Daily Archives: November 27, 2016

Let’s Talk Story

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My roommate at Central Washington University my freshman year was from Hawaii. She did not like the cold weather in Ellensburg, Washington, was not used to wearing shoes and socks, and was homesick for her family, friends, and culture on Oahu.  To get through that snowy winter of 1979, she would buy a six pack of Lowenbrau and say to me… let’s talk story.

On a recent trip to Kaua’i, I came across this little bookstore in Hanapepe called Talk Story.  My mind immediately went to Kim and our times together away from home, sitting in our corner of a four person dorm room, talking story about our lives, fears, and dreams. That’s the purpose of what we do, to teach people to interact in the target language, to talk story.

talk-story

The brain is wired for storytelling.   Throughout time, a culture’s history and legends have been passed along through stories. We love to hang out with family and friends and embellish our experiences.  As we were traveling around Kuau’i, local tour guides kept pointing out locations of over 100 different movies filmed on the island. The entertainment industry makes massive money based on great stories.   If you are going to a social engagement, just go see the latest new movies and you will instantly have something to talk about with anyone.

talkingstory

One way to get students to talk story is through “movie talks.”  Movie talks were used by Dr. Ashley Hastings to help intermediate level university students comprehend full length movies. But the technique has been adapted by many language educators and is used with short films, commercials, public service announcements, movie trailers, television shows, and websites with gags and pranks, even at the novice level. Talking about things we have heard, read, or viewed with others is authentic communication.

Around the end of October, I like to use the short film El Monstruo del Armario.  It is a great way to get started with this technique.  I use the same film with my French  classes and just narrate in French.  Some popular videos for movie talks with resources on Teacherspayteachers are Wildebeast with a free script in Spanish, Partly Cloudy, Destiny , Crazy Carrot, and Alma.  I movie talk Senorwooly videos, especially the beginning of PAN were I describe the entire family, their actions, food and table settings.  I also movie talk the old DVD’s I have collected from Teacher’s Discovery over the years to get more input out of the videos.  Check out this website with 55 clips and my Pinterest page for more movie talk ideas. Blaine Ray has a new  CD with story scripts for $50.00 called Look I can Movie Talk in French and Spanish.

Although not a video yet, here is another visual, an old Powerpoint, that I start my year with to teach students how to do stories.  Get The New Girl here free in French La Nouvelle Fille and in Spanish La Chica Nueva.  We add details all year long as we learn new topics and information about the new girl and her story.  Let’s give them something to talk about. What’s your story?