A spoken storytelling competition performed live on stage, judged on voice, expression and narrative delivery.
Story Telling is an individual, on-stage speaking item: a candidate stands alone in front of the judges and narrates a story from memory, using voice, pacing and facial expression rather than a script or a visual aid to carry the plot. Unlike Elocution, which argues a point of view on a set or drawn topic, Story Telling’s job is to make a listener follow and enjoy a narrative with a beginning, a middle and an end – real events run it as a memory-and-delivery item first, a language item second.
A round works one candidate at a time within an age band’s language stream: the candidate is called up, tells their story within a fixed per-head time limit, and the panel marks as they go rather than after a group finishes together. There is no prop, costume or backing track in any of the real-world templates in this dataset – it is judged as plain spoken narration, with the story itself, chosen or prepared in advance, doing all the work.
Most events in this dataset run it as two parallel single-language competitions in the same age band (typically English and Malayalam), so the same story slot exists twice with candidates entering whichever language stream fits them; a few leave the language open, and one public university’s youth festival runs it in Marathi for its college-age entrants instead. Real per-head time limits found across templates range from about a minute for the youngest children up to seven minutes for a university-level round, generally growing with the age band.
Organisers run it as an accessible early item for younger candidates – it rewards memory and expressive delivery without requiring the candidate to construct their own argument the way Elocution does – while a handful of events also run it at older, even college-age, levels as a straightforward test of spoken narrative skill.
Where Story Telling is run
Story Telling appears in eTalenter’s own generic school, kids and fine-arts starter templates, and in a wide spread of real-world events beyond them: Kerala’s own school and inter-collegiate youth-festival circuit and a Maharashtra public university’s inter-collegiate youth festival (run in Marathi); Gulf diaspora Malayalee clubs and church-run Sunday schools in Bahrain and the UAE; Christian Sunday-school competition circuits in India and the Gulf; diaspora Malayalee community festivals in the United States, Switzerland and the United Kingdom; and an English-medium town speech & drama festival that scores it on a certificate band (Outstanding, Distinction, Commended and so on) rather than numeric marks. It is overwhelmingly a children’s and youth item – most sources that restrict it to particular age bands place it at their younger end – though the Maharashtra university’s youth festival is a real exception, running it for college-age “Students” entrants too.
- Kerala school and inter-collegiate festivals, India
- A public university’s youth festival in Maharashtra, India (run in Marathi)
- Gulf diaspora Malayalee clubs and church Sunday schools (Bahrain, UAE)
- Christian Sunday-school competition circuits (India and the Gulf)
- Diaspora Malayalee community festivals (United States, Switzerland, United Kingdom)
- An English-medium town speech & drama festival
Key facts
- Always Individual – no template in this dataset runs it as a team
- Mixed-gender in almost every source; one generic starter template splits Boys’/Girls’ at its youngest age band
- Timed per head, not as a group – real limits range from about 1 minute at the youngest band up to 7 minutes at a college-age round
- Usually run as separate English and Malayalam competitions within the same age band; several diaspora events leave the language open, and one university round is in Marathi
- Scored as marks out of 100 in most real sources; one town festival instead uses a certificate band rather than a numeric score
- Mainly a children’s/youth item – most age-restricted sources place it at their younger end, with a university youth-festival round as the exception
On eTalenter, Story Telling is filed under Literary, On Stage, Oral and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 13 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.
Across the templates that use it, Story Telling is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to 1–10 minutes where a limit is set.
What judges look at in Story Telling
What a Story Telling panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:
- Narrative structure – whether the story has a clear beginning, middle and end that actually fits inside the time limit
- Voice and expression – modulation and tone changes for different characters or moods, not a flat reading-aloud delivery
- Memory and fluency – the story is told from memory, not read; hesitation, prompting or losing the thread counts against the candidate
- Audience engagement – eye contact and stage presence, since the panel is watching a live telling rather than marking a script
- Time discipline – reaching a proper ending within the per-head limit rather than being cut off mid-story or rushing the close
- Language accuracy in the language-specific streams – pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar appropriate to the stream entered
Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Story Telling under Scoring Setup, or start from the elocution & speech judging criteria guide (the closest sibling format).
How to prepare for Story Telling
How entrants and their teachers usually get Story Telling right on the day:
- Learn the story by heart rather than trying to recall it phrase-by-phrase from a printed source
- Rehearse out loud in front of someone and time the run so it comfortably fits the age band’s per-head limit
- Vary the voice for different characters or moods, but keep it natural rather than overacted
- Choose or adapt a story with a clear arc that fits the time limit, rather than a long one that has to be cut short
- Prepare a clean, deliberate opening and closing line so the judges know exactly when the story starts and ends
- Confirm in advance which language stream to enter, since many events run English and Malayalam as separate competitions
Ready-made event templates that include Story Telling
Open any template to preview it in eTalenter and install it as a live, editable event.
| Template | Category | Score label | Competitions |
|---|---|---|---|
| BKS GCC Kalotsavam | Literary | Marks | 4 |
| CSI(MKD) Sunday School Competition | On Stage | Marks | 2 |
| EMA Youth Festival (Exton) | Literary | Marks | 2 |
| Fine Arts Festival | On Stage | Marks | 4 |
| Sri Lanka Speech & Drama Festival | Literary | Marks | 4 |
| KELI International Kalamela (Switzerland) | Oral | Marks | 1 |
| Kids Fiesta | On Stage | Marks | 4 |
| Kids Fiesta | On Stage | Marks | 4 |
| Literary Festival | On Stage | Marks | 4 |
| University of Mumbai Youth Festival | Literary | Marks | 1 |
| St. Gregorios Sharjah Sunday School Competitions | On Stage | Marks | 1 |
| UUKMA National Kalamela | Literary | Marks | 1 |
| Yuvakalasahithy UAE Kalotsavam | On Stage | Marks | 4 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Story Telling judged individually or as a team?
Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.
Is Story Telling the same as Elocution?
No. Elocution is a speech that argues the candidate’s own point of view on a set or drawn topic. Story Telling narrates an existing or invented story with characters and a plot, and is judged more on narrative delivery than on argument.
Is Story Telling judged individually or as a team?
Individually, in every template in this dataset – there is no team version of this item.
How long does a Story Telling round take?
It varies a lot by event and age band, from around a minute for the youngest children up to several minutes for teenagers and college-age entrants. Check the specific event and age group for the exact per-head time limit.
Can I use props, costumes or a backing track?
None of the real-world templates in this dataset call for any – it is judged as a plain spoken narration. Entrants should still confirm their own event’s rules before assuming this.
Want the full judging picture? Read the elocution & speech judging criteria guide (the closest sibling format), or browse every literary competition item.
Try Story Telling in eTalenter
See every ready-made template that runs Story Telling, and install one as a live event — age groups, rules and scoring included.
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