The Quad will offer children instruction in Spanish, French, Chinese, and English. Unlike most programs that ask families to pick a language track, we will strive to make children lifelong learners of all four languages.
Here are some statistics: English is the most spoken with 1.132 billion speakers. Mandarin Chinese is #2 with 1.117 billion speakers. Spanish is #4 with 534 million speakers, and French is #5 with 280 million speakers.
Imagine what a child can do in life is he/she speaks 4 of the top 5 languages in the World. An International Pilot? Work for the UN? Become the CEO of a Chinese Pharmaceutical Company based in Shanghai? Why not?
How will we pull this off? For starters, we have amazing teachers with experience doing exactly this kind of language magic.
Each room will have a language theme. When COVID-19 exposure is no longer a concern, children will rotate between rooms for lessons. When students go to their Spanish room, for example, they will quickly learn that the expectation is to speak/think/play in Spanish.
The goal will be to have at least 1 hour in Spanish, French, and Chinese through Toddler 2.
Beginning in Toddler 3, English will be added as children start working on phonics and word recognition.
Research shows that babies and children learn multiple languages with the same effort it takes to learn 1 language. Research also shows that children who become proficient in a language before age 8 are likely to keep it through their lifetime.
Perhaps you’ve heard of the One Parent One Language (OPOL) method. This is commonly used in other parts of the world with multilingual families. Here’s an example: Dad speaks only German to his kids. Mom speaks only Spanish, but Mom & Dad speak English to each other. The Family lives in Italy near the French border. At daycare/school, the kids learn Italian and French. Crazy? You might be shocked to meet these kids and see that they have no problem speaking 5 languages by age 5, and most through natural exposure.
At The Quad, we’ll be using the One Teacher One Language (OTOL) method to maximize natural language acquisition. The only time Teachers will speak English with the children is if the subject matter is scheduled in English.
