Storytelling and the Three Levels of Language Development

There are lots of theories about language acquisition and what is the best way to achieve it.  This post is about the three types of language

The man who first postulated this idea was E. D. Hirsh Jr.  He is a controversial person in some education circles, but regardless of that, this idea makes sense to me.

There are three levels of language.
-Aural
-Oral
-Experiential

Aural Language is all the language you've ever heard.  If you've heard a word often enough, it is stored there.  You might not know what it means, but you know the word.  This is the sort of language that starts the day we are born.  We have quite a vocabulary of language that means nothing, but it is in there.  The more language you hear as a child, the more language you have at your disposal as you grow.


Oral Language storage includes the language you use in every day life.  Most people do not plumb the depths of their language storage for words, they use the ones that are most readily available to them.  Any word that is not in your aural language storage, cannot be called upon for oral language.  An example of this would be the word Octogenarian.  Most adults have heard that word, it means an eighty year old person.  There are probably enough words in your aural storage to be able to work out the meaning of octogenarian even if you are hearing it for the first time.  The truth is, most people don't use that word in conversation, even if they know it.


Experiential Language is the synthesis of your aural and oral language.  Any word that is not in your aural or oral language is not available for experiential synthesis.  Experiential language is the ability to encounter a word or phrase that you know in one context that is being used in a different context and be able to figure out the meaning of the new usage.  Example:  Let us say a child is reading along and they encounter the sentence: The old man was bitter.

If a child has never heard the word 'bitter', then that old man is a 'biter' as far as that kid is concerned, and that is a completely different thing.

If, however, the child has encountered the word 'bitter', but only in the context of seeing an adult taste something, make a pinched face and announce the concoction is bitter, then the child knows that bitter is something that puckers your face and does not taste good.  The child can make one of two conclusions.  Either somebody licked the old man and discovered he did not taste good, or perhaps there is something about the old man that is akin to a puckered face and a bad taste.  Only experience will help a child or any reader make the proper connections.


All of this reminds me of being in AP English one million years ago.  Every week the teacher would put ten words on the board we had to spell correctly by friday.  We didn't have to look up definitions because she assumed we knew the words, she was just tired of having them spelled incorrectly.  One week,  she put 'epitome' on the board .  On friday, she read the words out for our spelling test and when she came to the word e-pit'-o-me, we were confused.  We had no idea that word was on our test and we all spelled it incorrectly.  it was only after she wrote it on the board did we realize we'd thought it was e-pi-tome'.  Despite knowing the word epitome, we did not recognize it simply because we'd pronounced it incorrectly.  We did not find the word in our aural storage and we were to snotty and full of how smart we were to look the word up if we didn't have to.  If we'd been forced to define it or use it in a sentence, we would have figured it out...at least, I assume we would have!

So, three  types of language.  The beauty of storytelling is that it is an art form that synthesizes all of the various levels of language acquisition.  It improves vocabulary by exposing children to language in conjunction with images, it improves oral language through modeling and call and response, and it models experiential language with similes, metaphors, and descriptive language.  Storytelling is a treasure trove of language building and development.

Happy Telling

Motivations and Meaning- What is your best possible world?

I have been home most of January writing and hanging out with my family.  As I get ready to go back on the road and start a mega tour, I'm sure my mind will be more attenuated to the work of storytelling and I will have something or other to say.

I have a show for adults today.  I often have adults in an audience, but I am not typically a storyteller people hire for straight up grown up shows.  It allows me to pull things out of my repertoire that don't get a lot of air time.  It is always fun.

Today, I put up a piece on my Facebook page about motivations and choices.  I wasn't going to post it here, but it seems like perhaps I should.  It is more about philosophy and politics than storytelling, but I think it articulates ideas I have about education, parenting and art pretty well.  So, here it is.

 have had a theory rolling around in my head for a while that has finally found its way onto paper.  It is not a new idea, by any means, but it is a simple one. 

In order to figure out why an organization does what it does you need only ask one question:

What is the best possible world for this organization?  Once you understand their best possible world, examine what they are doing and consider how close they are to achieving that.

In the best possible world for an insurance company, everyone would pay really high premiums and the company would never pay a dime of it out in claims.

In the best possible world for a for profit prison, lots of people would be locked up all the time, even for crimes that wouldn’t seem to carry a need for a jail sentence.

In the best possible world for government, every citizen would be productive, safe, healthy and law abiding.  (How to achieve this is the basis for the turmoil all governments face)

In the best possible world for professional athletes, they would play in state of the art facilities, make gobs of cash, be showered with adulation, play until they drop dead and never get hurt.

In the best possible world for artists, they would be compensated for their art such that they didn’t have to do anything else, they could set their own schedules, their work would always be universally acclaimed, and they wouldn’t go through dry spells.

In the best possible world for gun manufacturers, there would be no rigorously enforced regulations on guns and people could buy as many as they wanted.

In the best possible world for corporations, workers work for the absolute smallest amount of money for as many hours as possible without guarantees of any kind about employment, safety, or sanitary conditions producing something that the public pays top dollar to have.  (I base this theory on third world countries and America and Europe at the start of the Industrial Revolution)

In the best possible world for workers, they are compensated enough to live comfortably alone, with a single partner, or to raise families with healthy food, good living conditions, good schools, a vacation every now and then, access to good healthcare, the ability to send their kids to college if they can, and all while living in a safe place.

In the best possible world for teachers, every student comes to school fed, well rested, cared for, prepared for the day and not only willing, but eager to learn.   Educator’s needs are supported by the administration: local, state and federal.  (I’ve never met a teacher who requested to have thirty kids in a class)

In the best possible world for the anti choice crowd, all children are brought into this world because every child is a blessing that is loved. 

In the best possible world for the choice crowd, women only bring children into the world they plan to care for.

In the best possible world for a child, they are loved, cared for, kept safe and prepared for the world.

The list, of course, is endless.  When you see something that makes you angry, think for a bit about what is at the heart of the motivation.  What is the best possible world in that group’s opinion?  Who is that best possible world serving?  How close are they to achieving their best possible world?

 

Care and Feeding of the Voice - Powering It Out

I always use a microphone.  Always.  I have a pretty strong voice for speaking, and I can fill a space pretty well, but there is no need for it when we have such technological marvels as microphones.

I often encounter people who are a bit annoyed by my request that the forum offer a microphone.  If they do not have a good sound system, I will bring my own, but I always ask for one.  There are some general responses when I ask for amplification.  They are as follows.

The space is not that big.

Our last performer didn't use a microphone.

There aren't that many children.

You have a pretty big voice.

None of that has anything to do with why I want a microphone.  The fact of the matter is that a storyteller only works so long as their voice is intact.  If you over stress your vocal chords, you can cause yourself months of hurt.

I am a trained speaker.  That means I have years of vocal training to help me get through a show if the mic should fail, but it is never my desire to power through forty five minutes of intricate vocal work while still being loud enough to be heard by two hundred people in a gymnasium, which was surely never built with acoustics perfect for a single performer.

So, with this in mind, here are some tips for those of us who work in the telling fields.  This is mostly beginner stuff, but it sometimes helps to be reminded.

1 - if you are doing something with your voice and it makes your throat a bit sore...stop.

2 - if you drink water during your set, room temperature water is best.  Your vocal chords are at their ease and move freely when they are warm.  Hitting them with cold water means you are straining them until they warm up again.  Don't fight yourself.

3 - For most people, eating dairy is not a good choice before going on stage as it encourages the production of mucus.

4 - Only you know how long it takes for your voice to recover after you hurt yourself.  Don't push it.  If you feel like you have to pull back from a story because it requires a bit more than you have, tell something else.

5 - If your throat is sore after a performance, unless you are ill, it means you are straining your vocal chords.  Get yourself a good reference book.  Better yet, contact Doug Lipman.  He should be able to point you in the right direction!

6 - Don't let someone talk you into hurting your voice.  Just because you can bring the power to fill a room doesn't mean you should.  Voices need a rest.  The older you get, the more that is true.  The microphone gives your voice more running time.  It also means you are directing less energy into the level of sound and you can devote that energy to the craft of the tale.

Like I said, much of this is obvious, but every now and then, it is good to be reminded that if someone gets testy with you about amplification, it is okay to remind them that they are only getting one or two shows from you, but that is not the end of your obligations.  if you blow your voice out on Tuesday, is that fair to the four shows you have on Friday?

Happy Telling -

Telling Folktales in Schools

I am spending the week in Mesa, AZ telling stories to wonderful groups of students.  Yesterday, after I arrived at the gig and before I'd done any sets, a woman came up to me to find out what I was doing there.  She was the curriculum coordinator for the school.  I told her I was a storyteller and she asked if I was going to be doing original pieces or if I was going to 'read' folktales.

I explained that when I am in schools I always tell folktales.  I never do original stuff except with middle school.  I tend to tell seventh grade family stories, but there is a developmental reason for that and I inevitably end their sets with traditional material.  She was interested in that idea, but I must confess, her response was something I rarely find.

Normally, after I tell someone that I am committed to doing folktales in schools, they assume this is because I lack the creativity or writing skills to come up with my own stories.  I am sometimes dismissed by the person I am speaking to as 'less than'.  It is not uncommon for the person to mention one of the many tellers who tells personal or original tales and insinuate that I ought to be living up to their example.  I've learned to smile at people when they respond to me in this manner and go on about my business.

You can't please everyone and I don't intend to try.  No matter what anyone else says or thinks, when I look in the bathroom mirror in the morning, I'm there by myself and it is that image I have to face everyday, not the folks who disapprove of the choices I make.

Of course, that begs the question I am often asked.  Why don't you tell original tales in schools?


I am a big believer in telling stories in schools that will drive kids towards books.  I want them to find the 'original' of the story I told or at least try.  I want kids to run across references to the story I told them or find different forms or even see them referred to on their cartoons and say, "Hey!  I know about that!"

Much of our culture in terms of entertainment be it story lines on television, commercials, video games, and literature of all sorts have a basis in basic folklore.  The ideas in folklore permeate our culture, but many of us are not literate in the basis of these tales.  Most people have no idea that the phrase, 'You have to pay the piper' comes from the Pied Piper of Hamlin.  When I was a little girl if I woke up with dried slobber on my face, my grandmother would say, "A witch rode you around last night!"  She knew this small bit of folklore, but she did not know it had anything to do with the tale called The Boo Hag which originated in the swamps.  Nat King Cole sang a song about a buzzard giving a monkey a ride and trying to throw him off his back.  Most people don't know that story is based on an African folktale.  Occasionally a politician will come out with the phrase, 'slapping the tar baby'.  It is a phrase from one of the most famous Brer stories, but most people have no idea why they would use that saying.  I suspect they got the phrase from their grandmother or mother depending on the age of the politician.  Sometimes they don't know where that phrase came from or why people might get upset if they use it.  They also don't know how to explain what it is.  Most storytellers do.

Our kids know even less about the folktales that pervade our society than most.  We don't tell them these stories anymore.  If it is not written down in a picture book, or Disney didn't make a big deal out of it, then for many kids it doesn't exist.

So, when I go into a school...they're getting folktales.  I want them to soak in the stories that are the building blocks of so much of our day to day lives.

After I leave a school, I want to get one of those emails from a librarian where she has run out of tongue twisters, Brer books of all sorts, stories from India, Africa, China and anywhere else the tales originated.  I like to get emails from parents, bewildered as to what I might have done to their kids to make them beg to stop by the library to see if Tiki Tiki Tembo is there.  I love it when I get to a school a year later and the kids are still quoting my stories, singing Sody Saluradus or telling me they've read books with the stories I introduced to them.

So, to everyone who has wondered why I am a big stickler for folktales, this is the answer.   We stand on the shoulders of giants and see far beyond every horizon, but unless we know what is beneath the feet of those giants, we move forward without understanding.  We might as well be blind.

In other words, if you don't know where you came from, how can you truly know where you are going?

6th Grade Tales – Stories for the nonhuman

Sixth grade is a funky year for most kids.  It is a transitional year from childhood into the first blush of the teenage years. 

Sixth graders are going through a hormonal obstacle course on the inside.  Some are changing drastically on the outside, others aren’t changing at all and everyone is noticing.  All sorts of things that never bothered them before become of paramount importance.

For some, their arms and legs outgrow the rest of their bodies, leaving them awkward and clumsy.  Girls tend to sprout up, often leaving many of the boys behind for a couple of years.  Everybody starts developing towards full maturity and the blessings and curses of that tend to make pretty much everyone wish they were in someone else’s body.

This is the year some parents notice that their child is getting a bit more ‘sassy’.  These tweens need more space and less space and they vacillate between young people and children. 

Their friends change as well.  Many become concerned about being ‘cool’, not fitting in properly and what their peers think about everything.  Their friendships often change and they start finding a niche where they can fit.  Some kids don’t go through any of this at all and remain untouched by such concerns until they are older.  All and all, it can be a maddening year.

I’ve often said that sixth graders do not belong with elementary kids and they have no place as of yet with the seventh and eighth graders.  In fact, most of them should be buried beneath the school.  The good news is they only stay sixth graders for one year.

What on earth do you tell this transitional, morphing group of people?  Most think they are too old for stories and the stuff they think they want to hear is way too old for them.

The answer, for me, is push the boundaries just a bit. 

The set I offer for sixth grade is called ‘Hormonal Boys and Hyena Girls’.  It goes into the crazy stuff that happens behind the scenes in sixth grade, from the boys who think it is funny to hurt each other and don’t seem to understand how their rough play turns into an actual fight, to the girls who end up crying in the bathroom because somebody didn’t like their haircut.  The kids are always amazed I know what they are dealing with.  It never occurs to any of them that we old folks really were in sixth grade once upon a time.

This is the first group I tell really scary ghost stories.  The caveat being that I gauge the students who seem to be the most freaked out and I ease back a bit so that things don’t get too scary.  Why do I tell these kids really scary stories?  This is the first age where none of them will be willing to admit to their parents they are scared.  This means no aggrieved parents are going to call the school and complain.  Besides, they like these stories.

The second category of stories I tell to this group falls under the heading of gory and cerebral.

Morgan and the Pot of Brains is a good example of this.  A kid who is picked on until he shuts down completely goes on a lifelong quest to achieve his brains by cutting out the hearts of the things he loves best in the world.  It turns out all right, but the very graphic, funny, sad and interesting twist to the ending is right up the alley for these emerging people.

The Debate in Sign Language is also a favorite of this group.

Once I lead them through a really dark story, I can tell them fun folktales and they love it.  They don’t even remember they are too old for stories.  The truth is this group will love anything as long as you package it right, but going at them through the truths of who they are is also a good way to get them to reflect, even if only cursorily, on their own situation.

Hubris and Vanity and Mythology, Oh My!

I spent a week in rural North Carolina teaching sixth graders about how to present themselves and speak clearly using Greek mythology as a medium.  It was interesting.  For starters, Greek mythology is usually an in with this age group.  Many kids find the stories interesting and with the popularity of Percy Jackson, kids are reading Rick Riordan's books with relish.  When I have to work with sixth graders, if I can use Greek myths, my battle is usually half way won.

That was not so in the community in which I found myself.  The first day I told my standard Gaia and the sky/Cronos eats his children/Zeus slays Cronos and releases his brothers and sisters/Prometheus brings fire to man/Pandora's Box/ and Argus of the hundred eyes story.  It runs through everything from Hubris to the way the world was supposed to have been created to who are the major Greek gods to what those gods did and it takes about fifteen minutes in a classroom.  Most of the kids have heard some parts of the story and they think it is pretty cool the way all of them run together.  Not so in this little rural town.

I should have realized I was in trouble when I asked them if they knew the name of the first woman Zeus made and they all responded, 'Eve'.

This was a population of children who had never heard of the Greek myths.  Some of them thought I was trying to convert them.  One child announced that he thought the Greeks were stupid to believe in such a ridiculous thing.  One child said that he hoped he didn't offend anyone, (I think he was trying to be polite to me), but he didn't believe in Greek mythology.    I didn't see that coming.  I really thought they would understand what mythology was and that these stories had been relegated to our history.  

That's when I worried I'd run into a buzz saw.  How could I do a quick and dirty explanation of what mythology is without some of them drawing parallels to Christianity?  Well, I gave it my best shot.  Then, I thought, what if I've just made things worse?  What if these precious children went home and told their parents I was trying to convert them?  I realized I'd started with too many assumptions about what they knew and didn't know about the world outside their small little patch of North Carolina.  I tried to clear up the confusion during class time, but was uncertain whether or not I'd succeeded.  I stopped by the office to warn the vice principal that she might get phone calls and the nature of said calls.

Luckily their parents did not come to school and beat me senseless for preaching against good, clean Christian values and such.  The week continued with them learning more about the Greeks as well as doing some writing and working on presentation skills.  We had a great time and they really enjoyed the myths.  Still, I must say that I have no idea how much they absorbed about Ancient Greece in terms of culture.

The second day of my visit I introduced the concept of hubris.  We spoke about it in great length and I contrasted that with the Greek's view of moderation, which is very different from our modern definition.  Here's the thing.  They remembered the word moderation, but with few exceptions, they could neither remember the word hubris nor could they recall what it was.

The third day, I put hubris up on the board once more.  Again, most of them could not remember what it was, nor could they remember how to say it.  The same thing happened the fourth day and the fifth.  On the fifth day they could remember how to say it in most classes, but they still had no idea what it was.  The same child who remembered the definition the third day was the only one who could remember it on subsequent days.  I tried different ways to explain it each day, but with no success.  We did entire activities around the concept with no success.

Most of them could remember that it had something to do with personality, but they could never get past that one word.  They would offer it up with a question mark:  Personality?

I understood from my own research that part of the problem is that many of these students were not often encouraged to offer complex answers to questions.  I understood that most of them had trouble with concepts that were visual in nature or not directly related to their own surroundings.  I understood all of that and despite my best efforts and the activities we used, I could only get one kid out of ninety to remember the word and what it meant.  The classroom teacher was a wonderful woman.  She grinned at me and said, "Welcome to my world."

The second word I introduced that they found difficult was the word vain.  One kid was very confused when I wrote the word on the board.  He thought it meant to cuss.  Obviously his grandmother and my grandmother must have known each other because she was a great one for saying, "Don't take the Lord's name in vain!"    In this instance, I was working with a word that most of them had heard, but not in the context of behavior.  I wrote the word on the board with its three different spellings and had the kids guess/talk about at least six different meanings.  They got a kick out of that and because they'd encountered the word as blood vessels and futility, (though they never called it that and when I used that word they were stunned to hear it so of course I kept at it until I heard of few of them hazard it in conversation) they were able to understand that being vain could also mean being over proud of something about yourself.  It also helps that they knew the story of Snow White.  Light bulbs went on when I talked about the queen being vain.

it is funny how you can intellectually understand what it means to encounter children with a lack of aural language and difficulty employing experiential language, but when you see it in action it can be frustrating.  Finding ways to reconnect the word vain back into their vocabulary was easy.  It was a concept they'd encountered and unbeknownst to them, they'd heard it used in the same context I was using more than once, they just hadn't realized it.  When all the pieces were laid out in front of them, they made the connection.  I never had so much luck with hubris.

As for me, I had a great time.   I was tempted to write my favorite Joseph Campbell quote on the board, "Mythology is what we call other people's sacred stories." but I was pretty sure that would really get me into trouble.

Vanity made a lasting impression.  Hubris...well, they'll hear that word again and at least it is in there and maybe it will connect at some late date.  As for what they got out of the mythology and the writing exercises, all of that is, as always, a work in progress.

Stories for 3rd - 5th -Fables and Such

Stories for the third through fifth grade group are doing two very particular things.  The first and foremost thing that this group of stories does is reinforce the comprehension and pre reading skills that are central to reading success.  They often use repetition and vivid images as well as word play to create tensions that force the audience to pay attention to details.

The tales move much faster than stories for younger listeners and the plots can get complicated; the language is complex and words that are not unfamiliar are not always defined, forcing the listener to use experiential language to figure out what is happening.  These tales are driven more by disastrous choices the characters make than they are about learning language patterns and establishing the visualization of words.

Social and emotional issues take center stage in these tales.  The characters are tricksters, foolish powerful people, thieves, sneaks, and any other sort of person who is likely to get into trouble.  Their problems revolve around either trying to avoid trouble or get away with something that is not okay.  They make horrible decisions that alter their lives and sometimes there is no redemption, just a warning that making bad decisions can lead to a bad end.

The tales are a mix of fun and serious.  They make the students laugh and think.  It doesn't get any better than that!