A picture is worth a 1000 words. It’s a classic adage that S Indira Narayan has equipped herself to make learning English a much more interesting activity. They say English is a funny language, what with a word having two completely different meaning yet being spelt the same way. And mix of tenses from past continuous to future in the same breath.
So if your child has been struggling with the simple nuances of learning the language, Indira has devised a way to make the lessons stick. Speaking at a workshop she conducted recently at Lamakaan, she says of simple mistakes that are very common among Anglophones, “Many of us usually say ‘didn’t you gave’ instead of ‘didn’t you give’. This mistake happens because of forced learning,” she points out. A simple adjustment to the tense is all that is required, but most view proper English as rocket science. And so Indira instead brings in a visual element to make the language more relatable.
She explains, “Children learn grammar by connecting the language with the context of the story. Thus, they unknowingly learn grammar.” But more importantly, relating the subject to them makes the difference. “Children auto-save what they like. If make it more interesting, we can teach children a lot more,” says the teacher from St Ann’s school.
Having been in the profession for the last 40 years, Indira’s experience has given her a unique solution to teaching children. Her workshop includes a multi-sensual experience for children which subtly inculcates important lessons like body language and voice modulation while reading. Using interactive texts like the Panchatantra, students are then asked to draw pictures to express their sentences.
By familiarising the children with a visual element, Indira relates her pupil to the subject. From there, a second stage comes into place where this visual memorisation enriches vocabulary. A test for this newfound prowess is where children are given words in a disarranged manner. But she finds that her pupils are able to connect to the visual memory and hence rearrange them in the correct order.
The workshop includes a lot of fun activities that make sure that none of the participants are left bored or idle. Ask Indira if she thinks her methods are effective, and she rathers that her work do the talking.
Sumitha Kapoor, a house maker who brought her children for the workshop is all praise. “I brought my two sons to this workshop after the last one. It has definitely boosted my children’s reading habits. Plus, they learn while reading.”
So what would propel someone who is almost retiring to dedicate time to teaching basics to children free of cost (the workshop was open to anyone interested)? “I wanted to give back something to society and so I started this workshop free of cost. Lamakaan gave me the platform to do so.” What started with just two enthusiasts, has now grown quite a bit. “I had two in my first session, seven in my second and nearly 20 in last session,” she shares. The next workshops are due to be conducted on May 31 and June 1 at Lamakaan, Road no 1, Banjara Hills. For more details, contact 040 2776 4558.