Integrating Language Skills through Storytelling

This paper reports the effectiveness of using storytelling in integrating the four language skills and enhancing the language proficiency level of adult English language learners. Forty adult English language learners participated in the present study on a voluntary basis. They were instructed and trained in the four language skills through a storytelling-based suggested integrated instructional model developed by the writer. The effectiveness of the integrated instructional model was measured by using a pre-post test and applying Blake’s modified gain ratio. The findings of the study indicated that the scores obtained by the participants on the post-test were higher than those on the pre-test. The suggested model proved to be effective in integrating the four language skills and enhancing the language proficiency level of the participants.


Introduction
Teachers of English generally acknowledge the close links among the four strands of the language arts: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. For the context of the present study, the integration of language skills is defined as the process in which each language skill is learned in terms of the others. Learning to listen, talk, read, and write always involves something-some content to listen, talk, read, or write about. The teaching of language skills cannot be left to chance. The integration of language skills can best be achieved through involving students in hands-on communicative language learning activities. The active involvement of students in communicative language learning activities enhances the integration of the language strands. According to Hiep (2007), the students' communicative skills are developed by interacting with each other on meaningful things. Shen (2003) argues that using 'Language + Communication (L+C) Approach' improves the learners' communicative skills. School environments for integrated learning must be safe and structured, with ample opportunities for long periods of reading, writing, and carrying on task-or topic-oriented conversations in the classroom. Teachers can serve as models by engaging in all of these activities with their students. Students can learn sub-skills efficiently within meaningful interactions with others and with print. developing language abilities, inspiring students to talk, write, perform, listen, communicate and learn (e. g., Colon-Vila, 1997;Cooter, 1991;De Ramirez, 1996;Evans & Strong, 1996;Houston, 1997;Kalfus & Van Der Schyff, 1996;Pedersen, 1993;Reynolds, 1992;Sasser & Zorena, 1991;Schaafsma, 1996;Van Groenou, 1995;West & Donato, 1995). The storytelling process is enjoyable for both teachers and learners. Storytelling emphasizes a positive, collaborative, and supportive classroom learning environment in which English language learners could develop skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It decreases the students' affective filter and encourages their imagination and cooperation. Engaging English language learners in storytelling-based language learning activities encourages their oral expression and improves their oral communication skills. The integration of storytelling into the language arts curriculum could lead to an improvement of general language proficiency in listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing.

Storytelling and Language Learning
Storytelling is an old tradition that has existed since the dawn of time in every culture. It is as old as speech. According to Bruner (2002), storytelling is universal, perhaps the dominant form of discourse. Schell (2004) states, "Our daily communication with others and our understanding of history rely heavily on storytelling and storytellers" (p. 1). Green (2004) claims, "Indeed, some writers have even claimed that all knowledge comes in the form of stories" (p. 2). Zacher (2006) supports the finding that when people hear or read stories, they create their own identities and compare their ideas to those of others. Daiute (2004) writes that telling one's story creates self concept and identity claims.
Storytelling as a pedagogical strategy is not new or unique. It is one of the most accessible teaching tools available to all teachers, especially language teachers. Storytelling is widely used in language teaching. It is a special activity that may be reserved for special times or for all times. It can be exploited at all learning levels and ages for varied purposes. Many studies have been conducted to look at the plausibility of storytelling in ESL and EFL classrooms (Lin, 2003;Yao, 2003).
In ESL settings, many language teachers consider storytelling the cornerstone of their teaching profession. They use stories to enhance English language learners' abilities to acquire and integrate the four language arts: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and raise their cultural awareness. Storytelling is beneficial in teaching and learning of languages. Using storytelling in ESL settings enhances the language teaching and learning process as well as the learners' process of transformation.
Using storytelling in ESL and EFL settings improves learners' general language proficiency in listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Storytelling is effective in fostering diversity in the classroom of students from different cultural, religious, and linguistic backgrounds. It enhances global networking by increasing the awareness and understanding of cultural differences. Storytelling emphasizes a positive, collaborative, and supportive classroom climate in which students could develop skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing. The benefits of using storytelling in the classroom include decreasing the students' affective filter, encouraging their imagination and cooperation, and enhancing their listening skills and verbal proficiency.
Adult learners can benefit in many ways from storytelling. The stories are contextually whole and inherently meaningful. They provide an authentic source of comprehensible English language input and can lower inhibitions. Storytelling can help develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Therefore, teachers should integrate storytelling into their teaching. After a story has been enjoyed and understood, numerous listening, speaking, reading, and writing opportunities can emerge. The teacher can adjust the story to learners' interests, needs, and levels of second or foreign language proficiency by carefully selecting appropriate books and by modifying the language during telling the story or reading it orally. Picture books offer the advantage of www.ccsenet.org/elt English Language Teaching Vol. 5, No. 12;2012 illustrations to explain much of the vocabulary. Repeated patterns provide an additional aid for language learning.
The writer strongly believes that storytelling, the art of orally sharing a story or experience to an audience, is one of the best techniques that can be used to integrate language skills. Storytelling is an invaluable teaching technique. The present study attempted to answer the question: "How effective is the use of storytelling in integrating the four language skills and enhancing the language proficiency level of adult English language learners?" In light of reviewing the most related literature, the present study was concerned with testing the following directional hypotheses: 1. There would be significant differences (favoring the post-test) between means of scores obtained by the participants on a pre-test, post-test comparison.
2. The suggested integrated instructional model of storytelling would prove to be effective in integrating the four language skills.
3. The suggested integrated instructional model of storytelling would prove to be effective in enhancing the participants' language proficiency level.

Participants
Forty male and female adult English language learners served as the participants of the present study. They were involved in the study on a voluntary basis. Their ages range from thirty to fifty years old. They were exposed to English as a foreign language for six to twelve years before moving to the United States of America.

Data Collection
The writer used two data collection instruments: A pre-post test and a suggested training model.

The Pre-post Test
The test utilized in the present study (Appendix 1) has been developed by the writer to be used as a pre-post test. It has been designed to assess the participants' language proficiency level. It has been judged and piloted on a pilot study group (different from the group of the study). Modifications have been made in the light of the judges' comments and the results of the pilot study.
The modified version of the test consisted of four components: listening, reading, writing, and telling a story. The maximum score on the test was one hundred points. The time allotted for responding to the questions on the test was three hours. The test has been constructed in light of the specific behavioral objectives and content area points of the training activities of the suggested integrated instructional model of storytelling. The instructions of the test were simple, brief, and clear. They contained information about the objective of the test, the time allowed for the participants to complete the test, and the directions of how to record their answers. The intra -rater reliability of the test was (0.96), and the statistical validity of the test, which was obtained from the square root of the reliability score, was (0.98). The scores of the participants on the test indicated that it has discriminated among the participants' language proficiency level. It was administered to the participants twice before training as a pre-test to measure the participants' language proficiency level, and after training as a post-test to measure the effectiveness of the suggested integrated instructional model of storytelling in integrating the four language skills and enhancing the participants' language proficiency level. The model contained fifteen stories adapted for classroom use. The writer used three types of stories: a) spoken stories (folktales) whose language is folksy, and b) written stories to be read and retold; some of these stories included repeated patterns: rhyming, as well as repetitions of words, refrains, or entire sentences to provide an additional aid for language learning, and c) picture book stories to offer the advantage of illustration to explain much of the vocabulary in the story. To enhance the students' communicative abilities, the writer used the following classroom interaction models: a) Teacher tells stories and students listen, b) Student(s) tell stories and www.ccsenet.org/elt Vol. 5, No. 12;2012 other students listen, and c) A student tells a story and both the teacher and the other students listen. Most of the techniques used in telling stories to students aimed to encourage them to hear stories, see them, act them out, retell them, revise and rewrite them. In telling stories to the students, the writer used the following four techniques: picture book storytelling, total physical response storytelling, mime storytelling, and into-throughbeyond storytelling.

The Suggested Training Model
Before, during, and after telling the stories, the students were involved in a variety of communicative language learning activities that aimed at providing them with ample opportunities for active participation and enhancing their abilities to use the four language skills. These activities were classified as follows: a) oral activities (listening and speaking), b) writing activities, c) reading activities, d) visual activities, and e) drama activities. To train students to develop their own stories, the writer used these story eliciting techniques: a) imitating the models provided by the teacher as a storyteller; b) developing stories based on their own experiences; c) developing stories based on illustrations; d) translating stories from Arabic; and e) modifying the original stories they read at home as home assignment to make them more interesting and more humorous. The writer also used different activities to elicit stories from the students such as: story models, story web, story pyramid, story games, clustering, pairing-off, create and write, think-pair-share, draw and tell, and jigsaw puzzles.
The activities and tasks of the model were written on handouts. The activities were intended to be worked through individually, in pairs, and in small groups (Appendix 2). During students' participation in the activities, the writer served as a facilitator, director and monitor, making sure that communication was taking place. Teaching the suggested integrated instructional model lasted for 28 hours (four hours per week) excluding the time devoted to the orientation of the training model and the administration of the pre-post test.

Findings and Discussion
To test the first hypothesis, "There would be significant differences (favoring the posttest) between means of scores obtained by the participants on a pre-test, posttest comparison," the't-test ' was used (Table 1). As shown in Table 1, the mean of the participants' scores on the post-test was higher than that on the pre-test. The't' value was (25.83). It is significant at the .001 level. This means that a significant improvement of the participants' four skills has occurred. These results imply that the suggested integrated instructional model has been effective in enhancing the participants' language proficiency level. These findings are in line with the view of Van Groenou (1995) that the use of storytelling in the classroom can promote language development, enhance the language program, and develop adult English language learners' language skills. Thus the first hypothesis has been supported.
To test the second hypothesis, "The suggested integrated instructional model of storytelling would prove to be effective in integrating the four language skills," the 't-test' was used ( Table 2).  for listening, reading, writing, and speaking respectively. They are significant at the 0.001 level. This means that the use of storytelling has led to a significant improvement in the four skills of the participants. Such findings confirm the findings in the literature (Ballast, Stephens, & Radcliffe, 2008;Brand & Donato, 2001;Craig, Hull, Haggart, & Crowder, 2001;Gakhar & Thompson, 2007;Neugebauer & Currie-Rubin, 2009;Neuman, 2006;Sadik, 2008;Verdugo & Belmonte, 2007). The finding of the present study implies that when students are instructed and trained in a certain skill, their ability to perform such a skill develops. In other words, the suggested integrated instructional model based on storytelling has been effective in integrating the four language skills. These results support the second hypothesis.
To test the third hypothesis, "The suggested integrated instructional model of storytelling would prove to be effective in enhancing the participants' language proficiency level," the modified gain ratio was used (Table 3).  Table 3 shows that the obtained gain ratio was (1.03). This means that the suggested integrated instructional model of storytelling has been effective in enhancing the participants' language proficiency level since the range for this ratio is 0 to 2, 1.0 being considered satisfactory. Thus, the third hypothesis has been supported. It is clear that the use of storytelling in the language classes can provide students with ample opportunities to be engaged in real communicative contexts and to acquire the different language skills. These results support the findings of research on use of the communicative approach to language teaching (Incecay & Incecay, 2009;Mangubhai, Marland, Dashwood, & Son;Richards, 2006)

Conclusion and Recommendations
The current findings of the present study showed that the test designed and used in the present study has proven to be reliable and valid. They indicated that the participants' language level has been enhanced (p < 0.001). This means that the suggested integrated instructional model of storytelling has been effective in enhancing the participants' language proficiency level since the obtained gain ratio was (1.03). They also revealed that storytelling is a very effective teaching technique that can be utilized in improving adult language learners' proficiency level and integrate their language skills.
The results were astonishing. The students were surprised at the richness of their writing and speaking, and pleased with the final results. They ended up liking storytelling. They were always eager to share their work with peers. They enjoyed storytelling from the time it was first introduced to them. They were glad be telling a story that was of interest to them, excited to actively communicate with another person, and conscious of their success in communicating in English. Real-life dialogue activities including checking for understanding, stopping a conversation to ask for clarity, and circumlocution, spontaneously occurred in class. Students began to ask for and give information to each other in English. Some students who could not work well in a group became good storytellers. Many of the students, who had known little success previously, found success by performing for others.
It was exciting to see students communicating, and having fun doing it. Many of the students who were motivated spent a long time working on their story. Students mentioned that the vocabulary they learned during storytelling experiences provided them with a common language to facilitate discussion. They also mentioned that they had learned about plot, narration, dialogue, characterization, setting, and point of view by writing and www.ccsenet.org/elt English Language Teaching Vol. 5, No. 12;2012 performing stories and folktales and acquired many concepts through listening to, telling, and writing stories. Storytelling led to story making. Students formed small groups of storytellers to produce and perform their own stories or folktales for other groups of students. In fact, the body of stories that grew from the students' initiatives expanded their collective folklore.
The results of the present study provide empirical support for the importance of using storytelling in the language curriculum. Perhaps the most significant pedagogical implication to be drawn is that any language teacher can make a good use of storytelling in the classroom Based on the findings and conclusion of the present study, the writer recommends the following 1. Storytelling should have its place in curriculum for English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL).
2. The links among the strands of the language arts must be actively nurtured, so that improvement in one strand carries over into another.
3. Classroom pair work and group work should be encouraged.
[ ] 5. She was wearing a long dress.
[ ] 6. She found many things to eat.
[ ] 8. She got out of the jungle after ten day.

B) Reading (25 Points)
1. Read the story.* Then answer the questions.
There was a couple who used to go to England every year to shop in the beautiful stores. This was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups.
One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful teacup. They said, "May we see that? We've never seen one quite so beautiful." As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke.
"You don't understand," it said. "I haven't always been a teacup. There was a time when I was red and I was clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, 'let me alone,' but he only smiled, 'Not yet'.
"Then I was placed on a spinning wheel," the teacup said, "and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. [ ] 2. The master stopped rolling the clay when it yelled out.
[ ] 3. The oven was not hot.
[ ] 4. The potter put the piece of clay in the oven to burn it.

C) Writing (25 Points)
1. Write a story that goes with these pictures. 1. Say your name. Then tell a story that you know or tell about a bad or a happy day in your life.
2. Look at the pictures and tell a story. Begin like this. Last week a man… Kristin ran toward Jamaica. "Yes, but I have to find something first." "What?" asked Jamaica. Kristin was bending under the slide. "What did you lose?" said Jamaica. "Edgar, my dog. I brought him with me yesterday and now I can't find him," Kristin answered. "Was he kind of gray with black ears?" Jamaica couldn't keep from shouting. "Come along with me."