SIDOARJO
THESIS
Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan Islam (S.Pd) In Teaching English
By
Trianah Kadarwati
NIM D35210037
ENGLISH TEACHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND TEACHER TRAINING
SUNAN AMPEL STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
SURABAYA
Department, Faculty of Education and Teacher Training, Sunan Ampel State Islamic University, Surabaya. Advisor: Masdar Hilmy, MA., Ph.D
Key Words: An Analysis, Storytelling, Skill
Department, Faculty of Education and Teacher Training, Sunan Ampel State Islamic University, Surabaya. Advisor: Masdar Hilmy, MA., Ph.D
Key Words: An Analysis, Storytelling, Skill
Storytelling becomes really important in education because it is a simplest and easiest strategy for teaching and learning. Many schools have applied this strategy for any lesson. Then, the thing to consider is it has its own problem during telling the story, the problem that hinders the teller to be success in telling the story. To become a good storyteller, it needs a skill. This paper analyzes the tenth grade students’ storytelling skill, the problems that hinder the skill improvement and the strategy to solve the problems at SMA Muhammadiyah 2
Sidoarjo. The skill targeted is from the students’ performance in class. They are voice,
audience contact, body language, time duration, acting, props, pacing, students’ story
mastering, and students’ story structure. The researcher uses the observation to get the real data of the students’ storytelling skill performance. After did the performance, the students
APPROVAL SHEET ... iii
B. Statements of the problem... 6
C. Objectives of The Study ... 6
D. Significances of The Study ... 6
E. Scope and Limit of The Study ... 8
F. Definition of Key Terms ... 8
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Review of Related Literature ... 10
a. Storytelling ... 10
b. Storytelling in education ... 12
c. Storytelling skill... 15
d. Problems in storytelling ... 18
e. Strategy for storytelling ... 19
B. Discussion ... 62
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION
A. Conclusion ... 66 B. Suggestion ... 67
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Background of the study
Elizabeth Moon stated in her writing that story is more like narrative1. It
produces pleasure to listeners and readers. Helen McKay and Berice Dudley
defined story as a real or fictitious events within narrative or tale2. From those
definitions about story, it can be concluded that Story is a description of a series
event whether true or imagination. It can be either written or spoken.
Many researchers suggest that storytelling motivated the children because it
raises the children’s interest easily. This makes storytelling become important to
children. Stories help children understand their world and share it with others. As
cited in the journal by Koki, storytelling: the heart and soul of education,
Wright’s statement cited by Stan Koki “Children’s hunger for stories is constant.
Every time they enter your classroom, they enter with a need for stories.”3
Other studies by Zimiles and Kuhnsin 1976 proved that storytelling that has
been read significantly improve the six-to eight-year old children’s
comprehension4. Children like to explore their imagination and find new thing.
They also like to share their journey to show how great they are. The activity here
1 Elizabeth Moon (2014), What Is Story?, Science Fiction And Fantasy Writer. P1
2 Helen Mckay And Berice Dudley (1996), What Is Story?, Australian Storytelling, Sydney.
3
Koki, Stan. 1998, Storytelling: The Heart And Soul Of Education, Pacific Resources For Education And Learning. P3
4Akimi Gibson, Judith Gold, And Charissa Sgouros,
means that through storytelling, they learn to organize the word to send the
message to the listener. Therefore, their comprehension of stories is built up.
The connection between story and education is like one fact stated by Bentley
Jan in his research on the journal of the basic theory of learning with stories that
was published in his webpage that is to allow the children’s brain to imagine the
story in their learning is more effective than let them learn through television and
films5. This becomes the reason why learning to read using stories is important to
children. One way to help children imagine the story is from telling the story.
This way is not new. It had been used long time years ago to help children learn
to get meaning, value, pleasure, and so on through storytelling. A Research by
Michael Locket, showed that storytelling had existed since 2000-1300 B.C. He
found the proof from an old script on the Westcar Papyrus of the Egyptians6. This
script explains that the son of Khufu entertained his father through a story. He
told a story of the magic tale. This becomes evidence about the history of
storytelling. Nowadays, storytelling has been used in every secondary school to
improve students’ understanding of the lesson. Many both qualitative and
quantitative researches proved that through storytelling, students’ academic
performance could be improved such as their understanding of the tenses (past,
present, and future). In addition, storytelling supports auditory processing skills
5
Bentley Jan, “the basic theory of learning with stories”,
and listening skills, the comprehension of decision –making skills, enrich new
vocabulary, and many more7.
A study by Dina Nurcahyani showed that a storytelling activity when applied
in a kindergarten in Semarang could improve the students’ willingness for
reading8. When the teacher started telling a story the teacher stopped telling the
story in between and would continue in the next meetings. It was the strategy to
gain the students’ curiosity and willingness to know the following story. The
result was that the students were not patient to wait, and decided to read the story
themselves in the school library. Most of parents also agreed to have storytelling
everyday in the school for their children because they found their children got
better in term of knowledge development.
A storytelling skill is an ability that enables students to convey events in
words and images well. The stories are shown as a means of entertainment,
education, and preservation of culture to serve the moral value. Through
storytelling, students are encouraged to use their capability to speak any topic
they like. They are free to share their ideas without breaking the rule of
storytelling or the elements of the story itself, which include plot, characters,
and the writer’s point of view.
7 The Youth, Educators And Storytellers Alliance Of The National Storytelling Network.
Http://Www.Yesalliance.Com/ Accessed On July 26th, 2014 8Nurcahyani, Dina Kusumastuti, 2010,
Why do we use a storytelling as a teaching strategy for students? There are
many answers for this question. As stated in the article by Martha Hamilton &
Mitch Weiss, there are several reasons to use storytelling as a teaching strategy
for the students. First, storytelling is the oldest form of education, this is because
storytelling is the way of how we learn, keep, and teach to the next generation
about our beliefs, tradition, and history. The second is stories are the way we store
information in the brain. The following reasons also stated in this paper are that
listening to stories instills the love of language in children and motivates them to
read. Storytelling stimulates the imagination. Stories teach lessons. Storytelling
develops listening skills. Telling stories from around the world creates awareness
and appreciation of different cultures and many more9.
Storytelling builds up the comprehension of story for both listener and
storyteller10. The children learn to experience before, during, and after reading. It
has the impact of literacy development11.
Retellings help children rethink their way through a text, thereby
enhancing their understanding” (Owocki, 1999).
Many benefits of storytelling have been found including to build reading
comprehension, the improvement of language complexity and understanding the
story structure as the examples of the benefits of storytelling. Through reading the
9
Martha Hamilton And Mitch Weis, 2005, The Power Of Storytelling In The Classroom.
10Akimi Gibson, Judith Gold, And CharissaSgouros,
The Power Of Story Retelling, Spring 2003. P1
11
story, it helps memorize the content when re-telling a story. This becomes the
way of how the story stimulates the brain to build up.
Based on the reasons mentioned above, the researcher intends to analyze the
students’ skill in storytelling. As the main target, we will able to know the
students’ skill in transferring and sharing the information of story to the listener in
the second language. Indirectly, in many part of learning English, we will also be
able to see the ability of the students’ speaking skill. We will be able to know
how fluent they are speaking. Besides, we will also be able to asses their
comprehension of reading easily. If they understand the story and they can tell the
story to the audience using their own words or they master the content of the story
well, it means that they are good in reading.
The researcher will analyze the students’ storytelling skill in SMA
Muhammadiyah 2 Sidoarjo grade10. The reason to take this school as an object of
the research is because the school has got education Indonesia award categorized
as the best education and educator of the year 2013 and the platinum Indonesia
award 2014 categorized as the best education, learning and training in Indonesia.
I, in this research, will focus on the students’ speaking skill in the activity of
storytelling. Based on the teacher’s suggestion the research will focus on the10th
B. Statement of the problem
The problems of this research are:
1. What is the tenth grade students’ storytelling skills like?
2. What are the problems that hinder the students’ storytelling skill?
3. What is the strategy to improve the students’ storytelling skill?
C. Objective of the study
The objective of the study here is first to know the students’ storytelling skill
in the classroom performance. The second is to find the problems faced by the
students in storytelling that could probably hinder the students’ storytelling
process. The last is to find the strategies to improve the students’ storytelling
skill.
D. Significance of the study
A good storytelling brings a community sense in community learning better
than any traditional teaching method stated by Ritcher and Chopter, which was
cited by Jill Eck12. This makes the class activity more enhancing. Rossiter stated
in his research that was cited by Eck,13 The level of the students in learning could
be also enhanced more trough storytelling than other the method do not. It means
12Jill Eck, Master Of Science Degree Career And Technical Education: “An Analysis Of The
Effectiveness Of Storytelling With Adult Learners In Supervisory Management” Menomonie:
University Of Wisconsin-Stout, 2006
that if the school applies the storytelling, the level of the students’ performance in
certain subject can be increased. In this research, the researcher will analyze the
storytelling skill of the students at SMA Muhammadiyah 2 Sidoarjo.
The result of this study is expected to give some contributions for students
and teacher. Here are the benefits:
1. Students
The students will be able know the level of their storytelling skill. In
addition, it may also motivate the students in learning English because
retelling the story is enjoyable. They are free to transfer the message with
their own words. They will find that English actually is not difficult to learn.
2. Teacher
The first benefit for the teacher is the same with the benefit for the students.
The teacher will have alternative ways to improve her/his students’
storytelling.
The teacher will be aware about the problems that usually faced by students
regarding their storytelling skill.
3. Future researchers
This paper could be as a reference for future researcher who wants to study
E. Scope and limit of the study
The researcher analyzed the students’ skill of storytelling. Here, the researcher
divided the scope and limit into two categorizes. The main scope and the limit of
this study is only in the part of the content of the story. This element will include
some criteria to take the score, such as the story structure and knows the story.
This part can be also used to know the students’ reading skill. In addition, the
researcher also analyzed the students’ performance, including voice, pacing,
duration, props, acting, body language, and audience contact. This part can be a
tool to asses the students speaking skill, especially in the part of free speaking.
F. Definition of key terms
1. Analysis : a process of learning or studying about something or
substances deeper, To break into the small part of something in order to get
the better understanding of something14. This means the researcher will go to
learn in order to know about something. In this study, it is the students’ skill.
2. Storytelling : improve the story by conveying the events of the story
in words and images. Every culture have shared stories or narratives as a
means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation, and
instilling moral value15. Based on the definition above, the researcher will use
the personal story, narrative, and any short story as the object to analyze.
14Open dictionary Wikipedia, Http://En.Wikipedia.Org/Wiki/Storytelling, accessed on July 30th 2014
Other definition about storytelling, as cited by Ryan Egan in his study
from Livo and Rietz, is an art form a storyteller transmits both mental and
emotional images to the listener by using spoken word, gestures, sign
language, and matches the needs of both environment and audience. It
reflects all cultures and literature and it is used for “educational, recreational,
historic, folkloric, entertainment and therapeutic purposes”16.
In this paper, the researcher tends to know how the students convey
the story in spoken words. How master they are about the story. How success
they are to transfer the emotion and the message. As for entertainment, the
role of audiences has an important part. Storytelling is called successful when
the listeners get the story from the teller.
3. Skill : The ability of one’s own17 or someone’s power to do
something well. The part of skill that would be included in this study based
on the students’ performance, including voice, pacing, duration, props,
acting, body language and audience contact, and their storytelling
compositional skill. They are about mastering of the story and the structure of
the story.
16Ryan Egan, “Storytelling: Pathway To Literacy” (Faculty Of The Evergreen State College, 2007), 25
1. Storytelling
Stories began with the oral tradition, we just hear and we retold. It
happened since long time ago. Even Some stories have lasted thousand of
years and are still being told. As Jane Yolen, an editor of Favorite
Folktales from Around The World, that was cited by Heidi Bordine and
Kim Hughes explained “storytelling the oldest of arts has always been
both an entertainment and a cultural necessity….storytellers breathed life
into human cultures” (1986, p.l)1.
From the name of storytelling, storytelling means an activity to tell
the story, to transfer the information from one to other. It is needed
because, especially for children, storytelling helps them to creatively
imagine the events, what could have and what should have happened.
Storytelling also helps them to review what happened actually2.
R. Craig told that storytelling is a process where a storyteller uses
vocalization, narrative structure, and mental imagery to communicate
through body language and facial expression to the audiences. This is
called communication cycle. The communication cycle is a process a
1 Bordine, Heidi, Kim Hughes. TESL Reporter: Storytelling in ESL/EFL Classrooms.Southern
Illinois University. Carbondale; Vol. 31,2, 1998, pp 21-31
2 Storytelling: The Heart And Soul Of Education. 1998. Stan Koki; A Program Specialist For
"story" created. Craig also provided the diagram of the communication
cycle3.
Figure 1: communication cycle
Story is powerful. It teaches morals, history, and it entertains us.
They can make us laugh and cry as well. Telling stories is a large part that
can connect people to each other. Story is also a part of every culture.
Legend and history about certain country help the people discover the
country and feel proud of nation. Stories about ancestors teach us about
where we were and the things we have in common with people around us.
Storytelling provides the opportunities for the children to improve
their social skill. The children’s social skill might be improved through the
oral language conversation. Through the storytelling, oral language
conversation, the children were engaged to language and reasoning skill
rather than shared-reading. In fact, children psychological understanding
3Roney, R. Craig, Storytelling in the Classroom: Some Theoretical Thoughts. Storytelling World;
and social skill could be fostered by conversation between children and
parents or family member4. That is why Dunn, Brown and Heath
suggested using this treatment.
To have successful storytelling both storyteller and audience or
listeners have to collaborate to create the story because storytelling
provides social skill for children to practice. The collaboration here is
really needed from both storyteller and audiences, for the audiences to
keep focusing on the performance and for the storyteller to keep focusing
on the storytelling acting5.
2. Storytelling in education
According to the Miller Eric’s statements in his journal of Theories
of Story and Storytelling, a series of events is defined as a “Story” 6. Then,
“Storytelling” is defined as relating a series of events. In a story, causality
is involved in some way. Moreover, what happened in a storytelling event
is that the story presenter presented the representation of the emotion, and
the audience members then experienced that emotion. As cited in the
research done by Ochs, Taylor, Rudolph and Smith that Aristotle7 stated
that experience, though it seems quite like scientific knowledge and art, is
really what produces them. This is because the story telling encourage the
4 Curenton, Stephanie M. and Craig, Michelle Jones(2009)
'Shared-reading versus oral
storytelling: associations with preschoolers' prosocial skills and problem behaviours', Early Child Development and Care,, First published on: 17 November 2009 (iFirst).
5Roney, R. Craig, Storytelling in the Classroom: Some Theoretical Thoughts. Storytelling World;
Vol.9 , Win-Spr 1996, p7-9
6Miller Eric’s, Theories of Story and Storytelling January, 2011. P1
students to experience their ability though their events. This also can make
them more fluent in speaking skill because they are interested.
Why it should be a story as a strategy for encouraging the students’
need in participation in the classroom? Xu jianing cited on the research
done by Aiex, that the Stories do not only help to stimulate imagination of
the children and the world understands, but also to appreciate literature
and develop the ability of the language of the children8. Students with
weak academic skill and low motivation even enjoy and like more to
listen, read, write, and work hard in the context of storytelling9. This
becomes the reason why storytelling are used the most in the classroom in
order to encourage the students motivation in participating even to do
assessment of the speaking subject for whole the class.
There are so many evidences about storytelling within classroom.
Storytelling is an art since ancient era, which can strengthen and enhance
children’s’skills that children need to learn to function in today’s world. It
helps students become active in presenting, even become focused more in
other parts, listening and reacting, enhancing the vital skills of
8 Koki, Stan. 1998, Storytelling: The Heart And Soul Of Education, Pacific Resources For
Education And Learning. P3 9
Martha Hamilton And Mitch Weis, 2005, The Power Of Storytelling In The Classroom.
10 Jackie Baldwin And Kate Dudding, 2007, Storytelling In Schools; Quantitative Studies,
storytelling. The tutor attended the lecture in a period costume and top hat
to take on the character of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. This was to
introduce the history of technology lecture. The aim was the tutor wants to
make the lecture memorable for students. The tutor realized that the
engineering lectures might be boring. In addition, it was successful to grab
the students’ attention11.
Storytelling in education brings many advantages for both listener
and storyteller. Here general reasons for choosing storytelling written by
Emily Johnson12:
a. Story and storytelling connect people around the world through
time and across cultures. This inherits everything to the next
generation.
b. Storytelling for sharing cultural heritage: Stories as like
artifacts that kept in people’s memories, by the time, it will be
spread to others.
c. Storytelling for Literacy: literacy development in the National
Curriculum. Is supported by Storytelling.
d. Storytelling for curiosity and motivation to learn: A good
storyteller can engage interest and enthusiasm for learning
History, Religious Studies, Geography, English Language,
11 Willis, Elizabeth. 2009, Using story telling, drama, costume, poetry, music and performance art
as part of engineering lectures, The Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre. 12 Jhonsson, Emily, ed Claire adler, 2006. Telling tales: A guide to developing effective
Literature, and Drama. Through storytelling, some lectures that
many students think it is „boring’, could become enjoy.
e. Storytelling changes people’s values and attitudes such as
questioning attitude, emotional, cultural, and moral response.
f. Storytelling increases self-confidence: there is a proof that
storytelling raise the self-confidence of children who have low
self-esteem or are „low achievers’
g. Storytelling for inspiration and creativity: Many storytellers
offer workshop sessions to share storytelling skills and gain the
participants’ creativity to the stories for example using art,
drama, music, or puppets.
h. Storytelling for empathy, citizenship, and peace.
i. Storytelling for performance:
j. For storytelling in museums, galleries, and historic houses,
Storytelling helps people to „read’ objects as cultural artifacts
by giving them meaning, purpose and context.
3. Storytelling skill
The art of using language, vocalization, physical gesture, and body
movement to reveal the elements and images of the story is called story
telling13. The use of art of all those elements stated above treat somebody
to become a good storyteller. Those all the way to explore the human
emotion of the story told. Other part in story telling clarified by Kimberly
13 Koki, Stan. 1998, Storytelling: The Heart And Soul Of Education, Pacific Resources For
Appelcline that whoever who wants to become storyteller, it requires skill
in using the five main tools of the storyteller’s trade. Below are steps of
how to do the storytelling well:
a. Setting – Where is this story happening?
b. Character –Who’s the story about?
c. Plot –What’s happening?
d. Back-story – What happened before, to create and inform this
situation?
e. Detail – Which specific things should the audience notice?
Canney C. and Byrne defined that social skill on
storytelling is appropriate social behavior in a particular social
status. Here some of social skills included by Tyler14:
a. Having the ability to calm down or be patient while facing anxiety
in anxious social situations.
b. Listening skills such as giving feedback
c. Empathy with others in different situations
d. Establishing a friendly relationship with others and continuing to
interact with different people Self-disclosure
e. Good eye contact
Other classification of elements of storytelling said by Key
Ramsley, they are:
a. A central premise.
14 Helen Mckay And Berice Dudley (1996),
b. Strong three-dimensional characters who change over time.
c. A confined space -- often referred to as a crucible.
d. A protagonist who is on some sort of quest.
e. An antagonist of some sort bent on stopping the hero.
f. An arch in everything -- everything is getting better or worse.
g. And perhaps most important -- Conflict.
Heater forest told that storyteller should demonstrate these
following observable trait when telling a story15:
a. Voice Mechanics
presentation including the scoring level16. It was
a. Knowing the story
b. Voice
15
Effective Storytelling Performance Skills: A Storytelling Skills Rubric Developed by Heather Forest
16 Rubric for storytelling: texas education agaency. 2006.
c. Acting
d. Duration
e. Audience contact
f. Pacing
IRA/NCTE (International Reading Association) also had the
criteria for oral presentation including the scoring level17. It was:
a. Delivery
b. Content/Organization
c. Enthusiasm/ Audience awareness
Fulton City School District created the rubric for judging
storytelling in their annual storytelling contest18. It was:
a. Body language
b. Eye contact
c. Pacing
d. Poise
e. Voice
f. Volume
g. Knowledge of the story
Many researchers might say different in the storytelling
skill categorization. But the part that is the element to asses, see
and measure to become a good storytelling is not different. Here, I
17 Read,Write,Think: International Reading Association. An Oral Presentation Rubric
took a number of elements that become skill elements of
storytelling. They are:
a. Storytelling compositional skill. Including:
1) The story structure
2) Knowledge of the story
b. Performance. Including:
1) Voice
2) Pacing
3) Duration
4) Acting
5) Body language
6) Props
7) Audience contact.
4. Problems in Storytelling
The common problem told by Andy Goodman is the much
too-soon problem. This problem indicates that the storytellers do not clear
about the story point. What point that should be told, where he should get
started, what the next point is, and so on19. They run into some part, drag
to another part, come back to the previous part and this, for sure, make the
audiences confused, ignorant, and even leave them.
The next problems found by Ernest W. Adam. He identified three
major design problems associated with interactive storytelling20:
a. The Problem of Amnesia
b. The Problem of Internal Consistency
c. The Problem of Narrative Flow
A research by Awad Sulaiman found other problems faced by
the teacher during applying storytelling within classroom activity.
All of these answers are got from the interview with the question
“What are the difficulties facing English language teachers in using
storytelling technique?”
They are21:
a. Lack of materials.
b. Students’ misunderstanding of the aim of the story.
c. Inability to be used with all the levels of students.
d. Missing the connection between different parts of the story
e. Grammatical errors
20 Ernest W. Adams, Resolutions to Some Problems in Interactive Storytelling,( University of
Teesside, 2013), 45.
21 Awad Sulaiman Keshta. Using Storytelling in Teaching English in Palestinian Schools:
k. Neglecting weak students.
l. Limited time.
m. No technique.
n. The culture of students may cause troubles.
o. Wasting time
5. Strategy for storytelling
The six principles that could be as a strategy to do storytelling
better22 are:
a. Selection
Choosing the story that the audiences and students are
interested in is important. By selecting the kind of story, the
audiences may get engaged through the story and they will enjoy
the story told.
b. Time out
Using the time as best as possible is necessary to understand
the story. The storyteller has to consider the character used such as
intonation, pace and any other part of story that needs to master
perfectly.
c. Giving voice to the story
After reading the story for preparation, the storyteller might
have time to practice it, trying to act as similar as the story.
Recording and replaying could be done to make sure the sound
acted. This can improve the skill within storytelling.
d. Story structure
Developing notes on the structure of the story is important. The
storyteller has only to record key words, phrases, or sentences.
Storyteller does not need to retell the whole story precisely.
e. Telling without the book
Memorizing the story is the way that storytelling works
because this is not story reading. The storyteller needs to read and
understand the point deeply. Repeating the dialog may help to
make story live. Make highlight on the script that not remember
yet. Things to remember, the key point is a ban bringing notes or
any stuff that indicates cheating, not telling story.
f. Telling to audiences
Practice makes perfect. This wise word is completely right. For
preparation, asking friends become audience might be good at
storytelling performance. It is better to have critique of the
performance from them after doing storytelling. From this, the
storyteller could know which part that needs to improve, what they
feel and what they think for better performance. This can be a key
To become a consumer of storytelling is the best way of
finding a good storyteller23. A good professional storyteller could
be distinguished by their skills. Emily in her book stated that Skills
and attributes to look for are:
a. Technical skills i.e. Vocal and physical
b. Performance skills
c. Compositional skills
d. A lively sense of poetry in their language
e. Adaptable and able to think quickly on their feet
f. Responsive to the myriad variables of
g. Audience, mood and space
h. Extensive repertoire.
Other similar tricks served by Helen about the techniques for
amazing brand story24. They are:
1. Time preparation
2. Learning to tell good story
3. Focusing on the active struggle
4. Avoiding the slow parts
5. Matching the format to brand story
6. Pacing control
7. Focusing on the human element
23Jhonsson, Emily, ed Claire adler, 2006. Telling tales: A guide to developing effective
storytelling programmes for museums. London Museum Hub. Renaissance, London 24Helen nensterenko “15 storytelling techniques for amazing brand stories
8. Clear stakes
9. Following a classic story pattern
10.Throwing in surprise
11.having a solid beginning, middle and end
12.Avoiding “moral of the story” endings
13.Using natural language
14.Making the story visual
B. Review of Previous study
Ika Lestari said that storytelling is a strategy that is cheap but effective to
gain the students’ motivation to learn English for children. The interaction
between teacher and students feels like more natural and meaningful25.
A research about storytelling skill to improve students’ writing skill
showed the result that after doing the action, the students’ skill were improved
in some parts. The first, the students were enthusiastic to write. The second
classroom circumstance of writing class was more enjoyable. The third, the
students’ progresses in constructing sentences, organizing the generic
structure, using correct grammar and integrating ideas were enhanced. The
improvement of the students writing skill was also the enrichment of the
students’ vocabularies26.
25 Lestari, Ika Damayanti, Memanfaatkan
storytelling dan games dalam pengajaran bahasa inggris untuk anak usia dini. Disajikan dalam seminar dan lokakarya English for Young Learners II yang diselenggarakan UPT Balai Bahasa UPI pada tanggal 28 April 2007
26 Puji, Rini Hastuti. 2012. Improving Students’ Writing Skill Through Storytelling (A Classroom
Another research done by Hanifa, Ernati And Welya stated that in general
the ability of speaking through storytelling in MAN Batu Mandi was
moderate27 and so was the ability of expressing the content of story, using
grammar ability in speaking, and the ability of word choices.
Akhyak and Anik found the proof that storytelling improves students’
fluency, grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, and content in the speaking
class28. It even improves the situation in the speaking classroom. The class
becomes more enjoyable for the students to speak freely.
Juangsih found the result of the improvement of learning Dokkai through
storytelling. There is 90% respondents who answered that storytelling in
Chuukyuu Dokkai classroom was interesting, it was easy for the students to
retell the story. Besides, the classroom circumstance is fresher. Within the
storytelling, students are encouraged to speak. Moreover, this makes the
students interested more in understanding the story meaning, to retell with
own language in order to be easily to catch the meaning, and to remember the
story longer29.
There are many benefits found by implementing the storytelling in the
classroom. Alterio state that:
Academic Year). Thesis, Surakarta: Teacher Training And Education Faculty, Sebelas Maret University.
27 Hanifa, ernati and welya, 2013. An analysis of the second year students’ speaking ability
through story telling at MAN Batu Mandi Tilatang Kamang Kabupaten Agam. Thesis, English Department; The Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Bung Hatta University
28Akhyak and anik. Improving the Students’ English Speaking Competence through Storytelling
(Study in Pangeran Diponegoro Islamic College (STAI) of Nganjuk, East Java, Indonesia). International Journal of Language and Literature, Vol. 1 No. 2, December 2013
29 Juangsih, Juju, 2013. Pendekatan Story Telling Dalam Pembelajaran Dokkai: Penelitian
Encompass holistic perspectives
Encourage co-operative activity
Value emotional realities
Link theory to practice
Stimulate students' critical thinking skills
Capture complexities of situations
Katherin Massa studied about the increase of oral language proficiency of
second language learners through storytelling and she found her students’
ability in many aspects was developed. Within 4 weeks, she found the
students’ vocabulary through listening, speaking, reading and writing are
developed. The students were able to use oral language with clarity and voice
to communicate a message to the listener. They also could determine purpose,
point of view, audience, and choose an appropriate written, oral, or visual
format. They recognized values and beliefs included in a text. Even, they
30 Alterio, M. G. (2004) 'Using storytelling to enhance student learning.' Paper presented at the
National
could use strategies to generate and develop ideas for speaking, writing, and
visual activities. At last, with her students, she made storytelling festival day
in the class31.
Nasser Saleh and Ra’ed did the study about “The effect of teacher’s
storytelling aloud on the reading comprehension of Saudi elementary stage
students” and they found that the use of storytelling aloud in English language
instruction to the university students has a positive effect on students’
achievement. Storytelling to elementary stage students had positive impact on
the students’ performance. The impact was the students were more interested
in reading, more like to discuss and they are more confident to participate. The
students had also chance to speak up to show their capabilities. It became the
strong reason to use storytelling in the classroom activity32.
Ella had also found the differences between students who have storytelling
while learning and student don’t. The students of the experimental group who
have storytelling while learning have got more benefit in acquiring more
vocabulary and in using storytelling. They were able to communicate between
each other in using their thoughts, styles, and language experiences. While the
students of the control group who did not have storytelling while learning,
they got less benefit in learning storytelling and in acquiring different
vocabularies. This was because that this group of students has not been taught
more about storytelling as a mean of learning. They were just given some
31 Katherine Massa, Storytelling as a Strategy to Increase Oral Language Proficiency of Second
Language Learners. Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Vol. 2, 2008 32
N.S. Al-Mansour, R.A. Al-Shorman, “The effect of teacher’s storytelling aloud on the reading
lessons about how to tell stories and how to use them in classroom as a new
technique33.
A study by Isbell, Sobol, Lindauer and Lowrance found the fact that
storytelling and story-reading improve oral language complexity and story
comprehension for children. It was good to ask the children to retell after read
the story. The combination of these two approaches provided the powerful
literature experiences to influence oral language development and story
comprehension for the children34.
Rini found the fact that storytelling could improve the students writing
skill. In her study, she also found some improvements after doing storytelling
in any part of classroom activity. First, students’ attitude toward writing was
improved. They like more to write and think that writing was not boring
lesson anymore. Second, the classroom circumstance was enjoyable. Through
the storytelling, the students were more engaged to be active in the class.
Third, the students’ ability of constructing sentences, organizing the generic
structure, using correct grammar, and integrating ideas were improved. The
students’ score proved it. Their score increased. They became more active
when there was the game to construct the sentences. Storytelling built up their
33 Elaf S. Abdulla, 2012, The Effect of Storytelling on Vocabulary Acquisition. University of
Tikrit College of Education for Women /English Department 34
vocabulary during writing. That is why, the use of storytelling as a media to
improve students’ skill was not questionable35.
All of those related preview studies were talking about the improvements
of English skills through storytelling. But here, the researcher will only focus
to analyze how is the students’ storytelling itself. Even though there is a
researcher analyze the storytelling skill too, but he is focus on the storytelling
using digital aid. Asmuni Marjuki found the fact that the students like to retell
the story36. It has been proven by her research that the ability of storytelling of
the students is improved after gone the movie media. This method was
appropriate for them because it is interesting and it is very suitable with their
age. Therefore, the different result of the storytelling skill analysis will be
showed at this study.
35
Rini, Puji Hastuti. Improving Students’ Writing Skill through Storytelling (A Classroom Action Research at the Second Year Students of SMP Negeri I Ngrampal Sragen in 2008/2009 Academic Year). Thesis, Surakarta: Teacher Training and Education Faculty, Sebelas Maret University, 2009.
36 Marjuki, Asmuni. Improving Students Ability of Story Retelling By Using Movie. Thesis,
This study used descriptive qualitative research as the design. The researcher
described the result of the students score based on the combination rubric served
by Heather Forest and three other rubrics, TEA storytelling rubric, Fulton City
School District and NCTE storytelling rubric, to make it convincing and valid.
When the students acted and played in storytelling, the researcher only focused on
some aspects of scoring in the rubric. Other way to find the answer of the
question, the researcher interviewed the students related to the story presented.
This activity makes the result not subjective. The researcher asked about the
students’ preparation of mastering the story, and from this, the researcher
understood more about how far the students mastered the story being told.
A. Research Design
This research is a descriptive qualitative research. Sutopo dan Arief, as
cited by Wilhelmus Hari in his book, stated that qualitative research is a
research for describing and analyzing phenomenon, event, social activity,
attitude, and individual perception or group perception1. It means when
doing a qualitative research, the researcher has to collect the data to
analyze then describe briefly about the evidence obtained from the field.
1 Hari, Wilhelmus S, 2010. Penelitian kualitatif; Aplikasi Pada Penelitian Ilmu Kesehatan. Susilo&ivy.
B. Research Subject
The place chosen for this research was in the SMA Muhammadiyah 2
SIDOARJO. This was because this school has received many awards in
the context of education. The two awards that relate to the education
award in general are first, education Indonesia award categorized as the
best education and educator of the year 2013. The second is the platinum
of Indonesian award 2014 categorized as the best education, learning and
training. These two bases become a strong reason to test the skill of the
students in learning process.
The population for this study is all of the tenth grade students at SMA
MUHAMMADIYAH 2 SIDOARJO. There are a number of classes for the
tenth grade. Based on the observation done by the researcher about the
field, there were14 classes for the tenth grade. For each class, there were
about 35 students. So, there were about 490 students for population.
The data was taken from the 1st grade senior high school students in
the first semester. The students had any kinds of text genres like narrative,
recount, report, descriptive texts in and so on based on the book used.
Based on the advice from the teacher, the researcher used 5 of 14 classes
as samples for this research which contains 187 students. The researcher
C. Research Instrument
a. Observation Rubric
Observation was used to get the real data from the field by
taking notes and paying attention on students’ performance. This
can also use recorder to minimize the missing.
Mallan said that there are six strategies to do storytelling2.
They are:
1. Choosing the story
2. Limiting the time
3. Giving voice to the story
4. Story structure
5. Telling without the book
6. Telling to audiences
Eric miller stated in his journal, Theories of Story and
Storytelling, that there are eleven elements of the story3. They
are:
a. Characters
b. Place
c. Time
d. Storyline/plot
2
Mallan, K. (1996) Storytelling Sourcebook, Project SARA, Brisbane, pp. 15-16.
3
e. Sensory elements like smell, flavours, colours, textures,
etc.
f. Objects
g. Emotion
h. Narrators’ point of view
i. Narrators’ voice, attitude, and style
j. Theme
k. Characters’ physical gestures
In order to have a good storytelling as Mallan said and
to fulfil the storytelling elements like miller said, the researcher
included those strategies in a rubric combined with the criteria
from some storytelling rubric designers; Heather Forest, TEA
(Texas Education Agency), Fulton City School District and
IRA/NCTE (International Reading Association): The criteria
were (see appendix 2):
a. Voice
This involves the students’ voice variation: the use of
intonation, volume fluctuation, tone, and inflection.
b. Audience contact
This is about the storyteller’s sight and attention.
In this part, the performer’s gesture and facial expression are
noticed.
d. Duration
This is about the time limit of the performance
e. Acting
This is about the performer’s role, antagonist or protagonist,
and the performers’ cooperation.
f. Props
This is about the use of props and materials during the
performance
g. Pacing
At last, this is about the story pace and flow.
Other aspect that observed was about the Storytelling
compositional skill. In this part, the researcher paid much
attention to the story being told. There were two categories of
this part. They were (see appendix 3):
a. Knowledge of the story
This is about the students’ story content understanding.
b. Story structure
b. Interview
To answer the second and the third question in this research,
the researcher interviewed the students. The researcher asked about
the problem faced during the performance and the strategy to
solve. The researcher took six points for these two questions. They
were (see appendix 4):
a. Asking about the things that influence their storytelling skill.
b. Asking about the difficult things to handle in storytelling
performance.
c. Asking about the difficult things in conveying the story to the
audiences.
d. Asking about their solution for each problem they have.
e. Asking about their teacher solution for their problem.
f. Asking about their suitable storytelling.
D. Data Collection Technique
1. Targeted Data
The data I need for observation is about the students’
storytelling skill in the classroom performance. The next from the
interview, I need the students’ answers about the part of storytelling
skill that was easiest and the most difficult. After getting the data, the
problems found in doing storytelling, and the way of how to improve
the skill in the next lesson.
2. Source of Data
The source of this research is the tenth grade students at SMA
Muhammadiyah 2 SIDOARJO.
3. Procedures of doing this research are:
a. Going to the field.
Looking at the people that we are going to make as
sample. The targeted data is the tenth grade students. Look at
the population to take the sample. The sample will be chosen
randomly.
b. Doing Observation.
Asep Suryana stated that observation means gathering
the data directly from the field where the subject used to do the
activity4. Here, the researcher will observe the students’
performance at the classroom. The researcher will follow their
performance to take some note and to score their performance
based on the certain criteria.
The first data I need comes from their performance.
Therefore, to get the real data for my research is to observe
4 Suryana, Asep, 2007, Tahap-Tahapan Penelitian Kualitatif Mata Kuliah Analisis Data Kualitatif. Jurusan
them and their storytelling skill in their class. When the
students were doing the performance in front the class, the
researcher would take their score based on the criteria. Besides
the researcher also used recorder to record the performance, if
it is possible.
c. Interview
Interview is a gathering data technique by having
dialog with the subject; it does not tend to be formal in order to
make the subject feels free to share their opinion5. The
researcher interviewed the teacher about the students’
performance in the classroom to make it not subjective. The
researcher also interviewed the students about their own and
their friends’ performance, about the each part of storytelling
to get the answer of the second and the third questions.
The researcher would give the questions to answer the
problem number two and number three. After observed the
students’ performance, the researcher will interview them one
by one about the problems they faced during the performance
and their solution or strategy to solve it.
d. Analyzing the result.
This is the main part of doing this research. All of those
data from different resources was then analyzed. The
researcher would find the level most of students in the
storytelling skill. The second, the researcher and the readers
will know what part of storytelling the students were good and
what part of storytelling that both students and teacher needed
to improve.
e. Make conclusion
From all of those data, the researcher will take
conclusion and will get all of the questions’ answer in the
statement of the problem. This means this research was done
well and has made beneficial contribution for education life.
E. Data analysis technique
Miles and Huberman stated that the most serious and the most
complicated part of the qualitative research is the method of analysis has
not been well organized6. Yet, Spradley clarified that analysis in any
research is the way of thinking. It relates to the systematic test to
something in divining the part and the relation. The analysis is to find the
pattern7.
Here, in this research, the researcher used the model of the analysis
data from the Miles and Huberman. They stated that in this qualitative
analysis, the researcher does the interactive research and it goes until the
researcher gets the surfeited data. The activities in this research are
reduction, data display, and conclusion or verification8.
1. Reduction
The data from the field must be massive. But not all the data
are required for reaching the goal of the study. Omitting the
unnecessary data to analyze here is called reduction. The collected
data will be reduced as needed. When the focus is found, the rest
of the needed data will be easier to collect.
2. Data display
When all of the data needed has been collected, the next
activity is displaying the data. The data can be served as table,
graphic, pictogram and others to make it easier to understand. But
here, in this study the researcher will also use description to serve
the data.
3. Conclusion
The last part of the activity is to conclude of the whole of the
study result. To conclude the result, the researcher will describe it
CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH FINDINGS
A. Findings
The purpose of this study, as stated in the first chapter, is to know the
students’ storytelling skills and to find the problems within and the
strategy to improve their storytelling skills. To find the result of the study,
the researcher did the research starting from 30th of September to 13th of
October 2014. Firstly, to get the answer of the first question, the
researcher did the observation. Secondly, to answer the following
questions, the researcher did the interview.
The researcher observed 5 of 14 students of the tenth grade classes.
They were MIA 3, MIA 4, MIA 5, MIA 6, and MIA 7. From the fifth
classes, not all the students were observed, but just 149 out of 187
students from the fifth class. All of the students performed in front of the
class with any styles. They worked individually, in pair and in a group.
While the students were doing the performance, the researcher took their
score based on the criteria in the instrument. The data of the performed
Class
Table 4.1 table of the number of performers
Form the data, it can be concluded that the students who worked
individually were only 16 students or around 11% of the students. There
were 22 pair groups and 21 group work. The students who work in pair
were 44 students or 29% of students. 89 students or 60% of students
worked in group
The story being told was from the teacher. The teacher provided some
stories and let the students choose the story by themselves. Some of
students might also have their own story choice to tell within the
performance.
As told in the previous chapter, the researcher classified the skill into
storytelling compositional skills. The criteria for the performance were
voice, audience contact, body language, time limit, acting, props and
pacing.
To know the details of the value of the students, the researcher
classifies the students’ skill criteria score by showing the diagram of the
students result as follow:
1. In the part of voice
63% students got score 1.
14% students got score 2.
9% students got score 3.
13% students got score 4.
chart 4. 1 voice score chart
94 students 21 students
14 students 20 students
voice score
As we probably know that voice is one of the most important
elements in storytelling. The audience can understand the character
through the tone, stress, intonation and the variety of the voice
sounds. For example, if the character shows madness, the high
volume and intonation can be presented.
Most of students used inappropriate voice within the
storytelling. They just used flat voice to express the character
within the storytelling. They seemed like not doing acting, but
rather reading a story. This always happened when the students did
storytelling in a group. Just one or two of them used voice
variation for getting the right character.
This can be seen from the data that 94 students or 63% students
got score 1. They got into the criteria, which spoke in low volume,
and/or monotonous tone, which caused audiences to disengage.
Moreover, 14% students or 21 students reached score 2 who spoke
in uneven volume with little or no inflection. The next result is 9%
students or 14 students got score 3 whose criteria of speaking was
satisfactory in variation and inflection. In addition, the last finding
is 13% students or 20 students got score 4. They reached this score
because they spoke with fluctuation in volume and inflection to
2. In the part of audience contact
113 students got score 1
15 students got score 2
14 students got score 3
7 students got score 4
chart 4.2 audience contact chart
Audience’s gaze became a vital component during the
storytelling performance. Since storytelling involves the storyteller
to tell story for the audience, having direct contact with audience
is really needed in order to make the audiences follow the story
being told. The storyteller transfers the message to them, and they
76%
10%
9% 5%
audience contact score
score 1
score 2
score 3
catch what they are going to share. This can be called as successful
storytelling.
From the field, the researcher found the fact that the students
did not pay much attention to this element. It was proven by only
5% students or 7 students who got the perfect score. The rest of
them were likely to pay attention more to the note. 9% students
rarely looked at the audience without getting the audiences
involved into the story. Most of them, or precisely, 113 students
(76%) ignore the audiences. Based on the answer during the
interview, one way to get the confidence during performance was
by pretending as if there were no audiences.
3. In the part of body language
70% students got score 1.
9% students got score 2.
9% students got score 3.
chart 4.3 body language chart
Body language is the way of body trying to communicate
through the movement. Our body share the mood, feeling and what
is happening in its own way1. By using body language, the
storyteller could get the audiences’ attention more. Instead of just
standing in front while reading note, there are lots of variation, like
running, jumping, sitting, and turning around and so on, they could
do to make their performance better.
70% students did not include this element into their
performance. Missing this element within the storytelling made the
1 Sheena, 2011, How to Use Body Language in Your Story Telling: Storytelling As Performance Level
3 Unit 22. Cambridge Technical
70% 9%
9%
11%
body language score
score 1
score 2
score 3
performance not real. It did not present what was in progress in the
story. Consequently, many audiences did not pay attention to their
performance.
4. In the part of duration
85% students got score 1.
3% students got score 2.
5% students got score 3.
8% students got score 4.
chart 4.4 duration chart
Duration- related score means the time used by the students to
perform. The limitation of the time was approximately 3 to 5
minutes for individual and pair performance and 5 to 7 minutes for
score 1 score 2 score 3 score 4
126 (85%)
4 (3%) 7 (5%) 12 (8%)
group performance. Maureen, in Emily’s storytelling guiding
book, reminded other storytellers to think about the time limit of
performance. The audiences need flexible time instead of
performing entire day2. This shows that to know the success a
performance depends on what our audiences feel about.
When the students did the performance in the class, only 12 or
8% students performed within the appropriate time limit. Most of
them, approximately 137 or 90% students performed less than the
time given.
5. In the part of acting
70% students got score 1.
9% students got score 2.
9% students got score 3.
11% students got score 4.
2 Emily Johnsson- Claire Adlertelling. (Eds), Telling tales; a guide to developing effective storytelling
chart 4.5 Acting chart
Acting is a part in which the storyteller has to play a character
in the story. During the performance, the storyteller plays the role
as the player in the story. The storyteller has to keep focus on the
drama activity to keep the audience engaged and interested3.
Acting becomes the life of the performance. Through the acting,
the audience would be engaged to watch the performance. They
enjoy the story showed. They got the message and kept curious
with the following story. The reason that most of students got
score 1 in this part is because they only focused on note. They
were not acting but reading aloud. They brought notes when
3Helen nensterenko “15 storytelling techniques for amazing brand stor ies http://writtent.com/blog/author/hellen/ accessed on july 11 2014.
score 1 score 2 score 3 score 4
105
13 14 17
Acting score
performing the story. The reason of why they brought note were
neither did they memorize the story nor were they ready to perform
in front of the class.
Props are the media used during the performance. In the past,
the player did not use any props at all. They just used the variation
102
score 1 score 2 score 3 score 4
of sounds, their acting, the imagination of the audience, and the
story itself4. Nowadays, the role of props becomes principal to be
prepared before the show.
Any kinds of props could be used within the performance.
Two-dimension props, three-dimension, and four-dimension. The
two-dimension object is like picture. The pictures are usually used
for many purposes, like background. The three dimensions props
are like any real stuff (not a picture) that are used in the story. Like
doll, dress, weapon, accessories etc. The four dimension used are
like what the audience can feel when the performance is played.
Like the smell, the motion, and the vibration.
In the field, the researcher found the fact that 102 students did
not use any props at all. 7 students did not use appropriate props
and 33 students used the right and appropriate props during the
performance. Most of them said that they did not have enough time
to prepare the props, so they just used what are around them or
nothing. It made most of them got score 1 for the props criteria.
4
Evelyn, Davis. (2014) why can props be important in Storytelling for young
7. In the part of pacing
70% students got score 1.
9% students got score 2.
9% students got score 3.
11% students got score 4.
chart 4.7 pacing score chart
pacing score 0
20 40 60 80 100 120
score 4
score 3
score 2
score 1 105 (70%)
13 (9%)
14 (9%) 17 (11%)
