IELTS Speaking for Success - ✨ Stories and storytelling (Part 3) + Transcript

Episode Date: September 28, 2025

Get our premium episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs Is a good storyline important for a movie? Do all stories for children have happy endings? What can children learn from stories? Why do most children like listening to stories before bedtime? What are the benefits of listening to stories before bed? What kind of stories do children like? Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/rory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: https://linktr.ee/sfspremium Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2025 Podcourses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, dear listener, and welcome into IEL speaking part three. Now we're talking about stories and more stories and listening to stories and reading stories, stories, stories, stories all over the place. Right, Rory gave us a nice story about what? The tortoise and the hair. If you haven't read the story, do it now. It's a very nice story that you can use in your life. You can apply it. in your own life, okay?

And now some general questions about stories. Well, let's go. Is a good storyline important for a movie? Well, it's probably essential when you think about it. I mean, can you imagine trying to follow a plot that's all over the place? That would be pretty taxing for, I mean, even the most attentive audience. And just general, although what a good storyline looks like is probably something that's up for debate. Do all stories for children have happy endings?

Well, no, they don't. I mean, we've already talked about British stories that have horrible endings where old ladies die. But, I mean, the original Grimm's fairy tales, which are massively popular, all have horrendous endings to them. And so I think it's just fairly self-evited that not all children's stories are sunshine and rainbow. What can children learn from stories? I suppose the most obvious thing is they learn how to tell stories in varying ways because there's not one way to tell a story. And the other thing is it's a nice way to sort of encapsulate social rules

and various concepts that govern how society works. So the story about the tortoise and the hair is a fun and entertaining way to say don't let your confidence rule and ruin your life. Why do most children like listening to stories before bedtime? Well, I'm not so sure it's about the story, really. It might be more about the time with their parents before they go off to sleep, which can be a stressful time. They're afraid of the dark, or maybe they have some kind of separation anxiety.

I mean, I suppose it might also facilitate parasympathetic nervous system activation. if it's a nice story and the atmosphere is relaxed, but about the content of the story and the atmosphere in the house more than the actual story at bedtime itself. And what are the benefits of listening to stories before bed? What, other than being close to your parents, assuming that it does all the positive things I mentioned before,

it would give you a good night's sleep, and I suppose it might influence the content of your dreams and what you imagine before you drift off to sleep, maybe, because there's lots of things that are going on when we're sleeping and when we're dreaming that are not necessarily related to that. What kind of stories do children usually like? Surely that depends on the children and how they've been raised, doesn't it? I mean, if they've been raised in relative to my culture, if they've been raised in a very

sort of dark way of seeing things, then they might have pretty much. appreciate stories that have a sort of dark tone to them. By contrast, if they've been raised in a very liberal and sheltered place, they might appreciate things which are more, I don't know, airy-fairy, more cozy, perhaps. So, I don't know. I don't think it's about children in general. I think it's about where they're from and the kind of people they are. And then even outside of the culture, how they are as individuals is also an important determining factor, I would imagine. As you know, we now release all of our premium content for free and it's available for one month. After one month it goes into our super secret archive.

To sign up for the archive, click the link in the description below. See you soon. So storyline, what's a storyline? Is it the same as the plot? Just the beginning, the middle and the end of the story. I would say it's the same as the plot. You're probably about to tell me differently. Yeah, so a storyline in a book, film or play, like Shakespeare's play or Chekhov's play, is the plot, the series of events that happen in a book, a film, or play.

You can say plot line, the plot line, and also the plot. The plot is the story of a book, film, play. So the plot of the book. pretty much the same, the storyline, the plot line, the plot line, the plot. And you can use a synonym, so the examiner asks you, is a good storyline important? Yes, it is, the plot is crucial because blah, blah, blah, the plot is essential. The plot line is essential because, ta-da-ta. And you can ask a question, can you imagine trying to follow a plot that's all over the place?

So it's a rhetorical question. The examiner doesn't answer. All right, because you keep going. So it's fine to do that. You show off your intonation. Because Rory, could you read out this question? Can you imagine trying to follow a plot that's all over the place? You see, the intonation goes up, and pronunciation criterion is very happy.

And the examiner is super happy because they see the variety of your intonation patterns. We follow a plot. So you read a book, you watch a film, you follow a... a plot, you follow the storyline. If it's all over the place, it's like this and this and this and everything is... It's a mess. It's a mess. Yes, nothing is connected and you're kind of, what?

What's going on? I don't understand anything, right? It's difficult to follow a plot that's all over the place. That would be pretty taxing. Taxing just means it demands here, or it demands a lot of energy to do. difficult on needing a lot of thought or effort. So it's really taxing. It needs all my energy.

So it's taxing for the audience. Like when we watch a movie, we are part of the audience. And it's up for debate. So it's, Roy, in this phrase, do I use an article? It's up for a debate or it's up for debate? I just say it's up for debate. and I think that would be the normal way to say it. I've never heard it with an article.

Yeah, it's up for debate, meaning that we don't have a clear answer what a good storyline is. Like, it's open to discussion. Or it's not up for debate, meaning we're not discussing it. Happy endings. Okay, so a story has a happy ending.

So the end of the story is happy. Rory told us about the Grim brothers. If you don't know who they are, please Google. They were pretty popular. Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Oh, is that their name? Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah.

But they are known as the Brothers Grim. They lived in the 18th, 19th century, and were from Germany, and they published a folklore, famous collection of children's tales, And Cinderella, oh, Cinderella was written by the Brothers Grimm. Really? Oh, okay. Oh, Snow White. Snow White was written by them.

Oh, wow. Okay. So pretty much, yeah, they were passionate about literature and are known all over the world. So they are considered to be like traditional writers. But the endings of their stories are sometimes dark, violent and pretty bloody. Okay? Yeah, so Google tells us that some stories have horrible endings.

That's interesting because usually children read these stories, but oh well. We can say that not all stories, for example, the brothers grim stories have horrible endings or have horrendous endings. So everybody dies, pretty much. Or at least one person suffers some horrible fate. Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf dies. But the grandma comes out from the wolf, yeah? So the grandma survives.

I guess so. But she's eaten by the wolf. That must be quite a traumatic experience. So the grandma is traumatized. A wolf is dead. Okay, but there are some hunters. Oh, we need to reread Little Red Riding Hood again. We know for sure that the wolf is dead, like for good. So fairy tales do have horrendous endings.

Might be a happy ending for somebody, but if you think about it, it's pretty bloody. So Rory told us that some stories are not all sunshine and rainbows. Rory, could you comment on this expression? Sunshine and rainbows just means extremely pleasant. Sunshine and rainbows. Could you give us another example? Well, I suppose being a teacher isn't all sunshine and rainbows?

Yeah, not all sunshine and rainbows. Life, this means that life isn't always easy, happy and, you know, perfect. There are difficulties, there are challenges in life. So you can say, well, my job is not always sunshine and rainbows. Children can learn different things from stories, so they learn how to learn how to tell stories. And a nice word is encapsulate. Encapsulate. Incapsulate. You know, a capsule.

So what's a capsule first? Well, a capsule is like a small package for something. A capsule is a small container, usually used in medicine. And here you can use this word metaphorically. So encapsulate. It just means that it gets the main features of something in a short way. So instead of explaining to people what the concept is and why it's important, you tell a story that shows it's more engaging. Express show the most important facts about something.

A story encapsulates social rules. So a story contains social rules and concepts. A story encapsulates morals. Maybe. And it's fun. It's entertaining. So it's an entertaining way. to kind of convey rules, social rules to children.

So it's an entertaining way to say something. We listen to stories before bedtime. So before going to bed, before falling in sleep or before bedtime. And it's more about spending time with parents before children go off to sleep. Go off to sleep. Go to bed, go to sleep. And some children are afraid.

of the duck, the duck, dear listener, I afraid of the dog, so it might help them to go to sleep, so it could be a stressful time. If they're afraid of the dark end, listening to stories, is helpful. Listening to stories might facilitate. If you facilitate something, that just means you allow it to happen, or you help it to happen. Facilitate the process of going to sleep. It can help children's nervous system to come. down and make the atmosphere relaxed. So you have a relaxed atmosphere. And these are the benefits of listening to stories before bed or before bed time before children go off to sleep. So like being close to their parents and a good story might influence the content of children's dreams. So when you

listen to a nice story, not with a horrendous ending, but to a nice story, you know. everybody's happy, everybody's married, like, yay, happiness forever, you know, this kind of thing. So such content could influence the content of children's dreams before they drift off. Drift off means fall asleep. It's the process of falling asleep. And is C2, C2 word. Is it? It is proficiency, that nine word.

because usually people say just fall asleep or go to sleep or sleep or sleep start sleeping, I don't know. But drift off means gradually start to sleep. So I was listening to this lecture and was drifting off. So it wasn't a very good lecture. Maybe it was, but I drifted off. Children usually enjoy different kinds of stories, fairy tales, fables, fantasy. and it depends on the children, of course. It depends where they're from.

And then Rory, oh, it depends on how they have been raised. So children are raised means that they are raised by their parents. And then examples, like if children have been raised in ta-t-ta-ta, they appreciate dark stories about vampires, for example. So they appreciate, they like, they enjoy stories which have dark tone to them. So about horror stories, vampires, ghosts. Well, they might. They might, yeah.

But if they have been raised, if they've been raised in a happy, liberal family, they might enjoy cozy stories, happy stories about, I don't know, animals and butterflies and stuff. It's not to say that one of these things is better than the other, of course. It's just a reflection of how people are raised and how that might influence their choices. There is a film which is called The Brothers Grimm. I haven't watched it. Oh yes, there is, isn't there? Yeah, The Brothers Grim, actually, yeah, good.

I need to watch it. Screenshot, a collection of films for winter. Radio listener, make sure that you do know who the Brothers Grim were for your IOTS, you know. Or whatever the local equivalent will be. I don't really know. Yeah, you can read some stories, again, for your general knowledge. And they are pretty good stories. When I was a child, I read The Brothers Grimm and I really enjoyed it.

I remember one story about a dwarf. Oh, is it Rumpel Stiltskin? Oh my gosh, I don't know. I think it's Rumpel Stiltzkin that you're talking about. And he had a big nose and was small and ugly. That sounds like Rumpel Stiltskin to me. Yes, so I remember reading Rumpelstiltskine. skin by Brothers Grimm.

Rampal Stilt Skin. And there is a cartoon, there is a movie, I think. Radio listener, okay? Now you know what to do. Find Rumble Stiltskin. And we'll get back to you in our next episode. Okay. Bye.

Is a good storyline important for a movie? Well, it's probably essential when you think about it. I mean, can you imagine trying to follow a plot that's all over the place? That would be pretty taxing for, I mean, even, the most attentive audience. And just general, although what a good storyline looks like is probably something that's up for debate. Do all stories for children have happy endings?

Well, no, they don't. I mean, we've already talked about British stories that have horrible endings where old ladies die. But, I mean, the original Grimm's fairy tales, which are massively popular, all have horrendous endings to them. And so I think that, I mean, it's just fairly self-evident that not all children's stories are sunshine and rainbows. What can children learn from stories? Well, I suppose the most obvious thing is they learn how to tell stories in varying ways, because there's not one way to tell the story. And the other thing is, it's a nice way to just sort of encapsulate social rules and

various concepts that govern how society works. So the story about the tortoise and the hare is a fun and entertaining way to say don't let your confidence rule and ruin your life. Why do most children like listening to stories before bedtime? Well, I'm not so sure it's about the story, really. It might be more about the time with their parents before they go off to sleep, which can be a stressful time. They're afraid of the dark, or maybe they have some kind of separation anxiety.

I mean, I suppose it might also facilitate parasympathetic nervous system activation. If it's a nice story and the atmosphere is relaxed, but about the content of the story and the atmosphere in the house more than the actual story at bedtime itself. And what are the benefits of listening to stories before bed? What, other than being close to your parents, assuming that it does all the positive things I mentioned before, it would give you a good night's sleep.

And I suppose it might influence the content of your dreams and what you imagine before you drift off to sleep. Maybe, because there's lots of things that are going on when we're sleeping and when we're dreaming that are not necessarily related to that. What kind of stories do children usually like? Surely that depends on the children and how they've been raised, doesn't it? I mean, if they've been raised in relative to my culture,

if they've been raised in a very sort of dark way of seeing things, then they might appreciate stories that have a sort of dark tone to them. By contrast, if they've been raised in a very liberal and sheltered place, they might appreciate things which are more, I don't know, airy-fairy, more cozy, perhaps. So, I don't know. think it's about children in general. I think it's about where they're from and the kind of people they are. And then even outside of the culture, how they are as individuals is also an important determining factor, I would imagine.