The art of storytelling... - Unit 4
B2 First · Gapped Text · Ready for B2 First 4th Edition, Macmillan Education Limited
You are going to read an article about storytelling. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-G the one which fits each gap (1–6). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.
The art of storytelling…
Writing stories is a craft that is crucial for life. And if the government insists, you can test it, measure it and use it in commerce, too
The list goes on and on.
But it can be simplified enough to appear on the school curriculum as well.
The reluctance to include story-writing on the school curriculum is because of a fundamental misunderstanding.
It should be no more difficult than teaching grammar.
In other words, they make no sense and have no direction or point.
It is a crucial skill for life and commerce.
So we should not be wasting our time accusing the government of wanting us all to be joyless grammar robots.
A report in The Times recently quoted a secondary school teacher who complained that their Year 7 intake no longer knew how to tell a story. ‘They knew what a fronted adverbial was, and how to spot an internal clause, and even what a preposition was – but when I set them a task to write a story, they broke down and cried,’ reported the teacher. The fact that no importance is placed on storytelling makes me very frustrated not only because it puts so little value or emphasis on children’s creativity, but also because storytelling is more than simply an art.
Politicians should know this better than anyone. What is ‘vote for us and the country will be strong and stable’ if not a story? Everything made of words is a story – from the stories we tell ourselves to the ones we watch on TV to the ones we relate to work colleagues at the water cooler.
Contrary to the widely-held belief, creative writing is not just ‘making stuff up’. Certainly, there are those who can do it instinctively. But what everyone on both sides of the debate seems to be missing is that storytelling can be taught and tested. I know that, because I teach it, albeit at an adult level. People say children are natural storytellers, but this is not at all true, any more than it is of adults. Or rather, they are not naturally good storytellers. Most stories by children, although they may be charming, are boring because they are just one unconnected event after another.
For stories to work, a whole array of measurable principles can be applied. We shouldn’t be asking children about fronted adverbials, but about structure, character arcs and the qualities of protagonists. What is the difference between real speech and fictional dialogue? What constitutes a dramatic event?
And all these features of the craft of storytelling can be taught and tested in the same way as grammar. This would be so much more valuable than parroting parts of speech.
Let’s instead tell them what they want to hear, and say: ‘Yes, you can teach storytelling and you can test it and measure it and it’s an immensely valuable tool, for commerce (if you’re so obsessed with that) as much as anything else. Storytelling in its way can have just as much complexity as music or mathematics. That we don’t really understand this craft – or that this is a craft – is partly because of the romantic myth of ‘inspiration’ put about by authors as much as anyone. It is taught in creative writing degrees.
Why, for instance, in the popular children’s book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt is a compelling story? And what has it got to do with stories like Macbeth? (And yes, it does have something in common – all stories do.) This is a fascinating, fruitful subject; and to a large extent, quantifiable. We should incorporate it into the classroom in a way that will satisfy both sides of the debate. In this way, there can be a happy ending to what has so far been a very sad story.
A report in The Times recently quoted a secondary school teacher who complained that their Year 7 intake no longer knew how to tell a story. ‘They knew what a fronted adverbial was, and how to spot an internal clause, and even what a preposition was – but when I set them a task to write a story, they broke down and cried,’ reported the teacher. The fact that no importance is placed on storytelling makes me very frustrated not only because it puts so little value or emphasis on children’s creativity, but also because storytelling is more than simply an art. ___ Politicians should know this better than anyone. What is ‘vote for us and the country will be strong and stable’ if not a story? Everything made of words is a story – from the stories we tell ourselves to the ones we watch on TV to the ones we relate to work colleagues at the water cooler. ___ Contrary to the widely-held belief, creative writing is not just ‘making stuff up’. Certainly, there are those who can do it instinctively. But what everyone on both sides of the debate seems to be missing is that storytelling can be taught and tested. I know that, because I teach it, albeit at an adult level. People say children are natural storytellers, but this is not at all true, any more than it is of adults. Or rather, they are not naturally good storytellers. Most stories by children, although they may be charming, are boring because they are just one unconnected event after another. ___ For stories to work, a whole array of measurable principles can be applied. We shouldn’t be asking children about fronted adverbials, but about structure, character arcs and the qualities of protagonists. What is the difference between real speech and fictional dialogue? What constitutes a dramatic event? ___ And all these features of the craft of storytelling can be taught and tested in the same way as grammar. This would be so much more valuable than parroting parts of speech. ___ Let’s instead tell them what they want to hear, and say: ‘Yes, you can teach storytelling and you can test it and measure it and it’s an immensely valuable tool, for commerce (if you’re so obsessed with that) as much as anything else. Storytelling in its way can have just as much complexity as music or mathematics. That we don’t really understand this craft – or that this is a craft – is partly because of the romantic myth of ‘inspiration’ put about by authors as much as anyone. It is taught in creative writing degrees. ___ Why, for instance, in the popular children’s book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt is a compelling story? And what has it got to do with stories like Macbeth? (And yes, it does have something in common – all stories do.) This is a fascinating, fruitful subject; and to a large extent, quantifiable. We should incorporate it into the classroom in a way that will satisfy both sides of the debate. In this way, there can be a happy ending to what has so far been a very sad story.
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