The effect of a “visual toward verbal” training in narrative confidence for children in a multicultural context

Abstract

Narrative skills are very important in children’s lives: they represent the basis for academic, cognitive, social and identity development. Improving narrative ability can be very hard for children who live in a context where the common language is not their first language. Lexical and syntactical difficulties can lead children to give up trying to express themselves, preventing them from continuing to practice. For this reason, we tried to proposed a workshop for a 3rd grade class in a multicultural context, in order to develop at the same time narrative skills and engagement in storytelling. A series of activities gradually brought pupils from imagining, through action, to speech, while allowing everyone to find their favorite communication channel. The results were encouraging, as the activities structured in this way allowed even those who started from a disadvantaged situation to strengthen their self-efficacy and to participate in the same way as the others. Peer collaboration and the active role of the children were essential characteristics for the success of the project.