A foreign language program that begins in early childhood bestows many long-term benefits upon its students. As language specialists have come to realize, learning a language in a non-immersion situation requires years of study and review before the learner can attain fluency. Beginning instruction in the early elementary years provides adequate time for thorough study through the years. Children happily mimic the teacher's speech as in a game, learning correct pronunciation and intonation at a stage in life when experimenting with new sounds is not yet intimidating or threatening, but viewed as challenging and exciting.
Children strengthen listening skills as they strive to please and to improve their performance.
The skills and discipline obtained in the language classroom transfer to other subjects and increase the rate of success in those areas. Foreign language study enhances understanding of the student's native language. Adherence to teaching in the target language is crucial in these beginning years so that the children may come to understand that other forms of communication, beyond their own native tongues, exist and are important. Aural-oral techniques, along with visual aids consisting of pictures and objects, are used throughout the elementary program and account for the basis of our teaching strategy in the Lower School. In the Junior School, a long-range goal of language mastery continues step by step.