Age-3 Beginners Now Introduced to Chinese, Spanish and French

Beginning this year, Ranney’s youngest students—our age-3 Beginners—are being introduced to Spanish, French and Mandarin Chinese. These three world languages have been part of the Ranney curriculum for many years, previously starting at the Kindergarten level.

“At Ranney, we recognize that children are like sponges at these early ages of 3 and 4,” says Lower School Head Dr. Andrea Danial. “They naturally notice and pick up words from everywhere and a young child’s brain has the capability of capturing and recalling the unique sounds of a language quite accurately. As children age, the brain eliminates or ‘prunes’ unnecessary sounds from its pathways for efficiency; by learning additional languages early, the brain continues to develop its ability to process various sounds accurately. So, it makes sense to offer multiple languages at this prime time of life. Our students not only have the opportunity to maintain but also to further develop their language skills throughout their early years of school. We have been amazed by their accuracy in pronunciation and enunciation already!”

Early Childhood students in Beginners and Pre-Kindergarten begin their language learning on a trimester schedule by developing their listening and speaking skills in real-life situations. Through the use of thematic units, children explore other cultures. “Starting world language instruction at age 3 sets the stage for higher level proficiencies in the five C’s: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons and communities,” explained Lower School World Language Teachers Jeanette Cordero (Spanish), Nancy Rosenthal (French) and Ping Zhang (Chinese). “Children who start their language learning in early childhood demonstrate certain cognitive advantages and possess the capacity to develop near native-like acquisition.”

They will take these skills with them into Kindergarten and use them throughout their tenure at Ranney School. Once students enter second grade, they can choose to study one of the three languages more in-depth. When they cross over to the Middle School, they can elect to continue studying their chosen language or switch to a different language.

Each fall, Lower School students demonstrate their growing world language skills as part of the Grandparents’ & Friends’ Day performances and the Kindergarten Moving Up Ceremony. You can view a video clip of the November 2014 performances, which feature students singing in French and Spanish and writing Chinese characters, on this page.

Ranney students have received national recognition for their excellent performance in French and Spanish, demonstrated by their scores on the 2014 National French and National Spanish exams. In the French secondary level contest, which spans from grades 8-12, students earned 13 medals and 47 Certificates of Honor in 2014. One student placed 2nd in the state of New Jersey and 5th nationally, and another student placed 4th in both New Jersey and nationally. Over 40% of Ranney’s French students placed in the top 20 at both the state and country level. In the French elementary division, all of our fifth-grade students ranked in the top 20 in the nation!

In the Spanish language, Ranney students in grades 8-12 earned two gold, 10 silver and 9 bronze medals, along with 38 honorable mentions in 2014 (see back story).

In May 2014, Upper and Middle School students also won top prizes at the 31st Annual Orlando Saa Foreign Language Poetry Recitation Contest (see back story).

At the Upper School level, students can qualify to become members of the Spanish National Honor Society, French National Honor Society, and as of this school year, the Chinese National Honor Society. In fact, Ranney’s first Chinese National Honor Society inductions were held in late October (see back story). Upper School students can also contribute to their division’s world language literary magazine called Taxi.

Ranney’s World Language teachers include:

• French: Isabelle Daly, Marianne Moran and Nancy Rosenthal
• Mandarin Chinese: Matthew Allen and Ping Zhang
• Spanish: Heidi Bonney, Jeanette Cordero, Maria Garcia, Marcia Hernandez, Ramonita Marcano, Maggie Reiter (Department Chair) and Maria Silvestri

Related articles:
Students Immerse Themselves in World Languages Week (January 2014)

Middle School Students Share Spanish Skills and Experience with Lower School Students (May 2013)

Ranney Students Rock World Language Exams and Receive State/National Recognition (May 2012)