I'll tell you a story

I'll tell you a story is a site where English students of all ages and levels can find a huge collection of stories to read and/or listen to.

The stories on I'll tell you a story range from fables, to fairy tales, to nursery rhymes to poems. In addition,  information about the most renowned story writers can be found.

Everybody is encouraged to contribute to the site by sending a story on registration.

Take a few minutes off to explore I'll tell you a story. I bet some of the stuff you find there will jog sweet memories of your childhood and help you with your English.

The story museum: 1001 stories

The Story Museum, founded in 2003, is a non-profit company and registered charity based in Oxford, UK.

Since 2005 they have been working with children, young people, parents, educators and artists to develop children’s language skills through oral storytelling.

The section 1001 stories offers dozens of short stories on different topics that you can listen to or watch. A transcript for each story is available and sometimes a map of the story is provided, which happens to be an invaluable tool if you want to use a specific story to develop your speaking skills. On the minus side, the stories cannot be downloaded.

Self-study idea:
Listen or watch a story as often as necessary until you fully understand it. Use the transcript to deal with difficult vocabulary or unknown words.

Once you are familiar with the story, try to repeat the story in your own words using the map if it is available.

Interactives- Elements of a Story: Cinderella

It must have been around summer time this year that Richard Byrne, the person behind Free Technology for Teachers, posted about Interactives: Elements of a Story, an interactive lesson from Annenber Learner , provider of educational materials for American teachers.

As Richard Byrne himself explains, Interactives - Elements of a Story "uses the story of Cinderella as a model for learning about the elements of a story."

From the very beginning I noticed the positive implications this interactive could have in an English class for students of almost all levels: First of all, students listen and read the story of Cinderella. This tale will be used as a framework to teach the key elements in any story.

Then the different elements of a story are explained one by one (setting, character, sequence, exposition, conflict, climax and resolution) using the story of Cinderella to illustrate each of them. As happens with the story, the explanations can both be read and/or listened to. Students have to do a short quiz at the end of each explanation, which helps them consolidate the concepts.

Writing stories is a must in the English class. In my experience, this is one of the most difficult writing tasks a learner can undertake, as it demands specific narrative techniques that a good share of students are lacking in. Students can also adapt the key elements in a story shown in Interactives - Elements of a Story  when they write about personal anecdotes or when they have to make up a story.

Interactives - Elements of a Story is a funny, practical lesson that can throw some light into a really demanding writing task.

Tales and stories on the BBC

In mid-August Larry Ferlazzo informed about an interesting resource of the BBC for English language learners, Audio Resources for Primary Schools.

Under the heading "English" on the list of subjects, students have access to a number of stories and fables that can be useful to practise English while bringing back to mind tales of our childhood.

As a matter of fact, some of the stories available are videos with audio and closed captioning (subtitles). They include:
Jack and the giant beanstalk
Viking sagas
Treasure island
Aesops fables
A Christmas carol
Tales of Hans Christian Andersen
The wind in the willows

Remember that a good way of consolidating the language we have been exposed to is by repeating the story in our own words. So after listening to a tale or fable several times until we have got familiar with the vocabulary and the elements and characters of the story, repeat the story from memory.

If you find the task too daunting, note down a few expressions and key vocabulary and characters, so that you can better concentrate on putting the story together and develop your speaking skills.

Other useful resources on this blog featuring fables are

Aesop's fables in English for language learners

Fables and stories podcasts

The Cracked Pot

The Cracked Pot is a Chinese story that you can read in this slideshow from EFL Classroom. Some food for thought for today while we read a beautiful short story.

Fables and stories podcasts

English Club has a more than interesting collection of podcasts featuring fables, stories, the Chinese Zodiac, the signs of the Zodiac.

The podcasts are on the short side and they can be downloaded. They come complete with their transcript.

Self-study activity:
There are several ways you can work with this material:

• You can select a podcast and check how much you have understood by reading/listening to the transcript later on.
• You can shadow-read a story: Read the transcript while you listen to it, so that you can imitate the rhythm and pronunciation.
• You can develop your oral skill by listening to a story and trying to retell it in your own words later on.
• You can discuss the moral of the story with your conversation group.

H/T to Larry Ferlazzo.

Aesop's Fables for English language learners

A few days ago Larry Ferlazzo listed on his blog a number of internet sites that dealth with Aesop's fables.

The most interesting for me for English language learners was Aesop's Fables in English for languages learners, as it allows you to listen to lots of fables and complete listening comprehension activities by filling in the blanks in the fables with the missing words.

Self-study activity:
Get together with an English-speaking friend or relative and do some of the listening tasks in the site. Then, discuss the moral at the end of each fable.

Pocahontas

We all complain about the difficulty to find good resources for lower level students on the net. This one is suitable for Básico 1 and Básico 2 (elementary) students.

Pocahontas is a nice story that everybody knows because of the Walt Disney production. Here the tale is presented to us through Angles 365.

We only have to click on 'movie' if we just want to listen to and watch the story. If we want to read the subtitles at the same time, click on 'page by page.'

H/T to Samoga en casa.

Story time for me

Story time for me offers stories that are read aloud. As the stories are read, the words being spoken are highlighted on the screen.

The stories are meant for young children, but English learners of all levels will benefit from the site, as they will revise and learn lots of essential vocabulary and pronunciation as well as greatly enjoy the stories.

H/T to Larry Ferlazzo.

Audio stories on the net

There are a number of sites on the internet where we can find audio stories, and Storynory is one of them. Here we can read and listen to lots of short stories and poems.

Perhaps you could start by clicking on the Fairytales tag and pick out a story of your choice by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Perrault, Aesop or the 1001 nights.

Listening and reading stories is good practice for our skills, and it can help us improve our grasp of vocabulary.

H/T to My Integrating Technology Journey.