The Effect of Storytelling on Childrens Learning English Vocabulary: A Case in Iran

ABSTRACT: Vocabulary appears to be the heart of language especially by children. The purpose of this study was to examine whether storytelling can affect childrenʹs vocabulary learning in English. Thirty one Iranian preschool students from two different preschools with the same language system and the same level of English proficiency participated in this study. All of the students were six years old and had learned English as a foreign language. This study employed a one group pretest posttest quasi-experimental design; the pretest and posttest were the same with 30 vocabulary picture test items related to both studentsʹ current course book vocabulary items which were familiar to them and the new items related to the story book. For data analysis, paired t-test was used and it was revealed that storytelling might enhance the achievement of vocabulary items, and consequently it might bring up a positive effect on childrenʹs vocabulary learning.