Developing listening skills with storytelling

[ELTWeekly Volume 11, Issue 3 | March 11, 2019 | ISSN 0975-3036]


The Oxford University ELT team has published an article titled ‘Developing listening skills with storytelling’ written by Gareth Davies.

Gareth Davies says, “Storytelling in ELT is often seen as the preserve of the young learner teacher. Telling a story with lots of repetition, noises, and action is considered far too childish for teen and adult learners. But stories are in our soul, we grew up with them, remember them fondly and can learn a lot from them, so maybe stories can be part of language lessons for older students.

Why storytelling?

The benefits of grading reading are well documented. Students reading for pleasure at their own level not only improve their reading skill but also their grammar and vocabulary level. But why is so little said about Graded Listening. When we do a listening activity in an English lesson there is always a task to go with it. This listen and answer approach often stresses students, no wonder then that listening is often considered by students to be the ‘hardest’ skill to master”.

Developing listening skills with storytelling

OUP ELT Blog