STORY TELLING

Storytelling is a structurednarrative account of real orimagined events that is widelyused in public speaking as amedium for sharing, interpretingand offering the content of thestory to the listeners.

(Nikitina, 2011).

(storytellingday.net)

Long time ago. . .

storytelling was believed to calm the fears or doubts of a family

the storyteller, who was good at telling heroic events or other important events of the tribe, began to reach position of respect and honor

before man learned to write, he had to rely on his memory to learn anything

he had to be a good listener

A good storyteller was always respected.

Recognized as the oldest surviving tale in the storytelling history:

*The epic Gilgamesh

The earliest known record in the origin of storytelling can be found in:

*Egypt

when the sons of Cheops entertained their father with stories.

Some of the famous storytellers and their stories:

*Scheherazade on her “Sinbad and Aladdin and His Magic Lamp”,

*Grimm Brothers fairy tales as “Snow White”

*Hans Christian Andersen on his “The Emperor’s New Clothes”

*Charles Perrault’s “Sleeping Beauty”

*Joel Chandler Harris in his “Uncle Remus Tales”

The purposes of storytelling. . .

*to develop the listener’s imagination

*widen the listener’s horizon

*give enjoyment to the audience or even to the storyteller himself

*to help solve problems

(Collins, 2005)

two types of stories . . .

1. Fiction - a story that might be based on real life but is not a true story

- fairy tales, folk tales, tall tales, animal stories, fables, myths, and non-true stories

2. Nonfiction- true and actually happened - biblical, historical, biographical, autobiographical, and Missionary stories

The four parts in storytelling…

1. Introduction -the basic information

2. Body - developing of the story

3. Climax - the high point of the story

4. Conclusion- wrap up the story

Do’s and Don’ts of Storytelling

Do’s

Always make your story relevant to the subject at hand

Keep your stories simple and short

Eliminate inconsequential detail

Space stories at intervals to reemphasize your message

Make sure the plot of the story involves a lesson or a transformation outcome that your listeners can relate to and benefit from

Do’s

Use appropriate body language and facial expression to convey emotions to your listeners.

Use elements of the story that your audience can relate to (e.g. people, places and familiar facts).

Emphasize the adjectives and verbs in your stories to make them sound more interesting.

Learn your stories by heart.

Don’ts

Do not use more than two or three stories on the same topic as each successive one will lose its impact

Do not use terms that are foreign to the experience of the audience

Do not fill stories with too many characters, events or details

Characterization

Since the script is not usually memorized,

experiment with how a character acts and what he says

act out all the characters that speak

characters may be male, female or even animals

Story characters can be larger-than-life, or, in other words, a bit exaggerated (It all depends on the story and the age of the listeners)

The younger the listener, the more he will enjoy a character that is overdone and stereotyped.

Video of storytelling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRUsz9cTPJQ

Cynthia Espinoza, Fall 2011 Storytelling Winner

Uploaded- Jan 10, 2012

Cynthia Espinoza is performing John Leguizamo's

"The TV" at Hal Todd Studio Theatre,

San Jose State University.

Kaucher Mitchell Event for Excellence is an annual storytellingcompetition for San Jose State University students. Theevent was an extension of the class students who took onstorytelling and oral interpretation.

Interpretative Reading

- In its simplest form consists of one person reading aloud to another such as a college girl reading instructions from a magazine to her roommate on how to apply eye make-up correctly.

- In its most complex form, it is an art by which a reader communicates the meaning of great literature to an appreciation audience as exemplified by Sir Charles Laughton reading a passage from the Bible to a hushed assembly of business people.

IR involves 3 major components...

the author who writes the piece

the interpreter who reads it, and

the audience who listens to it

In the process of oral communication, the interpreter serves as a medium or link

between the author and audience and as such has corresponding obligations to

both of them.

There are three tasks that you must be prepared to accomplish if you wish to be an effective interpretative reader:

First, try to understand the meaning of the selection.

Second, work for effective expression of the meaning of the selection through the use of fundamental techniques of public speaking during the actual performance.

Even if you have memorized the selection, you should use a manuscript to constantly remind your audience that the thoughts and feelings you express originate from the selection and not from you

Avoid burying your nose in the manuscript.

Remember to maintain eye contact with the audience

get better audience reaction by using visible actions as facial expression, gesture, posture, and total bodily response

Voice is the chief instrument you use for oral communication

express the color and substance of your selection much more effectively by controlling over your vocal volume, pitch, rate, and quality

Your third and most important task as an interpreter is intensifying the meaning of the selection

*i.e.- experiencing the content of literature while reading to others

*Aggert calls this vivid experiencing of the idea at the moment of utterance as the life blood of all effective speech but especially of oral interpretation of literature

*you cannot produce experiences in your listeners if you yourself do not experience what you are reading when you are reading aloud

To accomplish the task, therefore, you must learn to concentrate upon the ideas and feelings of the selection at the moment of

oral reading so that you can generate the same appreciation for these ideas and feelings in

your audience.

Reading of Prose

Prose includes the largest classification of literature namely: essays, speeches, short stories, sermons, lectures, novels, and other forms of informal compositions.

The principles applied in the reading of poetry may also be applied to the reading of prose.

Just like poetry, the main purpose of prose is to communicate.

Your first consideration, therefore, as an interpreter is to present the author’s purpose.

Is it to inform? To persuade? Or to entertain?

The second consideration is:

Do you recognize the imagery used by the author?

Imagery is anything that comes to mind brought about by our experiences as we respond to the printed words. Images are perceived through the use of the senses.

As an effective interpreter, you should be able to communicate to the listeners the relationship among sound, sense,

and structure.

Video Sample on Oral Interpretationhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41EoUI6ZGP4

-Prepared by: M.V.C. Luga

Summer 2014 with Dr. C.V. DerasinELT 6009- Phonology of English and

the Art of Speaking