Proposal

Running head: FAIRY TALES







Proposal: Fairy tales as a means to enhance imagination
and develop communicative competence
Mariana Estallo and Silvina Pallosi
Universidad CAECE















Abstract
This proposal will aim at implementing fairy tales in the foreign language classroom. This device will be studied as an innovative way of improving communicative competence in students that start learning English. The researchers will carry out the experience to see whether this kind of stories promotes effective use of the language by young students who are first exposed to it, while it also enhances their imagination. The experience will be conducted in two courses in a public school in the province of Buenos Aires throughout a school year.

Keywords
Fairy tales, storytelling, interaction, real communication, learning, teaching, context, games, content, topics, communicative activities


Introduction

During the last decades, there has been a trend to believe that cognitive development arises as a result of social interaction. Learning is thought to occur when an individual interacts with an interlocutor in a situation in which the learner is capable of performing at a higher level because there is support from the interlocutor. This cognitive revolution started in the 50’s with Vygotskyian‘s ideas which spread to both psychology and education.
The learner became the centre of attention and the foreign language was not considered as an object of study any longer. Vygotsky’s (1978, cited in Lighbrown & Spada, 2006) theory has also been connected to interaction hypothesis because of the interlocutor’s role in helping learners understand and be understood. Extending this idea, Swain (1985, cited in Lightbrown & Spada, 2006) has been interested in developing the comprehensible output hypothesis with the notion that language production helps the learner to process it more deeply.
What is more, as the Curriculum Design of Province of Buenos Aires (2007) states, to teach English to our children is to provide them with the opportunities to interact with texts and people of other cultures to enrich their view of the world and so strengthen their own identities. The idea is to go beyond vocabulary, syntax and grammar in order to contribute to the development of the students as responsible and tolerant citizens whose critical thinking could help to foster our society’s values. In addition, authenticity makes learning meaningful to students.
However, it is frequent to hear teachers to be dealing with “colors”, ”numbers”, ”family”, or verb to be, what still expresses the habit of focusing on quite non-contextualized topics. It is not the authors’ intention to go in detriment of teaching topics, vocabulary or even grammar, being the latter sometimes considered as hindering the real use of the language, but to change the view towards using the language as a means to learn and enjoy the experience. Enjoyment will add meaning and provide an extra source of motivation to make their leaning more appealing. Thus, it is likely to assert that both issues would contribute to an effective learning.
Among the advantages of using fairy tales in the foreign language class, it would be worthy mentioning that students may have the opportunity of enhancing their imagination, having something to say about fantastic or real characters; of playing with the language, developing communicative skills and of learning to use the language without being aware of it. The purpose of this action research is to make true that through stories, young learners who
are in contact with the language for the first time, learn to use it spontaneously, feeling engaged and motivated to do so as they may feel at ease with this new subject.

Literature review

Working with stories has always been a useful tool to expand learners’ imagination and encourage them to develop their knowledge of the world. In spite of this fact, the implementation of stories has not been widely regarded as a profitable resource, unlike the use of textbooks as the unique material in the class.
Particularly speaking, fairy tales may be considered as a means to satisfy the students’ necessity to “communicate something about fundamental human issues that is enduring rather than ephemeral” (Collie & Slater, 2005, p.3). Therefore, the teacher faces the challenge of taking to the classroom interesting and engaging stories so that students may have the opportunity of using the language in communicative contexts.
Fairy tales might be considered as authentic material which has not been created for the specific purpose of learning a language but which is genuine and undistorted. As Collie and Slater (2005) observed:
In reading fairy tales, students have to cope with language intended for native speakers so they gain familiarity with different linguistic uses, forms, conventions of the written mode…and a great deal of cultural information [because this] vivid imagined world can quickly give the foreign reader a feel of the beliefs, fears, joys and thought of other societies (p.4).

However, it can be argued that the vocabulary that appears in fairy tales is not the one that is used in every day contexts but it will depend on the stories chosen by the teacher. In other words, topics that are meaningful for learners and characters who they can feel identified with may be considered as good choices. What may not be denied is the fact that stories provide rich contexts in which language learning may be made more memorable and personal involvement may be fostered.
Most of teaching materials seem to concentrate on how the language operates both as a rule-based system and as a socio-functional system. Engaging learners with fairy stories may enable them to shift the focus of attention beyond mechanical aspects of the language (Collie & Slater, 2005).
Moreover, stories are frequently claimed to bring many benefits to young learner classroom (Wright 1997, cited in Cameron, 2005). The power attributed to stories may be the mythical and magical link with the students´ experience. Stories can serve as metaphors for society and a rich event between learners and teachers (Garton & Pratt, 1998, cited in Cameron, 2005). Cameron suggests being very attentive in the choice of stories not to go very far from the students’ reality.
Two of the key organizing features of fairy tales as any other kind of stories is their occurrence in a temporal sequence and the thematic structure. Prototypical features of stories are: a formulaic opening, introduction of characters, description of the setting, introduction of the problem and series of events that lead to the resolution of the problem and the closing (Propp, 1958, cited in Cameron, 2005). This characteristic of fairy tales may be a simple procedure to develop oral skills when retelling them.
Besides, the language used in fairy tales presents devices that may encourage opportunities of foreign language learning. For instance parallelism with its pattern of predictability and surprise or repetition and change, as in Little Red Riding Hood story when she tells her grandmother:”Grandmother, what big eyes you´ve got”, and she answers “All the better to see you with, my dear”.
Another issue that was pointed out by Cameron (2005) may be alliteration. It refers to the use of words that have the same initial consonant. Through this element beginners find at ease when using the language. Besides, the inclusion of strong contrast as good/bad, big/small, narrative and dialogue may be judged as a useful means to encourage an effective use of the language. Thus, not only can learners retell stories but also interact with their school mates when dramatizing or performing information or opinion gaps activities.
By the same token, Wright (1995) proposes that fairy stories are motivating as children want to find meaning so they listen or read for a purpose. He insists that stories promote speaking and writing fluency as these skills are based on a positive attitude to not understand everything, searching for meaning, predicting and guessing. In his view, stories offer a “perfect diet for the building of fluency in all four skills” (Wright, 1995, p.7).
According to Fredericks and Cox (2005), dealing with stories in the foreign language classroom is often a safe and culturally relevant method of imparting knowledge and values. The authors argue that when children listen to stories several times, they begin to understand the relationships between the symbols such as animals and heroes and dragons and the values that they stand for. Learners will know that while the story may not be true, they can still hear the truth in the story.
Furthermore, through sharing stories, they experience the joy of holding the attention of others. They conclude that stories help students be aware that “there are other ways of thinking, feeling and acting” (Fredericks & Cox, 2005, para.5). Scott, (1985, cited in Kortner, 1988), explains the benefits of stories in the language class. He notices that using stories is a technique to provide young learners with models of story patterns, ideas to express, increase knowledge of other places and beliefs, question concepts and discussion.
Admittedly, it is better to start using simple short fairy stories, with few characters, action an understandable plot and a definite climax that goes to a conclusion that students may find satisfactory. Ramey (1986, cited in Kortner, 1988), suggests that fairy tales are the easiest stories for beginners to communicate, always taking into account the students age and interests. Above all, the ultimate goal that is learning to communicate in the foreign language should be borne in mind. Thus, fairy stories may appear to foster success in using the language as it implies a way of constructing meaning.

Discussion
Hypothesis

How do fairy tales contribute to enhance the learners’ imagination and communicative competence when they start learning a foreign language?

Delimitations

This action research will be accomplished in two fourth years in the province of Buenos Aires. Both groups have similar characteristics as regards age, number of students in the class (around twenty) and knowledge as it is the first year they have English at school, which means they are true beginners except for a very low percentage of them in each group (three or four) who also attend private lessons.

Limitations

Even though the main aim of this field work is to show that students will be able to use the language more effectively and with a different attitude to it, some problems may arise. The main liability may be time constrains as working with stories may demand extra time because of the type of activities which may be connected with other subjects as Music or Art.
Another trouble may be that not all the students are accustomed to concentrate their attention to listen or read a story, as not all of them are told stories at home. In addition, the lack of authentic material as books in English in most of the libraries at schools in the province of Buenos Aires. However, this drawback can be overcome by the teachers providing them with some stories, letting them share in small groups.
Last but not least is the lack of confidence students may experience as they are not trained in using a strange tool for them as may be the foreign language to go beyond the level of identifying everyday vocabulary, manipulating simple grammar structures or recognizing familiar communicative functions of the language as it is the case of the materials developed in most of current textbooks.

Method

Participants

Two groups of 20 to 25 students of fourth year attending to Primary School, aged around nine years old will be the participants of this work. The groups belong to the same school and attend English lessons twice a week. Although the groups do not have the same teacher both teachers will plan lessons together.
Data collection and analysis
The fundamental information to be collected will be engagement in the activities through observation lists of daily oral participation and homework, comprehension of the stories through completion of different types of activities and questions, development of skills and use of the language through listening and writing activities and enjoyment of the stories by means of self assessment tasks where students will decide which stories they like most. To collect data about the learners’ oral performance they will be recorded during the first and the last retelling as a means to keep a record of their progress.

Materials

As the main point will be interaction in the foreign language and active involvement in the class in a relaxed atmosphere that may arise learners’ self confidence, a range of communicative activities will be performed in the class. Information and opinion gap activities about events in the stories may render useful for students interacting in a meaningful context such as completing grids, surveys to find out their schoolmates favorite characters or parts in the story and impersonating characters to perform short dialogues similar to the ones in the stories.
Group work may appear as a means to develop cooperative work, evaluating skills and autonomous learning. They can build up posters illustrating sequences in the story or characters, make a ranking list of their favorite characters or crafting puppets and mask which may be displayed in an exhibition or used to perform role plays. The idea of autonomy may be measured by means of assessment tasks where they can decide in groups whether they have enjoyed the story or not or about their difficulty.
Development of discourse skills may be measured through simple guided retelling, using the story in other context for example a hero in one of the fairy story living where students live, completing letters to the author or characters, ordering sequences or describing physical appearance or attitudes which will allow students evaluate good and bad features of characters in fairy tales.
Songs and games are always appealing techniques which encourage speaking, listening and the use their bodies. For instance miming while the teacher reads may be and adequate instrument for beginners to demonstrate comprehension.
Considering vocabulary, brainstorming words may appear as building meaning together or recycling the one that has been learned in the story. Classifying activities may be helpful to identify typical places, people and actions in fairy stories. Because of use of alliteration, parallelism and formulaic expressions that always appear in this kind of stories, recalling and using vocabulary may foster effective communicative competence.
Constant assessment and formal tests will be held regarding skills and use of grammar and vocabulary in both the control and the experimental group. Province of Buenos Aires curriculum design linguistic and communicative function contents for fourth year will be considered to select the stories. Meanwhile, the same contents will be dealt within the control group. However the textbook chosen by the school staff and the activities included in it will be the means to get the expected aims in the curriculum design.

Conclusion

All in all, the authors of this action research uphold the belief that there is a great range of advantages for implementing fairy stories in the English class. Learners who approach the foreign language for the first time in a relaxing environment provided by the contact with the world of fairy stories are very likely to be encouraged to use the language effectively, interact with peers and develop communicative and social skills. Above all, fairy tales promote the opportunity of viewing the world from another perspective, enhancing their imagination, enjoying and being active learners of the foreign language in the pursuit of an effective communicative competence.










References
Cameron, L. (2005). Teaching languages to young learners Cambridge University
Press Cambridge Language Teaching Library.Cambridge.UK
Collie, J., & Slater, S. (2005) Literature in the language classroom: a resource books
of ideas and activities Cambridge University Press Cambridge Handbooks for
Language Teachers Series editor Scott Thornbury Cambridge .UK
Diseño Curricular-Educación Primaria. Dirección General de Cultura y Educación de
la Provincia de Buenos Aires Retrieved November 2010 from
http/abc.gov.ar/lainstitución/sistemaeducativo/educacionprimaria/default.cfm
Fredericks, L., & and Cox, A. (2005) Storytelling in the classroom Dancing Leaves
Retrieved November 2010 from
http://www.dancingleaves.com/allison/articles/classroom/stories
Kortner, A. (1988) Storytelling: Its wide-ranging impact in the classroom. ERIC
Digests Retrieved November 2010 from
http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-929/wide.htm
Lightbrown, P., & Spada, N. (2006) How languages are learned Oxford Handbooks
for Language Teachers: Oxford University Press. Oxford. UK
Wright, A. (1995) Storytelling with children Oxford University Press Resource Books
for Children Series: Ed Alan Maley. Oxford. UK