We expect that a child who joins our trilingual environment programme at a young age, say 2 years old, will be able to understand English and Romanian to a high level before starting primary school. We do not necessarily expect your child will speak much English or Romanian, but learning to understand is a big step in the right direction.
Any future language study will be much easier. It is also important to remember that speaking a second and third language is only one of the benefits of our trilingual environment.
We believe they are profound and wide-ranging. In out multicultural environment it is a must to be able to communicate in different languages, to understand easier and better the world around us.
We use the one-person one-language (OPOL) system. So you won’t find our English speaker using Hungarian nor Romanian or mixing words in sentences. We aim for the natural usage of language - although obviously we have more Hungarian speakers than English speakers.
The teachers we have found will work Monday to Friday, from 9 to 5, giving consistent care and support exclusively in English. This allows us to offer the bilingual environment to all the children attending our setting. Best of all, the English teacher and volunteers will be in addition to our CSEMETE Kindergarten Workers Group.
In many ways, the younger the better. Children as young as 2 years old can individually identify all the languages spoken in the home environment. The early years are often described as a “window of opportunity” for language learning. Older children become embarrassed more easily when making mistakes in a new language, whereas younger children are eager to learn by listening.
Acquiring familiarity with the concept of foreign languages makes children more likely to succeed in learning new languages later in life, even if the original languages are forgotten. We are introducing English and Romanian because children will nearly always have the option to continuing it in their future schooling.
Bilingual and trilingual education is the norm in many part of Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Singapore (amongst others) - all with great success. These countries understand the advantages of teaching additional languages. By ensuring that your children have an English Key Worker, we can guarantee plenty of exposure to Hungarian speaking staff. By closely monitoring every child’s progress, we are confident that every child on the programme will reach his or her potential in English, as well as phonics, all whilst benefiting from our trilingual environment.
We offer the bilingual environment to all the children in our setting. If you wish to opt-out of the programme, just let us know.
Yes! Many schools offer 1 or 2 short sessions a week. Although these are better than nothing, there is a limit on how much a large group can learn in a short session once a week! Our English teacher and volunteers will be here 40 hours a week (basically Caoimhe, Daisy, Elena and Manon are here every day from 9 to 5), providing consistent care in English alongside the Hungarain staff - you can't really compare the benefits of that with a 20 minute "lesson".
Is this a tried-and-tested theory?