Exploring the value of animated stories WITH YOUNG ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

 Abstract

Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) through animated stories bears many prospects for an effective and meaningful language instruction as animated stories can help to contextualize the new language providing audio-visual input along with the story narration. In this study, the role of animated stories in teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language) to Young Learners (YLs) was investigated. The potential role of using such an approach was assessed in terms of students’ attitudes towards learning English. Five authentic animated stories were used as overarching themes into which some basic vocabulary, structures, and functions of the target language were integrated. On the whole, the outcome of the study is that students kept their initial positive attitudes towards learning English with animated stories. The study also proved that students’ concerns related to learning English decreased through such instruction. The findings of the present research also suggest that animated stories offer teachers opportunities to present and recycle vocabulary, grammar, and functions of the target language in context through integrating many extension activities related to the story theme.