VOA标准英语2012--Storytellers Offer Entertaining Lessons

 

Storytellers Offer Entertaining Lessons

Linda Gorham is a storyteller whose stories come alive through sounds, rhythms and the repetition of words.

Gorham, who routinely performs before large groups of children, believes storytelling is a powerful teaching tool.

”I call it teaching without preaching," she says. "I don’t tell a story and then, at the end, say 'Now, here is what you needed to learn.' My feeling is that the message should be in the story and if the story is well crafted, you’re going to get it.”

Linda Sullivan, president of the Arts Council of Fairfax County, Virginia, organizes storytelling performances for school children county-wide, including one Gorham recently gave to about 100 students at a local community center. 

“They learn by being engaged," Sullivan says, "and not just being talked to but asked to response and participate.”

Storytellers use a variety of tools to spin their yarns¹, including theater, dance, and song.

Gale² Nemec is a storyteller who was recruited by Fairfax County schools. She performs her stories like they are short plays which are heavy on character development.

“If you’re doing the witch, you need to make her sound witchy and figure out what kind of motions and how her body would be," Nemec says. "If you’re doing a story which is perhaps an angel, I’d work on making her soft and smooth.”

The stories can sometimes help children who have learning disabilities. One of Nemec's stories, about elephants, helped a child who had problems with speech and language. 

“So the mommy elephant said, ‘Ha, what do you think we should do?' The father elephant said, ‘Ha, I think we should cross to the other side of the river.' Hearing that kind of thing, the child...he started to understand that he could speak. And he started practicing more, speaking more, because he was hearing this storytelling going back and forth³.”

Storytellers know instantly if their audience is hooked. After she performs the story, "Fat Cat," at that Virginia community center, the children give Linda Gorham excellent reviews. 

"I never heard of the story before," says one child. "It sounded very cool with the songs. Everybody wanted to do it.”

"I like that you can imagine it," says another, "as if you’re looking at the pictures of the book.”

Gorham says storytelling can teach even young children how to communicate in an engaging and persuasive⁴ way. And that's a skill for life.

1 yarns   

n.纱( yarn的名词复数 )；纱线；奇闻漫谈；旅行轶事

参考例句：

• ...vegetable-dyed yarns. 用植物染料染过色的纱线 来自辞典例句
• Fibers may be loosely or tightly twisted into yarns. 纤维可以是膨松地或紧密地捻成纱线。 来自辞典例句

2 gale   

n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等）

参考例句：

• We got our roof blown off in the gale last night.昨夜的大风把我们的房顶给掀掉了。
• According to the weather forecast,there will be a gale tomorrow.据气象台预报，明天有大风。

3 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

4 persuasive   

adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的

参考例句：

• His arguments in favour of a new school are very persuasive.他赞成办一座新学校的理由很有说服力。
• The evidence was not really persuasive enough.证据并不是太有说服力。