The SELI Wordbook

We've come up with something new and exciting, that will soon be heading for our writing clubs.

The SELI Wordbook is a consumable, 26-page workbook produced by the Sentinel English Language Institute (SELI). It was written for Sierra Leoneans who are comfortable speaking Krio. It presents the sixty English words that have been found to most frequently beset junior secondary students when writing about topics of their choice, and it pairs these words with their borrowings in Krio. Students learn to articulate the differences in meaning and use, between the English and Krio word in each pair, and to improve their English use of these sixty common words.

The book is being sold for Le 10,000 (less than $2.) The minimal profit accrues to SELI, which is a nonprofit educational organization. Included are suggestions for teaching the book in class in ten-minute mini-lessons. This would be its ideal use; however, the book is also suitable for independent study. SELI hopes that use of The SELI Wordbook may contribute toward a more widespread awareness in Sierra Leone that the way a language is taught to native speakers differs from the methods used by teachers who effectively enable its acquisition by speakers of other languages.

It was hard for schools to operate smoothly with elections going on in the early part of this year, but we're looking forward to catching up now. Here's one way we're doing that.

We'll have a mixed group, which will be great to work with. We'll be training new facilitators from schools that have never had a club; we'll be refreshing experienced facilitators from schools that have had clubs for several years, during which we've made changes to our approach; we'll be training new facilitators from a school that has had an ongoing club for years; and we'll be retraining facilitators who never were active, from a school whose club has lapsed.