A classroom experiment on story-based teaching with young learners with a focus on vocabulary retention and students' reflections

Abstract

The concern of the present study was to see whether there was significant difference between vocabulary learning of young learners instructed through story-based and mainstream lessons by comparing their vocabulary knowledge scores, and to find out students? reflection on story-based lessons. The sample group for this study consisted of 32 primary school students chosen out of convenience and divided into two as control and experimental groups. During the treatment of three weeks, experimental group was instructed through story-based English lessons while the control group received their usual mainstream English lessons. After the piloting work, data were collected through vocabulary tests, questionnaire, and interviews that were developed by the researcher based on the literature reviewed. Results of the study revealed that both story-based lessons and the mainstream lessons had comparable effects on vocabulary attainment and vocabulary retention of the students. Similarly, analysis of the data also revealed that both lessons were comprehensible to some extent. However, findings confirmed that story-based teaching much more catered for affective factors that influence learning behaviour of the students. Evidence from the interviews indicated a tendency for low achievers to stay silent because of anxiety of failure in the mainstream but to act as a member of the group without any fear of failure in the story-based lessons. On the other hand, high achievers expressed to have low affective filters in both lessons in addition to feeling better in story-based lessons. Both the reflections of students and systematic observations of the researcher confirmed that the most outstanding element of story-based lessons was the enjoyment of learning that this type of lesson provided.