Accelerated Elementary French Track Opens for Valley Children in 1st-3rd Grades
Scottsdale, AZ, June 18, 2008 --(PR.com)-- The International School of Arizona has designed a new hybrid program that will allow valley children in first, second and third grades to learn in a foreign language immersion environment while following curriculum from Arizona and Europe. New students will gain the benefit of becoming bilingual in an accelerated format and study a well balanced and challenging set of courses. Classes will start on August 11 near Shea and 91st street. No previous experience in the French language is necessary.
The school’s new Accelerated French Track will allow Elementary students who have little or no experience in the French language to study the foreign language at an accelerated pace and later integrate fully with their fluent peers. Students will be taught both in French and English. New students will be separated from other fluent French speaking students approximately 30-35% of the time while receiving instruction in French language arts. This will allow them to start at a beginning level and acquire the necessary foundation of the language at a pace appropriate for their group. Both groups of students will be taught together during the remaining 65-70% of instruction hours.
A limited number of students (between 5-10) per grade level will be accepted. The program’s goals allocate a lot of individualized attention for students so that they can advance quickly, acquire a high level of fluency with native-like pronunciation and obtain literacy in two languages.
The program is being marketed to American families who are internationally minded and seek a strong curriculum with a global focus. Although the program is considered highly innovative for the Phoenix metropolitan area, most other major U.S. cities have well established immersion programs offering an array of foreign language options.
ISA’s program will prepare students to achieve mastery of subjects measured by standardized testing such as Stanford Ten and Aims. Students will also follow traditional subjects such as: language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, art, physical education and music.
Information sessions for prospective families will be held on Monday afternoons at 9128 E. San Salvador Drive in Scottsdale. To register or to find out more information you may contact the school Director, Michelle Borie, 480-874-2326 or log onto www.isaz.org.
About the School
The International School of Arizona, founded in 1997, is a non-profit, private, Pre-School and Elementary school emphasizing second language acquisition and bicultural learning through French and Spanish immersion. ISA was founded in a spirit of bringing a different cultural awareness to children of ethnically and socially diverse backgrounds. It is ISA’s mission to provide its students with the fundamental tools of learning while giving them the opportunity to discover a new language and a new culture. The school offers immersion (pre-elementary and elementary) programs that follow curriculum set forth by the State of Arizona and the French Ministry of Education.
About Language Immersion
Immersion is defined as a method of foreign language instruction in which the regular school curriculum is taught through the medium of the language. The foreign language is the vehicle for content instruction; it is not the subject of instruction. Learning a foreign language helps children understand people of another culture. They experience another way of thinking. Furthermore, research shows that there is a positive correlation between foreign language study and reading abilities. In a study published in Developmental Psychology in 1997, Ellen Bialystok, who conducted the research, has found that 5 year old bilingual children learning a second language at school are more advanced than monolinguals. This is because bilingual children better understand the general properties of the symbolic function of written language than monolingual children. This is the reason why children who have studied a second language tend to outperform their counterparts on English tests. In addition, as Steven Pinker, director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at MIT explains in The Language Instinct, the acquisition of a second language in children is similar to the acquisition of their mother tongue; it just “happens” because children’s language-learning circuitry in the brain is more elastic than adults’.
References:
Bialystok, Ellen. Effects of Bilingualism and Biliteracy on Children’s Emergent Concept of Print. Developmental Psychology 30 1997: 429-440.
Cooper, Thomas C. Foreign Language Study and SAT-Verbal Scores. The Modern Language Journal 71 1987: 381-387.
Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct. New York: Harper Collins Publisher, 1995.
Editorial & Reader contact: Michelle Borie, Director, mborie@isaz.org. 480-874-2326
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The school’s new Accelerated French Track will allow Elementary students who have little or no experience in the French language to study the foreign language at an accelerated pace and later integrate fully with their fluent peers. Students will be taught both in French and English. New students will be separated from other fluent French speaking students approximately 30-35% of the time while receiving instruction in French language arts. This will allow them to start at a beginning level and acquire the necessary foundation of the language at a pace appropriate for their group. Both groups of students will be taught together during the remaining 65-70% of instruction hours.
A limited number of students (between 5-10) per grade level will be accepted. The program’s goals allocate a lot of individualized attention for students so that they can advance quickly, acquire a high level of fluency with native-like pronunciation and obtain literacy in two languages.
The program is being marketed to American families who are internationally minded and seek a strong curriculum with a global focus. Although the program is considered highly innovative for the Phoenix metropolitan area, most other major U.S. cities have well established immersion programs offering an array of foreign language options.
ISA’s program will prepare students to achieve mastery of subjects measured by standardized testing such as Stanford Ten and Aims. Students will also follow traditional subjects such as: language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, art, physical education and music.
Information sessions for prospective families will be held on Monday afternoons at 9128 E. San Salvador Drive in Scottsdale. To register or to find out more information you may contact the school Director, Michelle Borie, 480-874-2326 or log onto www.isaz.org.
About the School
The International School of Arizona, founded in 1997, is a non-profit, private, Pre-School and Elementary school emphasizing second language acquisition and bicultural learning through French and Spanish immersion. ISA was founded in a spirit of bringing a different cultural awareness to children of ethnically and socially diverse backgrounds. It is ISA’s mission to provide its students with the fundamental tools of learning while giving them the opportunity to discover a new language and a new culture. The school offers immersion (pre-elementary and elementary) programs that follow curriculum set forth by the State of Arizona and the French Ministry of Education.
About Language Immersion
Immersion is defined as a method of foreign language instruction in which the regular school curriculum is taught through the medium of the language. The foreign language is the vehicle for content instruction; it is not the subject of instruction. Learning a foreign language helps children understand people of another culture. They experience another way of thinking. Furthermore, research shows that there is a positive correlation between foreign language study and reading abilities. In a study published in Developmental Psychology in 1997, Ellen Bialystok, who conducted the research, has found that 5 year old bilingual children learning a second language at school are more advanced than monolinguals. This is because bilingual children better understand the general properties of the symbolic function of written language than monolingual children. This is the reason why children who have studied a second language tend to outperform their counterparts on English tests. In addition, as Steven Pinker, director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at MIT explains in The Language Instinct, the acquisition of a second language in children is similar to the acquisition of their mother tongue; it just “happens” because children’s language-learning circuitry in the brain is more elastic than adults’.
References:
Bialystok, Ellen. Effects of Bilingualism and Biliteracy on Children’s Emergent Concept of Print. Developmental Psychology 30 1997: 429-440.
Cooper, Thomas C. Foreign Language Study and SAT-Verbal Scores. The Modern Language Journal 71 1987: 381-387.
Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct. New York: Harper Collins Publisher, 1995.
Editorial & Reader contact: Michelle Borie, Director, mborie@isaz.org. 480-874-2326
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Contact
International School of Arizona
Michelle Borie
480-874-2326
www.isaz.org
Michelle Borie
480-874-2326
www.isaz.org
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