[ELTWeekly Volume 7, Issue 17 | September 21, 2015 | ISSN 0975-3036]
Oral stories are particularly important. For both adults and children language is perceived largely through sound, which many people believe links to a primitive human instinct. It’s easy to ignore words on a page, but humans are hard wired to pay attention to sounds, which in many instances provide information vital to survival. A caveman who ignored the sound of a lion did so at his own peril, to name but one of countless examples. If you have trouble getting through to a young learner, as many people report, an oral story is often the ideal vehicle.
Stories are also important because they allow us to simulate intense experiences without actually having to live through them. They teach us lessons that help us to survive and make sense of the word. They also help us in a social sense. By identifying with protagonists, children experience things as if they really happened to them. They learn right and wrong, and they learn to put themselves in other people’s shoes…