THE ART OF STORYTELLING

THE ART OF STORYTELLING

Storytelling is one of the oldest ways of teaching that exist. Long time ago people around the world would always tell tales as a way of passing their culture, their beliefs, traditions and history to future generation. Children share a remarkable variety of personal experiences, values and ways of understanding, (Paula Stoyle), and stories offer new experiences for children through words. Stories can take people to new places, to imagine unexplored places and incredible experiences. Stories contribute to student academic success and emotional well-being. According to the British Council, storytelling “is a unique way for students to develop an understanding, respect and appreciation for other cultures, and can promote a positive attitude to people from different lands, races and religions” (“Storytelling-benefits and tips”).

Some reasons for using stories in the ESL classroom

1. Motivating and fun. Stories are motivating, memorable, enjoyable and fun. Children are used to listen tales, we can take advantage of this, is a context that is familiar, and is also challenging. They can enjoy learning another language and another culture in a way that is enjoyable for them.
2. Exercise the imagination. Our pupils in the classroom are very imaginative, they develop imagination. One of the activities that they like the most is to write their own story and to show it.
3. Tool for linking fantasy and real world. This fantasy and this imagination is not something that has to be apart from reality, they can link fantasy with real life, and they can learn useful things. Kids have a lot of initiative and they identify the different characters that appear in the stories.
4. A shared social-experience. Kids can sit in a circle telling stories so they can identify the same feelings and share them, building their own social confidence. We develop social skills. Also, stories develop emotional intelligence: self-understanding, empathy, handling relationships with others. Stories allow children to play with ideas and feelings; to think about issues which are important and relevant to them
5. Enjoyable for children. They enjoy stories when they are repeated, it does not matter if we repeat it because they enjoy it over and over again. That can help us as teachers because children can acquire vocabulary and the language in an easy way.
6. To introduce or revise new vocabulary and sentence structures. Stories provide exposure to language. When we repeat that vocabulary we help to our pupils to spread their minds.
7. To develop listening and concentrating skills. In stories we always have illustrations, for children they do not just listen to the story but they also can see it, so they can anticipate what is going to happen next and make hypothesis.
8. To develop other subjects. Stories link language learning to other subjects in the curriculum e.g., science, history and other areas of learning and general knowledge.

How to choose a suitable story?

When choosing a story in our ESL classroom, we need to bear in mind different criteria so the story suits perfectly our students or public. Some of them can be:

1. Language level. Is it too difficult? Too easy? We need to be aware of that, otherwise our public may get bored! Also, in this matter we need to consider the language learning potential, so the story is meaningful to them and to their language knowledge development.
2. Visuals. Images are essential in storytelling; they make the story more understandable, catching and attractive. We need to think if the iamges are big enough so everyone can see them. Also, we need to consider if the pictures are attractive, if they help to understand the story and if they make an impact.
3. Content. Will it be interesting for them? Is it relevant, amusing, interesting or catching? Real or fantastic?
4. Children involvement. Children will have a deeper understanding and will enjoy more if they have several chances to make predictions, interact, repeat certain things…

10 tips to be a good story teller

1. Make sure you are familiar with the story you are going to use and practice!!!
2. Make story time into a pleasant ritual.
3. Tell or read the story clearly and quite slowly especially at first so they get involved
4. Make eye contact with the children and point to the pictures
5. Change voices for different characters and change intonation. That will make the story much funnier!!!
6. Mix the previous point with mime, gestures and facial expression
7. Listen to children’s comments, questions, and responses to the story in L1 or in English. Respond them in English and expand their contributions
8. Ask children questions to involve them in the story and encourage them to predict what happens next when appropriate.
9. Encourage them to tell the story with you!
10. Above all, show and share your own enjoyment of the story.

I hope you found this information useful. Here I leave a link which can help you for future storytelling situations!

Story telling in the classroom: http://www.storyarts.org/classroom/

References

Storyteller. “Storytelling for Children: Be Prepared For Changes”. storytellingforchildren.info. October 27th, 2011. Web May 20th, 2014.

<http://storytellingforchildren.info/>

Stoyle, P. “Storytelling - benefits and tips” British Council. July 8^th, 2003. Web May 20^th, 2014.

<http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/storytelling-benefits-tips>