08 June 2007
Scholar Promotes Storytelling To Engage Young Learners of English
USINFO Webchat transcript, June 7
Joan Kang Shin, lecturer in the education department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), answered questions in a June 7 USINFO Webchat on storytelling techniques and activities for young learners of English.
Following is the transcript:
(begin transcript)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of International Information Programs
USINFO Webchat transcript
Internet Tools & Curriculum Design for Young Learners of English: Storytelling and More!
Guest: Joan Kang Shin
Date: June 7, 2007
Time: 5:00 p.m. EDT (4:00 p.m. Mexico City)
Moderator: Welcome to the third of four chats on "Internet Tools & Curriculum Design for Young Learners of English"! Today's webchat will begin at 21:00 GMT. Please submit your questions anytime now or during the live chat. We look forward to hearing from you.
Moderator: Welcome Tunisia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Serbia, Madagascar, and others. We see your questions, thank you!
Today's webchat will begin at the top of the hour: 21:00 GMT/17:00 Washington/16:00 Mexico City
Joan Shin: Hello, all my English teaching colleagues from around the world!
My name is Joan Kang Shin, and I am sitting in my office at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County eager to read your questions and interact with you. I am so thrilled to meet with you here in cyberspace to discuss one of my favorite topics: Storytelling! It is a wonderful way to engage young learners in English and build their critical thinking skills. Please feel free to share your own experiences and expertise with your colleagues in this chat. Let's begin!
Question [Yamileth]: I have read about the Philosophy for Children (P4C) of Matthew Lipman, but his stories are not so suitable for EFL classes. Can you recommend short stories (for story telling) which contain topics that promote discussion?
Joan Shin: Hello, Yamileth! Thank you for your great question! I love to use Aesop’s fables for children because they have a clear moral to each story. Here is a wonderful link to a collection of Aesop’s fables. http://www.pubwire.com/DownloadDocs/AFABLES.PDF
You can click on the table of contents to skip to a particular story. There is also a list of the morals in this electronic book to easily find the lesson you want to discuss. In addition, you can click the question mark on the story to get to the questions quickly and then return to the story by clicking on the arrow.
These are wonderful stories to tell! You can easily find animal puppets and toys or draw visuals of the animal characters to use during the storytelling. They create interest and aid in comprehension. These types of animal visuals are a worthwhile investment to buy or make because they come up in lots of children’s books. Also, children love animals and should be encouraged to make or draw their own characters and story scenes. You can add more dialogue for the characters to make the storytelling come alive!
Isn’t it wonderful to teach English AND gets children to question themselves on moral issues? It works with students of all ages!
Moderator: Participants, if you would like to introduce yourself to the group, please select the "comment" option and tell us who you are and where in the world you are joining the chat from.
Q [aimee Cabrera]: I would like to know the topics or what kind of stories you would suggest me to use in order to motivate my young students- 8 or 9 years old- to improve their language skills in order to make English alive and at the same time to have fun and critical thinking as well, thank you!
A [Joan Shin]: Since storytelling is the main topic of this Webchat, I want to introduce stories that have wonderful plots and characters AND are great for reading aloud with children. First, I want to share with you a list of books perfect for storytelling and reading aloud. It comes from Reading Aloud America:
http://www.readaloudamerica.org/ReadingList2007.htm
Notice on this list that the books are listed by age group. You and the rest of our esteemed colleagues in this Web chat should be able to find wonderfully engaging and charming books for your different learners.
In case you can stock your school’s library with good books, here is a composite list from Read Aloud America for the past few years. Isn’t this a great resource?
Aimee, one of my absolute favorite stories for 8-9 year olds is “The Rainbow Fish”. When I do my storytelling workshop for teachers around the world, I usually do a demonstration using this book. It is wonderful for critical thinking skills, particularly for practicing description and prediction and discussing issues of pride, arrogance, and selfishness, and friendship. Perfect for children!
You can see the story and some fun activities in these links: http://www.eurotales.eril.net/fish2uk.htm
http://www.thevirtualvine.com/rainbowfish.html
However, I must tell you! There is no substitute for getting the actual storybook for The Rainbow Fish. It is a beautiful book with lots of fantastically colored pictures of the characters and scenes. Don’t miss the real experience with the website above. Ask your school to invest in this storybook. You won’t regret it!
After you do the storytelling you can supplement your lesson with activities like these:
http://lessonplanz.com/Lesson_Plans/Literature_Activities/The_Rainbow_Fish/index.shtml
You can also connect the story to the different content areas. Use this site as a great example for ALL your storytelling units! http://library.uncc.edu/files/5/cimc/pdfs/units/rainbowfish.pdf
Doing this helps your students extend their use of English through the context of the story. They build language skills in other content areas and have fun in the process!
Comment [Hela]: Hello, Joan. I'm really thrilled to take part in this webchat. My name is Hela Nafti. I come from Tunisia. I am involved in curriculum design as I am an ELT teacher trainer.
Moderator: Welcome Hela!
Q [Taha Samir]: how can I handle a class of 60 students successfully?
A [Joan Shin]: Taha, what a great question! First, I must say that your school system should really consider making the class sizes smaller. It is very difficult to do activities like storytelling in an interactive way when your class is so large.
Many teachers find it helpful to enlist the help of volunteers in their classroom. Parents who can speak English and student teachers from the university are wonderful resources to help you break the class into smaller groups for storytelling. Children love to hear the same story told by different people as well, so if you can find good students of English in your country and have them come and tell stories – wonderful!
With the support of your school you can also do an exchange one day with a nearby secondary school. If there is a large auditorium or cafeteria, you have one teenager learning English to read/tell stories to a small group of young learners. You need to break your big class into different rooms, so it does not get do loud!
Joan Shin: Hello, Hela! I am very pleased to meet you here. Welcome to the chat!
C [Ada]: Hello, my name is Ada from, UNAN-León, Nicaragua. Thanks one more time for the invitation to this site, where we all can learn and share a lot from each other through our experiences and doubts.
Q [hengki Mofu]: nice chat with you about curriculum design for young learner, especially storytelling.
How can I manage the class so the students will follow what I talk about because they are at the beginner class of the vocabulary will be the big problem for them?
A [Joan Shin]: First, you need to develop your learners’ vocabulary. Use the most frequently used word lists by Dolch or Fry to build vocabulary that your learners will see the most. Believe it or not the first 25 most frequent words make up about 1/3 of all printed material. The first 100 make up about 50% all written material. You can help your learners’ comprehension by building the words from these lists little by little at the beginning stages.
Fry List http://www.usu.edu/teachall/text/reading/Frylist.pdf
Dolch List http://literacyconnections.com/Dolch1.html
Then you should use stories that have a lot of repetition. If you look at the list of books from Read Aloud America (http://www.readaloudamerica.org/ReadingList2007.htm), the books for the youngest learners tend to have much repetition.
Joan Shin: Hello, Ada! Nice to see you here too! Welcome!
Q [O.J.]: How’s it to pick a curriculum over there. What are the criteria you take into account? O.J. Nicaragua.
Joan Shin: Thanks for your thoughtful question, O.J.
A [Joan Shin]: The criteria that ESL teachers should take into account here at the PreK-12 English Language Proficiency Standards (www.tesol.org). The foreign language standards that are recommended in the U.S. come from the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century. This can be ordered from ACTFL (www.actfl.org).
To supplement your reading and storytelling, I would suggest using any graded reader series from a major publisher that is accessible in your country. The graded readers are very helpful for improving your students’ literacy skills. Ask the different publishers to send you samples of their graded reader series and see which one works best for your particular students.
C [Heba2]: Hello everyone. My name is Heba :-) Actually I have a comment not a question. I worked as a KG teacher and later as a middle school teacher and I really believe that the students tend to grasp the language easier when they are involved in the creation of the visuals or realia related to the story. Students not only get excited because they make the visuals for the story, but also they can learn vocabulary related to the arts and crafts activities. The teacher can use the simplest materials to make the visuals or realia needed. For example if the story is "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" the teacher could bring different sizes of puppets to held show the action of the story.
If there is no budget for such material, the teacher could help the students make little pencil puppets of the three bears and Goldilocks before the story telling. This doesn’t take a lot of time and really makes the students excited to hear the story. If the students are too young to draw, the teacher could make copies of the characters on paper and have students color them. The picture can then be taped on the students' pencils.
C [Norman Huerta]: I am Norman Huerta, Adult Program Cooridator of the Binational Center in Nicaragua, I am glad to join this chat.
Comment [lula]: My name is Jose M. Celis, and I'm joining your web chat from Mexico City.
Q [Mónica]: Is it a good idea to focus young learners' attention on grammar when working with storytelling? I mean students about 6-9 years old? How to do it?
A [Joan Shin]: Monica, your question is a very popular one.
Since many language programs are still grammar based, teachers feel pressure to emphasize teaching language structures in the classroom. Using storytelling is a communicative approach that tries to keep language whole to support language acquisition. It is more natural for children to "pick up" the grammatical structures within the context of the story.
I would not recommend teaching grammar explicitly to young learners. Use the storytelling to spark students' interest, and they will acquire many new language structures without realizing it! It does not mean that you cannot teach grammar implicitly during the storytelling or follow-up activities. For example, when asking and answering questions, you can reinforce word order through gentle recasting and error correction through repetition.
Or, maybe you have a game with word cards where students have to put the words in the right order to make a sentence from the story to match the picture. These are ways to build students' use of grammar without "teaching" it.
Q [Manuel Aguirre]: Hi Joan, Could you help me with some web sites that could help how to identify some of the key aspects that characterize YLs and their implications for teaching them?
Manuel Aguirre
ASC - Academic Support Center
Managua … Nicaragua
A [Joan Shin]: Hi, Manuel! I can give you some, but if you take my Teaching English to Young Learners course online through the US Department of State, you will be exposed to many many more!
Here are two good articles about the basic characteristics for young learners (YLs):
http://www.etprofessional.com/articles/challenge.pdf
http://www.eltforum.com/forum/pdfs/materials_classroom.pdf
There are so many wonderful articles in English Teaching Forum. Please see the site here: http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/
Hello, Heba! I noticed that your comment is actually coming from my article called "Ten Helpful Ideas for Teaching English to Young Learners". It is almost copied from my text. Of course, I would agree with your statement since I wrote it!
Moderator: Welcome Peru!
Q [Manuel Aguirre]: Hi Joan, I also would like to know, How to motivate YLs if they do not come from the same social background and they do not have contact with the English Language once they leave the classroom?
Joan in our Latin American countries not all YLs have supportive and interested parents in their learning, even though they matriculate them in English courses.
Manuel Aguirre
ASC - Academic Support Center
Managua … Nicaragua
A [Joan Shin]: Manuel, what a good point to make. In foreign language situations there is not much English in the environment, so the EFL teacher has to create a communicative environment in the classroom. What a big challenge!
I think that storytelling fits right in because you can tap into children's imagination and creativity and make the class a place where English is used to talk about stories, characters, places, and related all the themes and topics to your students' real lives.
One thing I like to encourage my teachers to do is this: Have storytelling by the children themselves related to their own lives. You can do a Show and Tell where they bring in their favorite objects or toys and explain them in English. You can also have students bring in a picture or photograph and have them tell (and then later write) a story about it. Whatever you can do to make the use of English related to them helps children to see the relevance in use of the language.
Q [Heba2]: Hello again: actually I didn't copy it. I really used this method in class. It was enjoyable for me and for the children. I made a session in my class that was called the story telling class. Me and my students put aside all the chairs and desks in class and we actually sit on the floor to make this cut and paste stuff. Then we move to this specialized corner where we sit on cushions that I get from my apartment every story telling class and we sit and act it out. This is why all what I say sound exactly like what you wrote because you are the boss and I'm taking from your experiences since I wasn't yet into the new teaching techniques that I started using since I started reading books and trying to get much out of them.
Q [IRC Antananarivo]: HI, I am Lala Razafindrakoto, English teacher trainer in Antananarivo.
I have read an article of yours which was interesting and helpful. There was a short paragraph about storytelling. You talked about how to choose the stories according to the familiar context of the learners.
Could you give me a procedure for presenting a story to beginner young learners?
A [Joan Shin]: Hello, Lala! I am so glad that you read my article and found it helpful. I'm sure it must be the "Ten Helpful Ideas for TEYL" in English Teaching Forum.
Using stories and contexts familiar to students helps the learning be relevant to them (as we discussed in the previous message). Here is a good procedure to follow: First, choose a story that is a favorite of your students. It could be a folktale or fairytale from your culture. It could also be about a movie or TV show your students have seen. Think about how you could tell it in simple words. Write the story. Be sure that the amount of unknown vocabulary does not exceed 75-80% of the total number of words. Then make a list of the unknown words.
From here, you have two choices as a teacher. You can be the storyteller, OR your students can be the storytellers. If you are the storyteller, make sure your have visuals to supplement your stories (realia, pictures, toys, puppets, etc.) Tell the story interactively, always asking comprehension questions and getting the children involved.
If you students will be storytellers, have them make their own visuals or finger puppets. Then get them to tell you the story while you write it down on a big piece of poster paper or the white/blackboard. When you write their story, make the corrections in English on the paper to give students a good model. Also provide the vocabulary they don't know. If they use their native language, let them, but have them repeat the story in English at the end. Then have them practice telling the story in English!
It's a version of the Language Experience Approach. Instead of the experience, students are telling you their favorite story!
Q [IRC Antananarivo]: From Micheline Ravelonanahary, English teachers' trainer, Antananarivo: Hi, Storytelling is indeed an effective way to attract the learners' mind. However using internet for this purpose is still very limited in our schools or even rare. What teachers do is they translate Malagasy stories students are familiar with into English;
Could you give website where teachers can find very short stories for our young learners? English has been introduced in primary schools and we need a lot of materials.
A [Joan Shin]: Hi, Micheline! I hope you saw the website with Aesop's Fables at the beginning of this chat. I also like the following online stories:
http://www.grimmfairytales.com/en/main
http://andersenfairytales.com/en/main
http://www.classicfairytales.com/en/main
In addition to fairytales, there are some pages with online stories for preschoolers and elementary/primary students that have easy language for beginners:
http://www.storyplace.org/preschool/other.asp
http://www.storyplace.org/eel/other.asp
Plus, the Book Hive has lots of resources: http://www.bookhive.org/
These are fun interactive sites with stories, visuals, audio, and games.
Moderator: Dear "Karemcita" and others, we do see your questions coming in. Your questions appear on the screen only after they are selected and answered by the guest speaker. We hope you will understand that there are many questions coming in and Ms. Shin is working to answer as many as possible.
C [Karemcita]: The answer Lala got is useful for all of us as well thanks a lot.]
Q [ACKG]: Beside the excellent book by Jim Trelease "Read Aloud Handbook", that I found in the American Corner, can you recommend some other title that could help in developing Storytelling?
A [Joan Shin]: I'm so glad that you found the Read Aloud Handbook. Here are some great articles about storytelling. Most of them can be found online, and they give good tips for teachers who want to make their storytelling come alive!
Ghosn, I.K. (1997). ESL with children’s literature. English Teaching Forum, 35(3), 14-19. http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol35/no3/p14.htm
Hines, M. (2005). Story theater. English Teaching Forum, 43(1), 24-29.
Malkina, N. (1995). Storytelling in early language teaching. English Teaching Forum, 33(1), 38-39. http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol33/no1/P38.htm
Mixon, M., & Temu, P. (2006). First road to learning: Language through stories. English Teaching Forum, 44(2), 14-19.
Pedersen, E.M. (1995). Storytelling and the art of teaching. English Teaching Forum, 33(1), 2-5. http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol33/no1/P2.htm
One thing to remember that if you are having fun, your students will have fun! Using different visuals, voices, and movement to animate the characters help students stay interested and really helps aid in comprehension of the language. Just another good reason to use storytelling!
Q [IRC Antananarivo]: From Seheno Ramaroson, English teacher Antananarivo. Hi, is it possible to use the native language and English in one session of storytelling? How?
A [Joan Shin]: Hi, Seheno! It is definitely possible to use the native language with English in storytelling. I would like to suggest something, though. To make the use of L1 (native language) effective, the teacher should plan the lesson carefully. A well-planned lesson includes the teacher anticipating where use of L1 is most likely to occur. For example, during a particularly difficult part of a story. Maybe the vocabulary, expression, or grammar is particular hard. Then the teacher can quickly use the L1 to translate the meaning appropriately. However, the teacher should quickly move back to English.
In addition, there are times when the teacher can quickly check students' comprehension of the story using L1. However, to create a communicative classroom in English, the teacher has to move back to English and re-check students' comprehension without use of L1.
If students are used to certain routines where L1 is permitted briefly and then quickly switched back to English, then your students won't rely of L1 too much. You'll see! They will start to use English more when know that there are specific situations that are designated as appropriate to use L1.
Q [Frank2]: My name’s Franklin Tellez from the Binational Center in Nicaragua. Parents are part of the Education. We involve our students parents in our activities. We invited some parents (who speak English) to read a book once a month. They liked this idea. The children will read and act a book for them what is your opinion about this kind of activity?
What kind of books do you recommend for hyperactive students?
A [Joan Shin]: Great activity, Franklin! As I mentioned earlier, it is great to get parents into the classroom as volunteers. It spices up your instruction! Children should have more models for English, not just their one teacher.
I love the idea of acting out a story for an audience. Storytelling and drama go hand in hand. It is really effective to take a story, then have students write a play from it. It checks their comprehension of the plot of the story, and they practice the language learned by using it in a drama.
I think that "hyperactive" students could describe almost any young learners, right? Young learners have boundless energy! Using TPR Storytelling is great. Just in case you don't know, TPR stands for Total Physical Response. TPR Storytelling is a way to use movement while telling stories. For more information:
http://www.tprstorytelling.com/
Moderator: Dear "Heba2", we are getting your questions. Ms. Shin is working as quickly as she can to review and answer the many questions coming in.
Moderator: Welcome Bolivia!
Q [karemcita]: Joan, you mentioned there is an online course TEYL. I work with a group of teachers and we would really like to learn more specially about story telling, so that we are ready to face the challenge!!! Could you please give more information about it?
A [Joan Shin]: My online course for TEYL is given through the E-Teacher Program in the US Department of State. We have lots of discussions like there in the course. There is just not enough time to answer all of your questions here.
If you would like to take this course, please contact your US Embassy. If you have a Regional English Language Office (RELO) in your local area, please contact that person. You can find out the closest RELO in your area here:
http://exchanges.state.gov/education/engteaching/eal-elos.htm
Let them know that you did a Web chat with me through the State Department. There are not many spaces, but maybe you can join my E-Teacher course.
If you cannot get a space in the E-Teacher Program, you can take the course directly from my university. Please see this webpage:
http://www.cps.umbc.edu/aps/e-Teacher_Program1.asp?SnID=563387915
Q [Hansfran]: I am a Nicaraguan English teacher I teach at UNAN our national university y teach English teachers some of them are teaching in kindergarden or working with small kids, I would like to know if they can log in, I am sure it would help them alot. thank you
Moderator: Dear "Hansfran", if you are asking if your pupils may log into this and other USINFO webchats, the answer is yes! Please do.
Q [Heba2]: Hi again :-) I have a question that has been bothering me for a long time. When I used this method in teaching, I really feel that students are interested but when I did it more than once, I got bored of it so I thought that maybe the children feel the same too. What other methods could I use to keep them interested all the time?
A [Joan Shin]: Hello, Heba! I know what you mean! It is always good to refresh ourselves and our methods of teaching. If we are bored, then our students will be bored too!
Because many other questions asked about resources to refresh them as well as resources for older students, I thought I would give this site:
http://eduscapes.com/ladders/themes/webquests.htm
This is a page of WebQuests. The reason why I post this site is that it links you to many other teachers' WebQuests. Every WebQuest is based on stories and literature. For me, there is nothing better than to see what other teachers are doing with their students. In addition, these WebQuests are project-based and build students' creativity and critical thinking skills. This keep them invested in the learning process.
You may not have computers to use these with your students in class; however, you can use them as activity resources. Many of the projects can be done using printed handouts. Also you will find good evaluation methods and plenty of rubrics to use at every level.
Finally, every WebQuest has a list of resources/sources used. You can find great books, stories, and links to more resources.
Have a great time with all of these resources!
C [Ada]: Hi, I know Joan is busy answering the questions, all which I have found very useful, THANKS!!
But I will like to take advantage of this very important chat, and invite you all to attend our II congress "Current Trends and Moves in English Teaching Language" to be held at UNAN-León Nicaragua on 31st January, 1st, 2nd February 2008. To attend it as participant or presenter. For more information you can contact me at francinitatorres@yahoo.com
Then I will give another address for you to contact us in it. Thanks, and we hope you all can be able to join us!!
Q [IRC Antananarivo]: From Micheline Ravelonanahary, English teachers' trainer, Antananarivo: Hi again, concerning the four skills what age or grade would be suitable to introduce the writing for primary children?
Thank you very much.
A [Joan Shin]: Micheline, Writing simultaneously with reading. This can start as soon as your students start learning English (which is different in every country). However, you may be merely getting young learners ready to write. For example, you might be getting them familiar with the shape of the letters. They might be making the letter shapes very large on the floor with blocks. They might be writing their own name using pictures with similar shapes. They could be moving around letter blocks or magnets around. Often you will be linking the writing to movement and art at the very beginning stages (up to 5 years old).
I would say that once students are writing in their native language and have those motor skills, they should be able write in the new language as well. Hope this was helpful!
Q [Norman Huerta]: What other tools do you recommend for improving speaking skills in our students who are all studying in a EFL class?
Can we find some resources in the internet?
How different is it to work with a group of young learners and a group of adults in terms of adapting communicative activities? NHG, Nicaragua
A [Joan Shin]: As I mentioned, drama is a great way to improve speaking skills in an EFL class. You can make a drama from a story you just read. You can also have older students make their own dialogues and dramas from topics that are relevant to them.
For more brilliant ideas on improving speaking skills using drama, storytelling, and other approaches, check out the resources on this site:
http://oelp.uoregon.edu/teach.html
Q [lula]: How good will it do if I choose well known story books (Little red riding hood or El Principito) for students of ESL
Jose M Celis
A [Joan Shin]: I think that using well known stories for students of ESL is great! Always remember the cultural element and prepare your lessons with that in mind. If there are unknown cultural aspects in the story, you can create a great research project where students try to find the answers themselves.
In addition, using storybooks for the U.S. context can build good bridges between countries and cultures. They can be a good conversation starter about cultural differences and tolerance. I think it's great! Just make sure to always validate your own students' cultures and have them related the themes from every storybook to their own lives.
Q [jenny2]: HI JOAN. I AM JENNY CHAVEZ FROM BOLIVIA. I HOPE IT`S NOT TOO LATE, I MADE A MISTAKE WITH THE TIME HERE IN LA PAZ. WELL I HAVE BEEN READING THE MESSAGES AND YOUR ANSWERS. CERTAINLY, READING IS NOT A STRENGHT IN OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM THAT`S WHY WE MOSTLY USE WHAT IS SUGGESTED IN THE EFL TEXTBOOKS(CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG BUT I CONSIDER THOSE READINGS VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR ORIENTED)SO, WHAT WOULD BE THE FIRST STEP TO REALLY INTRODUCE READING SKILLS TO YOUNG LEARNERS AND THEN MOVE ON TO STORY TELLING?
A [Joan Shin]: Hi, Jenny! First, storytelling is a listening activity more than anything else. However, if you use the actual storybook, you can begin to introduce reading skills in the process. I think that you can definitely build listening skills with a storytelling and also build reading skills by using the text of the same story.
Shared reading is a great way to build reading skills and still have an interactive class like storytelling, See this link for more information:
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/literacy/em_lit4.html
Q [ACKG]: In the [American Corner] Kragujevac, Serbia, Storytelling is the most popular among children of 3-6 years old. They enjoy coloring activities that go with the stories, also. Do you have any suggestion on how to promote this activity even more?
A [Joan Shin]: Here are some great resources to use with stories for learners of all ages. They are site from two wonderful children's book authors. You can find some of the most popular and effective stories on these sites as well as great activities to use with young learners.
Here is the site of the famous Eric Carle: http://www.eric-carle.com/
Jan Brett has lots of printable handouts and activities:
http://www.janbrett.com/index.html
Joan Shin: My dearest colleagues! It is now time for me to end this lovely chat. I answered all the questions related to this Webchat. Some of you had questions that were not answered directly, but I think that I addressed them all within the chat through answers to other questions. I was so impressed with your questions, and I hope that you will find the resources I have given you helpful.
I want to leave you with one more site. When using stories to teach English, we should always remember that there are so many cultures that communicate with each other through English. It has indeed become an international language. This means that using stories from the U.S. is great, but even better is to use stories coming from countries and cultures around the world.
In the spirit of international connections and building bridges across cultures, please check out this Website with stories in English from around the world.
When we teach our children English, we are also opening them up to the world. Let's make sure we make it fun and meaningful. Let's also make sure that their stories are heard!
Thank you so much for your participation in this Webchat. Best wishes to all of you!
Joan Kang Shin
Education Department
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Moderator: We wish to thank Joan Kang Shin for joining us. The webchat is now closed. Please visit our USINFO Webchat Station homepage for more information on upcoming events and a transcript of today’s discussion (posted within one business day).
(Guests are chosen for their expertise. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of State.)
The next webchat in this series will take place on June 14 at 21:00 GMT. Please join Judie Haynes as she discusses "Internet Tools & Curriculum Design for Young Learners of English: Technology and Classroom Activities"
(end transcript)
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