According to the articles that we have this week, I realize that oral storytelling in different cultures play different roles in children's literacy learning experiences.
According to Nina Sabnani (2009), oral storytelling in Rajasthan is representing as "memories or mediations between reality and aspirations that reflect what a society wishes to express itself" (p.28). Oral storytelling is a traditional way of communication between people. According to Mushengyezi, oral storytelling is the main form of public communication in some cities of Uganda. In most Western countries, according to Cline and Necochea, people believe that bedtime storytelling can enrich children's reading ability and "parents are often reminded that if they read to [their children] every night their children will grow up to be readers, love literature, and experience academic success in school" (p.122).
What is oral storytelling? Is oral storytelling only limited in bedtime storytelling? Is oral storytelling used as a tool to make children gain interests in literacy in their early years? Does oral storytelling have the purpose to prepare children to be successful readers at school?
What is the purpose of oral storytelling? What happen to those children who do not have the chance to experience oral storytelling in their culture or in their families? Will they be less successful in their future literacy learning? Is oral storytelling a skill that we need to practice as educators or parents? Do we as educators or parents have the responsibility of doing oral storytelling with children? What is children's role when doing oral storytelling? Are they only the listener or the receiver?
Educators and parents do not recongize that oral storytelling is one of the ways to communicate and to share their own experiences with children. Rather, they see oral storytelling as the method to enrich and prepare children for further literacy learning. Oral storytelling can happen any time and anywhere and it should not be limited as only happening during bedtime storytelling. For example, family history, family stories, ans stories of parents as children can be shared with their own children. Also, children can be the storyteller. Parents can encourage children to tell stories of their days with their friends and children can also share stories that they create with others. This is a way to enrich children's oral storytelling experiences.
In my own experience with oral storytelling (as the teller and as the listener), I have found that it is a much more natural process of telling a story than writing or reading which require you to gain specific skills in order to articulate and narrate a story of your choice. I say this because of a strong verbal approach that I was exposed to growing up and although I'm not suggesting that many others experienced my experiences, the very nature of speaking, talking, singing, or gesturing are almost automatic to a wide range of people from varying cultural backgrounds.
回复删除I think that the mere engagement in a conversation with another person is a form of oral literacy practices but how often do we tell children to stop talking when they're eating their snack or lunch or as an example presented to us in class, how we make children sit in their chairs and focus on themselves and their books during "silent reading"? We have learned throughout this semester that with talking and engaging in dialogues does enhance literacy abilities. I believe that because reading and writing is the more revered literacy practice, oral storytelling has been lost in the mix. An example is the whole discussion of First Nations traditional oral storytelling practices and how they struggle to fight to keep this tradition in existence because the mainstream Westernized ways of literacy is imposed on them to practice (in order to be heard and understood?) I also think about the questioning of the validity that orally told stories have in comparison to stories written in books or found on the internet and how often the latter can have more literary clout than what was told/spoken to us directly. When I see the little value placed on oral storytelling it's almost a blatant reminder of how stories (or voices) are silenced because it's not the expected dominant literacy practice.