Turn Students Into Master Storytellers with These Key Phrases
We all love hearing a good story. They can entertain us, educate us and form connections between people with different backgrounds and experiences.
Particularly for tutors, students telling stories means they are speaking more in a lesson rather than relying on their tutor to do the heavy lifting, which is always nice.
To both encourage students to tell more stories and to help those stories become more engaging, we've prepared a brief list of words and phrases all storytellers should know. Introduce them in a lesson and see what tales your students can entertain you with!
Words and phrases for stories
Present these words and phrases as more interesting alternatives to simply "first," "then" and "finally."
Just then
Use: to emphasize that something happens quickly or suddenly
Just then, I realized I forgot my phone in the hotel room.
Suddenly
Use: when something happens surprisingly or without warning
Suddenly, the sky got dark and it started to rain.
Next thing you know
Use: as an alternative to “suddenly”
Next thing you know, I'm in a meeting with the company president!
Imagine my surprise when ~
Use: when something is very unexpected
Imagine my surprise when the guy next door turned out to be my old roommate from college!
Out of nowhere ~
Use: to emphasize that something happens without warning
Out of nowhere, our products are selling out all over the country.
Right away
Use: before mentioning a quick response or development
Right away I could tell we were going to be good friends.
Let me back up / Let me rewind / I forgot to mention ~
Use: to explain context or to introduce previous events that are necessary to know in order to understand what happens later
First, let me back up. Two weeks ago …
Let me rewind. You know who Tom is, right?
Oh, I forgot to mention that Jun had already been drinking a lot by then.
It turns out ~ / In the end ~
Use: to introduce a conclusion or result
It turns out that the quiz was postponed, so I didn't need to worry after all.
In the end, everybody got home safely. But what a crazy night!
Would you believe ~?
Use: to highlight a shocking or unexpected result or occurrence
Would you believe they still wanted us to pay full price after that horrible experience?
Story example
Here's an example story you can share to demonstrate how these words and phrases work to connect different parts of a narrative. Or tell your own!
Last week, I met Joy and Yuki for lunch at the restaurant on the corner.
Right away, I felt that something was strange.
After the cashier took our orders, we sat at a table near the window.
Suddenly, we heard loud voices coming from the kitchen.
Next thing you know, the whole restaurant was filled with smoke!
The fire department had to come to put out the blaze.
It turns out, the restaurant's new cook had never worked in a kitchen before and burned our burgers!
Would you believe they still tried to charge us for our food?
Wrap-up
Making storytelling the focus of a lesson puts students in the spotlight; they must use their memory, creativity and vocabulary to (hopefully) entertain or educate you, their audience.
Ask them to tell you about a funny or surprising experience and see how many of these phrases they can use naturally. Encourage them when they do well and you’ll likely be rewarded with more engagement and less one-sided free-talk lessons.
