Telling Stories in Public Speaking

Abstract

English public speaking is a comparatively new but promising course in China. Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle reveals the importance of ethos, pathos, and logos in effective and successful communication. To appeal to the audience’s emotion and establish ethos and pathos, storytelling is a good way and it’s also an important skill in public speaking. Taking the 25 most popular TED talks playlists as the study object, the author found that storytelling, especially telling personal stories is frequently used in those TED talks. After making clear the definition of a story, this article attempts to make clear how to tell a good story and what teachers can do to help students tell good stories in public speaking.

Keywords: storytelling; TED talks; rhetorical triangle; personal story

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-33-10

Publication date: November 30^th 2023