Tell Me My Story

A student tells a personal anecdote; the teacher (or partner) retells it using correct English and richer vocabulary; the student then retells it incorporating the improvements.

Procedure

1. Invite the student to think of a story or anecdote:
   • The funniest (or most embarrassing, frightening) thing that ever happened to me
   • A strange coincidence
   • A misunderstanding
   • Doing someone a favour
2. Listen carefully. When they finish, retell the story back using correct English, introducing helpful vocabulary and idioms as appropriate.
3. The student retells the story again, using the target forms and new vocabulary.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 as many times as necessary.

Tips

• While listening, try to picture the student's experience and think of words and language that will help them express their ideas better.
• Originally designed for one-to-one teaching but adapts to classroom contexts: work on one student's story in front of the class, then have other students retell it. Students can work in small groups to reconstruct the story from memory.
• This is a form of "reformulation" — a powerful technique for upgrading learner language.