The benefits of an English immersion at nursery school
San Marcos American Preschool, a private nursery school in Chamberí, offers an English immersion program for early years
The research on language development in early childhood
Shows that the young brain has an astounding capacity to acquire language. San Marcos American Preschool, a private daycare in Chamberí, demonstrates that foreign languages are best taught in the earliest years, and language immersion is the single most effective method for learning and teaching a new language. Scholars have documented increased academic performance in reading, reasoning, and math in elementary students who have acquired dual-language fluency.
An early childhood immersion program looks just like any other preschool program. There’s no difference between immersion and what goes on in any child-centered learning environment, except that the caregivers and teachers play with the children, speak to the children, and read to the children in the target language—in our case, English. San Marcos American Preschool, a private nursery school in Chamberí, provides 100% immersion to toddlers, they understand the language within a few months, and, by the end of a year, language-ready children are speaking it—not because of any special language training techniques, but because that’s the way the early childhood brain works. In addition, they speak the target language without an accent.
San Marcos American Preschool Madrid demonstrates that
Children while in our private nursery in Chamberí have a window of a few years during which learning a second language comes easily to them. Very easy in fact. The estimated “cut off” age is around 10 years old.
Children are little sponges from about the age of 6 months and through the age of 10. Studies show the more you give them to learn, the more they will acquire. If you want them to learn more, it makes sense to give them the opportunity to learn a second language while they are still in this “sponge” period. The frequent use of the foreign language being used in immersion programs in much higher than in a traditional class and this increases their opportunity to absorb the language.
Toddlers, preschoolers, and primary school-aged children are at the prime learning stage of their life. Young children are naturally and easily able to grasp the same new language skills with which older children and adults often struggle. “The child’s brain is different from the adult brain in that it is a very dynamic structure that is evolving […]. The two-or three-year old four- learning a second language is a ‘perfect model for the idea of the critical period’.”