In 2010, a project of “An Experimental Study of English Curriculum Reform” has been initiated in New Taipei City. It spotlighted the needs of reforming elementary schools’ English education in Taiwan. Therefore, this study aimed to echo the spirit of the project. Most research studies noted that read aloud was superior to silent reading in primary EFL classrooms in Taiwan; nevertheless, other studies (Wang, 2003; Parr and Maguiness, 2005) have provided a methodology to bring talk into silent reading. Therefore, the purpose of this article intended to compare the influences of two different storytelling instructions: read aloud and silent reading along with group discussion on vocabulary acquisition, learning attitudes, and learner autonomy at two G4 classes in Taiwan. There were 35 fourth graders spending 40 minutes per week in a semester to experience the storytelling activities. The results of this study indicated that both storytelling modes (read aloud and silent reading) had a positive influence on vocabulary acquisition and reading attitudes. The other important finding was that students’ learning autonomy levels were enhanced in both groups. It is hoped that the results of this study can provide a new facet of storytelling for researchers and give pedagogical inspiration to encourage EFL teachers to explore new instructions of storytelling in the language classroom to continue this valuable dialogue.
Learner autonomy, storytelling, read aloud, silent reading, English proficiency
