Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This article examines the approaches to storytelling as a means of encouraging literacy employed by Professor Rudy Wilson across cultures of the United States and Nigeria. It discusses the opportunities storytelling provides for children to develop an interest in reading and to build language skills. A report on an interview with Professor Wilson (known as ‘Papa Rudy’ in Nigeria) is supplemented by observations of his storytelling activities in Nigeria. The researchers conclude that storytelling is a viable tool for teaching reading. Findings show that children across cultures love stories, but their level of concentration varies with the number of alternative activities to which the child is exposed. More importantly, the success of the storytelling session depends on the teacher’s creative ability and flexibility.

Keywords

storytelling reading schoolchildren Nigeria United States

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bus, A.G. ( 2001) Joint caregiver-child storybook reading: A route to literacy development. In S. B. Neuman and D. K. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook of early literacy research. New York; London : Guilford Press. pp. 179-191.

Ehri, L.C. ( 2005) Learning to read words: theory, findings and issues. Scientific Study of Reading, 9, 2; 167-188.

George, Y. and Schaer, B. An investigation of imposed-induced imagery methods on kindergarten children’s recall of prose content. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Mid-South Education Research Association, 1986. 48 pp.

Goodman, Y. , Watson, D. , Burke, C. ( 1996) Reading strategies: focus on comprehension. 2nd ed. New York: Owen Publishers, Inc.

Gunning, T.G. ( 2000) Creating literacy instruction for all children. 3rd edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Heyneman, S.P. and Loxley, W.A. ( 1983) The effect of primary-school quality on academic achievement across twenty-nine high- and low-income countries. The American Journal of Sociology, 88, 6; 1162-1194.

http://www.southernct.edu/∼brownm/300genre.html [Accessed 13th February, 2008].

Huck, C. , Hepler, S. and Hickman, J. ( 1997) Children’s literature in the elementary schools . New York: McGraw Hill.

Kamarudeen, B.A. ( 1984) Specific reading problems encountered by the class six pupils in St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Asogo, Oyo. B.A. thesis . Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan, Ibadan.

10.

Kassow, D.Z. ( 2005) Parent-child shared book reading: quality versus quantity of reading interactions between parents and young children. http://www.talaris.org/research_sharedbook.htm [Accessed 21st January 2008].

11.

Lamb, S.J. and Gregory, A.H. ( 1993) The relationship between music and reading in beginning readers. Educational Psychology, 13, 1; 19-27.

12.

Noble, K.G. , Farah, M.J. and McCandliss, B.D. ( 2006) Socioeconomic background modulates cognition-achievement relationships in reading. Cognitive Development, 21, 3; 349-368.

13.

Paley, V.G. ( 1997) The girl with the brown crayon (How children use stories to shape their lives). Cambridge, Harvard University Press.

14.

Palmer, B.C. , Harshbarger, S.J. and Koch, C.A. ( 2001) Storytelling as a constructivist model for developing language and literacy. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 14, 4; 199-212.

15.

Roberts, T. and Neal, H. ( 2004) Relationships among preschool English language learners’ oral proficiency in English, instructional experience and literacy development Contemporary Educational Psychology, 29, 283-311.

16.

Senechal, M. , Thomas, E. and Monker, J.A. ( 1990) Individual differences in 4-year old children’s acquisition of vocabulary during storybook reading. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87, 218-229.

17.

Statistics Canada (2007) Are 5-year old children ready to learn at school? Family Income and Home Environment Contexts. http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/81-004-XIE/2007001/read.htm . [Accessed 21st January 2008].

Storytelling across cultures: engendering literacy the ‘Papa Rudy’ way

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References