The impact of the use of storytelling on the retention of vocabulary and motivations levels in 4th grade student´s in Chile

Abstract

The present research deals with the problem of a scarce use of didactic strategies and the use of traditional practices when teaching English as a foreign language. For this reason, it researches the impact of using storytelling, as a didactic strategy, in fourth graders in the “Liceo Manuel Barros Arriarán” in Chile. This study aims at finding if storytelling is an effective strategy that helps students to improve their vocabulary retention and levels of motivation. This will be pursued through three storytelling interventions that will be carried out in one of the groups of the sample. A mixed methodology is carried out to collect quantitative data through the implementation of a pre-test and post-test, and qualitative information to know students’ and the teacher’s perceptions in relation to the intervention. After a statistical analysis it was found that the impact of storytelling meant a significant improvement in the retention of vocabulary. Also, according to students’ and teachers’ perceptions, the levels of motivation and participation among the students showed an increase. It was concluded that the effectiveness of storytelling is widely related to the optimal input hypothesis. Also, as this strategy has been studied by other researchers, the present research corroborates that it boosts motivation among students. It is hoped that this strategy can reduce the problems of acquiring vocabulary and the low levels of motivation in the English classroom. Keywords: Storytelling, motivation, vocabulary retention, didactic strategies.