storytelling in the language classroom
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StorytellingTRANSCRIPT
ELT article published by Prof. Jonathan Acuña at http://reflective-online-teaching.blogspot.com/
Storytelling in the Language
Classroom:
Literature has always been an important part of any society and culture.
Lots of our worries, fears, and happiness are encased in and conveyed via
storytelling, and the masters of this timeless tradition are the writers and
the storytellers. But somehow this taste for literature has turned bitter or is
simply not fully developed by students who have lost that essential
connection with the storytelling they enjoyed while being a child.
Professor Ian Chitty
While attending a Bell Teacher Campus Training Course at Homerton
College, University of Cambridge, Professor Ian Chitty, who prepared a
workshop on storytelling, approached storytelling in an alternative way that
ELT article published by Prof. Jonathan Acuña at http://reflective-online-teaching.blogspot.com/
sparked some insightful thinking in our teaching literature: How can we
envolve EFL/ELT students at my workplaces and have them enjoy reading
and/or storytelling? Let me present you with some of Prof. Chitty’s ideas
merged and mixed with some of my own.
At Chitty’s workshop, he used three different stories to illustrate his ideas.
Among them, James Thurber’s The Unicorn in the Garden was the one
story that really caught my attention at its fullest. Perhaps that happened
because I had read story while being a student myself. And then, after my
Bell Teacher Training in Homerton, I found myself using it with my
students at the university who simple loved it. I bet they will never forget
this story ever!
Based on Prof. Chitty’s approach, the class is divided into two different
groups: One who will listen to the story in class and answer a set of
questions he had prepared himself, and the other who will answer the very
same questions by inventing a story of their own. [Take a look at the
questions he prepared.]
A STRANGE SIGHT IN THE GARDEN
Why did the man wake up in the night?
What did he see in the garden?
What did he say to his wife?
What did his wife reply?
Who did his wife telephone in the morning?
ELT article published by Prof. Jonathan Acuña at http://reflective-online-teaching.blogspot.com/
Who came to the man’s house?
What did the visitor bring?
What did the man tell the visitor?
QUESTIONS PREPARED BY PROFESSOR IAN CHITTY, HOMERTON COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
Once both groups are finished with their answering the questions, the ones
who had no prior knowledge of the story retell their partners who stayed
inside the class the story they came up with while responding to the
questionnaire. Then, the students who stayed and listened to the story tell
their peers the real story so they can compare how close they were to the
original story written by Thurber.
In addition to Chitty’s questionnaire, I also provided my students with a
short video/cartoon produced by Columbia Pictures (A UPA Cartoon), which
is a great account of the story, too. At this point the students not only
relate to the story but can appreciate the truth behind it at its fullest –with
the aid of the video. Visually speaking, a story which has been told can be
greatly understood and “better digested” by students easily and quickly,
too.
Finally, two possible wrap-up activities can be the following. As a post
video-watching activity, either for homework or for in-class work, the
exercises below can be of great help1. These exercises –from a Bloomian2
1 Taken from http://www.oocities.org/hgcenglish/Unicorn.htm 2 Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy
ELT article published by Prof. Jonathan Acuña at http://reflective-online-teaching.blogspot.com/
point of view- can help us instructors to move students to reason critically
and a higher hierarchical level, cognitively speaking.
A second alternative as a wrap-up activity could be to have students
impersonate the characters in the story. As a reader/spectator, one is in no
position to ask why the chain of events in the plot happens in that
particular order or way. By impersonating them, it will allow them to think
of the reasons why the author wrote the story the way he did; the reason
why characters behave the way they did can also be analyzed by
questioning the characters as well.
To sum up, literature is a great way of learning that needs to be nurtured
not only in EFL / ESL classrooms but also elsewhere. With Ian Chitty’s
approach and with one’s creative thinking, storytelling can become much
more enjoyable and meaningful for students and for instructors’
accomplishment of the literature curricula in their workplaces.
To fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to
research and expand these areas:
1 The art of storytelling
2 Great story to teach English
3 Thurber’s The Unicorn in the Garden Literary Analysis
ELT article published by Prof. Jonathan Acuña at http://reflective-online-teaching.blogspot.com/
4 Storytelling activities for ELT
5 The role of literature in language learning
Professor Jonathan Acuña-Solano
ELT Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica
Curricular Developer at CCCN
Senior ELT Professor at Universidad Latina
Freelance ELT Consultant four in Central America OUP
For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:
@jonacuso – Twitter
– Gmail [email protected]
Other blogs I often write for my students at the university are:
1. http://bin-02.blogspot.com/
2. http://bin-04.blogspot.com/
3. http://bin-06.blogspot.com/
Chitty, I (2011) Storytelling in the Language Classroom. Cambridge:
2011 Bell Teacher Campus Training Course
Thurber, J (1953). The Unicorn in the Garden. PDF Version
UPA Cartoon [Columbia Pictures 1953]. The Unicorn in the Garden.
Published at http://youtu.be/1teJjX-smdE