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ESL materials & ideas developed in China
"Audio Book of Chinese Stories" lesson plan
a) Scenario
1. The One-World Publishing (OWP) Company is making a series of audio books on cultures of the world. They have hit upon the idea of asking local people to record stories in their own words.
2. OWP is interested not only in traditional or published stories, but also in the sort of stories that people tell to each other after work, or to their wife or husband about daily events. OWP feels that by recording these stories it can capture the true flavour of life in each culture.
3. OWP knows that in China millions of people are learning English. It hopes to make use of the life experiences of these many different people by inviting them to record stories in English. It has decided that, initially, it would be best for these students to tell the stories to a small group of their classmates.
4. To help organize ideas, OWP has suggested three categories of stories:
a) A story to a seven to nine year old child
b) A story to your wife/husband about your experiences of the day
c) A story to your friends, sitting in a tea house or restaurant, or around a campfire on a trip.
5. The stories can be folk tales or other published stories, or they can be recollections by people of their experiences, or even imaginary tales made up by the teller.
b) Project Plan
1. Form small story-telling groups
2. Appoint a secretary
3. Each person should write down the name of their story for the secretary
4. Each person in a story group must tell a tale of at least five minutes to his or her group. If a story gets too long or boring, listeners can stop the teller and ask him/her to sharpen it up.
5. Pairs of people in each group will then re-tell the story to a partner.
6. The group will select the best story to be told to the whole class.
7. Note: Stories can not be read, only spoken from memory. However, if they wish, storytellers can prepare their story in writing or notes before they speak.
8. The secretary will decide the order in which people tell stories, organize the retelling, and the vote for the best story.
"Audio Book of Chinese Stories lesson plan" copyrighted to Thor May 1999; all rights reservedback to Last Message index