TEACHING ENGLISH THROUGH STORYTELLING

Abstract

Stories provide a common thread that can help unite cultures and provide a bridge across the cultural gap… The presented article deals with the benefits of using storytelling in the classroom. This method of teaching is rather captive and it has really a good drive among the students. The article is constructed on the shared experience with a famous storyteller and teacher-trainer Michael Berman. We often give stories to our students to read, but how often do we tell them a story? One can hardly find a person, who was not brought up on the stories, told by the grandparents or parent. Sitting at the fireplaces or bedsides, stirring childhood’s rich imagination, and travelling on the paths of imaginary world like Alice in wonderland or Harry Potter… if it was not so, some others, perhaps, used to read fairy-tales and myths, folklore, legends or real stories. We hope the readers and learners would agree with us, that childhood ‘s stories stay in mind for ever ,as the first impression and experience you have got at your young age is unforgettable and the most impressive knowledge of the world and life! For this reason, we think that teaching the foreign language through the storytelling is the most interesting and impressive way for successful learning the language. Thus, the article looks at the benefits of storytelling and gives advice on performance techniques • What can storytelling offer? • Storytelling and intercultural understanding • Other benefits of using storytelling in the classroom • Commonalities of cultures around the world • Performance techniques