Publications on storytelling
Below is a list of articles or webpages I have written, many relating to using storytelling in education
Articles on teaching teenage and adult learners
Articles on teaching young learners
Activity Teaching Packs: multi-lesson projects based on a storytelling video
Articles and interviews on storytelling or stories
Environmental storytelling – download a compilation of resources
Storytelling as a Means for Communication and Change
(a resource of environmentally-themed folk tales for a workshop in Ethiopia)

Articles on teaching teenage and adult learners
- El profesor de inglés como narrador: la narración como una actividad cotidiana en el aula
Here is an English version: English teacher as storyteller: storytelling as an everyday classroom activity
- “Close your books and I’ll tell you a tale” – storytelling in bi-lingual religion teaching
- Handbook of Teaching Ideas – to accompany the tales on the audio cassette The Wife’s Letter and other Tales
- Storytelling cards – something every teacher needs in their schoolbag
- Sixty Seconds Non-Stop Talking – a versatile activity to start a class, generate vocabulary, reinforce grammar or even spontaneously develop an entire lesson
- Kate Crackernuts – storytelling to practise free writing in an intermediate langauge class (includes an example of a written test)
- Storytelling in the Classroom: Discussing Mr Fox (pub. Humanising Language Teaching, July 2002)
- Ein Storyteller erzählt um die Welt und auch an der EKS
A teacher’s report about my visit to her school in Bergheim, December 2014
- Language Checklist – download this aid for students’ free writing (pdf)
Articles on teaching young learners
- Old Woman and her Pig – published in Primary English (Oldenbourg Verlag, June 2006)
- The Magic Mitten – published in Primary English (Oldenbourg Verlag, Jan. 2005)
- Telling A Christmas Carol – – published in Primary English (Oldenbourg Verlag, Nov. 2004)
- Telling The Frightened Mouse as a participation story – published in Primary English (Oldenbourg Verlag, Jan. 2003)
- Finding stories on the internet – published in Primary English (Oldenbourg Verlag, March 2005)
Activity Teaching Pack
Full details of materials for multi-lesson projects based on a storytelling video – for beginners to adult learners
Articles and interviews on storytelling or stories
- Old Rinkrank – an interpretation of the Grimms’ fairytale
- A beginner’s tale of organisation and art: How I became a storyteller – pub. Facts & Fiction (Feb. 2004)
- A review of In Arabian Nights: In search of Morocco through its stories and storytelling by Tahir Shah – pub. Facts & Fiction (summer 2013)
- A two-hour interview on Radio Darmstadt, together with teller and harper Peter Wucherpfennig (in German)
- A report on the 24th Ljungby International Storytelling Festival, 2013 – pub. Facts & Fiction (autumn 2013)
Articles written by others
- Speaking the Truth with Folk and Fairy Tales:The Power of the Powerless
An academic/philosophical article by Jack Zipes on the social role of telling folk and fairy tales
- The Web of Silence: Storytelling’s Power to Hypnotize
Fran Stalling’s article is not only a deep exploration of many aspects of the storytelling experience, including the storytelling trance, it also offers great insight into the art itself
- Storytelling: A Non-literate Approach to Teaching Reading
Tim Jennings describes his experience teaching extremely difficult, illiterate teenagers in New York in the 1970s. Everyone who works in a classroom should read this
- Telling Is Listening: Ursula K. Le Guin on the Magic of Real Human Conversation
Interesting article on communication
- “The Golden Arm”: Collecting and Performing the Folktale
Tim Jennings’ article shows how a master storteller handles the most difficult aspect of this classic tale
- The Laos Experience: English storytelling workshop
Jessica Porscha’s (2017) blog of working in Sikud, Laos
- Tales to wonder at: Ein Workshop beim Storyteller Richard Martin
An article in German from Der Fremdsprachliche Unterricht Englisch (2013) on attending one of my teacher-training workshops
- A socio-linguistic analysis of a performance
This is an academic article by Susan McCullough of my telling of The Blacksmith and the Devil
- Activities, ideas, suggestions, etc.
Ideas from others which I have collected over the years
The Magic Pisspot: Swedish folk tales
(Per Gustavsson, trans. Richard Martin, 2017)
Details of the book and how to order
Unless otherwise specified on the relevant page, all articles and written texts on this website are © Richard Martin.
Go here for tales to watch
Go here for a list of all tales included on this site
Go here to receive an e-mail notification when new tales are added
Permission to tell outlines my views on copyright
For those who are teachers: Telling stories in the classroom: basing language teaching on storytelling