Teaching Good Character in a Narrative Text through Storytelling
A Descriptive Qualitative Research in a Junior High School in Bandung
Maidhina Keisha, Nenden Sri Lengkanawati, and Iyen Nurlaelawati
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jalan Setiabudhi 229, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Good character, respect, narrative text, storytelling.
Abstract: This research aimed at describing the teaching of good character of respect in a narrative text through
storytelling and the students’ responses to the teaching of good character of respect in a narrative text through
storytelling. The story used in this research entitled “Gilbert the Goat Learns Respect” was produced by
MyYoungChild.org in 2012. The eighth grade students were the participants of this research and to collect
and identify the data, a qualitative method was applied equipped with a descriptive analysis with observations,
questionnaires and documents analysis as the instruments of the research. The results of the study showed that
this teaching was relatively faithful to the framework of Ellis and Brewster (1991) and Wright (2004). From
this teaching, the students showed their behavior of being respectful through a reflection. For the responses,
almost all of the students showed positive responses to the help of storytelling in teaching good character of
respect in a narrative text through storytelling. This model of teaching is handy for teachers to teach good
character of respect in a narrative text through storytelling in a more well-prepared method.
1 INTRODUCTION
In the Indonesian education system, the
implementation of character education has become a
significant issue since the demand of Kemdikbud
(Kementrian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik
Indonesia). Effendy—the minister of education and
culture (on Kemdikbud’s website,
www.kemdikbud.go.id, 2017) mentions that one of
Kemdikbud’s programs called “Reinforcement of
Character Education” (Penguatan Pendidikan
Karakter—PPK) is the main axis for the improvement
of the national education system, related to some
government’s priority programs. In relation to this,
Kemdikbud asserts that the learning process which is
based on character reinforcement and integrated
inside the school and outside the school through PPK
will be able to create a more competitive young
generation that also have the quality of good
characters. Hence, teaching good character to the
students becomes one of the attempts in
implementing and integrating character education
(the PPK program) in Indonesian schools by the
teachers.
Relating the importance of the implementation of
character education to the task of English as a foreign
language in the field of education in Indonesia,
Pinkley (2012) argues that character education has a
position in EFL classroom because aside from
language learning, the students will also have the
chance to build their critical thinking skill because
character education includes values. In the syllabus,
for example, it is mentioned that the topic of narrative
text as one of EFL teaching materials, should be a
story that gives the students behavior exemplary of
trustworthiness, respect, and diligent that are also
included to the eighteen characters from the
Kemdikbud.
The use of storytelling in teaching language,
especially in teaching English as a foreign language
(EFL), according to Rahim and Rahiem (2012), has
been applied by schools as a pedagogic tool. Apart
from being used as a teaching language tool,
Samantaray (2014) argues that storytelling also has
the ability in nurturing the students’ emotional
intelligence and storytelling is able to help the
students in obtaining the perception of human
behavior. This is also in line with Rahim and Rahiem
who state that storytelling has the ability to be
functioned as a medium of moral education to the
students.
What makes this study different from various
previous studies that becomes the gap in this study is
that the previous studies were focus on teaching
246
Keisha, M., Lengkanawati, N. and Nurlaelawati, I.
Teaching Good Character in a Narrative Text through Storytelling - A Descriptive Qualitative Research in a Junior High School in Bandung.
DOI: 10.5220/0007165302460249
In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference
on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 246-249
ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

traditional values rather than character education
(Adeyemi, 2012) and character education through
storytelling in the family situation, not in the school
(Sukmaningrum and Hawa, 2011).
After looking at the problems occurred above and
finding the gap from similar previous studies,
therefore, this study was aimed to describe the
teaching of good character of respect in a narrative
text through storytelling and to find out the students’
responses to this teaching
2 METHODS
This study used a qualitative investigation research
design that has substance of explanations about the
central phenomenon investigated in the study, the
respondents in the study, and the research site
(Creswell, 2009). The researcher took one class in the
junior high school that has been selected based on the
data from the teacher in the school and 34 students of
that class were involved in this study and to collect
and identify the data, qualitative method was applied
equipped with descriptive analysis with observation,
questionnaire and document analysis as the
instruments of the research. The data were analyzed
by using the framework of Ellis and Brewster (1991)
and Wright (2004) that have three steps namely pre-
storytelling step, during storytelling step, and after
storytelling step—and also the framework of Kriete
and Bechtel (2002) and Carter (2015) regarding the
activities of teaching and learning respect.
3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
The findings were taken from the result of the
observation, document analysis (students’ work), and
questionnaire.
3.1 The Process of Teaching Good
Character of Respect in a Narrative
Text through Storytelling
There are three steps done in the teaching process
namely pre-storytelling step, during storytelling step,
and after storytelling step. The activities done in the
pre-storytelling step involved getting the students’
attention, focusing the students’ mind on the content
of the story, introducing new vocabularies and getting
predictive skills (Ellis and Brewster, 1991). The first
thing done to get the students’ attention was showing
the letters of R-E-S-P-E-C-T on the whiteboard and
the students were guided to have an oral practice to
get their attention by discussing what respect was and
some examples of respect. This view is in line with
Dolakova (2008) who asserts that oral practice will
help the teacher make the most of the story by getting
the students’ attention, when the students here
discussed what the story was about with the teacher
orally through the letters of R-E-S-P-E-C-T. The
students were paying attention as they gave their
opinion about respect after they showed the letters on
the whiteboard.
The second activity in the pre-storytelling step
was focusing the students’ mind on the content of the
story where the students were asked to work in group,
discussed the meaning of respect and gave more
examples and elaboration of respect. This is in line
with Ioannou-Georgiou and Verdugo (2009) who
proposes that making the students discuss the content
of the story helps the students arranging the
atmosphere and making the context of the story to
help them comprehend the content of the story easier
since they are able to apply their knowledge and
experiences from the activities.
In the third activity, the students were introduced
to some new vocabularies related to the story by being
shown some pictures and by playing games. Ioannou-
Georgiou and Verdugo (2009) elaborate that teacher
can introduce the students new vocabularies related to
the story can encourage the students’ curiosity and
interest. In line with this matter, Cameron (2001)
points out that this activity is directed to provide the
words required to comprehend the story.
Giving the students a chance to get predictive skill
became the last activity where each group in the
classroom was given some pictures taken from the
storybook to make the students familiar with the
story. From the pictures given, the students were
required to predict the story that the teacher was going
to tell. The students in group observed the pictures
together and then arranged them in order to make a
prediction of the story. This activity is in line with
Dolakova (2008) who refers that predicting the story
is important to be done in the pre-storytelling step to
help the teacher make the most of the story, where
students can work with pictures to describe what
happened there, match or re-order the pictures, and
guess the setting to help them know the story later.
The second step which is during storytelling step,
were conveyed into two main activities which were
telling the story itself and interacting with the
students during the storytelling time. When the story
entitled “Gilbert the Goat Learns Respect” was being
told to the students, there were some things needed to
be applied namely gestures, mimes, variation of
Teaching Good Character in a Narrative Text through Storytelling - A Descriptive Qualitative Research in a Junior High School in Bandung
247

voice, different facial expressions and the use of
repetition. To support this, Ioannou-Georgiou and
Verdugo (2009) mention that the during storytelling
step particularly implicates activities aimed to
encourage the students, preserve the students’
attention and support the students’ comprehending
the story.
The second activity was interacting with the
students. The students were asked, “what did Gilbert
do in this picture?” by pointing Gilbert and showing
the picture to the students. The students gave positive
reaction by answering the questions given related to
the story appropriately and it meant that the students
have interacted with the teacher during the
storytelling. This view is in line with Ellis and
Brewster (1991) who refer that the teacher can read
the story slowly and clearly in order to provide the
students time to think, ask questions, examine the
pictures and make comments. Ellis and Brewster add
that the teacher can let in the students to the story by
making comments about the pictures provided in the
story and pointing to them when teacher said the
word. Ioannou-Georgiou and Verdugo (2009) also
mention that this activity makes the students becomes
the active listeners as the participants in the
storytelling activity, where the students could guess
the continuation of the story and identify the pictures
of characters shown.
In the last step, providing some kind of products
is necessary to be given last to let the students realize
that their great effort has been leading to a particular
thing (Ellis and Brewster, 1991). In line with this, the
activities given by the teacher to the students in the
after storytelling step were teacher and students
reviewed the storytelling given; teacher and students
did a follow-up activity regarding the story of respect;
and teacher made sure that students understand what
respect is. After the story has been told to the students,
the students were asked to review the story by asking
them to conclude the story together orally. This
finding as supported by Wright (2004) and Cameron
(2001) that before giving the follow-up activity to
check the students’ understanding, teacher can review
the story, so that the students can remember the story
they have heard.
The second activity was teacher and students did
a follow up activity where the students did a
worksheet given in a group to check their
comprehension regarding the story that was formed in
a narrative text. This activity is parallel to
TeachingValues.com (2000) who recommends
answering questions as one of the follow up activities
after hearing the story. Wright (2004) and Cameron
(2001) also recommend answering questions to be
done as one of activity in after storytelling step to
check students’ understanding.
The last activity was teacher made sure that
students understood what respect was. Teacher often
emphasized the action that Gilbert did as disrespectful
action in the story to make the students realize what
should the students do to be respect and the students
were given some questions to reflect what respect
was.
Students were asked to make a reflection related
to the story and the students were required to answer
the guiding questions to help them make the
reflection. This activity is in line with
TeachingValues.com (2000) who recommends
reflection as one of the follow up activities after
hearing the story, especially the story about respect.
Furthermore, Ioannou-Georgiou and Verdugo (2009)
explain that follow-up activity in the after storytelling
step is an opportunity to examine the students’
comprehension and also to participate more with the
problem presented in the story that also depend on the
aims of the teaching materials which is to learn about
respect.
3.2 Students’ Response to the Teaching
of Good Character of Respect in a
Narrative Text through Storytelling
There were eight questions in total given to the
students and the questions were divided into three
categories which were students’ response to the help
of storytelling in understanding a narrative text;
students’ response to the help of storytelling in
learning good character of respect in a narrative text;
and students’ response to the material of good
character of respect.
The result for first category showed that every
student in the class (100%) enjoy the storytelling
activity done by the teacher. This very high
percentage is in line with Herlina (2012) who states
that narrative text is considered as a complicated text
for junior high school students since narrative text is
long and having sequence, so that sometimes the
students lose the idea of the text part and not
understand the context of the whole text, whereas
narrative text can be containing good characters in its
moral value that can be learned by the students.
Regarding the second category, the result showed
that good character of respect in a narrative text liked
to be learned through storytelling by almost all of
students in the class. This result is in line with Shapiro
(1998) who argues that psychologists have
acknowledged that storytelling has good influence in
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
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gaining the knowledge of good characters for the
students.
For the last category, almost all the students in the
class agree that learning good character of respect is
important for students. This is supported by Skaggs
and Bodenhorn (2006) who profess that the main aim
of character education is to indicate the traits of good
characters to the students. Parallel to that, Herlina
(2012) states that in the rule of National Education
Ministry Numbers 22, 23 and 24, students are
expected to not only generate high intellectual, but
also good character.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The results assert that storytelling was useful in
teaching good character of respect in a narrative text
to the students since there were three steps in doing
the storytelling activity namely pre-storytelling step,
during storytelling step and after storytelling step.
Some activities in each step also help the students in
learning good character of respect.
For the students’ responses to this teaching, the
result showed that almost all of the students agree that
storytelling help them in understanding narrative text.
It also showed that the students showed positive
reaction that storytelling is able to help the students
learning good character of respect in a narrative text.
Almost all the students also agree that learning good
character of respect is important for students.
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