Storytelling in the Language Classroom

Critical Thinking Skills, ELT, James Thurber, Literature, Short Stories, Storytelling 0 comments

Storytelling in the Language Classroom:

Tips to try out in class

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 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!

The Unicorn in the Garden by Jonathan Acuña

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

E Why did the man wake up in the night?

E What did he see in the garden?

E What did he say to his wife?

E What did his wife reply?

E Who did his wife telephone in the morning?

E Who came to the man’s house?

E What did the visitor bring?

E 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 help[1]. These exercises –from a Bloomian[2] point of view- can help us instructors to move students to reason critically and a higher hierarchical level, cognitively speaking.

[1] Taken from http://www.oocities.org/hgcenglish/Unicorn.htm

[2] Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy

The Unicorn in the Garden EXERCISES by Jonathan Acuña

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.

ETo 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
4	Storytelling activities for ELT
5	The role of literature in language learning