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Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 2017, 7, 119-141
http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojml
ISSN Online: 2164-2834
ISSN Print: 2164-2818
DOI: 10.4236/ojml.2017.72010 April 20, 2017
Tell and Write, the Effect of Storytelling
Strategy for Developing Story Writing Skills
among Grade Seven Learners
Fatma Alkaaf, Ali Al-Bulushi
Curriculum and Instruction Department, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman
Abstract
This study investigates the effect of storytelling as a strategy for developing
story writing skills among grade seven pupils in a public Omani school. The
sample of the study consisted of 243 pupils randomly selected
and assigned to
experimental and control groups. The data used for the purpose of this study
were collected over the course of one semester via pre-
post test design for
equivalent groups. The experimental groups were taught by using the adopted
storytellin
g strategy, whereas the control groups were taught by using the
conventional procedures as prescribed in the formal teacher’s guidebook. The
researchers assessed the effect of storytelling as a strategy for developing story
writing skills and the findings indicated that the experimental group outpe
r-
formed the control group in the story writing skills test. This was indicative of
the fact that the storytelling strategy may have a significant positive effect on
pupils’ story writing. Important implications of this study within the fram
e-
work of a similar context are also outlined.
Keywords
Story Writing, Writing Skills, Strategy Teaching, Teaching Arabic
1. Introduction
Writing is considered to be one of the most important means of communication
through which humans can express their thoughts and discover the thoughts of
others. It is considered to be the pride of the human mind, as it is the greatest
production of human thinking. Through writing, culture has been recorded and
transferred from a generation to another. In addition, through writing, the hu-
man being could record the developments around it, how it shapes our lives, and
how it influences the society overall (Migawer, 2001).
How to cite this paper:
Alkaaf,
F. and
Al
-Bulushi, A. (2017).
Tell and Write, the
Effect of Storytelling Strategy for Develo
p-
ing Story Writing Skills among Grade Se
v-
en
Learners.
Open Journal of Modern Li
n-
guistics
, 7,
119-141.
https:
//doi.org/10.4236/ojml.2017.72010
Received:
February 8, 2017
Accepted:
April 17, 2017
Published:
April 20, 2017
Copyright © 201
7 by authors and
Scientific
Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY
4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Open Access
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
120
Verbal and written communication is vital in order for people to interact with
each other. Writing is particularly crucial for humans in order to learn about the
thoughts and feelings of others. Effective writing has gained considerable im-
portance and has become an essential tool for teachers and educators in order to
ensure that pupils have the required writing skills to be successful in their study
(Graham, 2006).
Vygotsky (1978) stated that success in writing is not exclusively dictated by
the writer’s cognitive skills. As a skill, it is possible for storytelling to utilize the
cognitive and affective aspects of learning and offer a pedagogical alternative for
developing various language skills. During storytelling pupils enjoy being to-
gether and learning about one another’s views, receiving immediate responses
and writing on topics that interest them (Sisserson, Manning, Kenpler, & Jolliffe,
2002; Thomas, 2000).
The goals of teaching different types of writing compositions stem from the
importance thereof, as they provide interactants with a valuable opportunity to
communicate. It is a way to expresses one’s ideas and employs various linguistic
techniques and expressions. In addition, teaching pupils different types of writ-
ing by means of such potential writing strategies could provide pupils with a
valuable opportunity to improve their communication skills (Hillocks, 1995;
Shahata, 2000). One of the writing genres that language teachers could poten-
tially use is narrative writing which has been empirically researched in several
contexts (e.g. Aida, 2007; Gregor, 1998) and showed a strategic relationship with
other language skills.
2. Narrative Writing
Distafano (2007) defined narrative writing as writing a story to include specific
elements that work together in order to stimulate the interest and excitement of
the writer and readers. It makes the writer or the reader feel as if they partake in
the story or could First, confirm that you have the correct relate to it directly
somehow.
The concept of narrative writing is defined as composing a text on the basis of
a certain structure in order to describe the events from the writer’s point of view
according to people’s reactions (Charlotte, 2001). This type of writing depicts a
story in a special, technical and exciting way, while addressing the feelings of
readers or listeners. It is pertinent in novels, personal articles, plays and short
stories.
The purpose of narrative writing is to present pupils with the opportunity to
express themselves in a personal manner. It is characterized by a creative style
which allows them to adapt their creative writing. It reflects the awareness of the
pupil about literary works, such as poetry, articles, and stories as, well as their
ability to produce a coherent product which expresses their feelings and the
manner in which they could impact others. Narrative writing could also help the
writer to use linguistic styles and literary forms suitable for the desired topics
and consistent with the type of audience. Teachers can help pupils in mastering
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
121
this type of writing by prompting them with some questions about the events of
the story, its chronology, their expectations, and moral of the story (Chavis,
2009).
Narrative writing aims to present a story based on personal experiences or
imaginative events. According to Sue (2007), the three main elements of narra-
tive stories are:
1) Introduction: the extent to which the writer is capable of outlining the topic
and drawing the reader’s attention to the elements of the story.
2) Body: the behavioral indicators that construct the plot and weave the events
towards the climax in order to eventually discover the moral of the story.
3) Conclusion: the resolution of the story’s problem and a statement marking
a logical ending.
Stories occupy a prominent position in children’s literature. Young readers
tend to like and enjoy them whether heard or read. It is the appropriate form
through which morals and positive ideas may be presented (Issa, 2007).
The concept behind a story and the significance thereof differ across cultures.
For example, in Western cultures stories are referred to as a “series of events
which have been ascending to a culmination and then finish by the solution after
the gradual decline of events” (Lipman, 1999). However, African cultures con-
sider the story to be constituted by a balanced number of events which are linked
by a common general idea driven by multiple characters, with each character
having its own story (Lipman, 1999). Moreover, Golden (1984) describes child-
ren’s perception of stories as being a mental representation of the story struc-
ture, or an outline of the basic story elements and their organization. Arabs, on
the other hand, see the story as a series of “interrelated events which revolve
around a main character and lists action to adapt to that position” (Al-Hadidi,
1996: p. 185). In addition, some would argue that stories are a work of art and a
series of interrelated events that revolve around the main idea and include a
number of plots and a solution (Hanoora, 1999).
Based on the previous background, story writing (i.e. used interchangeably
with narrative writing) is viewed in this study as a literary art focused on dis-
playing a series of logical events executed by one or several characters in order to
convey a specific moral. Stories are regarded as a prominent genre and are
commonly used in lessons and in life in general. Just how other genres and lite-
rary works have their own linguistic requirements (i.e. grammatical structures
and language usage), so does writing a story. Storywriters should be mindful of
these requirements in order to produce stories on the basis of these characteris-
tics. When well-crafted, such literary works enable writers to express themselves
in various idiosyncratic forms and touch peoples’ lives.
Spivey (1989), Dinkson (2001) and Pfeiffer and Boles (2008) outlined a num-
ber of story writing skills such as:
1) The ability to formulate an appropriate introduction that can excite, attract
the reader and link to the essence of the story’s main idea. Students can
choose the beginning and the description of an event, place, character or an
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
122
exciting plot in the story.
2) The ability to create active roles for the characters in the story. This skill is
apparent when choosing suitable characters to match the topic of the story
and defining each role in order to conform to the story and reflect its idea.
3) The ability to arrange and organize events according to temporal sequence
and interdependence. This skill translates into the narration of the story
events in their chronological order using appropriate linkage devices.
4) The ability to build an atmosphere suitable for the course of events of the
story. This skill is apparent when establishing the setting of the story and uti-
lizing the time factor in order to serve the course of events.
5) The ability to formulate a problem in relation to the story’s idea. This skill is
about formulating a problem that requires a solution and is linked to the core
structure of the problem.
6) The ability to formulate an appropriate conclusion for the course of events of
the story. This skill transpires in providing solutions to the problem of per-
suasion and associated events.
7) The ability to use visuals in order to obtain a complete story.
8) The ability to use vocabulary items and appealing linguistic expressions in
writing. This skill is about the use correct utilization of lexis, expressions and
story dialogue.
9) Effective use of linguistic conventions in the story’s morphology, grammar,
spelling and coherence devices.
10) Effective use of punctuation in writing guided by the meaning of the story.
3. Relationship between Storytelling and Writing
The storytelling strategy could be used for the purpose of developing writing
since it employs different phases of literacy development. It also variably im-
proves the four essential skills in language learning along with grammar and vo-
cabulary. In contrast, other teaching approaches may instructionally help one of
the writing processes, such as the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD),
which is an instructional approach that reinforces independent learning by en-
couraging students to monitor, evaluate, and revise their writing. However, one
of the major limitations of the SRSD is the focus placed on the planning process
at the expense of revising (Schnee, 2010).
Effective instructional strategies are important as they allow pupils to become
proficient writers. Over time, we have consistently expanded our knowledge of
the nature of writing, yet teachers and educationists are still looking for better
ways to improve their instructions, particularly in the case of those pupils who
have never written a story before.
Gallets (2005) indicated that in storytelling one person relates the story from
memory to a different person or a group. The teller acts as a transmitter and the
listener(s) as a receiver of thoughts and ideas with interaction between the two.
Young children listen to stories and other narratives and subsequently incorpo-
rate them in their writing through drafting, sharing, or editing. In this regard,
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
123
Hana (2010) found that storytelling promotes listening skills and listening com-
prehension, fosters imagination, as well as improves vocabulary usage and writ-
ing techniques among pupils and the interaction between pupils and between
pupils and teachers. Aida (2007) also indicated that storytelling is particularly
effective in terms of improving listening and writing skills among pupils.
Gregor (1998) outlined a number of benefits associated with teaching through
the art of storytelling such as exchanging experiences, developing self-confidence
in speaking and writing, improving vocabulary and language skills, fostering
creativity, enhancing comprehension, and encouraging an ongoing discussion of
thoughts and beliefs. Diawn (2008) indicated that storytelling improved pupils’
self-confidence in their own writing skills and encouraged cooperation among
pupils. Furthermore, Isabell, Sobool, Lindauer, and Lowrance (2004) investi-
gated the corresponding and complementary ways in which storytelling and
story reading influence the language development and story comprehension
among 3 - 4 year old children. They found that storytelling helped children with
speaking, overall comprehension and recognizing the story’s elements.
Storytelling also plays an important part in reading and writing classes.
Al-Mansour and Al-Shorman (2011) indicated that storytelling improves pupils’
reading comprehension and suggested that oral storytelling is useful for im-
proving learners’ self-confidence and reading skills. Since stories constitute a
form of creative writing, learners should be encouraged to practise it pedagogi-
cally and extensively. Birkenkraha (2014) asserted that storytelling supports stu-
dents in creative writing and helps to improve the quality of learners’ composi-
tions. Zabel (1991) and Yang and Wu (2012) mentioned that telling stories in
the classroom improved skills such as critical thinking, vocabulary and learning
motivation. The educational benefits of storytelling in the classroom, according
to (Groce, 2001) include instilling a love of language among students, cultivating
imagination, improving both listening skills and vocabulary, consolidating com-
prehension, recalling the story, and encouraging pupils to adopt critical think-
ing.
Storytelling could also be utilized in order to promote language usage among
children. Egan (1987) stated that storytelling should be used in order to help
young children with their language skills. It is possible to make reading and
writing meaningful and interactive by using children’s oral culture. Meher
(1995) formulates a list of ideas that teachers could take into account:
1) The fact that children can relate their experiences through emotions.
2) Storytelling makes lessons enjoyable.
3) Storytelling inspires children and encourages them to achieve fluency.
4) A teacher who is passionate about language is likely to instill the same inter-
est in their students.
Ralston (1993) stated that there was a strong correlation between storytelling
and language skills. The aims of both are to help pupils enjoy literature, stimu-
late their imagination, teach them how to listen and improve their verbal and
oral communication skills. Furthermore, storytelling contributes to helping pu-
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
124
pils learn the story’s elements and interact with the spoken word (Hillocks,
1995).
The storytelling strategy could improve the Arabic language skills of pupils in
areas such as the communication between teachers and pupils, comprehension,
fluency, vocabulary, sequencing and creative writing. It might also initiate crea-
tive thinking. When pupils become interested in stories, mental images spring to
mind and the thought process associated thereto is triggered (Robinson, 2008).
In addition, Davis (2000) mentioned that pupils initially discuss a story with
their peers before they begin the writing process. The feedback received from
other pupils helps the writer to refine and retell his or her story until he or she is
ready to write it. This strategy enables writers to prepare for the first stages of
the writing process by listening, thinking and speaking.
4. Storytelling across Some of the World
Storytelling has long been the mainstay of the global society in terms of commu-
nication and storing information. In ancient times, storytelling constituted the
way in which people held onto their customs and beliefs and passed on the
knowledge they acquired to younger generations. Prior to the earliest historical
records, no other means of doing so were available and it is the oldest method
we know in which people memorize events (Abrahamson, 1998). Abrahamson
(1998) claims that storytelling may have facilitated the survival of some civiliza-
tions considering that the experiences of life and death were thus passed on to
generations to come. Ruth Sawyer (2011) stated that 4000 BES is the very first
record of storytelling that we know of (as cited in Abrahamson, 1998). Back in
ancient times, storytellers were very well regarded because they took their craft
to a level beyond entertainment. They could often help people to understand re-
ligious or cultural matters, or offer comfort in sorrow. They were popular in
both Egyptian and Roman cultures and even among nomadic tribes, such as the
Gypsies, who found them useful (Douglas, 2005).
For Mello (2001), storytelling in ancient times was used to pass on people’s
ideas and knowledge. Back then, different societies used it not only in order to
exchange ideas and perceptions, but also for the purpose of teaching and learn-
ing (Meyer & Bogdan, 2001). Native American cultures had no written language,
and as a result they used oral storytelling in order to exchange information about
their values and beliefs (Koki, 1998). They also used it in order to pass on such
details to their children (Meyer & Bogdan, 2001). Native Americans told stories
about the meaning of life in order to instill values and encourage a certain type
of behavior, to perform rituals and ceremonies, and in the case of respected
members of the community, to pass on their knowledge (Koki, 1998).
Asian and European societies also used oral storytelling in a similar way to
Native Americans. Topical items such as birth, death and marriage were con-
veyed by storytellers who travelled between villages in order to propagate such
values (ibid.). In some cases, picture writing and drawings complemented oral
storytelling. According to Patterson (1999), in Japan drawings and paintings
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
125
were used for the purpose of storytelling. For this reason, storytelling can con-
stitute both a mark of artistic expression and a way to communicate. Storytelling
is creative. The teller invents a storyline and relates it to the listener. The listener
then creates his or her mental perception on the basis of the teller’s construction
of the storyline and the relationships between its various elements.
The whole story is told in such a way that enables storytelling to be perceived
as a means of communication which can include images, sounds and body
movements. This storytelling only happens at a given time and place and does
not get replicated in the same way. For this reason, storytelling has to be one of
the highest forms of art and communication, which justifies why it is becoming
such an exceptional teaching/learning tool. In addition, storytelling could be as-
sociated with a number of activities (e.g. representation, drawing, concept maps,
narrative and descriptive activities) that could be used to help pupils to under-
stand, adopt, and develop story writing skills.
5. The Problem
According to the findings of the First Educational Forum for The Development
of Linguistic Performance held on the 6th of April 2009 by the Ministry of Edu-
cation in Muscat (Ministry of Education, 2009), significant shortcomings could
be identified among grade seven pupils in Oman particularly in terms of their
story writing skills. Unassessed attempts have been made in order to rectify these
shortcomings but the issue still persists. Although it is the native language of the
country, there is an increasing concern that the teaching of Arabic in Oman
should be improved in order to enhance pupils’ written competencies specifical-
ly as this limitation has recently become apparent among higher education in-
stitutions who receive school graduates. The forum also recommended increas-
ing the number of writing assignments in the Arabic curriculum for grade seven.
Furthermore, to the researchers’ knowledge, no study has been conducted in
Oman in this area for this particular grade.
6. Significance of the Study
This study will contribute to the research of the storytelling strategy in the
Arabic language and its effect on developing story writing skills for grade seven
in Oman and similar grades in similar contexts regionally and elsewhere. It also
hopes to:
• create a strong correlation between the language skills, especially storytelling
and story writing;
• raise the awareness about the storytelling strategy among Arabic language
teachers and possibly encourage them to explore its potential in their class-
rooms;
• raise the awareness of those involved in designing the Arabic language curri-
cula about the relationship between teaching strategies and the quality of the
outputs;
• develop educational narrative materials and use them to teach any of the four
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
126
language skills;
• explore the effect of the storytelling strategy on the development of writing
skills in general and story writing in particular.
7. Method
7.1. Research Question
The present study seeks to answer the following question:
Are there any statistically significant differences among Omani seventh grade
pupils at the level of each skill out of the ten story writing skills on the basis of:
• the storytelling strategy
• the type of school (public or private)
• gender (male or female) and
• the interaction among the above-mentioned variables?
7.2. Design
The present study adopts a quasi-experimental design, employing pre-post test
designs with an experimental group and a control group. Ten groups of grade
seven pupils assigned to six schools (two boys’ schools and two girls’ schools)
and two private schools (mixed pupils) were selected as participants in the
present study. Three of them formed the experimental group and were taught
using the adopted storytelling strategy, whereas the remaining three formed the
control group and were taught using the conventional prescribed method, as de-
picted in the formal teacher’s guide.
7.3. Participants
The sample of the study consisted of 243 pupils from grade seven in the second
cycle of basic education in Salalah city in Oman. They were from four public
schools (two boys’ schools and two girls’ schools) and two private schools
(mixed pupils). Each public school had an experimental and a control group
over the course of the study, with the exception of private schools. The experi-
mental groups (N = 120) were taught using the adopted storytelling strategy and
the control groups (N = 123) were taught using the conventional method pre-
scribed in the formal teacher’s guidebook. Due to the availability of only one
grade seven in each private school, the study treated a class in private school 1 as
a control group, whereas the class in private school 2 was treated as an experi-
mental group.
The researchers provided the teachers involved in the study with a two-week
workshop about how to implement the intervention among their learners. The
training involved the five teachers who taught the experimental group (N = 120)
pupils at the five schools. The storytelling strategy consisted of 18 lessons. Every
lesson included the pupils’ worksheet and handouts. Five stories in line with the
objectives of reading and writing for grade seven were created to cover several
themes.
Ethical consent was obtained from all participants prior to the commence-
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
127
ment of data collection. Learners were given the consent form and their guar-
dians submitted it signed later on. Likewise, teachers’ consent was ensured be-
fore training them using the manual. The confidentiality and anonymity of all
participants were ensured throughout data collection and research process.
7.4. Pre-Post Story Writing Skills Test
A story writing skills test was constructed in order to assess pupils’ story writing
capacities before and after the implementation of the storytelling strategy. The
pre-test was administered at the beginning of the first semester of the school
year, while the post-test was administered at the end of the same semester. Pre-
and post-tests play an essential role in the research design and are very impor-
tant in order to check the effect of random samples on the selected measure
(Robson, 2002). The differences among pupils over the course of the two tests
could help in terms of evaluating the effectiveness of the treatment.
Based on the literature, the test was constructed, validated, and included ques-
tions that asked the students to:
1) formulate another appropriate introduction to the story.
2) create active roles for the characters in the story.
3) arrange and organize events according to their sequence and interdepen-
dence.
4) rewrite the arranged events of the story using coherence conjunctions.
5) build a suitable atmosphere for the course of events of the story (place/time).
6) build another appropriate ending for the story.
7) suggest a new title for the story.
8) describe the pictures in order to finalize the story.
9) use grammar and spelling.
10) use appropriate punctuation.
7.5. The Storytelling Strategy
The storytelling strategy could improve the Arabic language skills of pupils in
some areas such as comprehension and communication between teachers and
pupils. When pupils become interested in stories, mental images spring to mind
and the thought process associated thereto is triggered (Robinson, 2008). Davis
(2000) indicated that by using stories, pupils talk to their peers who are listening
before they initiate the writing process and their feedback to each other helps the
writer to refine and retell his or her story, which eventually improves their writ-
ing. This strategy is aimed at:
1) Making learners realize that story writing skills are important in achieving
the language learning outcomes.
2) Helping both teachers and pupils to recognize the benefits of story writing
skills.
3) Improving writing skills in general and story writing skills in particular.
The storytelling strategy consisted of 18 lessons. Every lesson included the pu-
pils’ worksheet and handouts. The pupils were provided with stationery sheets,
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
128
Table 1. The number of words and questions of each story.
Story name The topic Words
Questions
Warm-up Storytelling
(Presentation)
Halting the
Narration
Finishing
the Story
Stimulating
Questions
Silence of a River The importance of water and methods of
preserving it. 427 2 2 6 1 7
Redha and the Wise man
of the Mountain The importance of work 757 2 2 5 2 7
I am Free The meaning of freedom and its playing in
our life 336 1 2 6 3 6
Khawlabint Al-Azour The role of women in society 410 2 2 3 2 6
In the Forest Preservation of the environment. 541 4 3 5 3 9
A Small Lantern The importance of will and its implication 884 2 2 6 2 7
colored cards and colored pens as part of the strategy. Five stories covering sev-
eral themes were included in the strategy. These are described in the following
Table 1.
All the stories were drafted by the researchers with the exception of “Khawla-
bint Al-Azour”, which was borrowed with permission from the Ministry of
Education. The strategy relied on sources such as, (Alex, 1988; Anderson, 2005;
Dujmovic, 2006; Groce, 2001; Robinson, 2008; Rosen, 1986), and for formulating
stimulating questions; (Ralston, 1993) and (AhSeo, 2007) for displaying the pic-
tures and discussing them with pupils; (Morrow, 1986; Vygotsky, 1978) for act-
ing and role-playing; (Vygotsky, 1978) and (Ball & Stafford, 1986) for writing
and drawing activities.
The researchers developed a new stage in this strategy which was not present
in the previous sources, namely homework. The next day, the teacher discussed
the strengths and weaknesses of the pupils’ writing techniques including the idea
structure, coherence, conjunctions and accuracy of expression. The duration of
the strategy was implemented for 12 weeks over the course of 18 sessions. In or-
der to determine the validity of the story writing skills test, ten jury members
represented by college professors specializing in language teaching or language
literature verified the face validity of the test and suggested certain changes
which were subsequently taken into consideration before arriving to the final
draft of the instrument. The jury members assessed the suitability of the stories
for the pupils’ level of comprehension, the relevance of the story questions in re-
lation to the stated skills as depicted by the strategy, the balance between the test
time and test item requirements, the sufficiency of the items to cover the identi-
fied skills, and the clarity of the test’s instructions.
7.6. Procedures
Each experimental group session commenced with the preparation of the class-
room by seating the learners in groups. Cooperative learning is an important
feature associated with the teaching of the Arabic language. Each group con-
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
129
sisted of four pupils. The pupils were provided with drawing pads, pencils, pens
and colors.
Once the class started, the teacher activated the students’ schemata about the
topic. Then, the teacher stated the title and discussed what it represented, prior
to relating the story. At this stage, the teacher used differences voice pitches
while relating the story, as well as various stress and intonation patterns. The
teacher imitated certain voices in the story. Sometimes, the teacher paused in
order to focus on any specific point and ask pupils about their predictions and
expectations of the upcoming events of the story. The teacher would then halt
the narration between the plots in order to stimulate pupils’ thoughts, discuss
the story’s organization, assess their understanding of the interdependence be-
tween events, speculate the ending, allow pupils to express their opinions about
it, support and stimulate their imagination. Finally, the teacher resumed the
narration until reaching the end of the story.
At the end of the session, the teacher discussed some stimulating questions
and consolidated the learning of the participants on the basis of several activities,
such as displaying a picture related to the story, role-playing, writing and draw-
ing activities. In addition, homework was assigned in the case of each strategy.
The second session aimed to evaluate pupils’ writing activities as part of the
previously assigned homework. The teacher discussed the strengths and weak-
nesses of the pupils’ writing techniques including the structure of ideas, cohe-
sion, coherence and accuracy of expression. Spelling and grammatical mistakes
would be recorded on the classroom board and discussed with the pupils.
In the control groups, the same six stories were given to the five teachers allo-
cated to the groups. These teachers taught the pupils using the traditional me-
thods prescribed in the teacher’s guide. This was arranged so that the teachers
allocated to the control groups would teach the story concurrently with the ex-
perimental groups. In the lesson, the teacher:
1) introduced the story.
2) discussed the story with the pupils (characters, events).
3) asked the pupils to read the story in silence.
4) gave the story to the pupils and asked them to answer some questions that
based on the story at home.
5) corrected the pupils’ answers in their handouts.
A story writing skills test was also created in order to assess the story writing
skills among pupils before and after the implementation of the storytelling
strategy. The pre-test was administered at the beginning of the first semester of
the school year, whereas the post-test was administered at the end of the same
semester. Pre- and post-tests play an essential role in the research design and are
very important in order to check the effect of random samples on the selected
measure (Robson, 2002). The differences among pupils recorded after the ad-
ministration of the two tests could help evaluate the effectiveness of the treat-
ment.
Based on the literature, the test included questions that asked the students to:
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
130
1) formulate another appropriate introduction to the story.
2) create active roles for the characters in the story.
3) arrange and organize events according to their sequence and interdepen-
dence.
4) rewrite the arranged events of the story using coherence conjunctions.
5) build a suitable atmosphere for the course of events of the story (place/time).
6) build another appropriate ending for the story.
7) suggest a new title for the story.
8) describe the pictures in order to finalize the story.
9) use grammar and spelling.
10) use appropriate punctuation.
The test was piloted with 45 pupils from the same grade, but who were not
part of the participants from previous studies. Only 15 pupils from each class
were involved, the final number thus totaling to 45 pupils. Prior to the imple-
mentation of the test, the researchers briefed 3 teachers on the storytelling strat-
egy over the course of 3 days using one of the stories. The researchers adminis-
tered the pupils a pre-test in order to assess their story writing skills prior to the
implementation of the strategy. As the strategy was being implemented by each
of the teachers, the researchers observed and took field notes. Upon the finaliza-
tion of the intervention stage, the researcher administered a post-test to the 45
pupils from the three classes.
Ten pupils out of the total number of 45 were selected to take the test in order
to be able to assess the reliability thereof. One of the researchers marked 10 tests
randomly and asked another marker to correct the same 10 tests without pro-
viding the second marker with the initial findings. Two weeks later, the re-
searcher re-marked the same 10 test papers. The reliability of the test was eva-
luated using the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. The marking
results are presented in the following table.
The results in Table 2 indicate that the reliability of the markings was (0.99,
0.95, 0.93), respectively. These results implied that the test was highly reliable.
8. Results and Discussion
The aim of implementing the storytelling strategy is to examine the impact of
storytelling on the development of story writing skills among the students par-
ticipating in the experimental groups. The collected data was analyzed by calcu-
lating the mean and the T-test, as shown in the table below, which compares the
performance of the experimental and control groups in terms of story writing.
Table 2. Reliability of the story writing skills test.
Marking Reliability Coefficient
First marker × first marker (fortnight interval) 0.99
First marker × second marker (no time difference) 0.95
First marker (fortnight interval) × second marker 0.93
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
131
Table 3. Paired T-test results comparing the experimental and control groups’ mean
scores of story writing skills in the pre and post test.
Group Test Mean Std. Deviation T Sig. Note
Experimental
(N = 120)
Pre 20.64 10.34 25.315 <0.001 Post
Post 32.51 9.09
Control
(N = 123)
Pre 15.66 9.59 4.421 <0.001 Pre
Post 13.77 9.44
The results shown in Table 3 indicate that the mean score obtained by the
experimental group in the post story writing test increased from 20.64 to 32.51,
thus indicating a statistically significant difference between the pre- and post-test
results in this group. These results imply that the pupils’ story writing skills im-
proved after with the implementation of the storytelling strategy. On the other
hand, there was a significant statistical difference between the pre- and post-test
results in the control group in favor of the pre-test (m = 13.77).
The results also indicate that the storytelling strategy was useful and effective
in the case of grade seven pupils working in the experimental group. The strate-
gy seems to have positively affected the pupils’ story writing abilities. This result
is consistent with the findings of Perry (2008) who stated that pupils found sto-
rytelling to be a helpful resource for improving students’ writing skills. Isabell et
al. (2004) also reported that storytelling improved students’ writing skills and
encouraged their active participation. They looked forward to the lesson and
enjoyed it throughout. The researchers of the current study observed that the
pupils who participated in the control group and were taught using conventional
methods appeared bored. The routine of the lesson left them unmotivated and
uninterested for a long time over the course of their lessons.
8.1. Type of School
Education in Oman is provided by public and private schools. The researchers
incorporated the school type in the study’s design in order to examine the im-
pact of storytelling on pupils’ story writing skills in public and private schools.
There are 20 male public schools and 12 female public schools in Salalah city
where the study was conducted. In addition, there are 15 coeducation-based
private schools. Four public schools (i.e. two male schools and two female
schools) and two private schools were randomly selected. A total number of 120
pupils from both school types were involved in the experimental group. Due to
the restricted availability of the grade seven classes in each private school, the
researcher considered the grade seven class in the first private school as the con-
trol group and its counterpart class in other private schools as the experimental
group. Table 4 shows mean and standard deviation across school type and me-
thod.
The means and standard deviation of the type of school and teaching method
are shown in Table 4. On the basis, thereof it may be inferred that private
schools (m = 38.92) have a higher means than public schools. Furthermore, the
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
132
Table 4. Mean and standard deviation across school type and method.
School Type Method N Mean Std. Deviation
Private
Normal Method 17 24.26 7.87
Storytelling 19 38.92 5.75
Total 36 32.00 10.02
Public
Normal Method 106 12.09 8.57
Storytelling 101 31.31 9.12
Total 207 21.47 13.06
Total
Normal Method 123 13.77 9.44
Storytelling 120 32.51 9.09
Total 243 23.03 13.18
pupils in the experimental group who were exposed to the storytelling strategy
(m = 32.51) scored higher means than the pupils partaking in the control group.
This indicates that pupils achieved better scores when the storytelling strategy
was implemented, as opposed to the conventional method. In addition, the table
shows the mean score of the experimental group (m = 31.31) is higher than in
the case of the control group (m = 12.09) showing statistically significant differ-
ences between the experimental and control groups in public schools in favor of
the experimental groups in public schools. On the other hand, the table shows
that the mean score of the experimental group (m = 38.92) is higher than in the
case of its counterparts (m = 24.26), showing statistically significant differences
between the means of the experimental and control groups in favor of the expe-
rimental group in the private schools. This result conforms to the expectation
outlined by (Al-Shehab, 2010), who posited that private schools in the Middle
East provide better opportunities for learning and instructional development for
learners, as opposed to public schools. These results could be attributed to a
number of reasons. Firstly, private schools provide an enhanced educational en-
vironment for learners, such as smaller class sizes, which encourage pupils to in-
teract with their teacher and which ultimately lead to a more comprehensive
understanding of the instructional content (AlNaqa, 2000). Secondly, in the case
of the private schools used in this study, there was only a grade seven class
available, whereas each public school in the sample had at least 12 classes. Fur-
thermore, the teacher’s dedication to teaching in private schools is significantly
higher than in the case of their counterparts in public schools. Thirdly, possibly
as a result of their financial and educational background, the parents of pupils
studying in private schools monitor their children’s academic progress in a more
stringent manner, as opposed to their counterparts in public schools.
The two-way ANOVA was used in order to investigate the effects of the
school type and teaching method and the interaction between them. Table 5 re-
ports that there are significant effects pertaining to the type of school in favor of
private schools indicating values of F 1, 239 = 40.603,
p
≤ 0.001, respectively.
The ANOVA also showed that there are significant effects to be identified in
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
133
Table 5. Two-way ANOVA of pupils’ performance in story writing according to school
type and method.
Source Sum of Square df Mean Square F Sig.
School type 2994.208 1 2994.208 40.603 <0.001
Teaching Method 8773.025 1 8773.025 118.968 <0.001
School type × Teaching Method 159.052 1 159.052 2.157 0.143
Error 17,624.574 239 73.743
Table 6. Mean and standard deviation across gender and method.
Gender Method N Mean Std. Deviation
Female
Normal Method 62 16.06 10.10
Storytelling 58 36.22 8.38
Total 120 25.81 13.72
Male
Normal Method 61 11.44 8.16
Storytelling 62 29.04 8.39
Total 123 20.31 12.08
Total
Normal Method 123 13.77 9.44
Storytelling 120 32.51 9.09
Total 243 23.03 13.18
terms of the teaching method, which favor the storytelling strategy, F (1, 234) =
118.968,
p
≤ 0.001. The correlation between the type of school and the teaching
method is insignificant.
The results of the study revealed that there was a statistically significant dif-
ference in the mean scores associated to the pupils’ achievement between the
two types of schools. The pupils in private schools achieved significantly higher
story writing scores than the pupils in public schools. This was the case under
both conditions. Both public and private schools in the experimental group
scored significantly higher than their counterparts in the control group. Howev-
er, the results indicated that the correlation between the type of schools and the
teaching method is not statistically significant. This shows that the teaching me-
thod (storytelling strategy) did not influence the public and private schools in a
different way.
8.2. Gender
Gender was also under scrutiny as a variable in this study. Data was analyzed by
calculating the means, standard deviation and the two-way ANOVA. The
two-way ANOVA was carried out in order to verify whether there is a significant
interaction between teaching methods and gender. Table 6 presents mean and
standard deviation across gender and method.
The mean scores and standard deviation of gender and teaching method are
shown in Table 6. It presents that female (m = 36.22) have higher mean in their
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
134
Table 7. Two-way ANOVA test of pupils’ performance in story writing according to
gender and method.
Source Sum of Square df Mean Square F Sig.
Gender 2115.171 1 2115.171 27.296 <0.001
Teaching method 21,635.345 1 21,635.345 279.203 <0.001
Gender × Teaching method 99.608 1 99.608 1.285 0.258
Error 18,520.027 239 77.490
marks than male. Also, the pupils in the experimental group who underwent the
storytelling strategy (m = 32.513) scored higher means than the pupils of the
control group. This signifies that the pupils achieved better scores using the sto-
rytelling than the normal method.
The table below shows the results of the ANOVA test indicating the students’
performance in story writing according to gender and method.
Table 7 demonstrates the results of the two-way ANOVA that calculates the
interaction between the variables. There is a statistically significant difference
between the genders in favor of females, F 1, 239 = 27.296,
p
≤ 0.001. The fe-
males achieved significantly higher scores in the story writing skills test than
male pupils. This was also the case under both conditions. These achievement
differences between males and females could be attributed to the notion that fe-
males possess a broader language lexicon as opposed to males, which allowed
them to better express themselves when writing the stories. In addition, females
have a stronger desire to acquire new knowledge, adopt new methods and inte-
ract with them. This result is in line with (Perry, 2008), who stated that females
tend to perform better than males in writing assignments, whereas (Page, 2008)
indicated that there are no significant differences between males and females in
writing assignments. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of studies addressing this
aspect of story writing.
Moreover, the ANOVA showed that there is a statistically significant differ-
ence between the teaching methods in favor of the storytelling strategy, F 1, 239
= 279.203,
p
≤ 0.001. Nevertheless, the interaction between gender and the
teaching method is insignificant which means that the teaching method (story-
telling strategy) did not substantially differentiate between boys and girls.
9. Conclusion
The storytelling strategy employed in this study is an instructional strategy that
provides learners with a visual guide to the basic story structure and the rela-
tionship between the elements of the story, which teachers may consider to be a
useful resource during story writing lessons. The strategy is of special benefit
when teachers endeavor to improve pupils’ story writing skills. Learners often
find it difficult to process and organize written information and when writing
stories, they cannot always retrieve the information required for the develop-
ment of the story. Generating relevant ideas for their stories is another dimen-
sion which they may regard as challenging where this strategy could be benefi-
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
135
cial for learners.
Underdeveloped stories often have limited or incomplete outputs as a result of
the limitation of pupils’ story writing skills. When learners occasionally have
good ideas for a piece of writing, they may not be able to properly formulate
those ideas in writing. Therefore, they may become frustrated and stop writing
before their stories are fully developed. The storytelling strategy provides learn-
ers with a visual plan, almost a graphic organizer, helping them to organize, link
and remember information. When the storytelling strategy is used, writers are
guided into exploring ideas and bringing a story into existence. The storytelling
strategy is adaptable and easy to prepare. Teachers might find it valuable in their
written composition lessons, especially in the case of those learners who have
encountered difficulties in terms of story organization, content and output. It is
recommended that decision makers in pre-tertiary education consider increas-
ing the number of story writing lessons because learners would generally require
more time to develop this skill under instruction. In written composition les-
sons, compositional aspects such as creativity, imagination, ideas, organization
and the structure of the text should be given due consideration and a specific
focus (Ministry of Education, 2004).
Policymakers, curricula professionals and practitioners would also find that
employing the storytelling strategy in language curricula and instruction could
entail benefits for their learners. They would be able to better understand the
different aspects of storytelling and story writing that their learners need to focus
on in order to improve their language skills. Curriculum development in this
area would be particularly effective if learners’ writing interests are taken into
consideration. Curricula developers would also be able to share their ideas about
the content of the language curriculum, so that new methods can be adopted in
order to improve learners’ story writing and increase the applicability of in-ser
vice training courses.
Composing a narrative writing needs to focus on strategies that support
learners to use richer vocabulary reservoir and organize their ideas coherently.
Needless to mean that writing with limited vocabulary often demotes the sophis-
tication of writing. In this study, the storytelling strategy did not result in im-
proving lexical variety. Therefore, while storytelling is recommended for com-
position lessons, other strategies that focus on teaching lexical items should be
promoted to facilitate such compositions. Coupling vocabulary with the storytel-
ling strategy could be very valuable to learners to write more effective narrative
compositions.
Writing is a process that encompasses planning, drafting revision and editing.
Teachers should design activities that focus on the writing process and at the
same time allow pupils adequate time to complete this process. However, asking
pupils to go through all these steps in one writing session may not be realistic
and could jeopardize learning the writing techniques in this strategy. On the
other hand, scarce number of composition lessons, like the one reported in the
study, is not a feasible solution as it would not help overcome the many writing
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
136
difficulties that students face. It is advisable to brainstorm and prepare an out-
line first and then let the learners write the first draft on another day. This way,
they will not feel the urgency to finish writing their story in a single session nor
will they lose interest in writing it.
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Appendix
Story writing skills test
Task (1)
Read the following story and then write an expected ending in two lines:
Ahmed is a student in the seventh grade. During the summer holiday, he vi-
sited Salalah. When he arrived at the beach, he went swimming. Some people
were sitting on the beach enjoying the beautiful view of the sea. Ahmed wanted
to have fun with these people and he shouted loudly: “Help! Help! I’m drown-
ing!” Several people swam to help him. When they approached him, he laughed:
“Ha…Ha…Ha…I’m only kidding!” They swam back, furious. After a short
while, Ahmed repeated the same trick and several people spontaneously swam to
help him, but he laughed just like the first time. They returned again and became
even angrier with him. Then Ahmed felt tired and he could not get out of the sea
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Task (2)
Fill in the gaps with the appropriate time and place elements in the story.
Once upon a time, when Omar was walking ____________ he saw some
children playing. The children saw him coming from his house
__________________, they all ran away except one. Omar asked the boy: “Why
didn’t you run away with your friends?” The boy said “the road is not so narrow
for you to give me room and I have not done anything wrong to fear you”. Omar
felt happy at this boy’s bravery and boldness.
Task (3)
Write a new introduction for this story in no more than two lines.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
The eagle carried the turtle with its strong claws and threw it in the sea. The
eagle watched it drown in the sea. As soon as the turtle touched the water, its
head and legs popped out of the shell and it laughed victoriously, and said: “the
water is my home and you brought me back. Thank you”. Then it dived into the
water away from the surface leaving behind it the sad eagle.
Task (4)
Rearrange the following sentences in terms of the relationships between them
using the appropriate coherence tools.
Called his children to encircle him.
‘Bring me a set of sticks from that tree,’ he to one of his sons.
Once upon a time, an old wise man became very old and felt he was about to
pass away.
The wise old man said, “Dear sons you are like this bunch of sticks. If you are
together you are strong against your enemies but if you separate, they will get
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
140
you.
They dismantled the sticks.
The son gave his father the set.
The sons tried to break the set together.
The father said to his sons: “Now, try to break the sticks one by one” and the
sons broke them easily.
They failed to break it.
The father said to his sons “try to separate the sticks”.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Task (5)
Create a new title for the previous story.
__________________________________________________________________
Task (6)
Read the following text and answer the questions:
Once upon a time a teacher had an intelligent student. He loved him a lot, and
the student loved his teacher, so much so that one day the teacher sent his stu-
dent to the market and asked him to buy him the best piece of meat the students
go and baught a tongue the following day the teacher sent the student to the
market and asked him to buy the worst piece of meat then the student went and
also baught a tongue the teacher exclaimed and said why did you buy a tongue in
both instances the student replied: teacher I does not find in a man’s body better
or worse than the tongue. If it lies it hurt people and makes Allah angry if it tells
the truth it benifits people and pleases Allah
Correct the underlined words grammatically.
Correct the spelling of the words in bold.
Place the right punctuation marks in the correct positions in the previous sto-
ry.
F. Alkaaf, A. Al-Bulushi
141
Task (7)
Complete the following story in relation to the introduction and the ending:
Once upon a time, Salem returned home in the evening with profound sorrow
on his face. His father noticed this and he asked him about the reason
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
My friends and I quickly rushed him to the hospital. He is still there in a co-
ma.
Task (8)
Write a complete story about these pictures (characters and events).
The exam is finished
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