Alan Maley: Weaving the class narrative (Narrative in ELT Symposium)

“It’s very hard to live in a studio apartment in San Jose with a man who’s learning to play the violin.” That’s what she told the police when she handed them the empty revolver.

By going through this short narrative, Alan outlined some of the features of a story: setting, character, plot, dialogue, point of view. He then went on to discuss some aspects of storytelling in a QnA fashion.

Why are stories so important?

- they are universal
- they are what makes us human (stories are the thread that ties all of us together)
- they make sense of the world (they help us understand our own condition/problems better)
- they are a teaching tool (religious texts rely on stories as a teaching medium)
- they offer a parallel world (an escape to an imaginary world)
- they help us develop life skills (visualisation, inner speech, speculation, prediction, associative thinking, imaginative empathy)
- they show us we are not alone
- they bind groups together (they bind cultures together, too)
- they are intensely enjoyable and attention-grabbing

What’s the value of stories for language teaching?

- stimulate imagination, visualization, inner voice
- encourage love of language
- facilitate memorisation
- focus on meaning
- aid fluency in the four skills
- offer varied content
- cultural input
- affective engagement
- socialisation through shared experience
- natural (not like lectures)
- cheap/easy to prepare
- exposure/use/motivation (Willis, 1996)

How do we make a ‘storied class’?

- make story-telling a regular part of every class (it binds the class together and keeps them on track)
- encourage the class to record their own unfolding story (via journals, portfolios, websites…)
- celebrate the class story (ethnic memory of what’s happened in the class)
- encourage the exchange of stories that the learners bring to class
- encourage (and publish, i.e. put up on notice board/put online/bind together to produce a book-like object) the writing of stories

Although brief and to-the-point, Alan’s talk was really interesting and empowering. Reminders of the power of stories to grab and hold our own and our students’ attention in the EL class are useful and always welcome.