ORAL TRADITION IN

SECOND LANGUAGE
INSTRUCTION

Oral Tradition in Second Language Instruction

Michele R. Whiddon
The University of Southern Mississippi

ORAL TRADITION IN
SECOND LANGUAGE
INSTRUCTION

Abstract
From generation to generation, stories have been handed down through oral tradition to maintain
a cultures collective treasured experience (Lawrence & Paige, 2016). Stories are how we make
sense of experiences (Bruce, 2008). According to Desai & Marsh (2005), Spoken word is a
form of poetry that utilizes the strengths of our communities: oral tradition, call-and-response,
home languages, storytelling and resistance (p. 71). This paper will discuss what oral tradition
is and how it can be incorporated in the classroom as an effective teaching method. Academic
articles will be presented studying and documenting its success. Ideas will be presented for the
different methods of presenting oral tradition through the use of storytelling.
Keywords: Oral tradition, storytelling, language learning

What is oral tradition? Simply put, it is the telling of stories to retain a culture. From
generation to generation, stories have been handed down through oral tradition to maintain a
cultures collective treasured experience (Lawrence & Paige, 2016). Stories are how we make
sense of experiences (Bruce, 2008) and storytelling is synonymous with oral tradition. In stories,
problems, issues, or concerns are introduced (Fay, 2007). Sequential art, for example (comic
books) can serve as a springboard for storytelling as students use the art to navigate the retelling
of the story orally (Fay, 2007). Storytelling can take place in poetic form. According to Desai &
Marsh (2005), Spoken word is a form of poetry that utilizes the strengths of our communities:
oral tradition, call-and-response, home languages, storytelling and resistance (p. 71). How does
this apply to language instruction in the classroom? To be an effective teacher, one must
incorporate a nations culture into language instruction. Students learn better if they understand

ORAL TRADITION IN
SECOND LANGUAGE
INSTRUCTION

the people behind the tongue. But it is not simply enough to learn a culture as part of language
instruction. Students must be engaged to retain and present what they have learned. In this
aspect, the use of technology in the form of digital storytelling is a new area in language
acquisition. Digital storytelling combines oral tradition with digital multimedia in the forms of
images, recorded audio narration, video and music (Torres, Ponce, & Pastor, 2012).

Effectiveness of Storytelling: Two Examples

Storytelling skill, especially the ability to recall information, is important for individuals
who wish to be successful social members of society (Schirmer, Almon-Morris, Fabrizio,
Abrahamson, & Chevalier, 2007). Storytelling facilitates learning in all types of students. In
fact, a study was done on storytelling and how an autistic boy improved rapidly using it. When
the three-year-old boy with high functioning autism was given topics over which short stories
were composed, and was tested over his comprehension and retelling of the stories, his frequency
of using correct syllable structure improved rapidly, rising from 21 syllables per minute to 90
syllables per minute in only five days. When he was allowed to make up his own stories, his
syllable frequency nearly doubled within the next five days, reaching 150 syllables per minute.
An endurance factor was added to the study, increasing the length of time in which he told his
stories from one minute up to three minutes (Schirmer et al., 2007). In conclusion, every single
aspect of this study showed tremendous success with one little boy with high functioning autism
when storytelling was added to his instruction. At his very young age, and with autism,
storytelling allowed him to take his vocabulary skills to much higher levels. Consider next an
example of much older students, of Puerto Rican decent, struggling to succeed and graduate in
their Chicago community. In an attempt to find new ways to engage these students and increase

ORAL TRADITION IN
SECOND LANGUAGE
INSTRUCTION

graduation rates, a new school was formed, called The Pedro Albizu Campos High School
(PACHS). Two of the three major curricular areas of this school focus on awareness of Puerto
Rican and Latino heritage and communication of that heritage through journalistic endeavors
such as making podcasts about their school and communitys history and heritage. Writing and
sharing reflections about their activities in the community (storytelling) scaffolds these students
to take charge of their own learning, especially language development (Bruce, 2008).

Storytelling in the Foreign Language Classroom: Three Examples

Two examples have been cited exemplifying the success in using storytelling for both
very young, challenged learners and older at-risk students as well. In the everyday classroom,
storytelling can also play a vital role in language instruction. Consider the World Readiness
Standards for Language Learning as established by the American Council for the Teaching of
Foreign Languages (ACTFL). The standards are comprised of five key areas of language
acquisition: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities. With
regards to Communication, learners interact and negotiate meaning in spoken communication,
learn to interpret, and then learn to themselves present the spoken language through the telling of
stories. In the area of Cultures, learners relate cultural practices to the perspectives of the
cultures they study. There are few better ways of learning to relate to a particular culture than by
hearing (and presenting) stories about that cultures history, its people, and its practices.
Storytelling helps learners make Connections by acquiring information and diverse perspectives.
According to Lawrence and Paige (2016), storytelling is a holistic process that engages the
heart, body, and spirit along with the mind. Telling our stories is one way of making sense of our
own experiences. Listening to others stories also helps us to understand ourselves as we identify

ORAL TRADITION IN
SECOND LANGUAGE
INSTRUCTION

with their experiences.. Storytelling has the power to disrupt stereotypes (p. 66). This ties
directly to another standard, that of Comparisons. When comparing stories between cultures,
greater understanding is achieved and learners can investigate, explain, and reflect on other
cultures. Finally, in the area of Communities, oral tradition through storytelling is one of the key
ways to keep a culture alive and bring communities together in the pursuit of preserving a
culture, and learners can become a part of a global community dedicated to the preserving of
culture themselves.
What type of classroom activities can promote oral tradition in a way to engage all types
of language learners? We live in a world of technology and knowledge. We have access not
only to all forms of oral tradition, but also the means to engage in storytelling in an exciting and
adventurous way that students can relate to through this technology. For example, in one of my
recently developed classroom activities, I am able to introduce my students to the romances and
cantigas of Spain from the 17th and 18th centuries by accessing examples from websites devoted
exclusively to these topics. With a little time and discussion, my students can begin to relate to
the idea behind these short stories and the history of the country of the time what was going on
that would become the basis of these short literary works. Practical application, and the carrying
on of oral tradition can then take place as my students recite and reenact these romances and
cantigas themselves and record their own oral tradition through the use of todays smartphones
and programs such as Kizoa, Animoto, or Photo Story 3 programs. These programs, and others
like them, operate online, either through a programs website, or cloud-based, allowing the
student to create online slideshows of their videos that can be linked by URL or embed, or
produce videos in mp4 format (Yee & Hargis, 2012).

ORAL TRADITION IN
SECOND LANGUAGE
INSTRUCTION

In another one of my recently developed classroom activities, I present information

(again, through the use of specific websites) over dcimas and corridos, poems and songs
relating oral tradition in the 19th and 20th centuries. In this activity, my goal once again is to
engage my students in the art of oral tradition themselves, this time using written accompaniment
in the form of sequential art (comic strip, storyboard, or collage). The students are engaged in
hearing various corridos and then retelling the corrido they select in their own manner of
presentation, using the sequential art as a springboard for their own storytelling experiences.
Their own storytelling is oral, yet they make use of digital storytelling features such as video or
music as part of their presentation. Going back to the World Readiness Standards for Learning
Languages, the students will compare the stories in the form of corridos with their own cultures
modern versions. The students will communicate in the target language by telling the stories
themselves. And the students will become lifelong learners and community contributors by
participating in oral tradition through the use of storytelling.
A third example of classroom application of the use of digital storytelling in oral tradition
takes place in a workshop as part of a study conducted by Torres, Ponce, & Pastor (2012).
Students in the third workshop of five workshops total were asked to watch a televised digital
story, showing two characters going out to dinner. The students had background information on
the characters, as they had participated in activities reviewing their dialogue in an earlier
workshop. This time, however, the students were asked to compose what the conversation might
be between the two characters in other words, make up a story. The story needed to be logical
and a possible fit into the sequence of events throughout the workshops. This workshop served
to not only foster creativity in the students, but it also helped the students to overcome some
previously embedded linguistic errors in specific contexts. This storytelling activity can be used

ORAL TRADITION IN
SECOND LANGUAGE
INSTRUCTION

along with the use of oral tradition. How so? After presenting any form of oral tradition
jarchas, poems, cantigas, corridos, dcimas, songs students can put their own creativity to work
by reinventing the piece in their own modern interpretation. Again, technology can be an asset
to students as they record themselves reading, reciting, and/or acting out the piece, and visual
recording can be another level of use of technology as the language instructor sees fit. Once
again, World Readiness Standards are being met as students compare and connect their own
culture to the culture studied, communicate in the target language, and become contributing
members to communities through their efforts in storytelling.

Conclusion
Oral tradition has been a part of every culture from the beginning of the spoken word. The
evolution of storytelling offers tremendous variation - from four verse jarchas to longer cantigas,
from poems containing hundreds of lines to songs to movies and audio novels and has served
as a means for each and every culture to find a way to keep itself alive. In todays language
classroom, the use of oral tradition through storytelling can be a powerful tool for language
instructors to integrate multiple World Readiness Standards for Language Learning in classroom
instruction. Advances in technology have even coined the term digital storytelling to refer to
the multiple media options both language instructors and language learners have access to today.
Integrating classroom activities that involve the use of digital storytelling will not only engage
language learners in the educational process, but will serve as another link in oral tradition as a
means of preserving culture.

ORAL TRADITION IN
SECOND LANGUAGE
INSTRUCTION

References
American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages. (n.d.). Retrieved July 24, 2016
from www.actfl.org
Bruce, B. (2008). Coffee cups, frogs, and lived experience. International Journal of Progressive
Education, 4(2), 1-17.
Desai, S., & Marsh, T. (2005). Weaving multiple dialects in the classroom discourse: Poetry
and spoken word as a critical teaching tool. Taboo, 71-90.
Fay, D. (2007). Student storytelling through sequential art. English Teaching Forum, 3, 1-21.
Lawrence, R., & Paige, D. (2016). What our ancestors knew: Teaching and learning through
storytelling. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 149, 63-73.
doi: 10.1002/ace.20177
Schirmer, K., Almon-Morris, H., Fabrizio, M., Abrahamson, B., & Chevalier, K. (2007).
Using precision teaching to teach story telling to a young child with autism. Journal of
Precision Teaching and Celebration, 23, 23-26.
Torres, A., Ponce, E., & Pastor, D. (2012). Digital storytelling as a pedagogical tool within a
didactic sequence in foreign language teaching. Digital Education Review, 22, 1-18.
Retrieved from http://greav.ub.edu/der/
Yee, K., & Hargis, J. (2012). Digital storytelling: Kizoa, Animoto, and Photo Story 3. Turkish
Online Journal of Distance Education TOJDE, 13, 12-14.