Language Rationale

Language Rationale
Chelsea Crosby Bunn
Lander University

Language Rationale

Language is an innately human mechanism which sets us apart from all other
species. Because of language, we are able to express our thoughts and feelings in the
form of the spoken or written word. The process of acquiring language is a natural one
in which very young children begin to assign meaning to familiar figures, such as Mom,
Dad or dog. Barbara Ervin explains:
[Language acquisition] starts with meanings. First, some understanding
of what people are saying is necessary. Once children begin to
understand what people are saying, they can begin to decode the
meanings of some words. When some minimal set of words can be
comprehended, then work can begin on the phonological system. (Ervin,
23)
Babies need endless amounts of auditory stimulation in the form of spoken
words. Eventually, they begin to coo, babble and, finally, form words.
In addition to gathering information about the spoken word, the child is
also acquiring an interest in written symbols very early in life. He must develop
an understanding of the relationship between written text and meaning. In
order to develop this understanding, the child should be read to, and be able to

Language Rationale

explore books on his own. If the child is fortunate enough to be in a Montessori

classroom at a young age, he will have every opportunity to nourish this
growing love for language, with rhyming songs, finger plays, and activities that
expand vocabulary.
The practical life and sensorial areas of the Montessori classroom help
to prepare the child for language. In practical life, the child strengthens the
muscles of the pincer grip, which is essential for beginning writing, with the
spoon transfer, tweezer use and practice with the dropper. In sensorial, the
child is introduced to many (perhaps new) descriptive words such as large and
small, tall and short, colors, tastes, smells and more. The new vocabulary
introduced in sensorial will help the child later on, in the classroom and in life, to
explain more clearly what he would like to write or talk about. In addition to new
vocabulary, sensorial helps familiarize the child with left-to-right sequencing,
something critical to the processes of reading and writing.
Before the child is ready for a formal lesson with written symbols, he
must first have some visual and auditory preparation. This preparation is the
build up for those reading lessons the child pines for when he sees the older
child successfully reading. Visual preparation includes matching activities,
visual sequencing and three part matching cards- these exercises also help the

Language Rationale

child to acquire more vocabulary and to develop visual discrimination between

two images. Visual preparation links sounds children have been hearing for the
first couple of years of life to familiar images. Auditory preparation consists of I
Spy, auditory sequencing, rhyming and the silence game. These prepare the
childs auditory system to differentiate sounds, an important step in the
advanced language acquisition process.
After much practice with visual and auditory preparation, the child is
introduced to lessons in concept development. Concept development helps the
child to understand critical elements within the world of language, such as
opposites, singular and plural, and sequencing. Skills acquired through
concept development enable the child to express himself more easily through
spoken and written communication.
The Montessori method teaches the child to write before it teaches him
to read. The purpose of this is, the chid must first become familiar with the
fundamentals of each letter: what sound it makes, how it feels to write it and
how it looks. This writing before reading sequence ensures that the child does
not first acquire a superficial relationship with words, memorizing what words
look like and sound like before they have any real background information. The
sequence also fits with the ever-present Montessori practice of teaching from

Language Rationale

the concrete to the abstract. The child gets much hands on experience with the
individual sounds, and gradually moves into sound blending, word building, (all
the while, practicing writing) and finally, the abstract: reading.
The first formal introduction to the written symbol is with the sandpaper
letters. Dr. Montessori explains in The Discovery of the Child, When a letter is
given to a child and its sound pronounced, the child fixes and image of it in his
mind with the help of his visual and his tactile muscular senses
(Montessori,1967). After the sandpaper letters and cornmeal tray, the child
practices writing with a writing instrument for the first time in the language area,
with the metal insets. This exercise also helps to train the pincer grasp, but in a
more practical context: the child is using a pencil to make intentional marks on
paper. Dr Montessori speaks of the importance of writing in Creative
Development in the Child: When such a hand comes to the work of writing it
can follow the will of the individual. When the child knows the letters,
everything becomes easy (Montessori, 1998). When the child is proficient in
writing, he is able to move on to more abstract tasks, like reading.
Once the child is familiar with all the sounds, and building words with the
movable alphabet, they are able to begin reading. The child can build phrases
and read simple books and classroom labels. For the proficient reader, maybe

Language Rationale

in his last year in the primary classroom, materials are available which help him
to conceptualize new things in language, such as phonograms, consonant and
vowel digraphs, non-phonetic sounds, and functions of words.
The purpose of teaching language is ultimately to train an individual to
communicate with others. Joy Turner points out in How Do You Teach Reading,
[communication] does not exclude listening, speaking, singing, or even
communicating through pictures and body language. Its the making contact
thats important: language is a primary human tool for achieving relationship
(Turner, 1995). Without language, we would not be able to collaborate with
others, and thus, never achieve anything on a grand scale; and, is that not the
purpose of education in general? We are to educate individuals so that they
may work together and make the world a better place; in this way, an
educational curriculum without a strong emphasis in language is not serving the
greater good. Empowering children to speak and write with intelligence,
confidence and clarity is one of the most important things we can do as
teachers; the Montessori language curriculum facilitates this effort.

Language Rationale

References
Ervin, Barbara. Language Rationale. Greenwood, SC: Lander University
Montessori, M. (1967). The discovery of the child. New York, NY: The Random House
Publishing Group.
Montessori, M. (1998). Creative development in the child: The Montessor approach,
Vol. 2. (R. Ramachandran, Trans.) Chennai, India: Kalakshetra Press. (Original
work dictated 1939)
Turner, J. How Do You Teach Reading? Montessori LIFE. (1995): 25-29. Print.