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WILBUR IS NOT ENGLISH

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Three years ago, I was teaching English as a foreign language to 7-year-old kids. For me, teaching this age is a great challenge as I find these young ones extremely demanding in a challenging way. Once I pass through the door, I know I need to have a set of activities prepared, all following a logical order and with multiple options just in case they don't find an activity enough motivating. However, there is a classic learning experience that always works no matter how old it is, Winnie the Witch's stories.

Going back to when I was studying my teaching degree, we analysed some children’s books. One of them was “Winnie the Witch”. I actually sounded very familiar, so I assumed Winnie was one of this famous British characters such as Wallace & Gromit and I thought I had probably read it when I was a kid myself as a children’s classic.


The day came when talking to my school language assistant I mentioned using some of Winnie’s books. My assistant was British, and she was my age so she should have known the books for sure. Surprisingly, she never heard about them even though they are a great didactic resource.

First, kids love these stories because the characters are very charismatic. For instance, the Witch who has the leading role tries to solve all kind of problems with nonsense magic tricks which always involve putting Wilbur in some kind of uncomfortable situation such as changing his colour so that she is able to see him in the black house. Maybe it was these absurd situations that made me think the books were heirs of the English nonsense rhymes.


Second, it provides numerous opportunities to introduce and use new vocabulary and simple structures such as understanding the characteristics of Winnie’s house where everything IS BLACK. There are even chants to practice the structure that kids love.



Finally, it is a great opportunity to deal with receptive skills when listening to the story or introducing reading in English which is quite challenging, especially for non-native students.

So, what is going on with Wilbur? I personally find him as the almost invisible but essential character that provides some kind of serenity to the stories despite he is always in the middle of Winnie’s magic problems and, by the way, he is not only English, but he is also Australian.

                                                                                                                        Núria Parareda

Photos from the collection "Winnie the Witch six books collection" by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul



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