storytelling in the language classroom

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


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?


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

http://www.oocities.org/hgcenglish/Unicorn.htm


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


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/



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

http://centrocultural.cr/

http://ulatina.ac.cr/

mailto:[email protected]

http://bin-02.blogspot.com/



http://youtu.be/1teJjX-smdE

storytelling in the language classroom

Documents