Humanising Language Teaching
Year 1; Issue 7; November 1999

In the late seventies when Berer, Frank and Rinvolucri were writing Challenge to Think they got very excited about mystery stories which got the students asking fully meaningful questions on the way to elucidating the mystery.

They put 20 of these in Challenge to Think, which ran from l983 until l998, when Oxford decided it was time to pull it.

The procedure for using these stories in class is simple:

• Dictate the story

• Tell the students they can suss out the mystery by asking you questions that you can give YES/ N0 answers to.

• If, after a first flush of questions, they can't think of any more, give them a clue and ask everybody to write two questions.

• Now accept questions from the quieter people in the group.

• The questioning phase should not last more than l0 minutes- it gets draggy otherwise.

Here are 4 stories that are around in the oral tradition and 4 that the writers of Challenge to think came up with.

1. A man walked into a bar in Texas. He asked for a glass of water. The barman pointed his gun at him. “Thank you”, the man said and walked out.

2. A man had his arms out through the sides of a phone booth. The phone was off the hook. Outside the booth there was a black bag on the ground.

3. A woman went from town A to town B by train. The train went through a tunnel. In town B the woman went to see a person and left the meeting very happy. She took the train back to A. As the train entered the tunnel she threw herself to her death.

4. There was a small hut in the desert. It was empty except for a dead man hanging by a rope from the roof. Outside stood a lorry.

Answers:

1. The man had hiccups.

2. The black bag held a huge fish. The fisherman broke the glass in the sides of the booth as he gesticulated about his catch. (Gesture is self expression before communication, so people do it even on the phone)

3. The woman had always been blind so she did not know about light changes in a tunnel. The operation in town B allowed her to see for the first time.

4. The man stood on the block of ice to hang himself. It was a hot desert.

(If you use an “oral tradition” story one or two of your students may know the answer. If they show signs of this, ask them to answer the questions, after having taken them outside to check they fully remember the solution.)

1. All the men from the village were drowned because their boats were stranded.

2. A man with a pack on his back went into a field and died.

3. A woman committed a murder. They police arrested her and took her to court. After hearing her case the judge did not know what to do about her.

4. He looked up round two corners and saw something that made him want to go down.

Answers

1. The sea receded during an earthquake, stranding the men fishing out in the bay. Twenty minutes later the sea returned as a six metre high tsunmai. They were all killed. ( This happened in South Chile in May 1960 )

2. The parachute did not open.

3. She was a Siamese twin.

4. He was looking through a periscope and saw an enemy destroyer.

If you have puzzle stories of your own send them in and HLT will publish them.