The oral re-telling of traditional tales, modelled by a storyteller and taught to children in school, can be understood as 'non-instrumental' practice in speaking and listening that emphasises oral language over the reading and writing of stories. While oral storytelling has significant benefits to children's education and development, it is…

Children with selective mutism (SM) display a failure to speak in select situations despite speaking when comfortable. The purpose of this study was to obtain valid assessments of receptive and expressive language in 33 children (ages 5 to 12) with SM. Because some children with SM will speak to parents but not a professional, another purpose was…

Research Findings: The purpose of this study was to describe differences in the narratives produced by 3-, 4-, and 5- year old Spanish-speaking (SS) children. Narrative productions of 104 typically developing children were collected using a story-retelling task and coded using the Index of Narrative Complexity. The results of this study indicate…

This article discusses the usefulness of anecdotes as a technique to stimulate learners' interest and thus create a meaningful learning context in the second language classroom. It describes the pattern of an anecdote and how it should be formed as well as the different types of anecdotes. The article offers tips to successfully implement this…

Storytelling, a creative art form with a long history and considerable instructional potential, is increasingly regarded in schools and communities as literature. Recent papers and articles in the ERIC database discuss the use of storytelling in the classroom to develop language abilities, literature appreciation, critical thinking and…

This paper discusses a micro-study within an intervention project, conducted in four London primary schools, to enhance the spoken language skills of reception children. There were 60 children in each of the intervention and comparison groups. The focus here is to explore a classroom assessment of young children's oral narrative skills. Effective…

Forty hearing-impaired adults read and retold short stories, in either English or American Sign Language (ASL). Analysis indicated that there was more explicitness in ASL, with more importance placed on specification of instruments involved in an action. No significant story differences were found between subjects' stories and stories of…

Describes experiences with developing language and listening skills through storytelling in two multigraded elementary classrooms. Discusses how to: launch the program through literature and storytellers; implement the program, including storytelling ideas; maintain a supportive environment; assess children using anecdotal observation sheets; and…