2 Using simple stories
Introducing a small number of English words will help your students to develop confidence in using English. In the case study that comes next, the teacher tells a whole story to her class in English. As you read, think about the benefits and potential risks of this method.
Case Study 1: Amina tells a familiar story in English
Amina is a student teacher in a rural school in Maharashtra, where there were no English signboards or newspapers in the community, and no one spoke English.
I took the story of ‘The Thirsty Crow’ from the language textbook. I knew it very well, and so did my students. I wrote out a very simple version of the story in English. I practised telling this simple version of the story aloud to my husband at home. I practised until I felt very confident to tell the English version to my students. I made up some gestures to go with my storytelling.
I told students in Class I the story, using actions and gestures and my voice to convey as much of my meaning as possible. They knew this story very well already, but only in Marathi.
The students sat through my story without saying anything or showing any feeling. I was sure that they had not understood anything. At the end I asked the students in Marathi: ‘What story did I tell?’ To my surprise, the students were able to identify the story quite well, and they then began to tell the story in their own words in Marathi!
I realised that the students had not understood all the English words that had been spoken, but were able to make a number of good guesses. Because I used actions and gestures, they knew that I was telling a story and they guessed that it was a story they knew. I wrote on the board the key English words from the story: ‘crow’, ‘drink’, ‘water’, ‘stones’, ‘pot’ and ‘thirsty’. I read the words out and the students repeated them after me. I let them draw pictures for these words and label them.
Now, before I tell a story in English, I speak and write out the key words on the board. Sometimes I also prepare pictures or for a story (Figure 2).
I realise my method takes some time to organise and prepare. But I have found that it is worthwhile, not just for students. My own English confidence is slowly improving. Also, storytelling has helped my management of the classroom.
 Pause for thought Amina realised that her students could understand a lot more English than she thought. Do you think this is true for your students? How would you find out? |
Activity 3: Practising a story
Read the short story in English. Read it more than once. Underline or circle any words you are not sure of, and look these up in a dictionary. Read it aloud to yourself, or to someone in your family.
‘The Moon and His Two Wives’
Did you know that the Moon has two wives?
One is an excellent cook. When the Moon visits her, she makes him many, many delicious plates of food. She cooks and he eats. She cooks and he eats. She cooks and he eats. And he gets fatter and fatter until he is entirely round and he can’t eat any more.
When he can’t eat any more, he goes off to see his other wife. She is an excellent storyteller. And when he visits her she tells him many, many exciting stories. Day and night, night and day, he sits and listens. And he is so busy listening that he forgets to eat. So he gets thinner and thinner until he is just a tiny crescent.
Then he gets hungry, and so he goes to see his cook-wife again.
After you have read the story several times, try to tell it aloud without looking at the text.
Can you put any gestures to some of the words? Try telling the story, without reading it, to someone else at school or at home.
Pause for thought What does this story teach about language and about the natural world? |
This very short story introduces some interesting vocabulary such as ‘excellent’, ‘delicious’ and ‘exciting’. It also introduces an astronomical term: crescent. It introduces the opposite words: fat and thin. The story has repeating phrases such as ‘day and night, night and day’, ‘fatter and fatter’, and ‘thinner and thinner’. You can use these ideas as starting points to explore language. For example, you can think of other opposite words such as ‘bigger’ and ‘smaller’. You can think of words that have the same meaning, such as ‘excellent’, ‘outstanding’ or ‘first-rate’.
Traditional stories often have gender stereotypes, such as the husband and wife roles in ‘The Moon and His Two Wives’. How would you talk to students about this? Think of ways to make the story less stereotypical. For example, the moon could cook for his wife and eat so much of his own food that he becomes fat. Or the moon could have two friends instead of two wives.
Of course, there is a scientific explanation for why the moon changes shape. Do you think the story ‘The Moon and His Two Wives’ could cause students to develop misconceptions? Would you introduce the astronomical concepts at the same time as you tell this story? You can talk to students about the differences between the scientific way of explaining the world and the folk story way of explaining what we see around us. You can also use this opportunity to ask the students if they have different versions of this story in their communities, or tell them to narrate stories they have heard from their community that seek to explain the natural world. Encourage them to use English words while narrating.
Think of other traditional stories that you know. Do they have interesting words and patterns of language? Do they present problems of stereotyping and scientific misconceptions?
1 Learning new words