Humanising Language Teaching
Year 2; Issue 4; July 2000
Story-telling in the evenings
Our courses for teachers of English differ from those of many of our UK competitors by offering a very full evening programme. People who come on our admittedly expensive courses do not find themselves in a vacuum at 4.00 pm, as we offer them activity choices right into the late evening. The activities cover UK culture, literature, methodology of teaching English etc…. but some of the most memorable evenings are those given over to story-telling.
All over Europe there are Pilgrims Hilltop participants who have listened to Jim Wingate telling his brilliantly histrionic traditional ghost stories, using all his exceptional theatre skills. They will also remember how Jim will then change tone and really chill your spine by quietly telling how he has been called in to rid a building of a ghost and what happened then…….
In the early nineties we had a problem with Andrew Wright's bed-time story sessions from 9.30 till 11.00 pm. The problems was simple…..he created such a buzz in people's brains that few wanted to go to bed. Poor tutors next morning! ( You may know Andrew's Oxford books that help you tell FL stories to very young kids)
If you come to the Canterbury hilltop this year you will be able to hear Maggie Wyles telling the tales of her West Wales childhood, in a village where the language of the 13th century invader was rarely heard. She never learnt English till she was 12 years old.
Maggie's telling is intensely psychodramatic for many of the people in her audiences and people fall into three groups:
- those who cry
those who hold back from crying
those for whom the stories stay moving and pleasurable text, but outside them.
The wicked female humour has most people in stitches as Maggie shows her listeners the men of the village, few of whom were saints, through the eyes of women. There are a good number of Chaucerian moments.
Many things on our summer courses are from OK to very good, but Maggie's story-telling is something in another order of excellence.
Come and hear her.
