What makes illustrated storybooks such a good resource for teaching young

learners of English? The British Council’s Gail Ellis, co-author of a storytelling

handbook for primary English language teachers, explains. Listen to an
interview with Gail in our podcast and register for her webinar taking place on
Thursday, 2 October.

Illustrated storybooks provide an ideal resource for helping children learn English.
This is because children love listening to stories. Storybooks present language in
familiar and memorable contexts, and high quality illustrations help children
understand as they match what they hear to what they see. In this way, children
develop their visual literacy and appreciation of art. They also discover different
styles of illustration and learn about the culture of the illustrator.

Why use storybooks in the classroom?

Teachers can use storybooks to complement an English language course or as the

main teaching resource. Storybooks can act as a springboard for a wide variety of
activities to develop children’s English language skills and bring other areas of the
curriculum to life, through the theme or content of the book. They are also very
motivating as they exercise children’s imaginations and appeal to different interests
and learning styles. Storytelling is a shared social experience and provokes a
response of laughter, sadness, empathy, excitement and anticipation, all of which
encourage social and emotional development. Another important benefit is that
storybooks encourage children to enjoy language learning and foster their
appreciation of literature.

Storybooks can meet a variety of learner needs

The expansion in the teaching of English around the world to ever younger ages,
and the variation in policy from one country to another, means that teachers are
finding themselves teaching classes of children with diverse learning needs and
varying levels of English. Storybooks help teachers meet these various needs, as all
children can understand the overall meaning of a story with the help of the teacher’s
storytelling techniques and the beautiful illustrations. Each child can respond
according to their linguistic level and cognitive ability.

Selecting the right storybook

The key to successful storytelling is having the right story for the linguistic and
cognitive ability of the children. They may have limited knowledge of their second
language but still have ideas, concepts and aspirations relevant to their
developmental age. Teachers need to be aware of the criteria they can use to
choose storybooks, such as level, subject matter and motivation. (The storytelling
handbook Tell it Again! lists these criteria in full to help teachers make informed
choices).
Once you’ve picked a storybook, you need to analyse its potential for the class and
prepare a sequence of tasks which incorporate preparation activities, mid-storytelling
activities and follow-up activities. It’s important to tell children at the start of the
lesson what the outcome will be: a presentation of the story, a project, making
something, designing their own book, and so on. This gives children a purpose for
their work and keeps them motivated and on task.

What to consider when reading a story aloud

Reading a storybook aloud requires preparation. You need to familiarise yourself

with the book, its layout, the illustrations and the story. Practise reading it aloud
several times before you read it to the class so you can deliver the story confidently,
making use of a variety of storytelling techniques such as pointing to the illustrations,
commentating, asking questions and encouraging children to predict and repeat.
Other techniques include pausing at the right time, varying the volume or tone of
your voice, and using gestures, expressions and sound effects.

Discovering new storybooks

For me, the wonder of storybooks is that I am always discovering new titles, and not
just recent publications but old classics as well. The discovery of new titles is always
an exciting moment! My colleagues and I have shed many a tear as we share our
favourites – such is the power of storytelling to provoke emotional responses. My
latest discovery is a book published in 1949 called The Important Book. There is
something almost surreal with this storybook that appeals to me greatly – its way of
finding something special, even in the simplest of objects such as a spoon!

Storybooks are contagious and once you start using them, you’ll find it hard to return
to the more conventional ELT materials.

Happy storytelling!

Download the new edition of Tell it Again!, a storytelling handbook for primary
English language teachers, by Gail Ellis and Jean Brewster.

Register for Thursday’s webinar presented by Gail Ellis in which she will
demonstrate how storytelling can develop children’s English as well as
encourage social and emotional development.
Why Storytelling?

Educators have long known that the arts can contribute to QuickLinks
student academic success and emotional well being. The • Sign up for the
ancient art of storytelling is especially well-suited for student free newsletter
exploration. As a folk art, storytelling is accessible to all ages now!
• Storytelling Store
and abilities. No special equipment beyond the imagination • Story Arts HOME
and the power of listening and speaking is needed to create
artistic images. As a learning tool, storytelling can encourage students to explore
their unique expressiveness and can heighten a student's ability to communicate
thoughts and feelings in an articulate, lucid manner. These benefits transcend the
art experience to support daily life skills. In our fast-paced, media-driven world,
storytelling can be a nurturing way to remind children that their spoken words are
powerful, that listening is important, and that clear communication between people
is an art. [and there's more...]

Retelling Folktales

Storytelling Lesson Plans and Activities

Using Storytelling To Assess Listening and Speaking Skills

Story Library

 Stories in a Nutshell...Concise Folktale Plots For Student Retelling

 Aesop's ABC...Twenty Six Fables

Exploring Cultural Roots Through Storytelling

 Collecting Family Stories

 Remembering Your Life Stories
 Celebrating the Stories of Our Ancestors by Retelling Folktales

Why Storytelling? More Reasons...

Gaining Verbal Skills

Becoming verbally proficient can contribute to a student's ability to resolve
interpersonal conflict nonviolently. Negotiation, discussion, and tact are
peacemaking skills. Being able to lucidly express one's thoughts and feelings is
important for a child's safety. Clear communication is the first step to being able to
ask for help when it is needed.

Imagination
Both telling a story and listening to a well-told tale encourages students to use their
imaginations. Developing the imagination can empower students to consider new
and inventive ideas. Developing the imagination can contribute to self-confidence
and personal motivation as students envision themselves competent and able to
accomplish their hopes and dreams.

Passing On Wisdom
Storytelling based on traditional folktales is a gentle way to guide young people
toward constructive personal values by presenting imaginative situations in which
the outcome of both wise and unwise actions and decisions can be seen.

What is storytelling?

Storytelling is one of our oldest artforms. It stimulates the imagination and builds a sense of
community between tellers and listeners.

Stories are everywhere – in newspapers, books, on TV and the internet. Every day conversation is full
of anecdotes and real life stories. Storytelling helps us understand our environment and personal
experience.

Many older stories are originally traditional folktales. They represent the richness of oral patterns of
telling and are the product of a community experience, as well as the art of individual storytellers.
Historical stories, legends and contemporary stories can also be the subject of the storyteller's tale,
and they too embody a strong element of community or collective experience.

The emphasis of traditional storytelling is as much on the telling as the story itself. Stories are
recreated by the teller at each telling and passed on through generations. True storytelling happens
when the story is told person to person, live, without print or technology. Nothing beats the experience
of a live storytelling performance for bringing tales to life.

People of different ages, backgrounds, and cultures can communicate through storytelling.
Storytelling is also a valuable tool in education, language development, therapy, and in building racial
equality and religious respect.

Who are the storytellers?

Everyone is a storyteller,but some people choose to develop their storytelling skills to become a
professional or community storyteller.

Scotland is home to a wonderfully rich and diverse network of storytellers with varied styles and
repertoires. Many storytellers connect their love of stories with their upbringing or childhood
influences, but what unites them all is a commitment to the practice of their art. The work of the
storyteller ranges from sharing tales as entertainment, to leading storytelling projects with vulnerable
groups, such as asylum seekers, people with additional needs and the elderly.

While some of Scotland's storytellers have been influenced by one or more storytelling traditions,
most acknowledge a debt to Gaelic storytelling, storytelling in Scots, or to the traditions of the Scottish
Travellers.

The Scottish Storytelling Centre encourages, supports and facilitates storytelling in families,
communities, places of learning and natural environments. We also recognise and honour several
special kinds of storyteller:
o Tradition Bearers - those who have preserved and are passing on older traditions
of stories. They are our Honorary Founders.
o Community Storytellers - those who share stories in their communities or through
their work contributing to human well-being and quality of life.
o Professional Storytellers - those who wish to travel across Scotland and exercise
their storytelling craft as a paid profession.

We ask all these kinds of storytellers to become Network members of the Scottish Storytelling Forum
and to participate in mutual support, collaboration and growth.

The renaissance of storytelling is indebted to tradition bearers who have generously shared their art.
Storytelling is now reaching out to all age groups and sections of our society in new ways to celebrate
our common humanity.

Why story telling is important?

Humans are emotional creatures. My impression is that storytelling allows us to digest

information more easily because it connects that information to emotions. ...Storytelling is
important because it is effective at teaching in a way that people can easily remember, and
at helping people relate to one another.

History Of Storytelling
Today, stories are an intrinsic part of our societies and culture. Movies, books, music, news media, religions,
architecture and painting, you name it, and the influence of storytelling is to be seen in all aspects of our life.
Defining our values, desires, dreams and, as well as our prejudices and hatreds, don’t you want to know how it all
began? Well, the history of Storytelling is the prime focus of this article. Traditionally, the oral stories have been
handed over from generation to generation. Read on to know everything about the origins of storytelling.
The storytelling history is quite ancient, lost in the mist of time. Nobody knows when the first story was actually
told. Did it happen in the gloomy recess of a cave around a flickering fire told by a primitive hunter? Well, we may
never know. But it is believed that origin of storytelling may have come across as an excuse for failure. Perhaps
stories were used long time ago to calm the fears or doubts of a family. As families grouped with other families
and formed clans, the storyteller, who was good at telling heroic events or other important events of the tribe
began to reach position of respect and power. People found them interesting and began to listen to them. The
priest, the judge and the ruler were perhaps the earliest to use this art effectively in the history of storytelling.
Storytelling days were considered important.
Before man learned to write, he had to rely on his memory to learn anything. For this he had to b a good listener.
A good story teller was always respected. He could easily find an audience, eager to devour every exciting bit of
information in their stories. These stories were also shared with others in far away lands, when people traveled.
The stories traveled with them. And when they returned home, they brought with them exciting new tales of exotic
places and people.
The oldest surviving tale in the storytelling history is the epic, Gilgamesh, relating to the deeds of a famous
Sumerian king. The earliest known record in the origin of storytelling can be found in the Egypt, when the sons of
Cheops entertained their father with stories.
The history of storytelling reveals that the stories came in all variety. Myths, legends of all kinds, fairy tales,
trickster stories, fables, ghost tales, hero stories, and epic adventures, these stories were told, retold. Passing
down from generations, these stories reflect the wisdom and knowledge of early people. There are stories often
used to explain important but often confusing events and disasters in nature at those early times. For example -
fire, storms, thunder, floods, tidal waves, lightening etc; It was common for people to believe in the stories of
gods, which bound them to a common heritage and beliefs.

In fact, it is believed by most historians and psychologists that storytelling is one of the many things that define
and bind our humanity. Humans are perhaps the only animals that create and tell stories

Storytelling describes the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with
improvisation, theatrics, or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives,
which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation or instilling
moral values.