The focus of this research was on examining a play-based, child-centered instructional technique known as story telling/story acting (ST/SA) within a Canadian preschool setting. The goal was to examine the changes that occurred in the narrative features of preschool children's stories, and to investigate whether ST/SA fostered emerging literacy skills of the children who participated. Results indicated growth in the narrative features of language and story structure of the children's stories. Evidence that emergent literacy skills were being fostered by participation in the ST/SA process was found in the areas of oral language development, narrative form, conventions of print, concept of alphabetic code, word study, and the making of meaning. The research findings indicate that the ST/SA activity would be a useful addition to early childhood educators' repertoire of effective instructional practices which have shown to produce growth in oral language skills and further the development of emergent literacy in young children.