LEARNING LEARNING 

Volume 24 Issue 1 May 2017agreed that some of my university students
and I would lead English Storytime together.

LD GRANTS UPDATE
2016 Project Grant
Report–TheStorytime Projecti

Nathaniel Carney
Kobe CollegeI

was very happy to have received the2016 Project Grant from the JALT
Learner Development SIG. I used thegrant to support a local library English
Storytime project that I have been leading
for the past two and half years.
BackgroundI started the Storytime project incooperation with my local public library in2014 with the goal of giving children in thecommunity a free opportunity to hear
English children’s books and songs read bynative or expert English speakers. Alongwith that goal, I imagined that it might bepossible to involve students from myuniversity as co-leaders of the sessions. Thus,
the project was envisioned as offeringcommunity children free chance to hear
English storybooks and songs in native orexpert English, and providing my students
an opportunity to use the English they studyatuniversity
while
contributing
educationally to the surrounding community.
My local public library already offered  (i.e., reading times) in Japanese anumber of times per month. However, they
had no reading times in English despite
having a selection of 300-400 English booksfor children. I thought that offering English
Storytime for children might be popular,and suggested the idea to the library staff in2013. At that time, I was told there was noopen time to schedule English Storytime.
After a year, I decided to ask again. In 2014,
the staff was more enthusiastic about theidea. After discussion with the library, it wasSPRING 2017

Implementation
In the fall of 2014, three students and I led
the first two Storytime sessions, each ofwhich lasted 20-30 minutes. There were 3040 children and parents at each meeting—both large groups compared to usual
Japanese reading times. This wasencouraging. However, as I explored getting
more students involved, I found a problem I
had not considered—transportation costs.
Because English Storytime took place on
Saturday mornings, I would have to pay forstudent transportation costs. Moreover,various policies prevented me from using
university research funds. Reluctantly, I gave
up having students lead the reading timewith me, and from 2014-2016, I led English
Storytime on my own.
From 2014-2016, I continued to feel that
the Storytime project was worthwhile. It wascontinuously well-attended, and certain
children would come often and interact withme more and more each time. Also, thelibrary staff were pleased it was beingoffered. Nevertheless, I continued to feelthat involving university students wouldgreatly improve Storytime for everyone
involved. For my students, I felt that it
would give them an opportunity to use
English in Japan in a meaningful way in thecommunity. Students at my university often
say that a main reason for learning English
is to communicate with foreigners. Yet, inthe future my students might also haveopportunities to teach English to children
here in Japan, and many of them will likely
have children of their own someday towhom they will want to teach English. For
the children attending the sessions, I feltthat listening to a variety of English speakers,
not just a “foreigner” or “native speaker,”
could help them develop a broader image of“English speakers.” Seeing and listening toJapanese college students reading andspeaking in fluent English could be inspiring
to young people attending the English
Storytime sessions.

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After joining the Learning Development
SIG in 2016 and receiving the LD-SIG
communications, I learned about the Project
Grant. I immediately thought to apply forfunding for the English Storytime project. I
wanted to use the grant for two purposes:
fundingstudent
transportation
andpurchasing new books for English Storytime.
Since Receiving the LD-SIG Grant
Since receiving the grant, I have purchased
eleven new books and conducted English
Storytime with three students for whom Icovered transportation costs.
At the last Storytime meeting in November,each of the three participating students readone book by themselves. One student read
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle,
another read Five Little Monkeys by Eileen
Christelow, and another read Pete the Cat: I
Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin. In orderto prepare for reading, I met with thestudents twice before the Storytime session
to model reading aloud and to listen to themread. I also recorded myself reading thebooks so they could listen to how I readthem. I cautioned them to especially pay
attention to intonation changes, as I havefound this to be the most difficult aspect ofreading aloud for my students. All threestudents did excellent preparation for theEnglish Storytime reading. They were all
nervous to read in front of the group. I wascontacted afterwards by one student who
said she was “very nervous” but it was a“good and very memorable experience”.
Reflection
Successes
The next English Storytime session will beat the end of March, and I am involving
three new students at that time. Anotherstudent has expressed interest in joining fora future session. Receiving the LD-SIG
grant has encouraged me to continue
involving students going forward, eventhough the costs will gradually go beyond
the grant.

SPRING 2017

I am generally pleased with the English
Storytime project. Though it is a smallproject, I feel the goal of giving community
children a free opportunity to hear English
storybooks and children’s songs has beenachieved. Now, with the involvement of mystudents, the project has gained a new layerof meaning: university students make acontribution to the surrounding community,
and also gain an authentic experience using
English. Though I have not received formal
feedback from the library, they continue toseem pleased to have English Storytime
offered at the library.
Future Issues to Consider
Despite my enthusiasm for continuing theEnglish Storytime project and continuing to
involve students, there are certain elementsof the project with which I am notcompletely satisfied.
One issue I am dealing with is how tofurther enhance the experience forparticipating college students. Ideally, I
would like students to join the project for along period, for example, at least three
Storytime sessions. With a longer
commitment from students, I feel students
could improve their communication abilities,
and as a group we could add more variety to
Storytime activities (e.g., a short puppetshow).
Another issue for me to consider is whether
the experience is appropriate at all for lower
level students. In November, the three
students who participated were among themost proficient students that I knew. Theirpronunciation was clear, they could read
fluently, and they had confidence. I would
enjoy drawing from a bigger pool of studentvolunteers, but if I were to open
participation to more students, I will likely
get volunteers who do NOT speak English
so well. In that case, further training willprobably be necessary. However, even withfurther training, I do not feel that moststudents could read well enough in front ofa group of children and parents. Thus, theissues are: What type of English isLD GRANTS UPDATE

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Volume 24 Issue 1 May 2017

appropriate for Storytime? How much of anaccent is acceptable? What level ofintonation?

anyone lives in the Nishinomiya area andwould be interested in being involved with
the Storytime project, please contact me.

On the one hand, Storytime is a freeoffering to the public; on the other hand,the presentation quality in Storytime isimportant to me. Storytime is not primarily
meant to be a forum for students practicing
English; rather, as expressed earlier, it is an
opportunity for children to hear English
books and songs spoken by native andexpert English speakers. With the three
students who participated in November, I
definitely feel that goal was met. However,with lower-level students, I think the qualityof the Storytime experience could becompromised.

Author correspondence:<Email> carney@mail.kobe-c.ac.jp

A final issue on my mind is the actual valueof the Storytime Project for the children andparents who attend. One of the students
who participated in November mentionedthat “It is a little strange to read English
books, because the children do not speak
English.” I understood the comment.
Though Storytime is not completely
monolingual (i.e., using Japanese sometimes
is encouraged), it is true that some of thechildren who come to Storytime do notspeak much English, and they probably do
not completely understand the stories thatare read. Some of the children do not (orperhaps cannot) sing along with the songs.
What value are they gaining from Storytime?
Are their parents forcing them to attend forthe wrong reasons? Obviously, I cannot
definitively answer these questions.
However, I continue thinking about how I
can make Storytime as accessible andinteresting as possible to the children
attending, while also generally maintaining
the use of English and the goal of exposing
children to the sounds of English throughchildren’s books and songs.

he theme of this year’s JALT
conference was transformation inlanguage education, with the goal
being to explore the transformative powerof education from many vantage points.
Looking through the conference handbook,
I was thrilled to see some of the biggest
names in the field of language teaching andresearch as well as many presentations
related to how computer technology cantransform the way language is taught andlearnt. The use of technology in language
learning and teaching is of special interest tome, so I felt like a kid about to enter a huge
candy store. What a golden feeling!

Conclusion
I am looking forward to another year ofEnglish Storytime events. My thanks again
to the Learner Development SIG for seeing
value in the project and for supporting it. If
SPRING 2017

Reflections on andTakeaways fromJALT 2016
JALT2016

Daniel G. C. Hougham
40Hiroshima University

TI am delighted to report on how theconference has affected my development asa language learner and teacher-researcher.
For me, the main takeaways from theconference were collaborative action
research, digital teaching/learning tools, andsecrets of transformation in language
education in Japan.
Collaborative Action ResearchI began the weekend with Professor Anne
Burns' plenary titled Transforming the Shape ofthe Way We Work. Burns, of the Universityof New South Wales (Australia), is mostwell known for her work introducing
teachers to the excitement and usefulness ofLD GRANTS UPDATE42