SEVECEN Sayı: 28 - 2019

52 Işıl Yaz YİĞİT It’s so exciting. Teachers speak and act like animals. Duru ŞEKERCİ I like it. The animals are talking. STORYTELLING At SEV Pre-Kindergarten, one way we develop foundational reading, writing, listening and speaking skills is through storytelling. Not only does it build the four main skills, but it also develops our social and emotional skills. Storytelling is one of the most crucial ways for children to learn a foreign language because children learn the target language implicitly while listening to a story. While the storyteller is telling the story, children are active, too. They can share their thinking, ask questions and act out the story. A good storyteller captures students’ attention by describing characters, mood, place and setting with their voice and body language. This allows students to visualize stories and expand their imagination. When the storyteller brings the stories to life, children can imagine where the story is taking place, what the characters look like and feel, what might happen next, and describe how it makes them feel. Storytelling provides students with a different understanding, a new point of view; it broadens their mind and enriches both cognitive and emotional skills. Storytelling leads to various kinds of fun activities such as role playing, drilling, rhymes, songs and riddles. The variety of activities provide opportunities to learn, hear and use the language and most importantly, in a natural and fun way. Here are some comments students made about our storytelling lessons: Burcu Zavrak Teacher : Why Do You Lıke Storytellıng?