Title of Research: A COMPARISON OF THE EFFECTS OF STORY READING

AND STORYTELLING ON MEMORY AND STORY

COMPREHENSION OF GRADE V ELEMENTARY PUPILS

Name of School: INDANG CENTRAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

ABSTRACT

This study aims at investigating the effects of story reading and storytelling

aloud on memory and story comprehension of Grade V elementary pupils. This will

be carried out with selected Grade V pupils from Indang Central Elementary School

following a control-group pretest–posttest design. The sample of the study will

consist of 34 pupils from Indang Central Elementary School and will be assigned to

experimental and control groups. Half the pupils will be subjected to storytelling aloud

by a representative storyteller (experimental group); the other half will read the same

stories alone on their seats (control group).

The treatment will consist of a story time, every 12:30 PM which will be offered

to pupils for 30 minutes a day, thrice a week for a period of four weeks or one month.

The data that that will be collected focus on the pupils’ ability to recall facts of the

story they had heard, and the pupils’ story comprehension. T-test will be applied to

determine if there is a significant difference in the post-test results that gauge the

story comprehension between pupils subjected with story reading alone (control

group) and storytelling aloud (experimental group).

 INTRODUCTION

Reading is an important language skill and a highly complicated act that

everyone must learn. Reading is not solely a single skill but a combination of many

skills and processes in which the readers interact with printed words and texts for

content and pleasure. Through reading, one can teach writing, speaking, vocabulary

items, grammar, spelling and other language aspects. The basic goals of reading are

to enable students to gain an understanding of the world and themselves, to develop

appreciation and interests, and to find solutions to their personal and group problems

(Al-Mansour & Al-Shorman, 2010).

The educational value of story reading is widely accepted, especially

compared to the acceptance accorded to storytelling. But what exactly are the

benefits of reading stories aloud to children? One reason adults read to children is

the hope that reading exciting stories to children might in turn get children excited

about learning to read books for themselves. However, book reading has been

demonstrated to be beneficial to children in a variety of other ways as well.

The importance of reading aloud to children has been demonstrated in terms

of the relationship between the printed word and meaning. It reveals the rewards of

reading and develops the listener’s interests in books and desire to be a reader.

Reading aloud motivates students to read more challenging books and a greater

variety. Moreover, seeing storytellers reading with enjoyment increases the chances

that children will become lifelong readers; increasing the chances that reading life

doesn’t end with high school graduation (Gallets, 2005).

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 Storytelling aloud fosters the desire to read independently. It is like a TV or

radio ad for literature. Read-aloud time encourages children to grow as readers and

broadens the types of literature they choose to read. Moreover, Al-Mansour & Al-

Shorman (2010) states that oral reading instruction is a legitimate part of the

developmental reading program and can offer benefits of increased fluency,

comprehension, and vocabulary. It is obvious that the researchers seem to agree

that as long as teaching exists, the read aloud should be incorporated in the

curriculum, regardless of the students’ ages.

Based on the actual experience and observations of the author, in English

classes, the announcement of a reading assignment elicits moans and groans from

students as they envision the long time it will require, the laborious task of looking up

words’ meanings in the dictionary. What makes matters worse is that after all the time

and efforts; students fail to comprehend the text. Most students, especially

elementary school pupils, are often unable to comprehend a written text effectively.

Therefore, storytelling aloud, the focus of this study, is one of the factors that may

motivate students to read and improve their reading fluency and comprehension.

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 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Story Reading

Storybook reading is one of the most studied formats for increasing language

learning in children. Many research studies have shown that children make

significant gains in various areas of development through shared storybook

experiences (Kaderavek & Justice, 2002 cited in Isbell, Sobol, Lindauer, & Lowrance,

2004). Story reading benefits children in two ways by providing them with acquisition

of language and literacy. Not only do children acquire language and literacy skills, but

they also experience vocabulary growth, knowledge of handling books, and many

other skills. Story reading can foster communication opportunities for young children,

as they discuss the text and illustrations (Kaderavek & Justice in Isbell et al., 2004).

Silent reading has a number of variations. Some allow time for students to sit

back and enjoy reading without any requirements, while others provide teachers with

more control and flexibility in assessing students (Reutzel, Fawson, & Smith, 2008).

With researchers suggesting amount of time spent reading correlates with reading

ability, and contradicting statements by the National Reading Panel that silent

reading is not effective, confusion surrounds silent reading.

Storytelling

Storytelling is an ancient verbal art which is defined in various ways. Gere

(2002) defines it as “the act of using language and gesture in colorful ways to create

scenes in a sequence” (cited in Soleimani & Akbari, 2013). According to McDrury and

Alterio, storytelling is a unique human experience that enables us to convey, through

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the language of words, Stories enable us to know real and imagined worlds and our

place in them (cited in Soleimani & Akbari, 2013). Taking into account the

commonalities of these definitions, storytelling is sharing ideas and experiences

through words and actions to communicate.

Numerous scholars believe children can benefit from listening to storytelling.

Reading aloud to children builds the foundation of literacy learning. Listening

comprehension comes before reading comprehension. According to Fisher and

Medvic (2003 cited in Al-Mansour & Al-Shorman, 2011), the more stories students

are exposed to, the more opportunities they will have for hearing rich language,

learning new vocabulary, grasping story structures, and developing of love of

reading. They also suggest that students who are consistently exposed to storytelling

gain skills that prepare them for reading. Moreover, they note that during storytelling,

students are more attentive and relaxed, yet highly focused.

There are so many reasons for storytelling to young learners, it combines all

four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing in a meaningful context. As Glaze,

Burk, Jenning and Koisavalia believe, linguistically stories present grammar,

vocabulary and speech in a meaningful context which support comprehension (cited

in Soleimani & Akbari, 2013). It also fosters cultural awareness and offers values and

beliefs. It stimulates children's curiosity and encourages them to learn more about the

world. Wasik and Bond (2001) and Write (2000) believe that for young learners

stories offer an adorable way of contextualizing they also introduce new language

and make it comprehensible and memorable (cited in Soleimani & Akbari, 2013).

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 According to Setyarini (2011), retelling or remembering the plot of story can

foster learners cognitive and social skills; cognitive activities such as identifying

characters, comparing their behaviors and reactions during story and defining

concepts, lead to develop concrete thinking, and cognitive activities such as:

reasoning, finding solution, and creative ending lead to develop abstract thinking.

Story provides a fluent stream which enables children to listen to, and then process

and reproduce it. Children can understand stories even if they do not know each

word, since they can use the predictive power of the text which help them to guess

the meaning; they also use the gesture, the posture, and the intonation of storyteller

to process and understand the meaning.

Comprehension

Comprehension is the major focal point of this research, in determining which

style of story reading is more effective. In a study of Seago-Tufaro (2002 cited in

Fancher, 2007), on the effects of independent reading on oral reading fluency and

comprehension, which talks a great deal about fluency and how to build fluency in

children; however it also discusses how fluency affects comprehension. The study

suggests that students who read· fluently, with expression and decode words

automatically, have better comprehension when they read. Comprehension is

achieved when a student is able to read a text fluently at their independent level. It

also showed that children who struggle with comprehension also read slower and

have less automaticity. The ability to comprehend comes more easily when a reader

is fluent and automatic with the text. It was proven that there is a correlation between

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fluency and comprehension. The study showed that children that had a difficult time

with comprehension were also those that read slowly and less fluently. It is

questionable if fluency is a result of good comprehension, or if fluency leads to good

comprehension, but many studies have proved that there is a strong, positive

connection between the two.

Effects of Storytelling and Story Reading

According to Gallets (2005), story reading and storytelling are comparable in

many ways. In many cases the same stories that others choose to read to children,

storytellers might choose to tell. However, at the same time there are also important

differences between the two media. Reading aloud involves spoken language, but at

the same time a printed text is present. This means that during story reading both

oral and written language are modeled at once. On the other hand, storytelling does

not require the presence of a printed text. It may at first appear that without the

presence of the printed text, storytelling my not offer as wide a variety of educational

benefits as story reading.

In a study of Al-Mansour and Al-Shorman (2011) on the effect of teacher’s

storytelling aloud on the reading comprehension of Saudi elementary stage students,

it utilized kindergarten, first, and second grade students. Half the students were read

stories aloud, the other half were told the same stories by a storyteller. Data were

collected regarding students ability to recall facts they had heard, as well as students

skill in using formal story elements. The students’ interpretations of story meaning

were also examined. Students in both the reading and storytelling groups improved

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on most measures. However, on some measures, notably those regarding recall

ability, students in the storytelling group improved more than students in the reading

group.

A comparison study of storytelling versus story reading conducted by Trostle

and Hick (cited in Cruz de Quiros, 2008) found that storytelling groups outperformed

story reading groups in comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. This six-week

study involved 32 British Primary school children (16 boys and 16 girls) whose ages

ranged between 7 and 11 years. These students were grouped by age, gender and

literacy skills. The treatment lasted 20 minutes, with no discussion during the story’s

presentation. All students were tested individually in both comprehension and

vocabulary. Students were asked for the definition of 13 to 14 words, receiving 2

points for a correct answer, 1 point for a partially correct answer and 0 for an

incorrect answer. Trostle and Hick found that the storytelling group outperformed the

story reading group in comprehension and vocabulary knowledge.

Some students may benefit from different types of reading instruction. Hale et

al. (2011) investigated student reading comprehension after reading both silently and

aloud. Fifty-one fourth and fifth-grade students from a large Southeastern district in

the United States participated in the experimental study. Students read aloud grade-

level texts, and words correct per minute (WCPM) were used to place students at

appropriate levels. Between October and November, each student read six

passages, either aloud or silently, and then answered corresponding multiple-choice

comprehension questions. In a quantitative data analysis, a mean score of 7.75

resulted from students that read aloud while a mean score of 7.19 resulted from

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students that read silently. Researchers suggest that reading aloud may positively

affect comprehension rates among students better than reading silently.

In another study of Prior, Fenwick, Saunders, Ouellette, O’Quinn, and Harvey

(2011), they wanted to know if comprehension is stronger after silent reading or oral

reading. The experimental study consisted of 172 elementary and middle-school

students from three elementary schools and one middle school in Canada. In each

grade level from first through seventh, 24 to 25 students were selected. The Reading

Recognition sub-test of the PIAT-R was used to measure students’ abilities to

translate printed words to oral language. The Ekwall/Shanker Reading Inventory

(ESRI), which consists of leveled reading passages for each grade level, was used to

assess comprehension. Each passage consisted of 10 comprehension questions.

Participants were tested individually in a quiet room.

Results of the PIAT-R test showed that all students were reading at grade

level, so the leveled passages administered during the ESRI were appropriate. In a

quantitative data analysis, a mode score of 25.389 was present for the PIAT-R test.

Students in first through fifth grades had much higher comprehension after oral

reading when compared to silent reading. Type of reading did not matter for sixth-

grade participants’ comprehension scores, yet seventh-grade students scored higher

during silent reading. Researchers showed evidence that reading orally supports

students’ comprehension in elementary school while silent reading supports

comprehension of seventh-grade students. Researchers support the idea of

balancing aloud reading and silent reading to promote students’ reading

comprehension (Prior et al., 2011).

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 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not Grade V pupils learn

differently when they are told stories aloud by a storyteller than when they read the

same stories from a book.

Sub-problems

The specific research questions that will be addressed in this study are:

1. Is there a significant difference in how Grade V pupils remember story

information between pupils subjected to story reading (Control group) and

pupils subjected to storytelling aloud (Experimental group)?

2. Is there a significant difference in the story comprehension of Grade V

pupils subjected to story reading (Control group) and subjected to

storytelling aloud (Experimental group)?

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 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

This study will investigate the effects of story reading and storytelling aloud on

story comprehension of Grade V pupils from Indang Central Elementary School in

Indang, Cavite. The learning achievement of pupils will be evaluated in terms of

ability to remember information, and story comprehension. This study will only utilize

one class of Grade V composed of 34 pupils from section Masunurin. The pupils will

be assigned to experimental and control groups; 17 pupils will read stories aloud by a

representative storyteller (experimental group); and the other 17 pupils will read the

same stories alone on their seats (control group).

One of the possible limitations of this research is that only few selected pupils

will be involved in this action research and the experiment will last for only four

weeks. Another limitation is that the results that will be obtained by studying this

group of Grade V pupils may not be generalizable to populations in other schools

which differ significantly in terms of factors such as culture, population, and

socioeconomic distribution.

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 METHODOLOGY

Research Design

The present study will be carried out with selected Grade V pupils from Indang

Central Elementary School following a control-group pretest–posttest design. The

subjects will be randomly assigned to two groups. Each group will then be assigned

to either the control group or experimental group. The treatment consists of two

methods: the traditional method of story reading alone (control group); and the

method of storytelling aloud by a representative storyteller from the group

(experimental group).

Sampling and Participants

This study will utilize a pretest-posttest design by assessing the story

comprehension of Grade V pupils prior to and immediately following a one month

intervention program. This will be implemented by dividing 34 Grade V pupils from

section Masunurin into experimental and control groups, with 17 pupils per group.

Pupils in 1st group or the control group (n=17) will be subjected to a traditional

method of story reading alone on their seats. In the second group or the experimental

group (n=17) story telling aloud will be implemented in which one pupil will be

selected each day as the storyteller.

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Procedures

Prior to conducting this action research, permission to conduct this study will

be secured from the principal of Indang Central Elementary School. After consent is

obtained, informed consent will be secured from the participating Grade V pupils.

The experimental procedure will be conducted in this way:

The researcher will ask all the participants in both groups to read a story from

a book to establish a baseline from which pretest data will be collected. After reading,

a pre-test will be conducted to all participants shown in Appendix 1.

Two days after the initial story reading, the treatment will begin. Treatment will

consist of a story time, every 12:30 PM which will be conducted by the researcher

with the participants. Story time will be offered to pupils for 30 minutes a day, thrice a

week for a period of four weeks.

Before each story session begins, the participants from the control and

experimental groups will be assigned in two different classrooms where story time will

be held. Each story session will be between 25 and 30 minutes long.

For the experimental group, a representative pupil from this group will serve

as storyteller who will read the story aloud. For the control group, the same stories

presented to the experimental group will be read alone by the pupils on their seats.

Treatment sessions will always follow the same structure.

After the session, the pupils from both groups will be asked literal, inferential,

and analytic follow up questions about the story they had heard or read to gauge how

pupils from both groups remember story information.

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 Last, the students will be given a comprehension test that is related to that

day’s story. It should be noted that story sessions for both groups always follow the

same plan. The plan differed only in that stories will be read to pupils in the reading

group and told to pupils in the storytelling group.

At the end of the treatment period, a post-test or story comprehension test will

be conducted to all participants.

Story Selection

The stories that will be used in the study will be selected by the researcher

and the principal. Stories will be evaluated based on the following criteria: each

storybook should be likely to interest a Grade V pupil of the target age (approximately

11-12 yrs old), and, most importantly, the story contained in each book has to be

suitable for both story reading alone and for storytelling aloud.

Statistical Treatment

T-test of independent samples will be used to determine if there is a significant

difference in the story comprehension of Grade V pupils between pupils subjected

with story reading alone (control group) and storytelling aloud (experimental group).

The statistical significance level will be set at α < .05.

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 REFERENCES

Al-Mansour, N. S. & Al-Shorman, R. A. (2011). The effect of teacher’s storytelling

aloud on the reading comprehension of Saudi elementary stage students.
Journal of King Saud University – Languages and Translation 23, 69-76.
Cruz de Quiros, A. M. (2008). Structured story reading and retell related to listening
comprehension and vocabulary acquisition among English language learners.
Dissertation. Texas A&M University, Texas, United States.
Fancher, J. M. (2007). How is comprehension affected when reading aloud versus
reading silently?". Education and Human Development Master's Theses.
Paper 276, State University of New York College, Brockport, USA.
Gallets, M. P. (2005). Storytelling and story reading: a comparison of effects on
children’s memory and story comprehension. Electronic Theses and
Dissertations. Paper 1023. Retrieved from: http://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1023
Hale, A. D., Hawkins, R. O., Sheeley, W., Reynolds, J. R., Jenkins, S., Schmitt, A. J.,
& Martin, D. A. (2011). An investigation of silent versus aloud reading
comprehension of elementary students using Maze assessment procedures.
Psychology in the Schools, 48(1), 4-13.
Isbell, R., Sobol, J., Lindauer, L., & Lowrance, A. (2004). The effects of storytelling
and story reading on the oral language complexity and story comprehension of
young children. Early Childhood Education Journal 32(3),157-163 ·
Kaderavek, J., & Justice, L.M. (2002). Shared storybook reading as an intervention
context: Practices and potential pitfalls. American Journal of Speech-
Language Pathology, 11, 395-405.
Prior, S. M., Fenwick, K. D., Saunders, K. S., Ouellette, R., O’Quinn, C., & Harvey. S.
(2011). Comprehension after oral and silent reading: Does grade level matter?
Literacy Research and Instruction, 50, 183-194.
Reutzel, R., Fawson P., & Smith, J. (2008). Reconsidering silent sustained reading:
An exploratory study of scaffolded silent reading. Journal of Educational
Research, 102, 37- 51. doi:10.3200/JOER.102.1.37-50
Setyarini S. (2011). Storytelling: An innovative language learning for English young
learners. Joint Conference UPI-UITM, Indonesia University of Education.
Retrieved from http://a-research.upi.edu/operator/upload/pros_ui-
uitm_2011_setyarini_innovative_language_learning.pdf
Soleimani, H., & Akbari, M. (2013). The effect of storytelling on children's learning
English vocabulary: A case in Iran. International Research Journal of Applied
and Basic Sciences, 4(11), 4005-4014.

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 WORKPLAN / TIMETABLE OF ACTIVITIES

WEEK
PLAN OF ACTIVITIES W W W W W W W W W W
k1 k2 k3 k4 k k6 k k k k
5 7 8 9 10
Action research title
development
Consultation with principal on
action research title
Drafting of action research
proposal
Revision of proposal in
consultation with principal
Administration of the
experiment
Preparation of final action
research
Final draft of action research
Submission of action research

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