Storytelling in the classroom

(The value of teaching stories for EFL)

Index:
1.What is a short story?
2.Reading in a loud voice: Advantages.
3.How to analyse a short story.
4.Conclusion
I - What is a short story?
Short fction is a very old form of writing, its recorded history going back to a
collection of Egyptian stories entitled The Tales of the Magicians, which may have
been composed as long ago as 4.000 B.C. Subsequently the tradition of short fction
in prose and verse brought forth such notable collections as The Thousand and One
Nights (10
th
century A.D.), Chaucers Canterbury Tales (1397), to name only a
few. Short fction is as old as literature itself.
Yet, the form of short fction we know today as the shost story is essentially a
product of the 19
th
century, for it was during the early decades of the 1800s that
writers in various major countries of the Western world frst began to recognize and
talk about the short story as a particular genre in its own right, sharply
distinguishable from other forms of short fction such as tales, sketches, brief
narrative and so on. But what is the diference between a short story and a novel?
We have to say that a story has unity which a novel cannot have. A short story
shows an action in one place and in one day. Also, a short story must have an efect
of totality that a novel does not have. The writer of a short story must be concise and
also a vigorous compression is essential. Short stories must have originality and
ingenuity. Compression, originality, ingenuity and sometimes a touch of fantasy.
(Poes stories) are the elements that diferentiate a short story from a story that is
short.
The diference between a short story and a sketch is that a sketch may be still-life
whereas in a short story, something always happens. A sketch may be an outhie of
character or even a picture of a mood or mind but in a short story, there must be
action,
II- Reading in a loud voice: Advantages
Reading in a loud voice in a EFL class has often been neglected, unfairly neglected
especially during the last decades. This technique should be taken into consideration
again for a number of reasons:
1) By reading in a loud voice, students may practise pronunciation, intonation,
rhythm, voice-volume and expresionism.
2) A feeling of sharing something arises in class, this feeling often turns to be highly
motivating.
3) Students can also imitate the teacher reading in loud voice. When reading, the
teacher should somewhat exaggerate the techniques and skills he wants his students
to acquire rapidly.
The efcient reader predicts what he is going to read of the process of understanding
the text is the process of seeing how the context of the text matches up to these
predictions. It is very important for the teacher to predict, to talk and give and elicit
information about the topic he is going to read about. In the frst instance, his
prediction will be the result of the expectations he has. As he continues to read,
however, his predictionswill change as he receive more information from the text.
Therefore the equation Predicting + Exchange of ideas + Reading in a loud voice has
power to be highly efective to ameliorate reading skills in an EFL class.
You may have tangible wealth untold, caskets of jewels and
cofers of gold. Richer than I you can never be... I had
someone who read to me.
trickland !illian
"#$%&
"%'(
PREDICTING + EXCHANGE OF IDEAS + READING IN A LOUD VOICE
HIGHLY MOTIVATING FOR THE STUDENTS FEEL THEY ARE ALL SHARING A
CHALLENGING EXPERIENCE
GREAT IMPROVEMENT IN READING SKILLS
III- How to analyse a short story
A short story should be analysed in terms of the following aspects:
1) setting
2) confict
3) climax
4) anticlimax
5) denouement
6) theme
7) message or morale
8) symbols
9) character analysis
The setting indicates time and place, when and where did the action take place?
A further function of setting is the creation of atmosphere.
Atmosphere has been more talked about than defned because it refers to the
suggested rather than stated. In the novel Wuthering Heights for example, the
atmosphere at the beginning, the presence of grey sky, thunderstorms, dark and
solemn rooms, coldness etc, refects a feeling of desorder, confusion, houbles,
illnesses etc, which predict the facts in the story.
Confict means complication. Once the setting has been presented, something
happens that will determine a certain course of action. There should be an element of
instability in the initial situation. In Young Goodman Brown for example, the
confict arises when Brown encounters a strange man in the forest
Climax: It is the highest point of interest. The element of instability has led on to the
climax. For example in OHenrys The Gift of the Magi, the confict arises when
husband and wife exchange the special gifts they have brought for each other.
The Anti-climax: when that highest point of interest falls down and the situation is
solved.
Denouement: How does the story fnish? Was it an expected or unexpected
denouement? Several times, this is a point for further discussion.
Theme: To put the matter simply, theme is the meaning of the story. Theme is the
meaning the story discovers. By theme, we mean the necessary implications of the
whole story, not a separate part os the story. In the story the students read at the
workshop, the theme could be: Education should bring on commitment.
Sometimes the theme could coincide with the message taught by the story. Lets take
another example:
Hemingways A clear-well-lighted Place, the theme could be the story of an old
mans life and the message could be:
Try to help or understand old and lonely people or We are all going to be old and
we may all experience a feeling of made at a certain point of our lives
Symbolism: A symbol in a story is the representation of something else. A symbol
may also predict something that will happen in the future. In cat in the rain,
Hemingway has used the kitten to represent somebody who is very unprotected and
lonely, the rain may symbolize life, hope, nature, future, etc. The Great Gatsby by
Fitzgerald is the realm os symbolism in American literature. The city representing
corruption versus the countryside representing purity and sincerity is only one
example of the many ones presented in the novel.
Character analysis: To put it simply, character may be divided into 2 groups:
a-Flat characters: they are the typical representation of a stereotype character:
the typical greengrocer, the typical teacher responding to a standard
characterization.
b-Round characters are the ones with a complex personality that changes and
evolves as the action develops. A round character is the one afected by what
happened to him or her. The Catherine that appears at the beginning of
Wuthering Heights is not the same person eho dies in Heatclifs arms. She is
a completily diferent person.
To put all these ideas into practise, the students read the story Free at last (in a loud
voice) and analysed exhaustively in the terms explained above.
The experience was fruitful, motivating and gratifying for everybody started regarding
the reading skill as a new adventure worth to be explored in depth, not only for
themselves but for their students as well.
IV- Conclusion
Teaching reading is difcult work. Teachers must be aeare of the progress that students
are making and adjust instruction to the changing abilities of students. It is also
important to remember that the goals of reading stories is to underestand the texts and
be able to learn from them.
Reading is a skill that will empower everyone who learns it. They will be able to beneft
from the store of knowledge in printed materials and, ultimately, to contribute to that
knowledge. Good teaching enables students to learn to read and read to learn. In real life
we read for diferent purposes. Teaching reading, therefore, refects what takes place in
real life.
A student may read out of interest, necessity or both. We have discussed the teaching of
reading stories as well as the importance of the teachers role in creating expectations
and enthusiasm for the text that is to be read. Through this representation, we have tried
to explore some of the many ways of helping the students acquire this receptive skill.
Also, as a conclusion, I read the following quotation:
I am a survivor of a concentration cam). *y
eyes have seen what no man should witness+
gas ,hambers built by learned engineers,
children )oisoned by educated )hysician, infants
killed by trained nurses, women and babies shot
and burned by high school graduates. o I am
sus)icious of education. *y re-uest is this+ kee)
your students to become humane. Your eforts
must never )roduce learned mosters, skilled
)sycho)aths, educated .ichmanns. Reading,
writing and mathematics are im)ortant orly if
they serve to make our children more humane.
/aim !inott