This article reports on a study in which, for five weeks, the English lessons of two classes of 11–12 year olds in Sweden were based on Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox. To promote the learners’ engagement with the text, support understanding, and facilitate incidental vocabulary acquisition, a range of language-focused tasks were designed within the framework of the Storyline approach. In Storyline, a fictive world is created in the classroom. The story develops when learners, working in the same small groups, collaborate on open so-called key questions, which structure the Storyline, introduce happenings and problems, and link with the syllabus. Another characteristic is the integration of practical and theoretical subject content. Learners’ art work and texts are displayed on a frieze, or walls of the classroom, creating a visual record of the developing story. The study also investigated the influence on learning of the book’s illustrations, and the learners’ own drawings. The majority of the learners made gains in vocabulary, as evidenced in pre- and post-tests, writing and speaking tasks. While some learners had never thought about illustrations and drawings as a support, for many, both of these were found to be helpful.

This article reports on a research project which investigated the impact of working with authentic children’s literature on the vocabulary development of two classes of 10–11- year-olds in Sweden. The English classes were based on Roald Dahl’s The Magic Finger. For five weeks and three lessons per week, the teacher read the book to the children and the children read some parts of the book themselves. During this time, the children worked on a range of language-focused writing tasks to support their understanding and facilitate incidental acquisition of vocabulary. The children’s performance on these tasks also provided insight into control of grammatical structures, which the learners had already been taught, and emerging features, which they had not yet encountered explicitly in their lessons. Furthermore, many children thought that they had spoken more English through engaging with the project, a view supported by their teachers. While almost all of the children liked The Magic Finger, and most enjoyed the experience of working with it, some were ambivalent about working with another authentic book in future. This would depend on the topic and the level of difficulty of the text.

For many primary student teachers, English at school was characterized by a diet of textbooks, public teacher correction and peer ridicule. Such students approach English in teacher education with a lack of enthusiasm, even dread. If we are to produce competent, enthusiastic professionals, this must change. In English didactics, the objectives at Kristianstad University are 1) that students develop language proficiency and theoretical knowledge 2) understand how English can be taught creatively and be able to demonstrate this in practical and written assignments.

Classroom relationships are often said to lie at the heart of successful language learning (Stevick, 1980). One example of a relational pedagogy, which fosters cooperation and mutual support, is Storyline, in which a fictive world is created in the classroom. A story develops as learners, in small groups as characters in a story, work on a range of meaningful tasks, combining theoretical and aesthetic subjects. At Kristianstad University, student teachers work for two weeks intensively on a Storyline about families moving into a new street in a fictive English town, using English in different ways. At the same time, they analyse what they are learning and how. This has a number of benefits. By working with Storyline, as opposed to just reading about it, the students experience its pedagogical benefits, and not just for the teaching of English. At the same time, their proficiency develops, not least because they are working closely and intensively together on motivating tasks in a supportive classroom atmosphere.

Hattie (2009) contends that achievement is higher where there is enjoyment. Storyline helps to raise achievement levels because it engages affectively and cognitively, helps to forge closer classroom relationships and through practical work makes visible abstract content (for example, educational and linguistic theories), thus facilitating student learning, as this paper will demonstrate.

In the Storyline approach, a fictive world is created in the classroom, with learners working in small groups, taking on the role of characters in a story. The story develops as they work on a range of tasks which integrate the practical and theoretical content of the curriculum. This article reports on a study based on the syllabus for English, in which a class of Swedish 11-13 year olds took on the roles of families who had moved into a new sreet in England, and highlights the role played by cooperative group work in the second language learning process.