| English | Español |
| English | Español |
After our three months in Israel, we changed continents and moved to Costa Rica for another three months. We stayed with local families in three different parts of the country: Potrero on the Pacific Coast, Monteverde in the Cloud Forest, and San Joaquin de Flores in the Central Valley. Living in a homestay made it much easier to learn the language and to appreciate the culture of Costa Rica, as well as the three very different parts of the country. Our 15 year old daughter was able to learn the language especially well by living in her own separate homestay, usually with a family that had a girl her age. By the end of our stay in Costa Rica she was able to easily talk with anyone about any subject.
We decided to do something a little different with Zachary, our nine year old. After studying Spanish for six weeks, we enrolled him in a local Spanish speaking private school in San Joaquin. He learned a lot about the customs and culture of Costa Rica in the school, but he did not make any friends and wasn't very happy there. After three weeks, he returned to the language school with us and had a much better time. At the end of the summer, his Spanish was also quite good and he enjoys speaking it with whoever he can find.
One thing that interested me in Costa Rica was how English was taught to children there. I knew that there were probably some good ideas that I could use when teaching Spanish in my kindergarten class. While in San Joaquin de Flores, a small suburban town near San José, I visited four different preschools in the area and found the teaching methods to be quite different.
Bosque Alegre is a small private preschool with a total of about 20 children. The school has an incredible tree house with swings attached to the tree. Even the smallest children have no trouble getting into the tree house and having fun. During the day the children play with the toys in the class and in the outside area, have group lessons at tables, and sing songs, many with hand motions. The day I observed, the children were having a great time holding hands in a circle and singing songs in English and Spanish. One that seemed especially effective was "Ten Little Monkeys" in which a different numbers of children went into the middle of the circle, depending on the number in the song. It was a fun way to introduce English and counting to the children.
A short distance from the large city of Heredia, Centro Educativo Línea Solar is located on a beautiful rural campus with classes from preschool through eighth grade. The school follows the Montessori approach with a lot of individual and small group activities by the children. Some of the teachers have received training from the American Montessori Society and their teaching reflects its inclusive approach. The children are always active, but the classrooms have a calm and welcoming atmosphere. Outside the classrooms was a beautiful playground with a house for hatching chicks, a butterfly garden, and a judo room. Plans are underway to add a high school on the other side of the creek that runs next to the school.
In Montessori lessons, concrete objects are used for teaching whenever possible. One of the preschool teachers gave a very effective English lesson to three year olds using small plastic animals. She showed the animal to the group of four children and said slowly and clearly, "This is a horse. Would you like to hold the horse?" Then she let each child hold the horse and pass it to the next child. As they were holding the horse, she asked them a few simple questions, such as "Do you like horses?" "How does the horse feel?" She repeated this with three other animals, each time letting each child have time to feel the animal and say its name. Aferwards she sang a few short songs with the children in English, each involving hand motions and participation.
Not too far from Centro Educativo Línea Solar is a preschool that follows the more traditional Montessori approach of the Association Montessori Internationale. This school is also in a beautiful rural setting, surrounded by lots of green grass and many fruit trees. The children were from age 2 through 5 and were self-directed in their work, with the older children often helping and guiding the younger ones. When I was there several of the children were presenting a lesson on the five senses to the other children. For the most part, the children listened attentively and participated enthusiastically, especially when little containers were passed around for them to smell.
English lessons are given twice a week by another teacher in a separate building. The main teacher does not speak or use English in the classroom. To me, this seemed a somewhat artificial situation, with little need or encouragement to use the language, except with the English teacher on the special days.
This is the school that we sent Zachary to for three weeks at the end of July and the beginning of August. The school has about 150 children from preschool through fifth grade. The classes are small (about 12 children per class), but the days for the children are full of rote learning, tests, and little creativity. The most creative part of the school is certainly the preschool, and the English teaching followed this example. When I visited the children in first grade were receiving their English lesson. The children were active and happy when they were singing English songs, but their attention quickly began to waver when the teacher turned to workbooks and sentence pattern drills.
The situation was completely different, however, when I watched the same teacher with a class of three year olds. They enthusiastically sang songs in English and were especially happy with counting songs and songs that use finger plays. The lessons were full of fun and participation and were perfect for the age level. It is unfortunate that this excitement in learning quickly diminished by first grade as lessons became based on tests that would be given and worksheets.
In all four schools the most successful English lessons were with participatory activities in which the children moved around, talked and sang. The children welcomed the songs and asked for more. In all, I would say that the most successful was the lesson given at Centro Educativo Línea Solar in which the group was small and the children could touch what they were learning.
Return to Mr. Shivers Kindergarten Page.