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Storytelling - benefits and tips Literature contents
Adapted from a workshop by Paula Stoyle, British Council, Jordan Creating a class play
Using drama texts in class
We often give stories to our students to read, but how often do we tell them a story? Storytelling
This article looks at the benefits of storytelling and gives advice on performance skills Motivating pupils to read 2
Motivating pupils to read 1
● What can storytelling offer? Children's literature
● Storytelling and intercultural understanding
Think Other features
● Other benefits of using storytelling in the classroom
Methodology
● Commonalities of cultures around the world
Pronunciation ● Performance techniques
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Questions
● A last word
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Speaking Activities
What can storytelling offer?
Listening Children have an innate love of stories. Stories create magic and a sense of wonder at
Reading the world. Stories teach us about life, about ourselves and about others. Storytelling is a
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Vocabulary unique way for students to develop an understanding, respect and appreciation for
other cultures, and can promote a positive attitude to people from different lands, races
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Storytelling and intercultural understanding
There are a number a number of ways in which storytelling can enhance intercultural
understanding and communication. Stories can…

● allow children to explore their own cultural roots

● allow children to experience diverse cultures
● enable children to empathise with unfamiliar people/places/situations
● offer insights into different traditions and values
● help children understand how wisdom is common to all peoples/all cultures
● offer insights into universal life experiences
● help children consider new ideas
● reveal differences and commonalties of cultures around the world

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Other benefits of using storytelling in the classroom.

Stories…

● Promote a feeling of well being and relaxation

● Increase children's willingness to communicate thoughts and feelings
● Encourage active participation
● Increase verbal proficiency
● Encourage use of imagination and creativity
● Encourage cooperation between students
● Enhance listening skills

Commonalities of cultures around the world

Stories reveal universal truths about the world. Through stories we see how very
different people share the same life experiences and how human nature can transcend
culture.

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Performance techniques
Telling a story can captivate an audience…that is, with the right techniques and a little
practice:

Remembering and retelling the plot:

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 BBC | British Council teaching English - Literature - Storytelling - benefits and tips

● map the plot as a memory technique

● use story skeletons to help you remember the key events
● think of the plot as a film or a series of connected images
● tell yourself the story in your own words
● create your own version of the story (adapt and improvise)
● retell it numerous times until it feels like a story

Performance skills.
Remember to...

● vary the volume, pitch and tempo of your voice (enunciate clearly and
exaggerate expression)
● use your face, body and gestures (let your body speak)
● make your body and face respond to the tale
● have a clear focus and maintain concentration
● maintain engaging eye contact with the audience/ individual listeners
● create a charismatic presence (make the audience believe in you)
● use different, exaggerated character voices
● use your space/ be dynamic
● remember to pace yourself
● always remember to regain your style as a narrator
● use silence and pauses to add dramatic effect

A last word…
Young Learners share a remarkable variety of personal experiences, values and ways
of understanding .The language they learn in the classroom is the tool they use to
shape their thoughts and feelings. It is more than a way of exchanging information and
extending ideas it is their means of reaching out and connecting with other people.
Stories can link not only between the world of classroom and home but also between
the classroom and beyond. Stories provide a common thread that can help unite
cultures and provide a bridge across the cultural gap:

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© BBC World Service, Bush House, Strand, London WC2B 4PH, UK © British Council, 10 Spring Gardens, London SW1A 2BN, UK

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