Sirhajwan Idek is has been teaching English language at Keningau Vocational College, Sabah, Malaysia, since 2012. He earned his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and PhD from Universiti Teknologi Mara in English language education. He writes short stories, poems and plays and he has been recognized for his effort in promoting folklore via English. He won SEAMEO-Australia Education Links in 2018 and was a top 10 finalist in Commonwealth Class Story Writing in 2016. Email: sirhaj87@gmail.com
 

Nurazilah Othman is an English language teacher at Keningau Vocational College, Sabah, Malaysia and she graduated from Universiti Teknologi Mara with bachelor’s degree in Teaching English as Second Language (TESL) in early 2000s. Nurazilah is also a dance instructor who works closely with Sabah Education Department and she has been actively involved in national and state level traditional dance festivals. She has been recognized by the state education department for her contribution in performing arts. Email: g-32237216@moe-dl.edu.my

 

Abstract

This project was intended to provide students a meaningful experience in learning English through literary and performing arts during national school closure resulting from the COVID 19 pandemic. There were 16 students who participated in this project and they were assigned with three different tasks: poetry performance, storytelling and puppetry. During the school closure, teachers had to find alternatives to virtual lessons since many students had limited access to the internet. Thus, this project was developed in the effort of offering language learning experience that the students could do at home independently without fully relying on the internet. Based on the students’ responses during an open-ended interview session, the project helped them to improve their language learning particularly in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. They were also able to fully understand the literary texts that they performed and acquired additional skills in filming and video editing. It could be deduced that this approach can be an effective method in honing students’ talents and potential in performing arts, improving their reading skills as well as offering them a meaningful and engaging language learning experience.  

 

Introduction

Choudhary (2016) argued that literature allows students to practice the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) which should be taught as a set of integrated skills in language lessons.  Carter and Long (1991) proposed three models on how literature benefits learning: cultural model, language model and personal growth model. Cultural model enables learners to understand and appreciate different cultures and beliefs as well as reflect on emotional and artistic aspects of a literary piece. The language model that emphasizes the use of literature in teaching language skills and structures and the final model, personal growth model, encourages students to understand their own society and culture by studying the relevant literary texts.  Thus, this project aimed to introduce performing arts particularly storytelling, poem recitation and puppetry as a way for students to deepen and demonstrate their understanding of a literary text while improving their pronunciation and speaking skills.

Mundi (2009) claimed that literature nurtures learners’ creative process by sparking their imagination, broadening their perspectives and feeding them new information and ideas.  A research by Fauziah, Marzilah and Tina (2007) that involved 420 Malaysian secondary school students who took literature as a part of English language lesson revealed students’ positive perception on literature as a component in the English language subject that assisted their learning through improvement in language proficiency, acquisition of new vocabulary, increase in interest to learn English and exposure to other cultures. Hence, the students would be given the autonomy to choose three types of literary texts for them to study and subsequently perform: short stories for storytelling, poems for recitation and play scripts for puppet shows.

Banks (1993) posited a model of how students’ cultural surroundings interact and influence their ESL learning experiences which encompasses the students’ ethnic cultures, the teachers’ ethnic cultures, the school cultures and the country’s mainstream cultures. Neisler and Nota (1999) recommended that teachers need to create an equitable and productive learning environment for English language learners by welcoming students’ cultural diversity, showing them how knowledge of culture enhances language learning and encouraging willingness to participate in intercultural learning.  Since the students come from diverse ethnic backgrounds such as Dusun, Murut and Bajau, local folklore was chosen as the theme for their performances. The students were encouraged to choose literary texts that they could culturally relate to and adapt them, if necessary, for performances.

 

Problem statement

When the pandemic struck in early 2020, schools have been closed several times and students and teachers switched to home-based education through virtual classes and remote learning. Due to the major adjustments that teachers were expected to adapt their teaching to, there were conventional classroom activities that must be modified to suit home-based learning context. In Malaysia, poor connectivity prompted teachers to find alternatives on how they could guide their students and what learning tasks they could assign their students with since they might not be able to fully rely on virtual classes. Some activities like direct group discussion, live virtual conversation or interaction as well as real-time presentations could not be carried out properly in English language lessons since many students were not able to access virtual classes and those who could gain access to the internet might experience constant disruption resulted from limited connectivity. Thus, it is essential for English language teachers to explore other ways on how to engage their students in language tasks that could enable them to practice their language skills in a meaningful manner. Hence, this project was intended to determine and demonstrate whether verbal performing arts activities could cater to this learning need since these activities could be done in an extended period of time with minimal need for internet connectivity.

 

Objective and research questions

The goal of this project was to enhance students’ skills in reading comprehension and oral dramatization of selected literary pieces. The research questions were designed to elicit students’ perception on the task.

1. What was the students’ perception on the effects of the task on their language proficiency?
2. What challenges that the students faced when completing the tasks and how they coped with these challenges?
3. Were the students able to orally deliver the selected literary pieces that showed their understanding of the content

 

Project-Based learning in English language arts

According to Buck Institute of Education (2018), project-based learning is a vehicle for students to learn and develop skills through meaningful language use on solving problems or answering questions that require them to use life skills within an extended period of time.  This project aimed to enable students to develop their language skills while gaining enriching meaningful learning experience during home-based learning.  There were three tasks assigned to the students: storytelling, poetry recitation and puppetry. The theme was folklore related to the state, Sabah.

Storytelling: The students chose short stories related to folklore in Sabah and recorded themselves narrate these stories. The students were encouraged to edit their storytelling videos. Seven students were assigned with the storytelling tasks.

Poem Recitation: The students selected poems that chronicled brief tales about myths related to Sabah and recited these poems orally. They were expected to include visuals in their poetry videos. Three students were instructed to do the poem recitation.

Puppetry: The students searched for texts that they could turn to drama scripts and performed them as a puppet show. They created puppets and a small stage for their performances and recorded the puppet show. They also added sound effects in their videos. Six students took part in the puppet show task. They were split into three pairs and each pair did one puppet show.

Once the students completed their performance videos, these videos were uploaded on YouTube which can be accessed by the public. They were also shared on several social media platforms. The task suited the nature of home-based learning where there must be a balance between virtual and screen time as well as the time away from screen especially when the students only had limited access to the internet.

 

Strategies in English Language Arts

Each type of literary texts (poems, short stories and scripts) require different approaches on how they should be performed. There are specific aspects of the different texts that students should pay attention to in the effort of gaining better understanding of the texts and subsequently, perform them in a more effective manner.

Determining the mood of a poem

Jefferys (2017) explained how the various elements a poem like setting, tone, voice and theme help to create the mood of the poem. Mood can be referred as the atmosphere that is present in a poem. The mood can vary from peace to chaos or from pride to frustration.  Students can determine and deliver the mood of the poems correctly in their poetry performance if they learn to identify these various elements which enable them to understand the poems better.

The students who were involved in the poetry assignment in this project chose their own poems in which each folklore poem had its own mythical character. The students were able to convey the mood of the poem by determining the characteristics and/or the emotional states of the characters that served as the focal point of these literary pieces.

Figure 1.0 illustrates how a student identified the characteristics of the protagonist of a poem entitled “Ngakak” which describes the eponymous mythical apparition that screams at night while flying around. The student was expected to use adjectives to describe the characteristics.

Figure 1.0: Characteristics of the protagonist in the poem “Ngakak”

Angry	Sad	Betrayed
Vengeful	Lonely	Frightening
Brilliant	Stubborn	Scared

 

Recognizing active scenes in a story

Wiehardt (2019) posited that every story has action scenes or active scenes. These refer to sequence of actions performed by the characters which often translate in the form of verbs. Active verbs can be used to describe specific actions that create the movement within a story (Kempton, 2004).  Edwin (2020) highlighted the importance of active scenes that allow writers to bring the event to the present and make it happen in front of the readers.  Students can learn to recognize active scenes by analyzing the use of active verbs in a story and how these verbs offer greater way of stimulating readers’ imagination.

There were seven students who were assigned with the storytelling task and they picked their own folktales that they would like to orally narrate. They managed to act the story out with various facial expressions and hand gestures by identifying the active scenes in their own respective stories.

Figure 2.0 indicates a sequence of active scenes that a student was able to recognize from a short story entitled “Mondowoi”. The easiest way to identify the active scenes was by identifying the active verbs that were present in the story.

Figure 2.0: sequence of active scenes in the short story “Mondowoi”

1	Mondowoi picked the fruit from the tall trees
2	Mondowoi caught fish for the villagers with his bare hands
3	The villagers carried fire to his house
4	They punched and kicked Mondowoi
5	Some were crying upon learning that he had died.

 

Directing puppet theatre through its dialogue

Summons (1979) argued that dialogue has the elements of conversation but its function is specifically crafted, purposeful, multidimensional and structural. It is used to convey information, reveal characters including their feelings and it gives direction to the drama. Students can learn more about the characters and the direction the drama is taking by examining the dialogue within the script.

Six students were required to do puppetry in this project and they worked in pairs. They were able to perform the puppet show effectively by dramatizing the dialogues and added sounds effects and props that could complement the delivery of the dialogue. They also evidently altered their voices when dramatizing dialogues and delivered the lines with intonation that matched the context.

Figure 3.0 shows a sample of dialogue from the theatrical script “Katau the Sea Witch” which portrayed the interaction between the two main characters, Mun and Katau, during their encounter on an island. The students were able to use the dialogue to determine the direction that this narrative took which enabled them to perform the puppet show accordingly.

 

Figure 3.0: a sample of dialogue found in the script “Katau the Sea Witch”

Mun	“Where are you? I’m coming to help you,”
Katau	“Are you here to help me?”
Mun	“Yes, I am here to free you if you are truly a prisoner,”
Katau	“Please break this shackle,”
Mun	“If I break it, how can I be sure you won’t hurt me, I heard many stories about you,”
Katau	“I have been asking for help from the passing sailors and offered them rewards if they freed me but they always threatened me for more gold and diamonds in return,”

 

Poem recitation and storytelling improve pronunciation

According to Saputri (2015), poem recitation helped to improve English language learners’ pronunciation and vocabulary as evidenced by a research that she did on a class of students in Indonesia where they made significant progress after a series of activities where they needed to perform poems orally. Nukmatus (2016) found similar results from the storytelling activities that she assigned to students at an Indonesian university where their pronunciation in English language became better after practicing and presenting stories orally. She noted that the students’ rhyming, pitch, stress, and intonation also improved. Lucarevschi (2018) conducted a research on Brazilian beginner learners of English language as a foreign language and discovered that the students perceived storytelling as an activity that improved their pronunciation and they also orally enunciated the words correctly when tested through pre and post-tests.

Puppetry enhances reading comprehension

The process of constructing visual representations of a text through puppet shows such as creating the puppets and putting together a background stage helped students to understand the text in a clearer manner (Murphy, 2018). Puppetry requires the portrayal of the narrative and the characters via oral performance as well as visual representation which offer students a more comprehensive way to understand the text and present it accordingly.

 

Methodology

The project involved 16 students aged 19-year-old from a local vocational college in Sabah, Malaysia. The students came from different districts in the East Coast as well as Interior Division of the state and they spoke a range of indigenous languages such as Dusun and Murut. Their English language proficiency could be considered intermediate and they rarely spoke English since the most common medium of communication is the Malay language.  10 Students were individually assigned to do either storytelling or poem recitation while the remaining six students were required to do the puppet shows in pairs. Once they completed the tasks, they were expected to answer four questions in order to elicit their responses on their experiences.  The first question requested them to explain whether the task helped to improve their English. The second and the third questions respectively required them to describe the most difficult and the most enjoyable aspects of the tasks. The fourth and final question inquired about their understanding of the literary text they chose to perform. Their responses were coded and categorized according to relevant themes.

 

Findings and discussion

The responses from the interview questions revealed profound insight on how the students perceived these tasks. Based on the analysis of the responses, it could be deduced that this project has helped the students to practice their language skills, improve their appreciation of literary and performance arts and broadened their technical skills in producing videos.

Acquisition of new vocabulary and improvement of pronunciation

Majority of the students stated that the activities helped them learn new words as they needed to fully comprehend the content of the text in order to effectively deliver it as a story, a poem or a puppet theatre. They also learned to practice their pronunciation by listening to YouTube videos and compared their pronunciation with these videos.  They were also glad that the tasks required them to orally verbalize the text via performances which gave them a proper mean to practice their speaking skills. Some of the students’ responses were shown in Table 1.0.  

Table 1.0: Selected responses on pronunciation and vocabulary

Student	Responses
Student 1	Yes. Because in reality, I cannot pronounce some difficult words and I try to listen some words from YouTube. Other than that, I do research from google how to pronounce the difficult words.
Student 2	Yes, because before i make a video i cannot pronounce some words and I try to listen from people especially from the other  country on the YouTube and after that I can pronounce it correctly.
Student 3	Yes, because a lot of new words I found and can help me to improve my English better. Thus, you can learn to pronounce words more clearly
Student 4	Yes. I can learn new words and i know to pronounce some difficult words.
Student 5	Yes. I get to talk and learn few new words from this story

 

The findings were consistent with the previous research conducted by Saputri (2015) and Lucarevschi (2018) which indicated how poetry and oral narrations like storytelling could help students to improve their pronunciation and enable them to acquire new vocabulary. Since the students had to do this project at home, they learnt to be more independent on how to pronounce certain words accurately. They referred either to YouTube or Google in order to confirm the correct enunciation of the words. They also learnt the definitions of vocabulary that they were not familiar with.  This signified the upside of home-based project which could encourage students to be more independent and proactive in their learning and it cultivated the concept of “know-how” in the students.

 

Coping with technical difficulties

The students highlighted several factors that made the completion of the tasks challenging and these factors were closely associated with technical aspects like video editing and filming and their surroundings such as noises at home. The students who were assigned with puppetry seemed to face more challenges since they had to ensure that they had enough materials to create the puppet. Since they had to work as a team, the pandemic restrictions prevented them from meeting each other physically and they found it difficult to work separately. Some claimed that finding the right intonation and mood that matched the themes of the literary texts in order to convey the meaning accordingly to be challenging.  

However, many of them felt that the process of filming, editing and completing the performance videos to be the most enjoyable part of the task.  They also perceived the process of understanding the text and performing them in a way that properly portrayed the respective messages and moods to be exciting. The students who worked in pairs felt glad that they were able to work as a team despite not being physically together when completing the tasks. 

 

Table 2.0 : Selected responses on technical challenges

Student	Responses
Student 1	I don’t have an idea to make beautiful and creative videos and there were so noisy around my house. It’s make me try so many times to take a perfect video.
Student 2	I don’t have an idea to make a beautiful videos background also around my house were so noisy and its make me try 3 times to take a video.
Student 3	It is difficult for me to record a video because I do not have enough experience in following this poem competition. Also, a lot of new words I had to learn. I think all the parts in the poem are interesting and I enjoy to do it, because he gave me new experiences and knew more about the story of the water ghost race
Student 4	I take video two times because I need to improve my intonation when i narrating.
Student 5	The difficulties are making the video together as we're far from each other and making the puppet.
Student 6	Najwa-The melody in the poem. It’s hard to make my audience understand what Actually I want to told them
Student 7	The material is not enough to make the puppets. The part went I take the video and editing.

 

Understanding of the literary texts

The students were able to comprehend the literary texts that they chose to perform. They were able to explain the folklore behind the literary texts based on their interpretation. They managed to identify the characters or protagonists in the folklore and explained what they went through in a brief summary. Murphy (2018) stated that students’ active involvement in delivering literary texts can help them understand the texts better (Murphy, 2018). Table 3.0 listed the students’ description of what they were able to interpret from the texts.

Table 3.0 : Selected responses on students’ understanding of the literary texts

Student	Responses
Student 1	The story is about a husband who wants to find the ingredients to make hinava. His wife was craving for hinava
Student 2	The story is about one man which is Mondowoi who always helped the villagers doing work and one day, he was killed for stealing the villagers' food and the villagers were so sorry for killed Mondowoi.
Student 3	This poem tells about the dark ghosts that live in the ocean and are always behind the mangrove trees in the sea that haunt humans
Student 4	It’s about Unga who couldn’t sleep at night because of the noise her family make and grandma Endang was helped Unga to sleep at night by giving her a pillow, mosquito net and blanket and unga give her family that item and Unga finally could sleep.
Student 5	It's about a giant named Soyang who loved to bully animals in the jungle and accidentally disturbed a jungle guardian. Soyang got cursed by the jungle guardian. The moral of the story is, we shouldn't be cruel & bully others.
Student 6	It's about Ngakak that people always scared of being screamed and shrieked throughout the night.
Student 7	The story is about one girl who couldn't sleep at night because of the noise from the family’s room and grandma endang come to her room and give her a pillow, blanket and mosquito net. The 3 items had given to her mother, father and brother. Unga finally could sleep.
Student 8	I understand the story. The story was about a boy named Ombirod who fell ill with a mysterious disease because of his behaviours. So he and his mom search a healer who known as Grandma Lampikut to help him cure from the disease.
Student 9	Telling the story of a fisherman named Mun who wanted to go to sea to catch fish, suddenly he heard a voice asking for help from a beautiful girl appeared and asked Mun to help him but Mun was worried to help the girl because his mother said that the girl was dangerous but the girl said that he only asked for help to the passing fishermen and offered a reward if they let him go but they always threatened him to give them more gold and gems as a reward. Next, Mun helps Katau out of sympathy and Katau presents a treasure as a token of gratitude to Mun.
Student 10	The poem is about a life of Bele-Bele the scarecrow and some of the point is about what the scarecrow really want. I think the poem is really sad but it’s really fun to know about the Bele Bele scarecrow

 

Conclusion

It can be deduced from the findings that the three tasks assigned to the students enabled them to improve their language learning skills particularly in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. They also became more adept at performing a literary piece including the skills necessary in filming and video editing. The project encouraged them to gain in-depth understanding of the literary texts that they chose to perform and this signified the possibility that this task can be incorporated into English lesson in the effort to nurture students’ critical reading skills. This project has the potential to be adopted as a regular teaching and learning practice.

 

Acknowledgement

These activities were a part of the Dau Dau project that was created to introduce integrated arts into English language learning activities for school students to nurture their artistic talents while improving their language skills. This project was pioneered at Keningau Vocational College before it expanded to other schools in Sabah and subsequently, Malaysia. This project was the recipient of Simon Greenall Award in 2021 and it was supported by Macmillan Education, International House World Organization and International House London.

 

References

Banks, J. (1994). An introduction to multicultural education. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Carter, R., & Long, M. (1991). Teaching literature. Harlow, United Kingdom: Longman.

Choudhary, S. (2016). A literary approach to teaching English language in a multicultural classroom. Higher Learning Research Communications, 6(4).

Edwin, J. D. (2020). How to “Show, Don’t Tell” in Writing With Active or Passive Scenes. The Write Practice. Retrieved on October 30, 2021, from  https://thewritepractice.com/show-dont-tell-writing/

Fauziah, I., Marzilah, A. A., Tina, A. (2007).  Literature in English Teaching: A revisit in the Malaysian Context. Research In English Language Teaching.

Jefferys, A. (2017). How to Write a Two-Tone Poem. Pen and the Pad. Retrieved on October 30, 2021, from  https://penandthepad.com/define-mood-poem-1882.html

Kempton, G. (2004). Write Great Fiction: Dialogue. Cincinnati, Writer's Digest Books.

Lucarevschi, C. R. ( 2018).  The role of storytelling in the development of pronunciation of Brazilian learners of English as a foreign language (A thesis submitted for Doctor of Philosophy programme). University of Victoria.

Moss, D., & Van Duzer, C. (1998). Project-based learning for adult English learners. Eric.   Digest.   Retrieved   September   20,  2010   from http://www.ericdigest.org/1999-4/project.htm 

Mundi R. (2009). Literature in Language Teaching (a thesis submitted for postgraduate study). Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim (UIN) Malang. Retrieved October 10, 2021 from http://www.jurnallingua.com/edisi-2009/9-vol-1-no-1/66-literature-in-language-teaching.html

Murphy, A. (2018). Pedagogical Puppetry: Playful Tools to Engage Adult Learners of English. Retrieved on October 10, 2021, from  https://www.hltmag.co.uk/oct18/pedagogical-puppetry

Neisler, Otherine J. and Nota, Alyssa (1999). Cultural Influences and Interactions in the ESL Classroom. Educational Considerations, 26 (2). Retrieved on October 19, 2021, from https://doi.org/10.4148/0146-9282.1346

Nukmatus, S. (2016). Students’ Perception of the Use of Story Telling Technique to Improve Pronunciation Skills. Indonesian Journal of English Teaching, 5 (1).

Saputri, D. L. (2015). Reading poems as a strategy to improve pronunciation ability on segmental features and word stress. (A thesis submitted for bachelor’s degree programme). Semarang University.

Solomon,  G.  (2003).  Project-based  learning:  A  primer.  Technology  &  Learning, 23, 20-27.

Summons, J.  (1979). Lamb of God: Theatre Australia New Writing.  Currency Press, Sydney.

Wiehardt, G. (2019). Better Ways to Describe Action in Writing Active Verbs Are Your Best Friend. Retrieved on October 20, 2021, from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/writing-action-scenes-1277067

 

Appendix: Link to the performance videos

Title	Type of performance	YouTube link
Katau The Sea Witch	Puppetry	https://youtu.be/j5m2P-hSmbM
Soyang		https://youtu.be/h_XiJeE0B-k
Unga and Grandma Endang		https://youtu.be/wMmbIyne5LI
Tombiruo	Storytelling	https://youtu.be/aZHzW9Li4Fs
Grandma Lampikut The Healer		https://youtu.be/PjeepQT4k7U
Mondowoi		https://youtu.be/WxdEU5fXV1w
The Misasawo & Hinava		https://youtu.be/VueXfNVwGdU
Ngakak	Poetry performance	https://youtu.be/3Fpje1R5p8A
Galap		https://youtu.be/6Lj3E7QGjUI
Bele-Bele		https://youtu.be/_EdUc77Phak

 

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