The use of storytelling by ESOL/Literacy trainee teachers

This article analyses the reflections of trainee teachers’ experiences of using storytelling as part of their teaching practice in the English as a Second Language (ESOL) classroom in the further education and skills sector. It focuses on the evaluations and perceptions of the trainee teachers on the effectiveness of storytelling as a pedagogic tool to enhance the language and literacy skills development of their ESOL learners. Moreover, it also explores the impact of storytelling on trainee teachers’ professional development, using the theoretical framework of Linda Evans (2011; 2014). The findings indicate that trainees were able to implement storytelling in a wide range of contexts with various groups of learners from Entry 1 to Level 2. Storytelling as a pedagogical tool was used in various forms from not planned impromptu uses when demonstrating a grammatical or lexical point through to various more or less pre-planned anecdotal and routine classroom uses with innovative approaches and materials designed by the trainees themselves. The reflective accounts demonstrated a mostly positive impact of the implementation of storytelling on trainees' professional development that has been reflected mainly in the components of attitudinal and intellectual change with some evidence of behavioural change too