Telling a Story in English: Jennifer's Halloween Story 👻 Listening & Speaking Practice

Hi everyone. It's Jennifer. I bet you know by now that Halloween is on October 31.

To me, it feels like the whole month of October is a celebration.

It's a time of year when we take delight and scaring others as well as ourselves.

We decorate our homes with spooky things.

We watch scary movies.

We make silly treats like cookies that look like pumpkins or spiders.

And we visit haunted houses.

"Spooky" is another word for "scary." It's a combination of strange and scary.

"Haunted" describes a place where ghosts supposedly live.

When I mentioned haunted houses,

I was talking about places that are made to look as if ghosts lived there.

Another tradition some people enjoy is telling ghost stories.

I'd like to share a family story with you.

I think it's a good time of the year to tell it because it's a little scary, at least the first time you hear it.

I'd like you to listen and try to identify the key story elements. Think of these questions.

Who are the main characters? In other words, who is the story about?

What is the setting? Meaning where and when does the story take place?

What's the basic plot? Meaning what happens in this story?

A plot has a beginning, a middle, and an end. There has to be a central conflict,

a problem that the characters face. And by the end of the story, there's resolution.

How does the problem get solved?

Okay? So listen to find out the main characters, the setting,

the plot, the central conflict, and the resolution.

You don't have to be a master storyteller in order to tell a story, but you should be aware of the key elements of a story.

Then you can turn many of your experiences and memories into a good story.

So are you ready for a ghost story? Sit back and listen.

My grandfather always made me laugh when he told this story. It didn't matter that I already knew the ending.

It was the fun of hearing him tell the tale.

As a young man, my grandfather used to perform with friends in a band in different small towns.

They sang songs that their parents had taught them, mostly in Serbian.

This was around 1940,

a time in western Pennsylvania when lots of kids were first-generation Americans.

And at home. They heard Serbian, Polish ,and other Eastern European languages.

Many came from coal mining families, and music was a bright spot in their lives.

Well, after performing one night, my grandfather and his buddies were heading home.

It was late and they wondered about saving time and taking a shortcut through the cemetery.

They decided to put any fears aside and take the shortcut.

Somewhere in the middle of the dark cemetery, they heard a voice coming from a grave.

"Boys! Help me, boys!"

The voice called out to them . It wanted them to come. Then they saw just a head near a grave.

Well, it didn't take long to react. The young men were certain

they had seen a ghost and ran out of the cemetery as quickly as possible,

hoping that whoever or whatever that was wouldn't follow.

They actually went to the police and reported what they saw. The police officer had the young men return with him to the cemetery.

After a search with a flashlight,

they found out that some guy from town had also taken the shortcut and fell into an open grave.

The freshly dug grave was too deep to climb out, so he called out for help.

The boys then worked together to pull the poor guy out of the grave.

They laughed when they learned the truth, but my grandfather said that he never took that shortcut again.

So who are the main characters?

My grandfather and his friends.

And the setting?

A cemetery in western Pennsylvania around 1940.

The basic plot?

The boys were in a band together, and after a late performance one night, they decided to take a shortcut through the cemetery.

The central conflict?

Well, the cemetery is really spooky, and they debated going through it or not.

The climax is the high point of the story. So at the climax of the story, they think they hear a ghost.

They think they see a ghost, and they react.

The resolution?

They find out that the ghost was just some guy who fell into an open grave.

But my grandfather said he never used that shortcut again.

For practice, you can retell the story. Use your own words, but don't change the basic plot.

You can also share your own story in the comments.

If you got a good story, you can even post a video response and share it that way.

Well, that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed this Halloween-inspired lesson. Please remember to like this video and subscribe

for more lessons to learn American English. As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!

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