How To Use Storytelling In The Classroom

A teacher recently got in touch with a question that really got me thinking. Simon teaches English at a university in Japan, but he also runs a weekly Japanese class for beginners.

He'd been experimenting with storytelling in the classroom – specifically, telling anecdotes to his students and seeing how much they could pick up through repetition and engagement.

His question was essentially this: without a structured story course to follow, could he effectively teach beginners by weaving anecdotes together and loosely tracking vocabulary and grammar points as they emerged?

This is precisely the kind of thing I spend my days thinking about. So let me share my thoughts on how storytelling can transform classroom language teaching.

If you prefer watching videos to reading, hit play on the video version of this post at the top of this page. Otherwise, here's what you'll discover in this article:

Why Stories Work For Language Learning

The thing that different storytelling mediums have in common – whether it's a soap opera, neighbours gossiping, or someone recounting their day – is that they're all based on the overarching concept of narrative.

This is something humans have been using for millennia to communicate, right back to the first cave drawings where people depicted basic events happening.

We are hardwired as humans to relate to, understand and remember stories. This makes storytelling in the classroom incredibly powerful, because you're working with how the brain naturally processes information rather than against it.

As a medium for language teaching, it doesn't really matter whether you're using formal stories or casual anecdotes. Both tap into the same fundamental human response to narrative.

How Can Anecdotes Become Stories?

If you conceive of your classes as a potential series of anecdotes, there are ways to elevate them to the next level.

The key is continuity. If there's a connection from one anecdote to the next, you unlock some powerful opportunities.

When you have recurring characters, students develop an attachment to them. Those characters tend to speak in similar ways and repeat certain vocabulary, which is incredibly useful as a learning tool.

When you've got an ongoing storyline and plot, you can create what I call “open loops” within the narrative. These create curiosity – and that raises your students' motivation because they want to come back and find out what happened next.

This is the whole basis of television series. They always end on a cliffhanger because you can't stop thinking about it and have to return next week to find out what happened.

Your anecdotes don't necessarily have to be true, either. They can be based on truth, or you can make them entirely fictional.

You could tell students little anecdotes about things that happened to you over the years and weave them into a particular narrative. The story itself might not be factual, but the individual anecdotes are based on real experiences.

These small structural choices serve a very important purpose: they motivate, interest and captivate students as much as possible. We can't underestimate the importance of motivation in language learning.

Should You Organise Teaching Around Grammar?

As trained teachers, we've been indoctrinated in the whole idea of a structural syllabus.

Teaching tends to be organised around grammar points – pretty much any language learning syllabus will tell you what you're going to learn by presenting a series of grammar structures covered in the course.

But you don't have to go far in the research literature to understand that this is not how languages are actually learned.

The natural order hypothesis shows that it doesn't matter what order a teacher tries to teach grammar points in – you will learn those grammar points in the order that your brain wants, and there's not much you can do about it.

I'm very much of the opinion that grammar should be learned naturally, as a consequence of exposure to the language.

The trouble is that as soon as you start trying to organise your material by grammar, you get wedged into a corner. That leads to a series of decisions which pretty inevitably take you away from the true nature of storytelling.

In my own courses, grammar is taught retrospectively. Everything works in service of the storyline.

We don't write the story based on the grammar points we want to teach – we write the story first, then look at it and identify opportunities for teaching grammar within the narrative.

As a teacher running live classes, you have an even better opportunity. You can teach in a much more reactive way, addressing grammar as it emerges from the story and the students' reactions to it.

The Power Of Student Reactions

The key ingredient in effective storytelling in the classroom is student reactions. This is something emphasised in TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling), an approach to language teaching that's popular in the US.

An obvious question might be: if I'm telling an anecdote to beginner students, how are they going to learn from it?

Obviously, you've got to make it comprehensible as a starting point. You can't tell anecdotes about nuclear physics – you've got to tell anecdotes about going to the shop and what happened there. You need to grade the language to their level and offer them comprehensible input.

But the way students truly learn is by engaging with you in the storyline. You can ask comprehension-checking questions to see if they're following the story. You can ask for their reactions:

• “What do you think happened next?”
• or “Would you like that if it happened to you?”
• or “Do you remember that person's name?”

These questions elicit responses that help you assess whether students have understood, and how well. From there, you adapt your teaching accordingly.

What Makes This Approach Challenging?

This approach really relies on the skill of the teacher. You've got to be a confident, insightful and agile teacher to pull it off.

For an experienced teacher, that's precisely what makes it so rewarding. You're free from the constraints of a rigid syllabus.

The things I remember most fondly from my ESL teaching days were when I was free to follow the needs of the students without worrying about what was prescribed.

If you're doing this on a regular basis, it doesn't matter whether you've thought through the grammar in advance. What students end up getting is a rich, general exposure to the language. Everything they learn is going to be useful.

And if certain linguistic needs emerge as a result, you can address them in the moment – there's always scope to teach things as they come up.

Getting Student Buy-In

If you're going to try this approach, I'd recommend explaining to your students what you're doing. If you have a new class, sit down and tell them how you intend to teach them so they're on board from the start.

If your students are sitting there thinking “Where are the grammar exercises?” and they haven't bought into the concept, you're limiting how effective storytelling in the classroom can be.

Talk to them, explain your approach and get their buy-in. They'll feel safe in that classroom environment, and they'll be much more willing to engage with the process.

StoryTelling In The Classroom FAQ

Putting Storytelling Into Practice

The proof is in the pudding. If you're considering using storytelling in your teaching, I'd encourage you to dive in and get started. Have the courage to try it out – you might be surprised at how naturally it flows once you begin.

Here's what to keep in mind:

• Link your anecdotes together. Create recurring characters and ongoing storylines that build curiosity and keep students coming back.
• Let grammar emerge naturally. Resist the urge to organise everything around grammar points. Address language features as they arise from the story.
• Prioritise student engagement. Ask comprehension questions, invite reactions and let your students guide the direction of the lesson.
• Grade your language appropriately. Keep your stories comprehensible for your students' level while still making them interesting.
• Explain your approach. Get student buy-in by telling them why you're teaching this way and what they can expect.

Storytelling in the classroom isn't just an alternative teaching method – it's working with the way humans naturally learn and communicate. When you tap into that, language learning becomes more engaging, more memorable and ultimately more effective.

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.