Integrating children’s fiction and Storyline in the second language classroom

Figures & data

Table 1. Overview of lesson content and interaction patterns

Key Question	Task	Skill	Interaction Pattern
Who are the characters?	Learners read a part of the text, draw the character and their imagined home; write about the character and an imagined typical day. (Each group read about one of the farmers or the fox). Tasks were divided between group members.	Reading Writing	One learner per task
	The drawings and texts are placed on the frieze. The learners prepare to introduce `their´ character and present this to the class. They create two questions for the audience based on their presentation. The class stands by the frieze.	Speaking Listening	Group
What do you think the farmers are going to do?	Teacher reads and learners listen: Why can’t the farmers catch Mr Fox? Which farmer has a plan? Then the groups talk together about what this could be.	Listening Speaking	Individual Group
	Each learner in the group receives a part of the text about Mr Fox leaving the hole, being shot and injured, and escaping back to his hole. Each draws a sketch based on their text (Figure 1), then they agree on a sequence, and together, write a sentence for each of the pictures.	Reading Drawing Speaking Writing	Individual Group
	The teacher writes ` shovel´ on the board and reads up to the words `the most frightening sound a fox can hear´. What is this? What happens next? The learners create a dialogue between the fox family and include Mr Fox’s plan.	Listening Writing Speaking	Individual Individual Group
How do you think Mr Fox tries to save his family?	The learners act out their dialogues and the audience listen for similarities and differences in the plans.	Speaking Listening Speaking	Group Individual Class
	The teacher reads the part of the story which deals with the actual plan, finishing with the words `no one can dig as fast as a fox´. The learners look at a projected picture of a crater and people peering down. What has happened? Who are the people and what are they looking at? They write in their notebooks.	Listening Writing	Individual Individual
	The teacher reads about the farmers’ plan to involve all their workers in the foxhunt. The learners listen for how many workers each farmer has then together work out how many workers there are in total.	Listening	Individual Group
What do you think Mr Fox will do now?	Each learner has a picture unseen by the others. The pictures form a sequence of steps as the foxes tunnel into a storehouse. The learners describe their pictures and the group works out a possible sequence. They place the pictures on the desk and can make changes to the sequence (known as Blind Hand Description: Balouche, 1997). Each learner is then given a part of the text and decides which picture it matches.	Speaking Listening Reading	Individual Group Individual
	The teacher shows a picture of a small fox arriving home with food for his mother. The learners write what happens next.	Writing	Individual
Who do you think will win – Mr Fox or the farmers?	The teacher reads about Mr Fox taking the farmers’ food. The learners in pairs read a description of either the cellar or storehouse and draw a picture.	Listening Reading	Individual Pair
	Each pair teams up with one which drew the other picture. They take it in turns to describe their own, and draw the others’ picture. (Figure 2)	Speaking Listening	Pairs
	The learners read about Mr Fox’s meeting with Badger and Rat and write a dialogue with a partner about one of those encounters.	Reading Writing	Individual Pairs
	The learners write a description or narrative based on the book’s illustration of the final feast.	Writing	Individual

Figure 1. A sketch based on a text

Figure 2. Describing a storehouse for a partner

Note: As mentioned previously, due to COVID19, the school became off-limits to non-members of staff before the end of the fourth week and the project was completed by the teachers. The vocabulary post-tests were originally scheduled for immediately after the end of the study, but due to Covid-related logistical issues, were carried out one month later, and there was no delayed post-test opportunity. Further, as a result of time lost in the last week, the teachers rounded off the project by asking the pupils to write about the picture of the final feast: who was there, what did they do, what happened next? The second text about the fox and hen coop was not written.

Table 2. Learner questionnaire

	Tasks	Class 1 (18 pupils)	Class 2 (15 pupils)
Words	Bingo	12	6
	Odd-one-out	11	6
	Group the words	8	3
	Maze	9	-
	Write words in notebooks	7	7
Listening	Teacher reads aloud	14	10
	Others’ role play	10	8
Reading	Self	12	2
	Read & draw	9	12
Writing	What is going to happen	12	10
	Character description/typical day	10	3
	Dialogues	9	3
Speaking	Describing to partner	9	5
	Role Play	13	6
	Introducing the character	8	5
Pictures	Blind Hand Description	10	5
	Draw own	9	5
	Match picture & text	12	7

Figure 3. Drawings on the frieze

Figure 4. Text on the frieze

Table A1. Vocabulary test results class 1

Name	Recognition Pre-Test, 19	Recognition Post-Test, 19	Recall Pre-Test, 20	Recall Post-Test,20
A	17	19	19	20
B	16	19	15	14
C	6	7	4	8
D	11	13	9	18
E	6	9	10	12
F	-	16	12	18
G	-	16	18	20
H	-	16	9	16
I	19	19	16	18
J	17	17	13	16
K	15	17	17	20
L	15	14	18	19
M	16	19	14	17
N	16	17	17	18
O	11	17	15	16
P	3	5	9	16
Q	2	11	5	6
R	0	4	3	-

Table A2. Vocabulary test results class 2

Name	Recognition Pre-Test, 19	Recognition Post-Test, 19	Recall Pre-Test, 20	Recall Post-Test,20
A	-	11	13	13
B	15	17	11	15
C	8	13	12	16
D	4	11	12	16
E	17	16	17	18
F	14	17	15	18
G	13	14	14	14
H	11	8	13	14
I	13	19	17	20
J	12	17	15	17
K	14	17	16	17
L	7	5	10	11
M	8	6	10	11
N	11	15	-	18
O	3	-	-	-
P	-	7	-	12

Balouche, L. A. (1997). The Cooperative Classroom: Empowering Learning. London: Pearson

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