Language and Culture

Being literate is not enough

In today’s world, literacy is the single most accurate and reliable predictor of success – academic, personal or professional, financial independence and likelihood of attaining self-actualisation.  Governments, entrepreneurs, marketers, large and small corporations, ‘mum and dad’ businesses are capitalising on parents’ fears and deep-seated need to ensure that from birth their child will have every chance of success. 

For many parents, learning to read and write is the first and only focus even before the child learns to walk. Children are bombarded with letters in every aspect of their lives from their cereal bowl, to their pyjamas.  And yes, children learn to read, some sooner, some later, but learn they do!  Even though all children learn to read, not all adults who can read and write can achieve professional fulfilment, financial independence or ever reach self-actualisation.  That is because reading is not enough. 

Reading is knowledge; knowing what to do with that knowledge is skill.  Skills have to be developed, refined, reinforced, practiced and continually improved.  In educational terms, this is widely known as comprehension – being able to manipulate, extrapolate, analyse and synthesise information to extract the most useful and relevant ideas.  This leads to the development of critical inquiry.

Literacy development from birth to age 6

Contrary to current approaches to reading and writing, Maria Montessori, through scientific observation, determined that children learn to write then read naturally, effortlessly and fluidly if the environment provides the tools they need.  Maria Montessori explains that children from 0 to 6 years old are in their sensitive period for language acquisition, that is, all aspects of language both spoken and written. 

Children are masters of language because they possess the mechanism for language learning which is activated around 7 months gestation, which is two whole months before birth.  It is only in the first 6 years of life that they can accomplish the extraordinary feat of learning and producing language with little effort or intention.  Not only that, but children can learn many languages at once perfectly.  No adult can replicate this phenomenon.  In fact, the older the adult, the more effort is required to reach fluency in a new language and even then, he would never be able to speak it as a native would.  

From the age of 3, the child begins to make a conscious effort to learn the written language which as the added visual aspect.  In a Casa environment, the child is encouraged to work through a progression of concrete, sensorial materials that build strong links between sounds and symbols. 

By 4.5 the child knows the conventions of written language. He can compose sentences and effectively express his ideas in writing.  From here, the child can experience the spontaneous appearance of reading. 

In a Montessori environment every lesson, every interaction, every aspect of classroom life is driven by language.  It is not because the adults, education or administrators drive it.  It is in response to children’s needs for language. 

Language is not simply taught – it is a vehicle that propels the curriculum and it is the key to human development and understanding.  This aspect of language is nowhere more predominant and evident than in an elementary classroom.

Language is an organiser of thought

A child in the second plane is one whose imagination is boundless. Maria Montessori explains that imagination for an elementary child is like sensory exploration for a younger one.  Sensorial exploration steered the child towards abstract constructs of things experienced.  For example, one does not need to see every river in the world to understand what a river is and recognise a river when one is encountered. 

Imagination allows the child to extend the constructs beyond the place and time of the child to further support the development and refinement of abstract ideas and understanding.  The drawback is that imagination is infinite.  According to Maria Montessori, in order to aid the intelligence, imagination needs to be tamed – given purpose.  The tool for refinement is language.

Language has been the main driving force of civilization and continues to evolve as civilization evolves.  It was language that enabled us to form social groups, co-operate and share knowledge for the advancement of human civilization. 

Aristotle explained that language reflects the complex structure of thought.  It is said that one has only to look at the intricacy of a language and determine how sophisticated that culture or society is.  If language was a measure of a complex civilization, then we live in a rather plain society.  Classical Latin and some aboriginal languages alive today are examples of just how complex language can be. 

Maria Montessori believed in the early 20th century that language is internal to the human mind.  This was largely dismissed until linguist Noam Chomsky proved her point years later.  His studies reveal that language has a set of principles common to all languages.  For examples, when children learn to speak, they go through the noun phase followed by the verb phase regardless of language spoken.  He also identified a set of parameters that are specific to languages and has to do with phrase structure, for example, where the subject and the verb are placed in a sentence. 

More recently, Chomsky revealed that language is embedded within the broader architecture of the brain and actively engages with other sensory and processing systems, in particular sound and meaning.  Susan Feez, when speaking of language in Montessori settings explains that language is a system we use to organise and hold information. 

Language learning follows an evolutionary path

When the Montessori materials, arrangement and presentations are examined, it becomes clear that the environment was built to support language development while continuously propelling the child’s mind towards new heights of understanding, and self-development. 

Let’s first look at sandpaper letters! The activity provides primarily sensorial input as the child follow the path of the letter. These gestures will form the basis for literacy development. In fact, it is the first step in the evolution of language in humans. Michael Corballis of Auckland University believes that language in humans evolved from gestures. As primitive humans began to use their hands more, gestures of the hand began to migrate to the mouth giving rise to sounds that would eventually form words.

The next step in Montessori language learning is grammar study. It begins with the noun followed by the verb directly reflecting Chomsky’s conclusions about language evolution.  To illustrate, let’s have a look at an language game with the children who have had plenty practice with all the parts of speech. 

I would bring in unusual object or photos of interesting places. The children would have to use one word to identify it.  Then they would go around and add one word at a time which was a part of speech that had not been used before.  As a group, we witnessed the evolution of a simple uttering to a complex statement that expressed depth of thought, perspective and sentiment.  

Example: moss/moss clings/the moss clings/the silver moss clings/the silver moss clings tightly/the silver moss clings tightly to the branch/the silver moss clings tightly to the branch while/the silver moss clings tightly to the branch and it sparkles/wow, the silver moss clings tightly to the branch and it sparkles.

Following the study of parts of speech, children begin to study sentence structure which follows a similar pattern from simple to complex.  This too reflects Chomsky’s explanation of language parameters above.  These are rules that must be followed.  In fact, rules are what children learn when they study parts of speech and sentence structure. These appeals greatly to their sense of justices and incessant need to make and break rules to understand consequences and further refine their understanding.  All of these concepts are introduced using concrete materials and symbols. From about age 9, children would have worked with the materials and developed a framework in their mind that they will continue to refine and redefine abstractly.  

Language is a tool for refining higher order thinking

Oral language plays a crucial role in the Montessori classroom.  This age group is characterised by a powerful need to communicate and socialise where language is the propellant.  Here is where children learn to express their opinions and ideas confidently, precisely and with grace and courtesy.  The guide models expectations, introduces vocabulary and guides the students on how to achieve desired outcomes from fellow students through effective communication.  The teacher reads aloud stories that promote the exploration of ideas, building empathy, engagement of imagination.  

There are many opportunities for language enrichment in order to refine thinking and express ideas precisely.  It comes in many forms. Nomenclature cards are sets or systems of names that belong to a particular subject matter.  In the elementary classroom, these cards are tokens that represent concrete and abstract ideas that the child is refining through classification so that they may organise and hold information.  New vocabulary is precise and comes with its own stories, its family history and how it came about – its etymology.

To illustrate the level of accuracy a child seeks and the depth to which children engage their critical thinking, here is an example.  When exploring the rich bird life at our local estuary, children were making diagrams of birds and their habitats.  When a couple of children labelled the “beak”, an argument broke out.  Some said it was a beak, some said it was a bill.  It took an entire day and half for the class to decide the correct term.  It was decided through research that beaks are used for tearing food and bills are used to catch food.  Thus, a hawk has a beak and duck has a bill. 

Language is a tool for social and cultural expression

In a Montessori classroom, language is explored through genre.  Drama, poetry, journals, letter writing are just a few examples of opportunities to engage with language in a social and cultural context.

Children write and present skits to illustrate different aspects of life from acting out a book or story to resolving conflict and illustrating grace and courtesy concepts.  Poetry helps children understand language features and draw parallels where none existed before and develop their metaphorical mind.  For example, a group studying art appreciation began to discuss (and count) how many shades the artist had used.  A teacher who happened to be walking by asked what the artist might have been trying to convey.  From here, we began to consider colour as having physical attributes. The outcome of this was that children wrote poems that described the colour according to the senses.

Green is the grass/green are the rocks covered in moss/greens is an apple/green are the veggies in my garden/green is sweet like watermelon/green is prickly like the lichen/green is sour like limes/green makes me feel alive. 

Exploring literature works offers a unique opportunity to immerse children in worlds past, present or future, near and far. It is a rich and diverse source of social and cultural context, each with it own language structure, use and meaning. Meanwhile, writing works of fiction is a way for children to use their cultural and social understanding to reach and influence and audience.

Language is a vehicle for storytelling

Last, but no least, storytelling is the backbone of a Montessori elementary classroom.  Stories are a rich medium through which children learn, make connections, and explore ideas and emotions. 

Elementary aged children are social beings who like to tell stories about what they did, what they would like to do and what they heard or saw.  Storytelling capitalizes on this to extend their thinking.

The elementary curriculum uses language and storytelling as fuel.  The purpose of cosmic education is to give the child the universe, nothing less.  Children are no longer bound by the world they can see and touch.  Their guiding phrase at this stage is “what if?”. 

When asking questions, the child tests generalizations he has made so far about the world and himself.  The cosmic curriculum allows his conclusions to be as informed as possible.  As their abstractions become more and more refined, so does the language they use.  As they create themselves, they also create new forms of language that will drive civilization forward and give birth to new metaphors.

The Great Lessons play an important role in giving the curriculum a context that is more manageable.  Simply giving the children the universe whole and all at once would confuse and overwhelm them.  There would be no structure, not beginning and no end.  The Great Stories give structure while giving the child the freedom to explore to the desired depth and breadth.  The first story takes the child from the beginning of the universe to the formation of Earth.  The second covers the coming of life and geological eras.  The third story shows the coming of humans.  The last two stories explore the appearance of language and mathematics.  Within these stories, children can explore ALL subject areas, inquiring, researching, finding out and taking action.

Language is a creator of inner metaphors

Language is not just simple words that carry content like the word spoon or table.  Words are loaded with meaning that goes far beyond content and into the realm of imagination, not just our own, but those of our ancestors who themselves were creators of the language we speak today.

Metaphors are reflections of the human mind and its workings.  It’s much more than comparing two things that are different.  It is a mechanism through which we grasp abstract ideas.  It reflects the process that enables us to draw analogies between different domains. 

This is where the cosmic curriculum comes together.  It encompasses all domains.  We gift children the rich language that belongs to the domains so that they may create metaphors to deepen their understanding and reflect their limitless potential to think and imagine themselves and their new world and civilization to which they will belong.

Critical thinking is a byproduct of language

A Montessori classroom is made up of the static and constant materials, progression and stories. It is brought to life by the children of the second plane with their constant drive to find out, argue, prove and relentlessly question everything and everyone.  This exact combination is nothing short of magical in what it accomplishes. 

From the outside it looks like a big pool of information and facts generated and gathered through observation, research, hands on experience, reasoning through arguments, communication, reflection and actions. Without explicit teaching, children form, test and retest concepts, analyze and synthesize information gathered, apply it and evaluate it. 

This process exemplifies human intelligence which is present in all children and is characterized by a need to seek clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, fairness and consistency.  This is critical thinking and the aftermath of the Montessori Elementary program