 Grading 176 Is Storyline for everyone? 178 Your next Storyline? 179

References 183 Appendix 1: Overview of Our Sustainable Street 191 Appendix 2: Extract from The Road 194

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Contents

Appendix 3: Letter from the solicitor 196 Appendix 4: Letter about the climate project 197 Appendix 5: Mrs Brown‘s diary 200 Appendix 6: Planning department letter 201 Appendix 7 202 Appendix 8: Scripted dialogues 203 Appendix 9 205 Appendix 10: The diary of a former neighbour 206 Appendix 11 207 Index 208

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C HAPTER 3

Storyline in theory and practice

Storyline and TBLT In the last chapter we talked about TBLT, in which learners use the language in the kinds of ways they would use it in real life. This is also true of the Storyline approach. So how is Storyline different from TBLT? There are a number of things we can say here.

The story

Firstly, the most obvious difference is that the framework for all tasks in a Storyline is the story! This has several benefits. Jos Letschert, previously director of the primary curriculum in the Netherlands and a great advocate of Storyline, makes the point that “a story is by definition a meaningful context” (2006, p. 19). This is important because, as we said in the last chapter, there is a link between how meaningful learners perceive a task to be, the effort they put into doing it and their learning. Kris Van den Branden (2006), who has extensive experience of TBLT in the teaching of L2 Dutch to immigrant children in Belgium, also argues that motivation in one task carries the learner on to the next. From a teacher’s point of view this is very interesting: good teachers plan work which will stimulate their learners’ interest and lead to more effective learning. Such planning is time-consuming and sometimes tiring too, especially nowadays when teachers are expected to do so much more than teach. There is a lot to be gained by planning a Storyline which will capture the learners’ interest from the beginning and hold that interest as the story develops through a variety of tasks, all linked to the curriculum.

One way of creating interest and anticipation in a Storyline topic is the device of a letter. This might set the scene for the whole story – perhaps the © T he au th o r and S t u dentlitte r at u r

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learners receive a letter from the local authority (‘kommun’) asking for help in creating a new wildlife park (for a Storyline on this subject see Gustafsson Marsh 2005). Letters can also take the story on to the next stage and another key question. Sometimes a development is introduced not via a letter, but with the arrival of a visitor (teacher- in-role) to give information that will take the story on. This was usually the case with the very young learners in the toy factory scenario, where the student teachers were representatives of the toy factory. The aim with both the letter and the arrival of the visitor is the same: to arouse the learners’ interest, engage their imagination and prepare them for the next task. Kieran Egan, of the Imaginative Education Research Group, has long argued that children’s imaginations “are the most powerful and energetic learning tools” (1988, p. 2), and that they are not used enough in the traditional classroom. The need for the learners to use their imagination is a central feature of the Storyline approach.

Another advantage of a story framework is that it gives us subject content.

In other words, a story is always about something – the Vikings, a wildlife park or a farm, families moving into a new street in an English town – and the starting point for every task is what the learners know about the subject.

This is seen in the way key questions are phrased, for example, What do you think a Viking ship looked like?

One group of pupils in particular can benefit from this in-built content.

These are children like my young nephew, whose heart sinks when told that the pupils are going to write a story. He cannot come up with something on demand like this and goes out to the toilet to try to think of what to write because he becomes stressed when he sees others get to work. To a great extent in a Storyline topic, support in what to write is provided by the story developments. Also, as we have said before, the writing tasks are of different genres, so even if a learner still finds it difficult to write a letter, for instance, they may find it easier to write a set of instructions, all within the context of the story.

The learner as a character in the story

Another way in which Storyline differs from TBLT is that when the learners write, or speak, in a Storyline task they do this as their character, which stays the same throughout the story. The benefit, as Andrew Wright notes 50

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in his book Storytelling with Children, is that the learners “experience the subject matter (and the language) rather than study it” (2009, p. 138). In other words, cognition and affect are together considered to contribute to learning in the Storyline approach, and as we saw from research into second language learning from a sociocultural perspective, this is a powerful combination, not least where young learners are concerned.

That the learners write and speak in role can be liberating in terms of the knowledge they display and the language they use, and can help to foster a positive self-image. This is especially important in those who lack self-esteem, often because they think they are not good at particular subjects. Sigrid Madsbjerg, a Danish Storyline teacher, notes that such learners can reveal unexpected knowledge when they are allowed to write freely (for example, about their character), which in turn boosts self-confidence (Håkonsson and Madsbjerg 2004). Although Madsbjerg is referring to writing in L1, the point is equally valid for L2. This is also true of another situation she describes: a learner whose views were often disregarded by his peers, grew visibly in self-confidence when he spoke in role as an expert and the rest of the class (as the other characters in the story) listened to what the expert had to say.

Using a physical model such as a papier maché doll or a paper cut-out can help children who are shy and who find it difficult to speak out, in L1 as well as L2. For one thing, it is natural for the listeners to look at the model rather than the speaker, so taking the spotlight – the cause of stress for many – off them.

Sometimes though this does not happen, which was the case in one class of student teachers that I had some years ago. After introducing themselves in groups as their characters, the students analysed the benefits of using a model when the character speaks. In one group the students admitted that they had, in fact, been looking at the student doing the speaking and not the doll.

However, the student responded like this: “It doesn’t matter – I was looking at the doll.” In other words, any stress which the learner might have felt as she spoke, was relieved by the fact that her own attention was on her character rather than whether or not the others were looking at her.

Just before we leave the subject of the story characters, let us consider how the learner speaks about the character, for example in introductions: should it be I or he or she? My own view is that, provided the learners have created the character themselves and have not been told that they are a particular person, then the I form is preferable. This will encourage the learner to empathize © T he au th o r and S t u dentlitte r at u r

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with the character’s situation, and is more likely to engage feelings, which is such an important factor in learning.

Practical work

In her book on teaching modern languages in the primary school, Claudine Kirsch notes that Storyline “harnesses [the learners’] creativity and desire to learn” (2008, p. 104). Creativity can take many forms, including speaking and writing in role, as we discussed above. Another form is practical work, a central feature of Storyline. The combined products of imagination, world knowledge and rational thinking can be seen most clearly in the artefacts learners create in their Storyline work, such as character representations and the homes or workplaces of the characters, and not least in the frieze.

The frieze plays a central role and has three main functions: to depict the shared world, document the story as it develops, and anticipate future happenings (for which the teacher might add something to the frieze, or remove or change an artefact which is already there). The work displayed is intended to be a source of individual and collective pride in achievement so far, contributing to a strong feeling of ownership (Hofmann 2008b), and also to offer inspiration for continued work. It provides a focal point in the classroom, which can be used for reflection, discussion and ensuring that all learners know what has happened to date. It is, therefore, a tool which aids metacognition. Working with the frieze is, in the view of Falkenberg and Håkonsson (2004), like putting flesh onto a skeleton, which conveys the idea of bringing a story outline to life. According to Jete Kantstø (2004), another Danish classroom teacher, learners respond positively to practical work because it has a meaningful function and it also fulfils their need to learn in a different way. Sigrid Madsbjerg (Håkonsson and Madsbjerg 2004) underlines the wider issue here: working in the classroom with a broader range of the senses has a particularly positive effect on the less proficient.

This reflects similar arguments in the TBLT and young learner literature.

Group work

In TBLT tasks may be carried out in groups, pairs or individually. The same can be said of Storyline, but it is group work which is a central feature of 52

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the approach. Furthermore, these groups are homogeneous; they might, for instance, be families, circus performers, or workers in a company, on a cruise ship or at an airport. The fact that each group has something in common and that all groups together develop the story is important, for reasons which follow.

In the previous chapter we discussed the need for a supportive atmosphere, based on trust, to encourage interaction in the classroom. This is a common theme in the SLA literature with regard to the sociocultural theoretical perspective, the literature on TBLT, and on young learners. As all teachers know, such an atmosphere is not created overnight. Certain conditions can help however. One of these, according to Jerome Bruner (2002), is where learners experience a story together; another is small group and pair work.

In a Storyline topic the learners remain together in their group for the life of the Storyline, though there are occasions when other group constellations are formed and times when a task is completed in pairs or individually. Providing the group members get on with each other, a sense of solidarity may be created, not least because of the homogeneous nature of the group. The extent to which a group functions well depends not only on the personalities of the group members and how well they work together, but also on the power of the Storyline topic to motivate everybody to participate.

A celebration

Another importance difference between TBLT and Storyline is that every Storyline topic finishes with a party or celebration of some kind as an integral part of the story. It might be a street party; it could be a grand opening for a shopping centre. This marks the end of the story, draws a line under the work that the class has been involved in for a number of weeks and signals that they are about to go on to something else. This is important both cognitively and affectively.

After this the learners should look back over the whole Storyline, reflect on what they have done and evaluate what they have learnt in accordance with the goals they set for themselves, which were in turn based on syllabus goals.

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A language focus in Storyline A Storyline framework allows the teacher to include different spoken and written genres in a naturalistic way. Each piece of writing, role play or artefact develops the story and also forms the basis of later work. As we said in Chapter 2, this shows respect for the pupils’ work; it also means that words to do with different subjects come around again and again. In other words, vocabulary is recycled naturally in Storyline. For instance, learners make a model or draw a picture of their character. They then use the detail in this artefact (hair and eye colour etc.) to create a spoken and written presentation of the character. If these are produced before the artefact, then the detail included in them is used in the model or drawing.

Just as in TBLT, language can be in focus in different ways. New grammatical structures can be introduced before, during or after a task.

Alternatively, we might use the Storyline to consolidate the grammatical structures and vocabulary which the learners have already met, but also use it to introduce vocabulary related to a new subject.

Vocabulary

Let us look at how this might work in practice. Where vocabulary is concerned, learners of all ages can benefit from brainstorming sessions before a task to gather the words they know on the subject, and to introduce some more. So, the teacher might list on the whiteboard the learners’ suggestions in L2, and where they do not know a word in English, write up the L1, which can then be looked up in the dictionary. Pupils who have another L1 can also contribute words in that language to the brainstorming, and then look them up, using an online dictionary. The value of such exercises is that they gather all the learners’ collective existing knowledge, which can have a positive effect on self-esteem (they realize how much they know), prepare them to use this knowledge in the task and also – as Cameron (2001) points out – move them strategically towards the L2 and not away from it, as translation tasks do. In other words, in English lessons pupils normally translate from English into their L1, so moving away from English. Where pupils have a different home language to the dominant L1, this is a problem in itself as they are required to learn English via a language which is not their own.

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Grammar

Where grammar is concerned, younger learners (up to year 4) might be given a sample sentence or two on the whiteboard as a model for what they are going to write. Learners who are older, but less sure of themselves in English, can also benefit from this support. The danger of giving everyone in the older age group model sentences is that they use only these structures. Yet if they are allowed to write freely, we will get a clearer picture of their language development – their interlanguage. (This assumes, of course, that learners put effort into their writing and use all their resources rather than trying to complete the task as quickly as possible!).

We can say that our method with older learners is to let them do the task freely and produce a draft. Then we focus in class on the structure that we had planned for them to use in the task. For example, the focus might be the past simple (Swedish ‘preteritum’) to describe completed past events such as I got wet when I walked to school yesterday. After this they revise their work, individually and perhaps also with a partner, before they hand it in to the teacher. Based on the teacher’s corrections, the learners then rewrite their work and have it checked again. This may seem very time-consuming, and yes it is. At the same time, the learning which takes place is likely to be more long-lasting than if the teacher simply corrects and the learners rub out what they themselves had written, perhaps without understanding why it was wrong.

A four-strand approach

A further point we can make is that not all written or spoken language will be reviewed and revised in this way, even for pupils at secondary level. Here we can remind ourselves of Paul Nation’s four-strand approach. Language focus is just one of the four strands. On other occasions, we might concentrate on meaning. A focus on meaning or form can be built into the Storyline in a natural way – for instance, a letter to a public body such as the local authority will be formal, with attention paid to grammatical accuracy and spelling. However, an email to a friend or close relative will not only be more informal in choice of words, but will not require the same attention to lanquage correctness. With regard to the spoken language, most speaking tasks will be aimed at developing fluency. But where the learners are to © T he au th o r and S t u dentlitte r at u r

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deliver a speech, for example, then the accuracy of the language (grammar, vocabulary, and aspects of phonology such as pronunciation of individual sounds and intonation) becomes important. The older the learners, the more language focus we can build in to the Storyline, in line with the requirements of the curriculum.

A final point here concerns fluency practice of the kind of spoken language which is hard to practise in the classroom in a natural way: small talk. In Storyline different aspects of small talk can be integrated into the story, often as warm up sessions at the start of the day. For example, the learners mingle in role, starting, conducting and concluding small talk with the other characters. The circumstances in which the characters do this will vary according to the story, as we will see when we look in detail at Our Sustainable Street.

The research Considering that the Storyline approach originated in the 1960s, that it has been developed as a methodology in the education departments of universities in northern Europe and practised by classroom teachers particularly, though not exclusively, in the primary sector in various parts of the world, it is somewhat surprising that it is not better known in second language education.

The problem might be the lack of research or references to Storyline in the SLA, TBLT or young learner literature. Regarding research, the situation appears to be changing, with recent doctoral studies in learner ownership and alienation in an L1 context (Hofmann 2008a), clinical research (Mark 2009), teacher development (Emo 2010), motivation in primary school pupils in an L1 context (Mitchell-Barrett 2010) and doctoral work in progress: for example, the effects of the Storyline approach on German learners of English at different ages, and on young learner attitudes and effective learning in an L1 Turkish context.

However, the research which has been conducted highlights several recurring themes. For example, a three-year Comenius project (Ehlers et al 2006), in which a number of primary teachers in Germany, the UK, Finland and Poland were trained to use the approach to teach a foreign language, found particular benefits for vocabulary acquisition and motivation.

Specific aspects of Storyline have been the subject of final term dissertations 56

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by Swedish student teachers, many of these at Luleå University of Technology, where the approach was introduced by Steve Bell in the 1990s. Dissertations focus on all levels of education, from primary to upper secondary and a range of curriculum subjects. (For more detail about this work see Ahlquist 2011).

Common to all is the finding of increased learner engagement – a similar finding to that of Ehlers’ study. What contributes to increased motivation is seen to be the opportunity to work more independently, both individually and in groups, use skills other than reading and writing, and to be involved.

While these studies show some older learners to be resistant to practical work, many responded positively. The authors of the studies suggest that a possible reason for this is that the practical work is seen to serve a purpose in the Storyline.

Class teachers and subject teachers who were involved in the studies conducted by students also report that their learners asked many more questions than usual; teachers also comment that learners learn things which are not easy to test. These findings are significant. On the one hand, the eager questioning indicates motivation, which we know has a strong link with learning, and on the other hand, that Storyline work can give the teacher a wider picture of a learner’s knowledge than is possible via traditional testing.

I think it also raises the question what we mean by knowledge.

With regard to more recent research conducted in Sweden, Gustafsson Marsh and Lundin (2010), moderators of the Storyline Sweden website, report on the findings of a small-scale survey in which they attempted to discover how Storyline can help learners reach curricular objectives, and to what extent the less proficient can benefit from being taught in this way. The responses of the 18 primary teachers highlighted the importance of the story itself, the key questions (which allow learners to learn from each other), the clear structure, varied ways of working, group formation, and not least, that the starting point is the learner’s existing knowledge.

When it comes to the less proficient, almost all the teachers in the survey point out that these learners benefit from practical work. It allows the learner to develop, and display for others, talents they may not know they had, which enhances self-confidence. Furthermore, teachers note how practical work can build a bridge to theory (for instance, in maths or science); an artefact can help a learner to understand abstract concepts.

Another issue raised is that talkative children can be channelled into © T he au th o r and S t u dentlitte r at u r

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- developing communicative competence in English

What do you do when someone dumps rubbish in your street?

How do you deal with anti-social neighbours? How do you organize a street party? These are some of the questions faced by a class of 11–13 year olds working on “Storyline, Our Sustainable Street”.

For five weeks they took on the roles of families who had moved into a newly built street in the fictive English town of Danbury.

Working on tasks linked to the syllabus for English, they developed their skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing – and had fun.

| STORYLINE

STORYLINE

Sharon Ahlquist

Sharon Ahlquist, Doctor of Education, is a Senior Lecturer in TESOL and applied linguistics at Kristianstad University, where she works in teacher education. Her research interests are young language learners, Storyline, task-based education, as well as the role of emotions in language learning.

STORYLINE - developing communicative competence in English

Developing communicative competence in English is of central importance in the Swedish curriculum Lgr11. This book presents the results of a study into the impact of the Storyline approach on the second language classroom. It also provides excellent guidance for teacher education students and teachers of both younger and older pupils (aged 9–16) in how to adapt this Storyline for their own classes.

Art.nr 36154 ISBN 978-91-44-08163-2

www.studentlitteratur.se

978-91-44-08163-2_Cover.indd 1

9 789144 081632

Sharon Ahlquist

2013-05-07 08:53