Firstly, before introducing the importance of storytelling in teaching Arabic to children, mention the necessity of using the digital world and its advanced technologies in education and acquiring knowledge and skills.
In general, a mother can teach her children the Arabic language online without any obstacles or problems. Nowadays, there are electronic platforms that use the latest interesting and entertaining educational means, such as eArabic.io, which is an online platform for teaching children the Arabic language by following some of the advanced mechanisms and techniques in teaching and ensuring choosing the best-specialized teachers to provide the entire educational process.
In addition, the mother can enhance the process of teaching Arabic to her child through some easy and fun ways at the same time, such as buying children’s story printed books or eBooks. Because we all love stories, it has been an instinct in us since we first heard the stories from our grandmothers; it relaxes us and fosters our imagination.
Stories are a world that exudes magic and wonder, fostering in the child a positive attitude towards everything he encounters. More importantly, storytelling is still one of the best educational methods for teaching children their mother tongue.
1. What is the importance of storytelling in children’s education?
The importance of the story is not limited to teaching the Arabic language alone but also extends to many other aspects. A short story recounts a human experience or an incident, either from real life or fantasy, or both. It is also characterized by rich, intensified suggestions, summaries, and laconic language to depict a story or incident in an effective and eloquent manner.
According to the importance of storytelling and reading in building and forming the personality of the child, societies have worked on developing this literary genre for children, producing it, and providing it either as books or electronic files that are easy to access and purchase.
Children’s story books offer educational experiences, real or fictional. Its characters carry distinctive qualities that can be learned and imitated by children. Such as courage, honesty, diligence, love, empathy, and helping others. The importance of the short story for children also stems from its ability to influence and motivate children by linking stories to what they experience in their real lives, which motivates them to develop their skills.
More advantages of storytelling and storybooks:
a) The story evokes many feelings in children, such as laughter, sadness, excitement, and anticipation of the events of the story.
b) The interpretation of the content of the story and illustrations, which develops the child’s imagination.
c) Connecting imagination with the real world of the child helps him/her understand normal daily life.
d) Stories allow the child to explore their own cultural roots and experience other cultures.
e) It develops the ability to think of new ideas and helps the child express his/her feelings and thoughts.
f) Through the stories, the child discovers the different traditions, values, and diverse experiences of the world.
g) Scientifically, parts of the child’s brain are activated when he/she is reading or listening to a story.
2. What is the importance of storytelling in teaching Arabic to children?
Stories are rich and full of vocabulary and phrases to enhance the child’s language skills. Especially when the child’s memory relates to the characters of the story and the situations he/she encounters in life.
The importance of storytelling in teaching Arabic to children has many reasons, including:
a) Reading a story allows the child to make connections between spoken and printed language. So, while reading aloud, ask the child to point at the word with his/her finger.
b) The story contributes to integrating the information the child has learned, helping them speak better and thus gain more confidence.
c) It helps the child increase his/her fluency in the Arabic language, verbal competence, and knowledge of the content.
d) learning new vocabulary, structures, and linguistic expressions.
e) It facilitates the process of memorizing vocabulary through the repetition of some basic vocabulary.
f) Using vocabulary in its context within the story contributes to faster memorization.
g) Once the child reads or listens to a story, he/she will want to continue learning because the stories are always fun and interesting.
h) Enhancing the process of teaching grammar by pointing at them in the text.
i) Learn and acquire new skills.
j) Promote self-learning and develop creative and critical thinking skills.
3. What is the concept of the short story and its basic elements?
Introducing the concept of the story and its basic elements helps in correctly understanding the text, events, characters, and summary. Thus, some questions can be asked of the child to help him/her understand the story as a literary art.
The importance of the story in teaching the Arabic language to the child appears when he/she starts a dialogue, talking about the story, to enhance vocabulary, expressions, and old and new words by creating language and expression skills in the child.
The definition of a short story:
The short story is short narrative prose. It focuses on one event, one main character with a few additional secondary characters, and one central theme, unlike the novel.
The basic elements of a short story are:
a) Setting: it is a description of where and when the story takes place.
Place: for example, it could be in a forest, a village, a city, a palace, or a spaceship.
b) Time: the story may be taking place in a very ancient time or at the present, and maybe with a specific period, season, or weather.
c) Characters: which take part in the action of a short story and include the main character, who is the hero of the story, and other secondary characters. Characters may be humans, animals, or other elements.
d) Plot: It is a series of gradually escalated events when the main character always finds a solution to the problems and wins the conflicts.
e) End: After the crisis and resolving conflicts. There is always a happy ending.
f) To enhance the child’s literary and language skills, after finishing the story, the child can:
g) Determine the time and place of the story.
h) Identify the characters’ names in the story.
i) Describe the characters of the story and his/her opinion about them.
j) Briefly describe the events.
k) What is his or her opinion about the end of the story, and which end could he/she put it at?
l) Did he/she like the story or not? And why?
4. The mechanism of teaching the short story and its methods:
One of the most familiar ways is by reading, writing, and summarizing. In addition, writing new vocabulary on a small note and memorizing these words. In the process of teaching storytelling to children, they are divided into three types: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners.
Firstly, visual learners prefer and react to visual images. As for the auditory learners, they interact more with the sounds; in this case, the teacher or a parent can imitate the sounds of things and bring the characters of the story to life.
While kinesthetic learners learn through their bodies and their sense of touch,. They need to use and move their bodies because they have a strong physical memory. For example, while reading a story, the form of rain, wind, a river, or how a bird flies can be imitated.
The importance of the story in teaching Arabic over other arts is that it is written in an ideal format as language teaching material. What makes this experience ideal for learning is the use of audio-text narration, which helps improve reading, listening, and pronunciation skills at the same time.
The teacher or mother can make the reading process very interesting for the child by using some performance skills, such as:
a) Changing the volume, intensity, and tempo of the sound according to the characters of the story.
b) using facial and body expressions and gestures.
c) Making the body and face tell the story and respond to events.
d) maintaining eye contact with the child.
e) Using different and exaggerated sounds.
f) Adding dramatic effects such as silence or announcing the imminence of a problem or solution.
5. How do I choose the best storybooks for my child?
Now that you realize the importance of storytelling in teaching Arabic, it’s time to shop and pick out the best children’s story books. With the magic of technology, you can access and buy books online.
Libraries and websites are full of diverse stories with different topics; some are Arabic, and others are translated from international languages. Children’s stories include many types: fantasy stories, animal stories, myths and legends, folk stories, adventure stories, scientific stories, realistic stories, humorous stories, and religious stories.
But how do we choose the right story? What are the criteria or standards?
a) The artistic aspect: the story should be creative and imaginative. The illustrations should be attractive and interesting.
b) The linguistic aspect: the linguistic level of the story must be appropriate for the child’s age, and it should also include the intellectual and cultural aspects and the human values; this is what we want the child to acquire.
c) The quantitative aspect: The size of the story, including written lines and pages, should be commensurate with the educational level of the child.
d) The intellectual aspect: the story fits with the intellectual level of the child, as the intellectual abilities of all children are not equal. It is best to choose stories that the child can understand and assimilate.
e) The story has a great and very important role in teaching the Arabic language to children, and it is the ideal way to learn the Arabic language. Also, it plays a role in the development of his/her personality, both intellectually and culturally.
f) Teach your child the love of reading, seeking, and discovering new things, then watch how your little flower opens his/her petals to embrace the light of knowledge!
The story has a great and very important role in teaching the Arabic language to children, and it is the ideal way to learn the Arabic language. Also, it plays a role in the development of his/her personality, both intellectually and culturally.
Teach your child the love of reading, seeking, and discovering new things, then watch how your little flower opens his/her petals to embrace the light of knowledge!
