Storytelling as vehicle for second language acquisition : learning Irish in a naíonra

Abstract

This study examines the role of storytelling as a vehicle for the acquisition of Irish as a second language during story sessions in an Irish-medium preschool or naionra. The Literature Review considers the value of stories and books in young children’s first and second languages, methods of telling and reading stories to children and the scaffolding of children’s learning in the areas of language and narrative understanding. A case study of storytelling in a naionra was undertaken, involving the observation and audio-recording of story sessions every fortnight over a period of six months. A wide range of stories was presented to the children, including stories based on picture books, oral scripted stories and teacher-led personal narratives. Each story genre provided different learning experiences for the children. A number of target stories were told intensively for a period of four to six weeks. A detailed analysis of selected target stories was undertaken. The findings revealed that skilled preschool teachers could facilitate children’s participation in storytelling sessions at the early stages of SLA. The teachers scaffolded the children’s learning by telling and reading stories in a systematic yet evolving way, a story format, and by making dynamic use of formulaic language. The provision of a pattern of storytelling, the drawing out of the key elements of the story from the children and the innovative use of formulaic language was finely tuned to the needs of the children and evolved in line with their developing competencies. By the end of the study period, all of the children could understand the stories, many of them had acquired a great deal of the formulaic language used to tell the stories and some could use this language creatively. Over time, the children were enabled to progress from simple one-word responses elicited by the teachers’ labelling questions, to giving more complex answers involving motivation and reasoning, that also required more complex language. However, the language of each story tended to stay as a separate unit, with very little transfer from other contexts or stories.