Motivating Language Students with Personalized Storytelling
Location
Hager-Lubbers Exhibition Hall
Description
PURPOSE: High school foreign language curricula in the Kalamazoo Public Schools lack elements that allow and motivate beginning language learners to develop communicative skills in other languages and gain the global competency that is necessary for a 21st century education. Research has revealed that teaching language using storytelling involving the interests of students engages students and allows them to focus on the meaning of language in context. The purposes of this project are to compile a curriculum document of short and engaging stories and storytelling techniques which allow for the scaffolding of high-frequency vocabulary and grammar in the target language while motivating and empowering students to become proficient in French. PROCEDURES: This project has 4 parts: 1) a survey of students to find their interests, 2) a handout and strategies for teaching students the value of storytelling and how the brain works when learning a language; 3) a guide to using gestures to make key vocabulary and phrases comprehensible for beginning students; 4) stories and storytelling techniques with strategies for incorporating students’ interests. OUTCOME: This project’s implementation will give teachers the tools needed to tell personalized, comprehensible stories in the beginning weeks of foreign language study. IMPACT: Storytelling encourages teachers in the Kalamazoo Public Schools to stay engaged in the target language from day one and prepares students for the continued language study needed in order to communicate with speakers of other languages around the world—a “Kalamazoo Promise” in the language classroom.
Motivating Language Students with Personalized Storytelling
Hager-Lubbers Exhibition Hall
PURPOSE: High school foreign language curricula in the Kalamazoo Public Schools lack elements that allow and motivate beginning language learners to develop communicative skills in other languages and gain the global competency that is necessary for a 21st century education. Research has revealed that teaching language using storytelling involving the interests of students engages students and allows them to focus on the meaning of language in context. The purposes of this project are to compile a curriculum document of short and engaging stories and storytelling techniques which allow for the scaffolding of high-frequency vocabulary and grammar in the target language while motivating and empowering students to become proficient in French. PROCEDURES: This project has 4 parts: 1) a survey of students to find their interests, 2) a handout and strategies for teaching students the value of storytelling and how the brain works when learning a language; 3) a guide to using gestures to make key vocabulary and phrases comprehensible for beginning students; 4) stories and storytelling techniques with strategies for incorporating students’ interests. OUTCOME: This project’s implementation will give teachers the tools needed to tell personalized, comprehensible stories in the beginning weeks of foreign language study. IMPACT: Storytelling encourages teachers in the Kalamazoo Public Schools to stay engaged in the target language from day one and prepares students for the continued language study needed in order to communicate with speakers of other languages around the world—a “Kalamazoo Promise” in the language classroom.