Study of the Effect of Storytelling on Vocabulary Development in Pre-School Children in Benue State

Storytelling is a culturally embedded instructional strategy with significant potential for vocabulary enrichment in early childhood, and examining its systematic use in Benue State pre-schools contributes to evidence-based practice for North Central Nigeria. This study investigated the effect of structured storytelling sessions on vocabulary development among children aged 3 to 5 years in government nursery schools in Makurdi, Otukpo, and Gboko Local Government Areas, Benue State. A quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test design was used, assigning 90 children to a daily storytelling intervention group and 90 to a conventional instruction control group for eight weeks. Vocabulary was assessed using an adapted Picture Vocabulary Test before and after the intervention. The intervention group showed significantly higher vocabulary gain scores (mean improvement of 18.4 words) compared to the control group (mean improvement of 7.2 words), with results significant at p < 0.001. Comprehension-level vocabulary showed greater gains than labelling vocabulary. Stories incorporating Tiv and Idoma cultural contexts generated higher child engagement ratings than decontextualised stories. Male and female children showed comparable vocabulary gains from storytelling. The study concludes that structured storytelling is a highly effective vocabulary development strategy in this context. Recommendations include training Benue State nursery teachers in structured storytelling methodology, providing multilingual story collections in local languages, and incorporating weekly storytelling into the state early childhood curriculum framework. Keywords: storytelling, vocabulary development, pre-school children, Benue State, language development