Reading stories for French learner

On the basis of volunteering, the Alliance Française of Sri Lanka organized for the first time reading stories sessions in French for Sri Lankan children learning French. These sessions aim to help Sri Lankan kids and adults to improve their fluency and vocabulary in this language they are learning. As it is the first time doing this, no one knows if people would be interested in these sessions and also if it would be interesting and enjoyable. On the basis of volunteering, my mom and I registered and chose easy vocabulary’s books to read as the kids have between 6 months and 1 year of French. It turns out that a lot of children came and some parents joined to listen to the stories! I really had a great time reading these stories as the kids were excited, having fun and wanted to participate to understand better. Even if they had only a few months of French, they were not afraid to speak and wanted more and more stories.

I started by reading the first book called “Le Loup qui voulait changer de couleur” (“The Wolf who wanted to change colors”) which allowed me to teach or review colors with the children as well as the days of the weeks as the Wolf was changing colors every day. It was not easy because I had to articulate a lot to be understood and also showing the pictures and showing what each vocabulary word means by indicating the object on the book. While I was reading the book and showing the pictures, my mom next to me was mimicking the different emotions and feelings of the Wolf to also help them understand what the Wolf was feeling concerning the different colors he wanted to try.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The session was supposed to last an hour and we still had some time left so I read another story called “Le Loup qui ne voulait plus marcher” (“The Wolf who didn’t want to walk anymore”). As the Wolf was trying a different way to move every month, it allowed the kids to learn about the different methods of transportation as well as the months. While I was reading, I was often asking them to tell me what color is this or what color is that because the previous story was about colors. At the end of the session, the kids didn’t want to leave and wanted more stories so we stayed 20 minutes more with them. I took a kid apart because he wanted to try to read more difficult stories which made him learn a lot of new words!

I enjoyed reading these stories to children and I will do it again with pleasure! These sessions are happening every Wednesday so different teams can meet regularly with the kids and allow them to learn French easily. I also usually speak and read quite fast so participating in these sessions will allow me to improve my oral skills and I think will be very beneficial for me in the future.