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Recent neuroscience research suggests that children’s learning capacity is developed during the earliest years. Interactions with the environment during these critical years help lay the foundation for behavioural and developmental outcomes. In recent years, researchers have made tremendous progress in learning about the human brain and the critical influence of the early years for brain development and learning, including learning a foreign language.
Children have the ability to learn languages faster and better than adults. The pathways for dendrites in a child’s brain cells are still developing. Exposure to external stimuli, which includes exposure to new languages, will cause these dendrites to grow and connect between the brain cells, forming a complex network of neuron connection. Most of these dendrites peak in their growth at about the age of six. Hence, there exists a window of opportunity to learn a new language, ideally before the age of six.
To take advantage of this window of opportunity, we provide opportunities for students to learn English, Mandarin and Thai simultaneously from a very young age. The main language used as medium of instruction is English.
Second and third language programs are taught to our students in Mandarin and Thai, starting from an early age of about 3 years old.
Students take these language classes daily, and emphasis is placed in areas of speaking, reading, spelling and writing. Mandarin curriculum is adopted from Singapore’s National Curriculum and Thai curriculum is adopted from Thai’s National Curriculum.
The rise of the economy in China has propelled an increasing interest throughout the world to learn Mandarin, making it become a very important language of communication.
St. Mark’s offers Mandarin program in its regular curriculum which focus on students’ speaking, reading and writing. . Our Mandarin curriculum is based on Singapore’s National Curriculum. The students are taught Hanyu Pinyin to aid with Chinese pronunciation and taught the simplified characters in Chinese writing. These methods are widely used throughout the world, including China.
All Mandarin classes are taught by qualified native Chinese teachers.
Our Thai language curriculum is unique. We teach Thai daily, using the same textbooks and methods as those in Thai schools. This enables our students to be as proficient in Thai as their peers in Thai schools.
Our students are privileged to learn to read and write in Thai, at a very young age. They become competent speakers, readers and writers of Thai by the time they are in early primary levels. |
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