In the Classroom: Storytelling
Children Learning English as a Foreign Language BY REBECCA YORK HANLON (EFL AUTHOR FOR PEARSON LONGMAN) In the Classroom: Storytelling
People, no matter their age, love to hear stories. Whether gathered around a campfire, sitting in a movie theater, watching television, or telling a friend the latest gossip, people communicate through stories. How can we use this natural desire for drama in the classroom? One obvious way is to tell stories to our students.
There are three basic ways to tell stories in the classroom. One way is to use audio recordings of stories. This adds variety to storytelling by using different voices, accents, and sound effects. Audio books and videos (played with only sound) are excellent materials to use.
Reading books and storybooks aloud is another way to tell stories to your class. Teachers often do this because it is easier to read a book aloud than to tell a story from memory. Furthermore, books may have interesting pictures to show the class, and because the words are printed, the teacher is less likely to make mistakes. Lastly, books and storybooks are easily accessible through libraries and bookstores.
The third way to tell stories to your class is from memory. This is a very personal way to tell stories. You can adapt a story any way you want to fit the English ability or maturity level of your class. The biggest fear or difficulty is remembering the story. To make this easier, the teacher should read the story many times and write an outline of the key points. Once the teacher feels comfortable with the progression of the story, he or she can stop using the outline and even improvise.
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