Second Language Goals, Montessori Methods

by Tim Seldin | Brain Development, Early Adolescence (12-15), Infant-Toddler (0 to 3), Kindergarten, Language, Language & Reading, Later Adolescence (15-18), Lower Elementary (6-9), Mathematics, MFA, Montessori Curriculum, Montessori Education, Montessori Family Life, Montessori Middle School, Montessori Secondary / High School, Primary (3-6), Reading, School Leadership, The International Montessori Council, Young Adolescent

by M. J. Rosanova, Ph.D.

The Montessori Bilingual Institute (MOBI) The children are playing outside. I can hear them outside my window. They’re singing and calling out to each other in Japanese. No, our school isn’t located in Japan. InterCultura Montessori is located in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Only about fifteen percent of our children are from international families; in the past, it was even fewer. Most of our children come from English-only monolingual families.

InterCultura is a dual-language or two-way immersion school’. Some of the children who come here know no English (or very little English) when they arrive. But all of the children here become bilingual.

At InterCultura, children not only play in Japanese. They learn in Japanese. For the first three years, from as early as 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning until 2:30 in the afternoon, the children are in total immersion environments, that is, the entire range of the normal Montessori curriculum is delivered to the children by Montessori certified native speakers of Japanese.

In our Spanish immersion program, the teachers are from Latin America. When we first founded InterCultura in 1985, all of the teachers had received their Montessori training in Latin America. Now, many of our teachers are immigrants who have found their way to us as assistant teachers and then have taken Montessori training here.

After 2:30 in the afternoon, our Anne Frank Communities convene. Anne Frank was a Montessori child, beginning at the 3-6 level in Frankfurt, Germany. When the family moved to Holland, Anne continued at the elementary level. Anne, of course, was a bilingual child: German and Dutch. She became bilingual through her experiences at home and in her Montessori school.

At InterCultura, the language of the Anne Frank Communities is English. For most of our children, this is native language development time. For those new to English, this is the time for total immersion in English.

About half of the children from our English-only monolingual families attend the Anne Frank Communities. But all of the children who are new to English are required to attend. Some stay ëtil 6:00 p.m. ñ the normal length of a daycare-length day here in Chicago.

By the way, at no time does anyone force any child to speak either in English or Japanese or Spanish. The children talk and talk and talk in whatever language or combination of languages occurs to them. The average child begins to speak spontaneously in the second language (‘L2’, the ‘target language’) after about eight to ten months of full-time attendance. People who don’t speak any English (but who do speak Spanish or Japanese) can understand them by about that point.

Why Total Immersion?

Why total immersion? Well, it all depends on what your goals are. If your goal for your child is ‘useable fluency in the second language, you’d better start early. Current neurological research indicates that the brains of small children have remarkable ‘plasticity’ in comparison with the brains of older children and adults. There is a neurological window of opportunity for language learning early in life which begins to close around eight to ten years of age.

In the past, when knowledge of human development was less available than today, people assumed that a second language was not for preschool but for high school. They presumed that children would master grammar first, and that then fluency would magically appear. Since most children did not have the discipline to study the boring abstractions of grammar until at least fourteen or sixteen years of age, it made no sense to start a foreign language until freshman or junior year of high school.

Even today, there are many very fancy, very expensive high school level programs where after four solid years of daily grammar drill classes almost none of the students can say much more than hello and goodbye and sing a few songs in the second language. Proponents of such programs are quick to point out that their graduates are much more likely to have positive associations with the people and cultures who actually speak the target language. And this is an important and worthy accomplishment, to be sure.

But if useable fluency is your goal, you need to take another route. The research on outcomes overwhelmingly endorses immersion; and the younger the child, the better the outcomes. I’ve taught middle school children (in Montessori), college kids, and adult learners in corporate courses. American children and adults at those ages very seldom become functionally bilingual. One in a hundred may do so; or maybe one in a thousand. But it’s so rare that a statistician would tell you: you may as well say it doesn’t exist. Most of the time you’d be right.

But with small children in total immersion in a developmentally appropriate Montessori environment, barring any grave developmental or emotional problems, it’s startlingly close to one hundred percent. Almost every child becomes functionally bilingual in a total immersion Montessori environment. Or at any rate, since 1985, that’s been our experience at InterCultura Montessori.

Alternatives to Total Immersion

InterCultura is a special Montessori school with a special mission. But not every school needs to undertake a total immersion program. There are various practical reasons why a school might choose not to create an immersion program.

For one thing, it takes a lot of work to identify and recruit qualified Montessorians who are native speakers of the second language. How do you balance the English-speaking faculty with the second language faculty? How do you deal with visas?

If a school decides not to commit to a total immersion program for every child, what other alternatives are open? Should the school offer total immersion not for all of its students, but only for a part of the student body? Some schools may prefer simply to have one or two classrooms within the school devoted to total immersion. And this may be practical in some situations.

But failing that, what else can a school do? There are at least a few other options open to Montessori schools. The language reference person approach, the magic scarf approach, and the language lesson approach can all be found in Montessori settings. Any of them may be appropriate for a given Montessori school if they fit the school’s goals.

The Language Reference Person Model

In some Montessori classrooms, there is one teacher (usually the Montessori-certified lead teacher) who speaks English all the time. And there is a second teacher (usually an assistant teacher with no Montessori training) who is intended to speak Spanish with the children.

If you have several Spanish-speaking immigrant children in your class, and if your goal is to get everyone to speak English, this is a fine model. In some states where ‘transitional bilingual education’ is mandated by the legislature, this approach makes sense. Because of their ability to access Spanish during their time in the classroom, the Spanish-speaking children will continue to grow in Spanish as they begin to acquire English. And because their knowledge of their native language is growing (even though they’re at the disadvantage of having little or none of the usual environmental support that the majority language enjoys), their knowledge of English begins to flourish. To those unaware of the research, it sounds illogical; but actually, more of the home language, used for serious academic purposes at school, means more progress in English.

Unfortunately, very few of the English-speaking children acquire any Spanish in this situation. Most of the children acquire positive attitudes concerning Spanish. Many of them learn how to say hello and good-bye, and sing a few songs. These are worthwhile goals. But it would be difficult to say that the children are learning lots and lots of Spanish.

One of the reasons why the English-speaking children don’t learn much Spanish in this situation is the status of Spanish in the class. Usually, the minority language speaker is the assistant in the class. The children understand clearly that English is the ‘power language’ both in the classroom and in the United States in general. When something important needs to be said, it’s said by the lead teacher in English.

The minority language is often confined to things which are incidental or trivial. Something as important as words of comfort for a hurt child are not likely to be delivered in L2, the second language. If the second language begins to catch on with majority language children at all, it tends to reflect the smaller, more peripheral status that the minority language is given. For many English-speaking children, the minority language just doesn’ t seem very important.

Another, perhaps more critical, reason why English-speaking children don’t learn much Spanish in this situation is simple interpersonal dynamics. If English-speaking preschoolers know that they have a choice of English or Spanish, generally they will choose English, simply because it’s the path of least resistance. They already know English; it doesn’t require them to concentrate or make a special effort.

In addition, they quickly note that, if push comes to shove, they can make even the Spanish-speaking teacher speak English to them. All they have to do is misbehave. The teacher will feel that she has lost control, and will want to scream. Whether she actually does scream or not, the next words out of her mouth are likely to be English. The teacher assumes that with English she is going to regain control.

The children soon learn that they can vary this strategy. In order to avoid time-out or other unpleasant repercussions, they can mask their misbehavior as incomprehension. They can simply ignore the teacher who speaks to them in Spanish, even though a little attention would make the teacher’s message obvious. This strategy will also put the teacher ‘in her place’. She will get desperate, feel out of control, and drop Spanish.

In one Montessori classroom following this model, there are two credentialed co-teachers, one Spanish speaker, one English speaker. Half the children in the class are Spanish speakers; the other half, English. Because of the equality of status between the teachers, and also because of the presence of so many Spanish-speaking children, the situation is more likely to foster interest in Spanish among the English-speaking children. By the end of the first year, two four-year-old English-speaking girls did spontaneously request that Montessori project work be presented to them in Spanish. However, none of the other English-speaking children were so moved.

Perhaps more significantly, none of the Kindergarten-age children were involved. Typically, the Kindergartners in a 3-6 classroom are the leaders whom the younger children follow. This may support goals in which the teachers believe, or it may subvert them. Because the issue of language choice is open in this model, it is open to become the source of much aggravation and disappointment to adults who think that the English-speaking children should be learning some Spanish. Not too many English-speaking American children will learn very much Spanish in this situation.

This is very different from the situation in a total immersion environment where all of the teachers speak the minority language all of the time before the shift into English when the afterschool program begins. In the total immersion environment, there are no power struggles over what language the teacher speaks. If it’s before 2:30, the teachers all speak Spanish all the time.

And the children are fine with that arrangement. The children themselves have developed a relationship with the teacher in which Spanish is an essential element. In a total immersion environment, the children would feel strange to hear the teachers switch into English. The children not only accept but prefer to hear the teachers speaking Spanish.

The ‘Magic Scarf’ Model

Another approach in some Montessori classrooms is the ‘magic scarf’ model. From time to time, the lead teacher dons a special ‘magic scarf’ or some other symbol of the second language and walks about the class greeting the children in the target language. The teacher wears the same symbolic totem during group time when she teaches a phrase or a song in the second language.

Although this method is picturesque and appealing, it is not likely to awaken serious interest or much useable fluency in English-speaking children. Because it is based on a theatrical performance by the teacher rather than a learner-initiated activity, it runs the risk of provoking authority conflicts. Children who feel provoked or merely inconvenienced will not become engaged, and will not learn a great deal of L2.

The ‘magic scarf’ model is an interesting alternative in some situations because it certainly looks like ‘teaching is going on’. Since many parents assume that ‘teaching’ is the same as ‘learning’, many parents may pay extra for Montessori classes where obvious direct teaching is going on. But not too many children will be very interested.

In a total immersion Montessori class children are interested in the second language because they actually use it to accomplish goals which are important to them. Everything from the rules of the classroom to the presentations on the project materials, everything from hello and goodbye to words of comfort when you cry, everything comes to the child in the second language. In that situation, how can a child assume that the second language is not important? How can a child not be interested?

The Language Lesson Approach

For many Montessorians, line time is sacrosanct in a time reserved for songs, greetings, sensory integration work such as line-walking, and perhaps a short presentation featuring one of the traditional project materials. At the 3-6 level, however, line time is not supposed to be ‘group lesson time’ because the children are not ready for passive listening or unassisted abstraction. ‘Group lessons’ in a particular subject area are not officially sanctioned in Montessori before first grade. But many Montessori schools make an exception when it comes to language lessons.

Some of the language lesson approaches are excellent. In Other Words by Alice Renton takes advantage of both line time and Montessori project work. Line time activities are connected to a shelf of project materials which the children can work with even when the second language teacher is not in the classroom. The connection with the project materials and the children’s cycle of spontaneous work is what makes Renton’s materials appropriate for a Montessori classroom. This is essentially different from the ‘magic scarf’ approach which is arbitrary and teacher-centered, and which bears little resemblance to the basic logic of Montessori work with preschoolers.

The style of teaching in Montessori is primarily indirect. The Montessori teacher shows children how to manage project materials, and helps children to focus on the potential of the material. A good Montessori teacher will also help children to reflect on their learning experiences so that the children will begin to understand and make order of what they know.

This is very different from the cycle of declaring information and testing memory which is the centerpiece of ‘direct teaching’ outside Montessori. Devotees of direct teaching emphasize information and product, manipulating learning by rewarding externally with incentives such as candy, happy faces, stickers and frequent (implicitly competitive) grades. Montessorians, on the other hand, tend to prefer internal, intrinsic rewards such as the feeling of competence a child attains when he solves a problem or demonstrates an ability within a context that matters to him.

Most language lessons lean heavily on ‘direct teaching’, and so are somewhat out of step with the Montessori environment. But materials like Renton’s demonstrate that it is possible to come much closer to the spirit of the Montessori environment.

After three years of fifteen or twenty-minute language lessons once or twice a week in a Montessori preschool/Kindergarten setting, it’s reasonable to hope that most children will be able to recognize about three or four dozen words and phrases in the second language. They might be able to spontaneously produce as many as twenty-five percent of them spontaneously.

In addition, they will tend to have positive feelings about the second language and the people who speak it. They will probably recall some of the tunes they’ve learned as well. And they may acquire the ability to produce the sounds of the second language with a high level of accuracy. These are important accomplishments, which merit respect as important goals for Montessori programs.

In a total immersion Montessori environment, on the other hand, children acquire thousands of words within the same period of time. Within less than a calendar year, they begin to make sense to L2 speakers who know no English.

And oddly enough, the higher the quality of Montessori work in the total immersion classroom, the greater the L2 abilities of the children. Unlike the other situations, in the total immersion setting Montessori principles do not need to be bent or compromised. No traditional ‘direct teaching’ is necessary; the second language is embodied in the Montessori work itself.

How Do I Find Out More?

InterCultura has a website, www.intercultura.or, where you’ll find more information and more suggestions. The Montessori Bilingual Institute at InterCultura (MOBI) sponsors a listserv, a kind of group e-mail, for teachers and administrators interested in exploring issues and exchanging ideas.

An entertaining and useful resource for parents and teachers is Growing Up With Two Languages: A Practical Guide by Una Cunningham-Andersson and Staffan Andersson. A wonderful little periodical for families who would like to become bilingual is The Bilingual Family Newsletter, available from Multilingual Matters at www.multilingual-matters.com.

Whether you’re a teacher, administrator or parent, you need to begin by clarifying your goals. There is probably some approach currently in practice in Montessori environments which will help you reach the goals you set, no matter how modest or how ambitious they may be.

Once you have identified your goals, you need to begin making choices concerning program design. The best choices will be the ones that affirm and strengthen Montessori ideals and Montessori practice at your school.

The author, M. J. Rosanova, is executive director of The Montessori Bilingual Institute at InterCultura (MOBI). He holds Montessori teacher certification (AMS), as well as a Ph.D. in social psychology (Yale).

Tomorrw’s Child, Sept, 2000