Ten Short Stories from the Heart of Africa

Since the early times, humans have communicated through stories or oral tradition. People have used stories to teach values, to inform about events and to entertain. In modern times, in a world overwhelmed by a myriad of communication tools, stories if effectively used in education can be a powerful pedagogical tool to captivate learners' attention and heighten their motivation. Furthermore, stories offer learners opportunity to communicate, listen to one another, use their imagination. Being able to listen and communicate not only encourages learners to use the language, but also contributes to develop learners' ability to discuss, negotiate and solve problems. The use of stories provides, then, not only novelty to boost learners' motivation to read, stimulates the child's curiosity and familiarize them with the elements of a story but constitutes a break from the routine.