Storytelling and the 4Cs

The importance of storytelling in language teaching

For thousands of years, humans have passed down knowledge from generation to generation through oral storytelling – our brains have evolved and adapted to learn through stories.

Stories and storytelling-based activities are thus a brilliant way to teach concepts and ideas in an effective and memorable way. At the same time – in the world of language teaching – they help expose our students to real language in a clear context.

Telling stories and working on them also help create a relaxed atmosphere in our lessons – which encourages sharing and learning – while giving our students the chance to work on fun, varied and interesting topics that will make them more engaged in their learning.

We tend to link the use of stories in teaching with children, but stories are for everyone to learn from and play with. In particular, in this article I would like to focus on how we can use stories in our lessons with teenagers and young adults, working on the stories in a way that will make them think and reflect, while at the same time having fun.

The 4Cs

In the world of education, there has been much talk in recent years about the 4Cs of 21st-century skills:

1. Critical thinking

2. Collaboration

3. Communication

4. Creativity

These are considered skills that we, as teachers and educators, should include in our lessons for our students to practise with, as this skillset will help them succeed in school and in the workplace. Sometimes, though, it can be daunting for us to find a way to do this with the pressure of following a curriculum and preparing our students for exams – and at the same time, without putting too much on our students’ plate.

Our challenge therefore comes from finding a way to practice these skills that is effective, meaningful and engaging. In my experience, stories and storytelling-related activities (such as drama and creative writing) are a perfect starting point to do just this.

Some simple ideas to get you started

The modern world.

Sometimes when working with traditional stories we come across scenes, ideas, words and concepts that would not be socially acceptable in the modern world, such as the treatment of women, strangers or people of other ethnicities.

Working specifically on adapting these stories for a modern audience is the perfect gateway for a discussion or debate on these themes, to get our students to think critically and work creatively to find solutions to address these problems.

What if?

We can also ask our students, for example:

• What if the main character in the story was a girl instead of a boy?

• What if the ending was different?

• What if the story was set in a different place and time?

• What if Cinderella had lost an earring instead of a shoe?

• What if Jack and his mum had eaten the magic beans instead of throwing them in the garden?

By asking these kinds of questions to our students, we get their imaginations to start working and create new worlds of possibilities. They are free to imagine: there is no right or wrong answer to these questions!

Dialogues

Creating dialogues for the stories we’re working on is a great way to get our students to practise speaking in a creative way and putting themselves in the characters’ shoes. We could ask them, for example, to:

• Role play a specific situation in the story, imagining what the characters said in that scene.

• Imagine a dialogue that is not included in the story, sometimes breaking the barrier between the story and the real world (for example, two characters meet and chat about what happened in the story, a journalist interviews a character, a character tries to convince a sceptical friend that the events in the story really happened).

• Hold a discussion with different characters in the stories, each with their different life experiences.

Writing creatively

Stories are a wonderful starting point for creative writing. They give us contexts, ideas and motivation to write our pieces. Furthermore, if you’re preparing your students for language tests, such as the Cambridge exams, they could be a great way to practise in a playful way. Some ideas could be to get your students to write:

• A news article: for example, “Wolf eats old lady and child” (Little Red Riding Hood)

• A diary entry: for example, “My experience at the prince’s ball” (Cinderella)

• A collective piece, creating a prequel or sequel to the story: for example, “Why did the wolf come to hate pigs?” (The Three Little Pigs) or “What happened to Jack and his mum?” (Jack and the Beanstalk).

These are just some simple ideas to get you started. Don’t be afraid to be creative and experiment, devising your own activities and playing with stories. There are no set rules!

This article was first published on MELTA News summer 2025