Bonjour. Buenos Dias.

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G L O B A L I S S U E $ P R E PA R IN G SUMM S TUD IT E T H E 2 S T N T S FO R 1 CE NTUR Y

BONJOUR. BUENOS DIAS. PRESCHOOLERS GREET NEW WORLD LANGUAGE PROGRAM WITH ENTHUSIASM

Nancy Berlier

The 3- and 4-year-olds who came to the rooms of Amy McDonald and Emily McQuiston on the first day of school this year were a bit perplexed to hear a lesson spoken almost entirely in another language. They didn’t understand the French and Spanish words they were hearing, but it didn’t take long for them to figure out the teachers were asking them to say their names, repeat the Spanish word for cold or say “hello” in French. “Some just stared confusedly and took it all in,” recalls Ms. McDonald, Lower School French teacher.” Others tried to ‘crack the code’ and figure out what I was saying and announce it to the class. One child asked me every class period for the first few weeks ‘when are you going to speak normally?’ ” In short order, however, Mrs. McQuiston, Lower School Spanish teacher, had prompted her students to sing a “Buenos Dias” song, and children were greeting Ms. McDonald with “Bonjour” in the hallway. “I think that we’re all astonished at seeing the rapid growth in language development in the three- and four-year-olds,” says Montessori Director Phyllis Schueler. “Sure, we all believed in the Montessori method. We believed in the brain research. But now we’re actually seeing it happen in foreign language. The children are learning very quickly.” Pictured above L to R: Freya Kindel, Darnell Baldwin and Jack Reuter with new Spanish teacher, Emily McQuiston

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