English Vinglish

English Vinglish is a project created to empower the community around us through English language communication skills. We held weekly sessions with the bus hostesses of our school, teaching them English and other technical skills applicable in realistic contexts.

The first few classes were used to teach simple and complex language rules. They then steadily progressed onto sessions about sentence structure and pronunciation. We laid specific importance on improving their oratory skills. We adopted a theatrical approach by making them do role-plays and other such activities. These activities were the fruit of months of brainstorming and research. Additionally, we held sessions collaborating with another MAD Project – Tech For All – to teach the bus hostesses how to use apps such as Gmail, Paytm and BookMyShow to help improve their technological skills. The aim of these sessions was successfully achieved as we adopted creative learning methods and encouraged a two-way process of interactive learning.

 

The outcome of our project is a bus safety video. In this video the bus hostesses raise awareness towards road safety by explaining the necessary rules. This video, was their way of effectively and creatively communicating their perspective as bus hostesses to the students of the school. They led the creative aspects of the video, while we helped fix their grammar and script their ideas.

 

 

These sessions have taught the entire team the importance of teamwork; each session required immense dedication from every individual. Planning, collaborating and coordinating with authorities to achieve our goal was challenging but ultimately, it strengthened our skills of communication and time management. We are extremely thankful to our bus didi's for their valuable inputs that made English Vinglish an incredibly enriching and wholesome experience for all of us.