Telling tales: using stories, jokes and experiences in the English as a Foreign Language classroom Alan Marsh MATEFL June 2014

The Day I Met A Ghost: How I started believing in them Where did it happen? When did it happen? How did it happen? ? ? ?

The Duffle Coat: prompts Motorway York – London - Girl Raynes Park: lift Duffle coat Junction – sudden braking – no girl Find her house! Mum: spitting image Fatal accident - a year ago to the day – motorway outside York The churchyard – Tombstone - Folded neatly on the grave was …

Focus on language: meaning If I hadn’t picked that hitchhiker up, I wouldn’t have started believing in ghosts What kind of conditional sentence? Did I pick the hitchhiker up? Did I start believing in ghosts?

Focus on Language: form If I hadn’t picked …up … If + S + PAST PERFECT …I wouldn’t have started … S + WOULD (NOT) HAVE + PAST PART.

Language use Write a past conditional which is true for your own life, beginning with If I … Work in threes. Ask each other questions about the sentences your partners have written. Find out as much as you can.

Reflections on Live Listening Why did I ask you to talk about believing in ghosts at the beginning of the lesson? Why did I choose the “when/why/how” type questions as a pre-listening exercise? Why did I ask you to make up some questions of your own before I told you the story? Why can telling the story be more flexible than playing a CD? When you retold the story I said ‘change” about every 30 seconds. What were my reasons for doing so? What was the difference for you between listening to me telling the story live and listening to a recording of it on a CD? How did I exploit the last line of my story? Thanks to my colleague and friend Simon Marshall for inspiring this idea.

Advantages of ‘live listening’: teachers telling stories, jokes, personal experiences Active/interactive listening. You can see the speaker Realworld listening, not classworld listening Can embody features of language which learners can unconsciously pick up … … and/or which the teacher can go back to/raise consciousness about Learners enjoy being told good stories, anecdotes and jokes (like everybody else) Learners enjoy listening to their teachers – as long as its purposeful and interesting So …. OUT with UTTT and IN with VTTT!

Tell it rather than read it! An outline or skeleton of the story: main points Stresses – ‘punch’ the important words: voice and body Pauses – at key moments Sit up or stand up Expression, mime, and gestures (mirror!) Adopt different voices: high/low, soft/harsh, etc. Speak slowly - enjoy the sound of the words Keep eye contact: ‘work’ your audience Be confident : beginning and finishing Don’t rush it, enjoy it

Over to you Read through your joke (only yours) Read again and underline key parts Write a skeleton outline Rehearse it in your head: prepare to tell it to someone else –without looking at the joke Joke 1: Telephoning page 5 Joke 2: Quattro page 5 Joke 3: The Birthday Present page 6 Joke 4: The Lawyer and the BMW page 7

Acknowlegement: Seth Lindstromberg

Double slashes show good places to pause: Once upon a // time, a long time //ago, there was a beautiful // princess who lived in a // castle made of black // stone with her parents, the king and // queen.

Double slashes show bad places to pause: Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a // beautiful princess who lived in a castle// made of black stone // with her parents, the king and queen.

The Stupid Monkey

What comes next? Read your part Read slowly and clearly Use mime and gestures Leave pauses. Give feedback. Don’t wait for more than 5/6 seconds before giving the word

Language focus near the entrance ___ a park a small crowd ___ people standing ___ a circle they were looking ___ something the old woman shouted ___ the monkey the monkey stood ___ its back legs, screamed and fell ___.

The Caliph and The Servant

Baghdad and Basra

Imagine that! Read your part of the story to yourself Read it out loud, slowly and carefully Pause and leave your partner enough time to use their imagination!

Language focus: food gone bad Fruit can be r_____ Bread can be s____ or m_____ Milk and meat can be o____ Butter and oil can be r____ Beer and fizzy drinks can be f_____

Telling tales: using stories, jokes and experiences in the English as a Foreign Language classroom Alan Marsh MATEFL June 2014

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