Storytelling As A Way To Increase Student Motivation

Storytelling As A Way To Increase Student Motivation

Storytelling is a pedagogical technique based on the use of stories with a certain structure and hero, aimed at solving pedagogical problems of training, mentoring, development and motivation used in engineering colleges.

We list below only the most important tricks and mention also what should not be done.

Pedagogical storytelling performs the following functions: mentoring, educational, motivating, educational and developing.

1. Each word of the material studied should have been understandable

  • Consciously limit the input information, both grammatical material and vocabulary. This means that (a) as soon as you enter a new element (word, expression, construction), immediately explain it and (b) make sure that you do not have to introduce additional elements with it;
  • Check students’ understanding regularly, which is why ask some students to translate a sentence, expression, or word orally;
  • As soon as you notice that someone didn’t understand something, or if there was even a hint of doubt in the meaning of a word, immediately quickly explain it again. The simplest and most effective would be (a) a translation or (b) a quick question – answer on previously entered material;
  • Explain grammatical phenomena in the students’ native language and only in context. Do not use complex grammatical terminology. We never explain pure grammar until the student has met it in context. Go from content to form;
  • Explain how students work in the classroom;
  • We use international words or those that sound similar in the studied and native language of students;
  • The speed of the story should be moderate so that every student in the group understands the tutor at every moment in time;
  • Make sure that all students are keeping up with your pace;
  • Ask one or more students to translate the text orally;
  • If a student is mistaken during oral work, do not explicitly correct him or her. Instead, you should say that perhaps we need to repeat this language material again. After the wrong answer, you can simply repeat the correct option out loud.

2. The number of repetitions should be sufficient

  • Ask about the story, not tell it. By asking many questions, you engage students in the process of co-creating history. When the students themselves create a story, the teacher can only control so that the plot develops in the direction he or she needs and decide whether to include the detail proposed by the students in the plot or reject it. Discussing the proposed options, you once again repeat the necessary expressions or grammatical constructions;
  • Cyclic questions, that is, ask a series of questions for each sentence that will be cyclically repeated;
  • Use different types of questions: general (“yes / no”), alternative choices (“or”), specific clarifying (who? Where? On what? With whom? Where? Why?);
  • Inquiries maintain interest in history. According to the answers of the students, check whether the students really quickly understand the question or first mentally translate the question into their native language. The speed of reaction to a question will increase gradually, as the number of repetitions of certain expressions and constructions grows;
  • Revive offers gradually with new details. This will allow you to ask more and more questions about the same proposal;
  • Use the “vertical chain of questions” (from general to particular), which forces students to report more and more private details about an object or character.

3. You need to maintain a keen interest in history

  • Establish and adhere strictly to the lesson ritual;
  • Involve students in the joint development of the storyline;
  • Make students the main characters in the story;
  • Stage stories, let the students act as characters;
  • As the story progresses, ask students about their lives, hobbies, individual events in their lives, etc., and correlate this information with the details of the life of the characters in the story. So you will cause empathy and sympathy for the heroes of history;
  • After reading the story, discuss whether the same thing happened in the students’ lives;
  • Fill your story with unexpected (extravagant) details and plot twists and encourage students to do the same;
  • As soon as you notice that interest in the story is falling, enter new details into the story, change the pace or change the type of activity.

Category: Education

Tags: motivation, students, teaching skills