Storytelling and Story-Acting in Swedish: Sagoteater to Promote Oral Language Among Swedish-Speaking Preschoolers

• In Event: Cross-Cultural Investigations of Storytelling and Story-Acting: A Dialogue Among Early Childhood Teacher Researchers

Abstract

Objectives and Context:
ST/SA offers a flexible process that can be used to support language development in any language; for example, the Boston Public Schools, where one in every two students speaks a home language other than English, embeds this process in their district-wide curricula for Pre-K and Kindergarten (Boston Public Schools, n.d.; Department of Early Childhood, n.d.). In this study I explored the potential of using ST/SA to support Swedish language development, building on previous research supporting the value of ST/SA for emergent bilinguals (Author, 2018). The context for the study was a part-time (one afternoon weekly) Swedish language immersion preschool class of eleven 5-6 year-old children situated in the Northeast U.S. All children in the class were emergent Swedish-English bilinguals. Two children were described by their families as having selective mutism and although they participated nonverbally, seldom produced spoken Swedish in the classroom. The ST/SA approach (Sagoteater in Swedish) was used and documented throughout one school year, to explore the question: How could ST/SA support development of spoken Swedish and verbal in-class participation, in particular for children with selective mutism?

Theoretical Framework and Methodology:
This presentation utilizes the theoretical framework of inquiry as stance and the methodology of teacher research as presented in the overall session summary, applicable to all three papers.

Data Sources:
Data included 36 transcribed children’s stories and 16 video-recorded Story Acting sessions. I reviewed and coded these as primary data sources, along with 26 still images of both story dictation and story acting sessions, and my own weekly memos about the process.

Conclusions:
Overall, ST/SA did support development of oral language skills, vocabulary development, and self-confidence in spoken Swedish. Regarding vocabulary development, children frequently asked for clarification of words used in peers’ stories. For example, during a story about a zoo, another child asked, “Vad betyder ‘djurpark”? What does ‘zoo’ mean?” The use of storytelling props (e.g. cards with pictures; stones painted with symbols) also led to children using more novel vocabulary in their stories. Regarding oral language use and confidence in speaking, substantial changes were also noted. Over time, children (especially those with selective mutism) exhibited increased participation and production of spoken Swedish during ST/SA. For example, one child with selective mutism increasingly participated as an actor in other children’s stories, eventually dictating a full page-long story by whispering to a family member while I transcribed. She then proudly took the starring role in the story acting. In fact, participation increased overall; in time, all children began to take on roles in acting stories regularly, and all children who were initially reluctant storytellers had engaged in ST/SA both as storytellers and actors before the practice needed to be suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on these findings, ST/SA will continue to be a pillar of the Swedish language curriculum in our context. Future work may involve exploring ST/SA in online contexts with young children, which may be necessary in our teaching next school year as the pandemic continues.

Author

• Megina Baker, Neighborhood Villages