The role of Digital and Traditional Storytelling on Teaching English to Young Learners- Detecting Gender Stereotypes in Fairy Tales

Abstract

During the 21st century, a century of great technological and scientific progress, education and teaching should adapt to students’ needs in order to make the whole process of learning more interesting, appealing, interactive and engaging for learners and motivate them to achieve their goals (Bellanca & Brandt, 2010; Griffin, McGaw & Care, 2012). English as a Second Language (ESL)/ English as a Foreign Language (EFL) can be quite challenging for Young Learners and that is the reason why ESL/ EFL teachers should always conduct a needs analysis and adapt their teaching accordingly by constructing and using creative material in their teaching, while at the same time they should employ not only traditional methods of teaching but also integrate technology, which is quite familiar to learners. A quite effective way to teach human communication is through storytelling (Chung, 2016), while technological tools can further assist storytelling and make it even more interesting in the 21st century classes. In other words, apart from the conventional- traditional storytelling, which is essential for learners’ language learning, personal development and improvement of academic performance, digital storytelling can play a vital role for a learner’s successful learning experience, academic performance and formation of personality (Skinner & Belmont, 1993). Additionally, it is worth mentioning that fairytales can play a key role in Young Learners’ development as kids have the tendency to acquire roles based on the stimuli they receive. For this reason, it is crucial to detect if there are any stereotypes (gender) in them, what effects they may have on Young Learners (YL) and how the ESL teacher of the 21st century should address them.