Mandarin Bilingual Program
At Enlighten Mandarin bilingual classrooms, Chinese culture and language are integrated throughout every aspect of the child’s experience. Every classroom is guided by two teachers, one who always addresses the children in English while the other always speaks Chinese. In this complete and consistent Dual-Language environment, the child is surrounded with opportunities to acquire language naturally throughout each day. Full-time exposure to two languages along with multi-sensory language materials allow children to effortlessly absorb and experience each as a “living language” through day to day life in the classroom.
Speaking:The young child craves language to be able to communicate and describe his world. Spoken language is the foundation for all creation of language in the child, and opens the door for future learning. Dr. Montessori discovered that children universally create language directly from what they absorb from their surroundings. As spoken language serves as a foundation for the child’s later facility of reading and writing, emphasis is placed on establishing a solid oral-auditory experience first by the Chinese teacher. Children initially learn to adapt to hearing the living language through their daily routines in their dual-language classroom.
Reading:Children are introduced to vocabulary through replica objects and Classified Picture Cards. At this age, they need to see and feel things to process new information so if the real object is available, we would invite them to touch and experience it to gain a more meaningful connection. Because Chinese is not phonetic, the progression to reading happens differently. Each Chinese character is a puzzle word that can be memorized visually like an image from a young age.
Writing:The hands-on materials in the Casa environment provide the child with an abundance of practice beforehand so that when he goes to use the pencil to write, he is prepared, eager, and ready. Enlighten De Anza has pioneered these special Chinese Montessori materials for very young children to learn how to write simple to complex characters. This is an ideal time for a child to trace these characters, as the innate love of repetition for mastery drives the child to synthesis this information. Emphasis at this stage is placed on establishing correct stroke order and solidifying the pictorial images of the fundamental characters through tactile impressions.