Immersion – the only way to fully learn a language
The day program offers at present four main language streams where students are fully immersed in Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, German and French from ages three to six. (New language streams will be added in the future.) These early years are the “critical periods for language development” as described by many child development psychologists and linguists. This means that children can absorb any set of sounds associated with languages in a natural and contextual way, without limitations, and without significant effort. Students can develop any number of languages easily during these formative years, and will speak them with perfect native pronunciation. This “window for language development” is relatively short, and so CoIS takes full advantage of its nature by offering full immersion programs for students as young as age three. CoIS limits the use of English in the classroom, since English is already the dominant language in the child’s environment.
