The motivational pull of storytelling

The motivational pull of storytelling

Creating self-determined learners

Discussion and Conclusion

• TPRS meets the needs of SDT: autonomy, competence, relatedness
• Perceived as highly motivating from the students' perspective
• Confirms findings from other L2 studies

• The teacher's personality is allowed to flourish
• But role of the teacher still needs further research

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Strategies that motivate both teacher and students are key and TPRS is an approach that offers this possibility

Teacher Motivation

• By being personable, enthusiastic or simply “with their vibes” and by being “themselves”, FL teachers can inspire their students
• “The teacher has to be into it as well because if you're not having fun then neither am I” (Matt, FGI1).
• Teachers are key in TPRS - things could “get out of hand easily” (Prue, FGI1).
• The teacher “kept the ideas going” through questioning and “completely random” twists (Amy, FGI1).

Highly motivating factor: TPRS allowed students to develop a strong relationship with their teacher.

The Research Study

TPRS allows the teachers' own personality to flourish and to have fun in the classroom.

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• Context and Participants: International school in Switzerland; 13 Year 10 students; Vast language learning experience
• Methodology: Group interview; Classroom observations; Focus group interviews; 3 months
• Limitations: New to my classes or new to TPRS; Role of the teacher

Findings

• TPRS was perceived as overwhelmingly positive
• TPRS satisfied needs of competence, relatedness and autonomy -> Increased motivation
• Visible signs of excitement, enjoyment and engagement

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Relatedness

Sense of belonging to the group through combined creation of story

• Use of words such as ‘everyone’, ‘together’ and ‘everybody’ were employed repeatedly throughout the data
• Stories were “very extroverted” meaning “everybody will feel included” and “everybody gets to participate” (Kevin; Donna, FGI1).

Competence

Increased sense of capacity, ability and understanding

• “You don’t get judged” because you are “doing it as a group” (Prue, FGI2).
• Everyone was “so energetic and open and talkative” (Prue, FGI2), which “makes you more motivated and more eager to learn” (Orla, FGI1).

Autonomy

• TPRS was broadly reported as “way more effective” (Matt, FGI1) than other methods.
• It was “better than just sitting down learning vocabulary” (Diana, FGI1), as it greatly improved their competence for speaking.
• “I believe that through storytelling I improved a lot” (Amy, FGI1)

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Highly autonomous nature acknowledged positively multiple times.

“The reason why [storytelling] is less scary is because everybody's sharing their ideas and modifying them to form the story so everybody is a part of the story” (Aidan, FGI2)

• A highly motivating factor of TPRS was the ability to “contribute any idea” and “it'll make this story” (Kevin, FGI2).
• “when you give an idea and it gets accepted you feel really good” (Donna, FGI2), while others also “felt better” when they could “add to the class” (Prue, FGI1).

• TPRS’s goal of 100% comprehension meant “you do understand it better” (Gwen, FGI2) thus raising their feelings of proficiency
• It erased their anxiety of “saying the wrong thing” (Steven, FGI2)
• The fact that “everyone contributes” (Steven, Aidan; FGI1), meant participants felt “they'll be heard so their confidence will really be built” (Kevin, FGI1).

What is Self-Determination Theory (SDT)?

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• SDT argues that we can increase intrinsic motivation by meeting the needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness (Ryan and Deci, 2000)

• In other FL activities students felt there was “nothing they could do to change anything” (Prue, FGI2).
• TPRS stories meant students could “steer the learning” and “effect what would happen next” (Amy, FGI2).
• Students reported “feeling motivated” in the TPRS class as “you're more involved and more in control of your own learning” (FGI1).

• Autonomy - choice; self-direction; student ownership of learning
• Competence - students’ perceptions about their capacity to achieve success
• Relatedness - sense of belonging, support and inclusion; relationships

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Moving from extrinsic to intrinsic?

• Extrinsically motivated behaviours - rewards; fear or shame; short-term achievement but no longevity
• Intrinsically motivated behaviours - pure engagement, enjoyment and interest; increased self-confidence, desire towards learning and sustained positive learning behaviours

• Activities that meet the needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness can move students from extrinsic to intrinsic motivations

References

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What is TPRS?

• Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (Ray and Seely, 1997)
• 'Ask a story': Co-creation of bizarre stories through 'compelling, comprehensible input' (Krashen, 1981) with most frequent structures.

What does the research tell us?

• Boo, Z., Dörnyei, Z., Ryan, S., 2015. L2 motivation research 2005–2014: Understanding a publication surge and a changing landscape. System 55, 145–157.
• Carr, S., 2016. Motivation, educational policy and achievement: a critical perspective. Routledge, Abingdon.
• Dörnyei, Z., 2010. Questionnaires in second language research: construction, administration, and processing, 2nd ed. ed, Second language acquisition research.
• Dörnyei, Z., 2001. Motivational strategies in the language classroom, Cambridge language teaching library. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Kassabgy, O., Boraie, D., Schmidt, R., 2001. Values, rewards, and job satisfaction in ESL/EFL. Motivation and second language acquisition 213–237.
• Krashen, S., 1981. Second language acquisition and second language learning, Language teaching methodology series. Elsevier, Oxford.
• Lichtman, K., 2015. Research on TPR Storytelling, in: Fluency Through TPR Storytelling : Achieving Real Language Acquisition in School : 7th Edition. pp. 364–380.
• Machado, J.M., 2012. Early Childhood Experiences in Language Arts: Early Literacy, 10 edition. ed. Wadsworth Publishing, Belmont, CA.
• McMaster, J.C., 1998. “Doing” Literature: Using Drama to Build Literacy Classrooms: The Segue for a Few Struggling Readers. Reading Teacher 51, 574–84.
• Oga-Baldwin, W.Q., Nakata, Y., Parker, P., Ryan, R.M., 2017. Motivating young language learners: A longitudinal model of self-determined motivation in elementary school foreign language classes. Contemporary Educational Psychology 49, 140–150.
• Printer, L., 2017. Student perceptions on the motivational pull of Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling: a Self-Determination Theory perspective. (Doctor of Education). University of Bath.
• Ryan, R.M., Deci, E.L., 2000. Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. The American psychologist 55, 68–78.
• Seely, C., Ray, B., 1997. Fluency Through TPR Storytelling, 5th edition. ed. Command Performance Language Institute, Blaine Ray Workshops, Berkeley, Cal.

• TPRS is as effective, or better, that other approaches (Lichtman, 2015)
• Reduces the 'affective filter' that causes anxiety in adolescents
• Few studies on its impact on student and teacher motivation

Why Stories?

• Stories as educational tool across cultures for centuries
• Ability to hold young learners’ interest and attention (Machado 2012; McMaster 1998)
• Aids language learning and comprehension through intent listening (Whaley, 2002).

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Contact

w: www.liamprinter.com

e: lprinter@isl.ch

t: @liamprinter

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Language Learner (L2) Motivation

• Focused on individual traits
• How L2 motivation is fostered, maintained and encouraged is under-studied (Boo et al. 2015)
• Research on strategies that motivate language learners is scarce (Dörnyei, 2010)
• Engagement has recently been added (Oga-Baldwin, 2017)

Teacher Motivation

• Student enjoyment and participation over extrinsic rewards like pay and recognition
• Motivated teachers inspire their students to be motivated too (Kassagby et al. 2001)

Strategies that motivate both teacher and students are crucial

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What is education for?

• Teachers leaving profession
• Students dropping languages

Motivation, enjoyment and engagement = Life-long learners

Strategies that motivate both teacher and students

© Liam Printer