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Words in Color in France 1996
Glenys Hanson
(ed)
Roslyn Young
(ed)
Une Ecole Pour Demain is a nonprofit making association of teachers which was created to
further the work of Caleb Gattegno, creator of Words in Color. As the sole distributor for
Words in Color in France, it is well placed to describe the use of this approach throughout the
country, where it is estimated that between 10 and 20% of the adult population is semi-literate
or totally illiterate. Nearly 300 sets of la Lecture en couleurs (the French version of Words
in Color) were sold from 1993 to 1995. More than half of these sets were bought by
associations dealing with literacy problems in adults. Of the rest, more than half were bought
by people engaged in remedial work with children. The other users are primary school
teachers. From these statistics, and also from the public coming to our courses and
workshops, it would appear that this approach attracts those who come in contact with the
most intractable illiteracy problems. To give some idea of why they do so, we asked about
twenty of them to answer the following questions:
▪ Who are you working with?
▪ What does Words in Color offer to this public?
Here are some of the answers we received.
Interview with Alain L’Hôte - Primary School Teacher
I’ve been teaching children to read since 1977 - though not continuously because some years I
was given older children to teach. I haven’t always used Words in Color; I started with
traditional methods (syllabic methods) which were not very much fun either for me or the
children. Then I used the method Le Sablier, from which I learned a lot, and after that the
Méthode Gestuelle and then a mixture of a lot of methods. I was dissatisfied because I had
the impression that the children weren’t progressing at their own rhythm, that I was holding
back the more advanced and leaving behind the children in difficulty. That is what motivated
me to look for something else. I heard of Words in Color through my wife who had observed
interesting results with people learning English with the Silent Way. I took a few courses and

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got started. At first I used the material in much the same way as any traditional material, in
the same way as I had worked before. I enjoyed it because I started learning things in class
about the French language. I realized that I was paying more attention to the language than to
the students; I could see what was happening but I couldn’t do anything about it. This process
has slowed down but I still make new discoveries about the language using Words in Color -
and that’s something which never happened before with the other methods.
Thinking about the approach from the children’s point of view, I’d like to start with an
anecdote. The first time I put the word charts up in front of a class, they all applauded. The
material is so attractive to children; they want to get into it. It corresponds to children’s need
to explore and discover things. In the presence of the charts they are avid to discover the
unknown. This is a phenomenon which I observe every year - it’s quite spectacular. I
remember one day we were working on chez moi (at home), we had made a lot of sentences
using this expression when a little girl shot up her hand and said, “I can see it, schéma” and
pointed to the word on the chart, thinking she had made the discovery of the day. Her mistake
and the movements of her eyes that I observed during the first part of the work showed that
she was engaged in her own private research. The material itself incites this kind of
research. Of course, I can set them off on a path, the sound /o/ for example, but the children
are immediately motivated to look all over the word charts searching for new spellings. What
they really like are long words, difficult words, strange words - they seek them out of their
own accord. I often hear them during the break telling each other what they’ve been doing on
their own with the material “Did y’see that one?” “Did y’see this one?” “Did y’see the /o/
like that?” This of course, is after a few months.
After a few months, the differences between the children get more pronounced. A few are
ready to read little books at their level; others are almost ready; some, who are still not
sufficiently at ease with decoding for things to take on meaning, are at the level of sentences,
and then there are those who have only just started to get into reading and who are still at the
level of words.
At the beginning, I put up only a limited amount of the material and we create our own
restricted Fidel bit by bit. This year, for these slower children, who were not ready to read at
the beginning of the school year (in September), I’ve used the rectangles chart. Having
mastered the color code, they become independent and can work by themselves with the
Fidel.
Another thing that is unique about this material is that it remains visible all the time on the
walls. The children have the whole of the French language in front of them. I can remember
at least two children who refused to learn to read with me. One in particular would turn off
any time I tried to get him to work, but every time I turned my back, I could see him looking
at the charts. When I realized that, I placed his desk so that he was directly facing the
charts. And that child learned to read entirely on his own. It was possible only because the
material was all visible and because it is an adequate description of the French language. This
is very important, because it means you can have confidence that the children will learn to
read with it because it is complete.
The Words in Color material respects the language and the children. There are no “baby”
words, no sentences which adults think children would like, only the everyday words that
adults use too. The material is on their true level. I think that is the most important point, that
it respects the learners. The children are free to make the sentences they want - silly ones or
not - at their own level. All the algebraic exercises, for example, respect the mental powers of
the children.
The different facets of Words in Color respect and coincide with what is human in each of us,
learner or teacher. That is probably why most learners immediately take to the work and

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continue to find pleasure in it.
***
Contribution from Françoise Lazare: Words in Color in an inner-city
neighborhood
Why do six- to eight-year-old children, from a volatile neighborhood where unrest, boredom,
violence and suffering are rife, change their attitude to learning as soon as they realize they
can learn to read with Words in Color?
This approach involves many game-like activities whose humor creates emotional states
which will remain essential referents for learning. It creates a situation in which resistances
fall and the learners are able to be present in the moment. It also creates and maintains
cohesion in the group.
Interest, curiosity and mental dynamism are stimulated as the learner realizes that the material
enables her/him to regain the state of living in the present and at the same time it opens the
door on a new field of investigation which excites her/his creativity.
Once trust and contact have been established, the teacher can present the children with
challenges at their level. Challenges which become ever greater.
The learner:
▪ recognizes a way of functioning (learning) that he has been able to initiate since babyhood,
▪ is reawakened by this unknown (the material) which revives in him a well-known
functioning (learning),
▪ recognizes this alter ego who both likes and knows how to learn,
▪ discovers another self-image which disturbs his previous self image (“dumb”, hyperactive
or any other negative adjective which has been used to categorize him). This moment
is often a shock and may sometimes lead to the child putting a stop to his learning and
even “regressing”,
▪ is in contact with a terrible dilemma, a painful ambivalence, an internal conflict. Who will
gain the upper hand? A “spiritual” struggle takes place similar to that of Good and
Evil and the question of truth is posed... and that of relativity...
The material makes it possible to:
▪ respect what the learner is, at a given moment,
▪ take the time it takes (for the learner to pause, to have the right to his own difficulties, to
eliminate whatever is stopping him from being present to the situation).
For the child who is not making his first attempt to learn to read, Words in Color:
a. allows him to feel he exists again, to have an identity, to have the right to learn,
b. enables him to be in contact with his own energy and his own will, that he can put to the
service of learning or to the service of destruction,
c. makes him realize that he alone is in control of his learning and of his decision-making
power.
By its nature, the material provides pedagogical situations which become reference points
which both stimulate the learner to form his own mental constructs and develop his creative
powers.
The fact that learning (in this case, reading) leads to a change in behavior, should make us
beware of quick and facile associations of “children in difficulty” and “failure at

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school”. The terms “deprived neighborhood” and “inner city” become explanations in
themselves and give rise to simplistic analyses of causes external to the learning situation
itself and allow people to avoid confronting the real problem.
The Words in Color material, in itself:
a. is a reassuring reference which the learner knows he can rely on, which provides him with
the time necessary to his learning and thus gives him calm and inner well being,
b. enables the learner to establish reliable inner criteria which he learns to use and has at his
disposal all the time,
c. gives rise to and teaches rigor and discipline in the development of his learning and on-
going self-evaluation (awareness of being with, and of staying with the real problem),
d. allows the learner to take charge of his learning at his own rhythm while totally respecting
what he is. It gives him autonomy and independence in relation to the teacher,
e. allows the learner access to awareness of his ways of functioning which become transparent
to himself and to the teacher,
f. enables him to have access to the awareness of the power that creativity brings him and
which leads to the desire for greater and greater challenges.
g. In addition, in the same class, the teacher can set different challenges to satisfy the needs of
each individual.
***
Contribution from Yvette Gomez: