The art of storytelling

Let me start with a funny story: Once a doctor, in a bid to enlighten his patients on the ill-effects of alcohol consumption, gathered them at his laboratory. On a table, he placed two glasses, one for alcohol and another for water. He then put an earthworm in each of the glasses. After a few seconds, the earthworm in water was alive whereas the one in alcohol was dead. The doctor then asked the inmates what they learnt from it. One inmate said, “Alcohol kills earthworm and hence if we drink it, the worms in our stomach will be killed.” This example says how important it is to tell a story in the right way, especially if one wishes to avoid such misinterpretations.

Capturing tales
Stories are excellent pieces of work that can teach one a lot about life. In earlier days, joint families were a common thing, where uncles, aunts, grandparents and others regaled us with innumerable stories. Fables that taught us about morals and ethics were very common. As young kids, fantasy stories helped us develop a strong creative imagination.

But times have changed and how. Nuclear families are the order of the day. With many families having working parents, the art of storytelling is disappearing. This is considered as a reason for the decline in educational standards and language skills, both writing and oral. Today, one can find many kids using slang and expletives in their daily talk. Even the thought process of the younger generation has seen a drastic change.

Stories can help a kid’s mind grow. It helps them improve  their verbal proficiency, listening skills, communication skills, creativity, memory skills and broadens their horizon on the whole. It’s a great way of exposing children to different cultures and places. Story telling enables them with a broader understanding of the world. Storytelling doesn’t necessarily have to be only about fun stories. You can also use stories to teach kids about History, Geography, Science and even Mathematics. If kids are averse to a subject, you could inculcate the interest in them with creative stories. Stories with morals in them aid the proper emotional development of children. It pushes them to tread on the right path.

Storytelling is not only an art but a skill as well. As an art, it calls for rigorous, involved practice of listening and dramatising. As a skill, it calls for selection of age-appropriate vocabulary, proper use of direct and reported speech, linking devices etc. For the teachers of English, the challenge is to acquire various language skills specifically required for storytelling: ability to remember the whole story, ability to adopt it to the learning situation, ability to use age-specific language, ability to use narrative techniques, ability to use direct and reported speech forms appropriately, ability to ensure the undivided attention of the listener, ability to involve listeners and draw out the characters’ mood, feelings and other traits. 

Unlike general opinion, storytelling can be done in more than one way. You can either use ‘the dramatic present’ or use ‘the narrative past’ to tell a story. In the dramatic present, the story unfolds as if it is happening right in front of your eyes. Here, present tense is mostly used to narrate the story. In the ‘narrative past’, past tense is put to use. If the story consists of many characters, the teacher can resort to role playing. S/he can use both past tense form for narration and a combination of past tense and direct speech when conveying the dialogues spoken by the characters.

Storytelling is more than just reading words aloud. Teachers should engage the listening skills of kids here and make them a part of the story. It is a well-known fact that kids have a short span of attention because of which the story and the way it is portrayed needs to be interesting. The way the teacher describes an event should appeal to all the senses of the kid. Hence, making gestures using hands, changing the tone of voice, moving around and making noises are important.

In short, the story teller should become a part of the story itself. If there are certain points in the story that where it is possible to get kids  involved, the story teller should use the opportunity and take them along by asking  them to act and imitate the  sounds and gestures. Teachers of all subjects will be effective and successful in their endeavour of teaching, which primarily aims at making students learn, by consciously making efforts for acquiring storytelling skills and using those skills extensively in teaching their subjects.

(The author is deputy commissioner, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Zonal Institute of Education & Training, Mysuru)