Why Use Stories?
o For motivation. Most children enjoy having stories read to them, or reading stories
for themselves
o To practise different skills. They are a good reading and writing starting point. They
provide an opportunity for children to make their own books. They provide drama
and roleplay opportunities. They practise and reinforce lexis and structures, and
develop conceptual skills such as prediction, guessing the meaning of new words,
training the memory.
o For interest. Stories can be chosen to reflect the language topic covered in the
coursebook or other areas of school activity.
o For social relevance. Stories can often be used to discuss and explore issues of
social relevance, e.g. an awareness of good and bad social behaviour, of
emotions, of shared cultural history, or things that are different from one another.
o For variety. Stories allow for the use of English, expanding on the topics in the text
book.
o For context. Stories are a medium that children are familiar with. They give context
and meaning to the language. And the action in the story gives the children a
genuine reason for listening.
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How to Choose a Story
o The story should have a simple storyline.
o The story should not be too long.
o The language should match (or should be easily adapted to) the pupils’ level of
proficiency. It should contain repetitive phrases.
o You should have a clear plan of the activities you want to use to exploit the story.
o Action stories are the easiest to exploit
.
o Dialogue exchanges between characters in the story should be short and
memorable
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