Lorena Barrachina Egea Group 1A

Why stories?

Nowadays, in our society, stories are becoming an important resource for the EFL
primary class. For this reason, it is crucial to understand the concept of ''storytelling''
as the art of telling whatever kind of story from memory and using your personal
abilities, rather than reading it.

According to what Neil Griffiths (2012) explains in his article, we can easily see the
large number of reasons for using stories and literature in the EFL class. As for the
children’s development, stories help them develop their own personality because they
could empathize with the characters and by this way, share their feelings and
emotions. As a result, stories become a good resource to develop the emotional
intelligence of children, as well as they could learn values, and social abilities.

At the same time, as for EFL students, stories can be used as a means to learn English
and all the aspects related to the school curriculum. For instance, teachers could
exploit stories as a tool to manage the classroom and also to develop the main fourth
skills, and in a specific way, the literacy skills too. What is more, some specific stories
could be helpful to learn the language in a real context connected with curricular
subjects, such as science or maths. In addition to this, they learn grammatical
structures, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.

To conclude, I would like to say that before everything, stories become a fun source to
motivate students in their learning process and they can help them develop positive
attitudes towards the English language. After all, as I have been explaining, the
storytelling has many benefits in all the aspects of a child’s life, such as in the field of
communication, intercultural understanding, social and emotional development,
language acquisition, among many others.

290 words
Lorena Barrachina Egea Group 1A

References

- Griffiths, N. (2012). How to help children discover they LOVE reading. March 14, 2017,
of The Guardian. Website:
https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2012/feb/01/children-reading-story-
telling-week

- Dujmović, M. (2006). Storytelling as a method of EFL teaching.

<http://hrcak.srce.hr/11514>

- British Council (2004). Teaching English. Storytelling – benefits and tips.

<https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/storytelling-benefits-tips>