Learn English Through Krio

 

 

I hope you can see this photo well, because a very special, unique activity is going on in this SELI Young Writers club in northern Sierra Leone at Dankawalie Secondary School. 

All SELI Young Writers club meetings open with a 10-15 minute mini-lesson that precedes writing.  As one option for this mini-lesson, SELI donates copies of the workbook, Learn English Through Krio (formerly called The SELI Wordbook), in which one page at a time teachers can help students distinguish the form, use and meaning of an English cognate in Krio. It needs to be said that it is unusual at any level in Sierra Leone schools for teachers to clarify the differences between Krio and English.

The special thing we are seeing in this photo is a DSS club senior-secondary experienced writer using this workbook to conduct a mini-lesson for junior-secondary newcomers to the club. All of these students speak Kuranko as their primary language. They have learned Krio (informally) and English (formally) in school. A fellow student—an older brother, we might call him—can easily remember how confusing it was for him to distinguish Krio from English when he was their age, making him ideal for delivering this mini-lesson. 

Well done, Dankawalie Secondary School!