Gesture

Before and apart from words, the storyteller has a fully developed language of gesture to use in telling a story. Gestural language probably carries more of the content of our storytelling than do the words. Gesture is one of our natural languages which we use in oral communication without ever even thinking about it.

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Language of Sound

Apart from and in addition to words, there is a fully developed and usable language of sound which we make use of in telling our stories. With sound-shaping we can give words which look the same on the printed page (no matter what they mean) a whole range of different meanings.

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Attitude

A third natural language which we use in oral communication is the language of attitude. Our ability to subtly display attitude and emotion is a very powerful part of our functional kinesthetic language.

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Listening to the Listener

There is still another language dimension which the storyteller makes use of apart from and in addition to words. This is the language phenomenon of being guided and molded by listener feedback.

Listeners Guide the Story

When we tell our story to a group of present listeners, those listeners actually guide our telling by their responses. If our listeners look puzzled, we explain more fully what we are describing. If we receive a laugh of recognition, our story moves forward. If people begin to look bored, we quickly attempt to recaptures their interest. Even though the teller has the floor, a great deal of the shape and content of the story is determined by the listener.

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Choice of Words

At last we come to the words! (In addition to the above language dimensions, the storyteller gets to use words).

When we are telling our story in person with a present group of listeners, we get to make use of all five of these storytelling language dimensions as we do so. As tellers we get to use gesture, sound, attitude, feedback response, and words as we move the story from our heads into the heads of our listeners. - Donald Davis

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