An Action Research on the Effects of Story Grammar Instruction on Taiwanese Students’ Perceptions and Ability of Telling Picture-based Stories

• Main Authors: Hsiao-ling Lu, 盧筱玲
• Other Authors: Shau-ju Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/22251278974033402600

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語學系在職進修碩士班 === 98 === This action research aims to investigate the effects of the story grammar instruction on Taiwanese students’ perception and ability of telling English picture-based stories. The focus of the study is to examine: (1) How the story grammar instruction functions to improve students’ ability to tell a story based on a picture in English, (2) how students react to the story grammar instruction and what the teacher can do to make it more effective to apply the story grammar instruction to training participants in a speech contest, and (3) how the story grammar instruction affects students’ attitude toward picture-based storytelling. Seven freshmen in National Kinmen Senior High School participated in the study, which lasted for 5 weeks. During the study the participants completed a pre-instruction questionnaire, took a picture-based storytelling pretest, underwent the story grammar instruction, took a picture-based storytelling posttest, responded to the same questionnaire and received an individual interview after completing the instruction. The data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively, mainly by comparing the participants’ storytelling performance and perceptions before and after the story grammar instruction. Major findings of the study are as follows: (1)The explicit story grammar instruction helped students tell longer stories, increase the number and enhance the quality of the story elements, and improve their fluency in the picture-based storytelling performance, (2)The most difficult aspect students considered about picture-based storytelling before and after the story grammar instruction changed. Before the instruction, the most difficult aspect was “content,” but after the story grammar instruction it was “vocabulary,” (3)To help students transit from finding telling a story from a simple picture to telling a story from a complicated picture, the most effective method was to give students more modeling, and (4)The story grammar instruction helped improve students’ self-perceived ability, reduce their apprehension, enhance their confidence and increase their interest in telling a story from a picture.