STORYTELLING COMPETITION OF WORLD CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: EXPERIENCING THE MORAL VALUES OF THE STORIES TO ENHANCE JUNIOR HIGH STUDENTS’ LANGUAGE SKILLS

Abstrak

English Department Students of Universitas Halu Oleo held the storytelling competition annually. In 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the competition was held online and presented to participants from South East Sulawesi and the other Provinces in Indonesia. In line with it, the committee did not limit the story to South East Sulawesi Province's folklore but allowed them to choose the stories independently. Of all the students participating, none of the stories chosen were from South East Sulawesi. Most selected stories were from world children's literature (and some Indonesian children's literature translated into English). This research collected the data from observation of the script and each student's performance. The data was analyzed using descriptive analysis based on the phenomenon found during the competition. The findings showed that this storytelling competition contributed to Junior High students' English skills. The students experienced stories worldwide to get into the stories before performing them in the competition. To get experienced, the students needed to rehearse, which drove them to practice the language several times and automatically imitate the new language to enhance their language skills. On the other side, students also learned about the stories and the culture from many nations in the world. Above all, this research aimed to demonstrate the role of the storytelling competition in improving students' language skills as they learned the moral values of the stories.

Kata kunci

• English skills
• junior high students
• moral values
• sastra
• storytelling
• world children’s literature