Article Link: http://www.exchangepress.com/article/the-magic-of-oral-storytelling/5025176/
My personal history of oral storytelling began as a young child when my father, an immigrant from Poland, told me bedtime stories about his culture. I continued this tradition as a grandparent, telling my four grandchildren stories about my culture and life growing up in Chicago. Recently, at a school in Belize, I told one of my favorite oral stories, “Something from Nothing” to attentive children who inevitably said, “Tell me another story.” Oral storytelling promotes all aspects of communication, encourages comprehension, vocabulary, and imagination and can be an important asset to all educational experiences. In this article, I describe the benefits of oral storytelling and some strategies for acquiring these skills.
What is Oral Storytelling?
Oral storytelling, as opposed to reading out loud, is defined as “an oral art form where a teller performs a story with a live audience. In this understanding there is no book present to separate the relationship between the teller and the listener. The storyteller holds the story in her mind and uses words and gestures to bring the story alive before the listeners” (Phillips, 2013).
Storytelling through oral tradition dates back to different points in history, depending on the culture. These traditions ...