Abstract/Notes: The language immersion approach of the Intercultural Montessori School (Oak Park, Illinois) for children aged 2-6 years is described and discussed. An introductory section gives background information on early work with immersion by Maria Montessori, a personal experience leading to the school's establishment, and the response of language and education professionals, the public, and parents to the concept of preschool immersion. Subsequent sections discuss common patterns in the students' language learning experience at the school and the developmental stages the learners went through as the experiment progressed: pre-production; early production; speech emergence; and intermediate fluency. Anecdotal information about specific students and events are used for illustration. Observations about comprehensible input and the Montessori manipulables, whole language, and other instructional strategies are included. Specific recommendations are made for content and classroom procedures in early childhood immersion, based on this experience. The paper concludes with reflections on the potential of this environment for development of bilingualism.

Language: English

Published: Oak Park, Illinois: InterCultura Montessori School, 1997

Language: English

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Abstract/Notes: This work reports, from a qualitative research perspective, the development of an English Corner project for a preschool Children’s House classroom in central Mexico over the course of a 3-year period. It shows the transition of a language specialist over six consecutive periods of work, from a traditional understanding and practice of teaching English as a second language to young learners into a more comprehensive one of the Montessori Method. The analysis of my own practice is used to recover insights through a reflective process with the intention to develop a second language (L2) Montessori program for 3- to 6-year-olds that aligns better with Montessori pedagogy.  Variables such as instruction time, setting, group constitution, materials, and teaching and learning strategies allowed for certain aspects to arise as leading points of interest for the focus of the analysis and the methodological and pedagogical adaptations that followed each period. This paper is an attempt to fill the gap between the need to deliver a second language effectively in Montessori education and the lack of guidance for doing it the Montessori way; it is especially for practitioners who do not have a Montessori background but also for Montessori-trained teachers for whom more specific preparation would aid their practice. I also hope to stimulate further research in the field of second language acquisition and multilingualism in Montessori education at every level of education.

Language: English

DOI: 10.17161/jomr.v7i1.13401

ISSN: 2378-3923

Language: English