Research in neurobiology has established that there is a crucial window of opportunity for a child to acquire a second, third or even fourth language with ease and close to native speaker proficiency. This language development window is between birth and 5 years of age. Research has also established that there are significant benefits to exposing children to multiple languages at an early age and raising a child to be bilingual or multilingual. Children who are raised bilingual or multilingual tend to perform better in the areas of science, math and grammar. Bilingual and multilingual children tend to excel more in school, score better on tests of first language skills, be more creative, have greater mental flexibility and follow complicated instructions with greater ease. These are just some of the many benefits of acquiring a second, third or even fourth language early in life. Indeed, exposing your child to multiple languages during this crucial language development window will also open the door to an unlimited number of career opportunities down the road that might not otherwise be available to your child. With our growing multicultural community, there is a strong need for bilingual and multilingual professionals, particularly those who are proficient in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. Every year after the age of 5 that a parent waits to introduce a foreign language to his/her child, it becomes more difficult for the child to as easily and naturally develop fluency with native proficiency.
Unlike other schools in the Central Florida area where foreign language programs have been entirely eliminated or are offered for such small durations (i.e. twice per week for 30 minutes) that they are ineffective, our school makes multilingualism amongst its students a primary goal. It is becoming more and more a critical goal given our exponentially increasing multi-cultural community within the United States and our growing international relations and dependence of the American government and American businesses on foreign countries such as China. Despite the increasing necessity of raising our children multilingual to prepare them for the future, public schools are cutting foreign language programs out of schools. The necessity and importance of foreign language instruction is highlighted by the following statistics.
Apart from the clear benefits of multilingualism emphasized as a key component to our education-focused program, there are a multitude of other reasons why the Foreign Language Immersion Early Childhood Center & Preparatory Academy is the best decision for parents seeking academic excellence for their children:
1. Small Class Sizes of approximately 12 students
2. Installation and integration of interactive whiteboards in every classroom to create a richer sensory learning environment
3. The provision of a well-rounded liberal arts education with a strong emphasis on the arts with Daily Visual Art and Music classes, which incorporate not only hands-on activities to learn and develop technique, but also the introduction of historical biographies and compositions of notable artists and composers across multiple eras and different genres and mediums
4. An active, heavily promoted violin program overseen by accomplished violinist Jonita Aadland and an emphasis on training our students to audition for seats in the Florida Youth Symphony Orchestra
5. A successful soccer program with strong, competitive soccer teams coached daily by a professional soccer coach
6. The availability of daily academic team competition programs such as Odyssey of the Mind, Exploravision, Chess and Junior First Lego League — all of which inspire creativity and foster outside-the-box critical thinking skills and strategic, analytical problem solving skills while at the same time engendering an understanding of and appreciation for the importance of team work, communication, cooperation, and sharing
7. The incorporation of a daily character education lesson as part of the core curriculum in order to instill core values in our students and children such as a honesty, trust, unity, equality, honor, and integrity and to ensure that every student is well grounded with a strong moral compass to allow him/her to mature into a responsible, mature citizen capable of making wise life decisions
CONTACT US
Do you have a question or inquiry? Then please feel free to contact us at (321) 939-4177, email at contact@languageimmersionschool.com or feel free to use the contact form on this page.