Multilingual Story Competition for Collège

If you teach in collège, you might like to sign your pupils up for an original multilingual story competition. It asks classes to write a story using elements of languages other than French. You need to sign up by 30 September 2023 but then you have till 24 March to send in your project. The first 100 classes will be accepted, so it's worth doing quickly.

The competition is organised by DULALA (d'une langue à l'autre), a national organisation promoting training for bilingualism and plurilingual educational activities. Classes create a kamishibaï story: a Japanese story-telling form where the story is told on a series of sheets of cardboard presented in a sort of puppet theatre.

The competition is open to pupils aged three to 15 in three age groups (10-15 works for collège) and can be a great opportunity to give recognition to pupils who speak a different language at home. It could also give a concrete reason to work with colleagues who teach other languages. Why not make it the centre of your school's Semaine des langues vivantes? The theme for this year is "Seul on va plus vite, ensemble on va plus loin !" The stories should consist of 8-14 sheets and contain four different languages (French plus three others.)

You can find out all about the details on DULALA's site, and the video below shows what the kamibshibaï look like and what teachers and pupils get out of the competition. There are teaching resources for the 10-15 age group.

This year's winners in the three age categories (3-6, 6-10 and 11-15) will be announced at the Maison de la culture du Japon in Paris on 13 June 2024, in the presence of the winning classes.

Examples of Previous Winning Stories

 

This story is about  Aïcha La Danta (a tapir) which is kidnapped by a poacher and has to find its way back to the zoo, meeting lots of other animals along the way. It is by students from the Ruche Pédagogique Apprenante de l’INSPE de Guyane.

 

This one is by the pupils of the classe monde (UPE2A) and soutien français langue seconde at  Collège La Pyramide, Lieusaint (77). It uses all the languages of the class to tell the story of a lost shopping bag that ends up inspiring a meal of dishes from different countries.

This story by class UPE2A at Collège Claude Monet in Argenteuil (95) imagines a teenage girl from the Paris Commune being transported into the present day.

There are lots more wonderful examples!