At IVMS, we believe that the study of foreign language should start at an early age rather than middle or high school. Maria Montessori made the observation early on in her work that young children are at a sensitive period for language development, especially between the ages of 0 to 6.

Many Montessori schools around the world teach foreign language to children of preschool and elementary ages. They have found the greatest success with the immersion model whereby two bilingual teachers teach both languages to their students within a classroom setting.

Children first learn language by internalizing the sounds and rhythms of speech and by becoming accustomed to oral grammatical patterns. The child begins by acquiring language passively. This means that the child understands what is being said but cannot actively respond.

The next and most difficult phase is the acquisition of active language. This means that the child can respond and initiate conversation in the foreign tongue. Normally, the acquisition of active language first involves the child responding to oral cues. At the very end of the process, acquiring active language involves the formal study of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. The end of the process is usually how we begin the study of foreign language in most U.S. schools. No wonder most of us don’t remember very much.

Acquiring an active vocabulary is much simpler when the child is familiar with the language in an oral form. Consider how we learn our first language. The first two years are spent listening and watching people speak to us and to others. The next few years are spent building an oral active and oral passive vocabulary beginning with short phrases and sentences. At the very end comes formal reading and writing in the fifth or sixth year.

The best way to learn a second or third language is to follow a similar progression. Although we cannot begin at birth, we can at least start at kindergarten and preschool.

For the students who do not have an interest in becoming bilingual, we believe that they still should have as much exposure to another language as we can give them. Especially in a world that gets smaller every day. To succeed in the future, many occupations will require a working knowledge of a second or third language.

We believe that it is less important whether the child is first exposed to Spanish or French as a second language. What is most important is to develop the neural pathways for language acquisition that would not otherwise become connected, which is why learning a third language is easier than learning the second.

Maria Montessori said that we must look to the children to bring world peace by teaching them to tolerate differences and celebrate similarities. Participating in bilingual education exposes children to different cultures and understandings of the world. It also gives them an appreciation of their native tongue that cannot be realized in any other way.

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