The Storyline approach: promoting learning through cooperation in the second language classroom

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.