Multi-Level Learning

Small classes of 4-8 children are grouped by age, rather than language level. This ensures that each child is challenged at his or her own pace, benefiting from individualized attention in a multi-level environment.

Small Groups:
During a session, each teacher works with a small group of 4-8 children. Children benefit from a vibrant group dynamic, playing team games and creating a group call and response echo to reinforce language goals. The small group size also allows for individual attention and language practice tailored to each child’s level.

Individualized Learning:
In our multi-level setting, teachers tailor their prompts and expectations of responses to challenge each child at their own level. Beginners hear simple yes/no, X or Y questions: “Do you want an apple or an orange?”, and answer back non-verbally, or with a one-word or very simple responses: “Apple!”. More advanced students are prompted with open ended questions: “What would you like to eat?” and respond with fuller sentences: “I would like an apple, please!” Some students eventually take the reins, asking beginner peers simple questions: “What kind of fruit do you want? Do you want an apple or an orange?” while practicing the interrogative structure.

In this way, a teacher can accommodate and challenge each child at her own level in the context of an age-appropriate activity. Thanks to the range of levels in any group, children are exposed to simple and complex language models through “peer partnerships” and always see the next level to reach for.

Peer Partnerships:
In all sessions, children are encouraged to interact with one another using the foreign language, not just with the teacher. Newer or younger students have the benefit of peer models: hearing friends speaking the language in a Language Stars program motivates the beginner socially as well as cognitively. The more advanced learner is put in a leadership position and builds skills and confidence while showing what she knows. Rather than a teacher-centered environment (where only the teacher speaks the foreign language), Language Stars is a peer-partnership environment where children also learn from each other.

i+1:
The concept of i+1 provides the foundation for successful multi-level immersion language learning. i+1 is a concept pioneered by Lev Vygotsky, who believed that social learning leads to cognitive development. More specifically, he talked about what he coined, "the zone of proximal development," which described the space of learning potential between what we know and what we have yet to learn.

Linguist Stephen Krashen took this theory further with his “Input Hypothesis.” Krashen promoted the importance of language input in language learning, positing that input should always stretch the learner — give input + 1 step more — to move the learner from what they know into the zone of what they can learn, optimizing his or her potential.

Using the principle of i+1, Language Stars teachers constantly present children with language input with a stretch as their skill develops. Teachers model the language at the child’s current level, and then at a slightly higher level, to give him something to reach for. Before long, the child will find that his “i” level has shifted higher into the proximal zone. From there, the relative challenge and learning increases.