Storytelling

Let’s enter into the magic universe of storytelling

We are all born with a natural disposition towards creating, telling and listening to stories. Any child is able -even before reading- to take a book and start inventing a fascinating story just by looking at the pictures. There seems to be an innate ability for framing quite logically a sequence of events as well as enjoying tales since an early age. Therefore, If children have this natural inclination to relish stories then, why not nurture it? We can set to work in our own homes telling stories to some little relative or in the classroom to our students. Here goes a simple reflection on storytelling in language classes.

I believe in the power of storytelling to enhance learning. By telling stories to our little students, we are exposing them to an enormous amount of input in a motivating and meaningful way since we are placing language into a context. Our students will pick up some of the language used in the story without being conscious about learning. And this is the kind of learning which we should aim at when it comes to teaching young children.

As regards the way in which tales can be told, we may read the story or we can simply tell the story ourselves. I prefer the latter. By eliminating the book from the storytelling time, we are removing a major barrier between the audience and the story-teller (i.e. between students and teachers). Why? Well, by freeing our hands from the book, we can move them widely conveying much more meaning. But leaving the book aside and start telling a story is not enough if we are to produce the most favorable impact. Use of our hands and body, gestures, pitch, intonation and delivery rate are key aspects a storyteller need to handle. It’s essential that we learn how to vary and combine all these features to represent clearly different character voices or to convey different moods.

Personally, I am very interested in improving the way I tell stories. Narrating is a complex but magical science through which we are able to create vivid images, pictures and experiences.

“Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience”