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this context, the researchers who took the role as the observers. This stage was also the stage where the student-teachers were given feedback from the experts of Teaching
English to Young Learners TEYL and the elementary school English teacher. In the process of the feedback, the difficulties and obstacles faced by the student-teachers were
discussed. The analysis of the teaching and learning process were also unleashed by the TEYL expert, English teacher, and researchers.
B. Storytelling in the Teaching of English at Elementary School
Storytelling is believed as one of the suitable activities for young language learners Brewster,
et.al.
, 2002; Phillips, 1993; dan Pinter, 2006 since the activity could facilitate the children‟s need to develop their imagination Gadzikowski, 2007;
Kuyvenhoven, 2009. In the field of teaching English, Garvie 1990 states that storytelling is an effective method to be used as a vehicle to achieve the aims of a
lesson. Meanwhile, McConaghy 1990 argues that story time at the classroom is the beginning of the literature exposure to the students. The story time activity could
facilitate the students to express their opinion about the story as well as influence the way how they think, discuss the characters and places of the story, and new ideas found
in the story.
Furthermore, Brewster
et al.
2002: 187 contend that storytelling could enhance the studen
ts‟ linguistic ability through the activity; a teacher could introduce and review vocabulary and the structure, as well as expose the target language to the students.
Nevertheless, Paquette 2007 has studied that storytelling could inspire the students in developing their writing ability. The influences of storytelling to the children‟s language
development were also studied by Isbell, Sobol, Lindauer, dan Lowrance, 2004. From their research, it is revealed that storytelling could also enhance the 3-5-year-old
children listening skill.
Furthermore, Collins 1999 states that the application of storytelling has given big contribution to the elementary school students‟ development. He explains that
storytelling facilitates the elementary school students to develop the thinking scheme, which in turns could develop their language skills, such as speaking, reading, and
writing skills. This activity also open the access for the students to the knowledge of sound of the words, intonation, and gesture which make students to acquire a holistic
mental mapping concept. Besides, storytelling also functions as scaffolding media that provide variety models of language which could be imitated by the elementary school
students Collins, 1999 and Kuyvenhoven, 2009. In the context of English as a Foreign Language EFL at the elementary school level, storytelling is recommended as one of
the effective activities to develop fluency and vocabulay acquisition Farrel and Nessell in Isbell
et al.,
2004 and recognised as one of the comforteble activities that concerned the
students‟ talk meaningfully in the context of learning in the classroom. Hislam, 1995.
Besides, in the field of teaching language, some researches about the application of storytelling as a learning media have been conducted. The studies showed that
storytelling could help children understand a difficult abstract concept, such as science concept Monhardt Monhardt, 2006; Pringle Lamme, 2005; Sackes, Trundle,
Flevares, 2009 and mathematics Casey, Erkut, Ceder, Young, 2008; Casey, Kersh, Young, 2004.
Beside the benefits in the field of teaching language and another course subjects, storytelling could also give positive values to the children‟s personal and character.
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Previous researches have shown convincing results about that. Besides improving children‟s language ability, storytelling could also:1 develop cross cultural
understanding, since a story is culture-bound to the background setting Al-Jafar Buzzelli, 2004; Ghosn, 2004, 2 form the children‟s identity by relating themselves to
the characters of the story Gadzikowski, 2007, 3 relate the association between the events in the story with their own experiences Kuyvenhoven, 2009, 4
developchildren‟s social ability, such as doing kindness to other people Zeece, 2009 as well as self-regulation Cooper, 2007.
Furthermore, Damayanti 2007 recommends storytelling activity to be applied as one of the methods in teaching English at the Indonesian elementary school since it is
believed as a cheap-yet-rich teaching media. This is very suitable with the condition in Indonesia, especially for the schools located in the rural area, where some school is said
to be under-resourced. Most of the schools do not have access to the children story
books that can develop their students‟ language ability. By appliying storytelling activity in the English language classroom, teacher could creatively present stories to
the students without waiting for the storybooks published by publishers. However, the teachers could present the stories to the students through their creativities, using media
that could be created from their own surroundings.
C. Teachers’ roles in Storytelling activity: Some Challenges
