Learning French at Tessa International School
Preschool through the end of Primary School is a fundamental period of time in children’s schooling and development. They will learn how to socialize with other children, how to behave in society, how to understand their emotions, respect rules, understand them and even create them as soon as they are able to. They “learn how to learn” so that they become efficient when asked to work by themselves. On the academic level, they will develop a variety of skills on different subjects like fine motor skills, math, oral and written language, arts, sciences and physical education. They are building strong foundations for their whole school life and later, their adult life.
Learning French at Tessa International School
The French program at Tessa covers all grades from PK2 to the end of Primary. Students learn in the language – rather than being taught the language as an independent subject. To lead them on their learning journey, we are using different methods : pretend play, free play, board games, construction games, logic games, hands-on activities, workshops, centers, problem solving activities… We try as much as possible to adapt to their needs. Our mission is to make sure they are happy to come to school, that they are curious and eager to learn, and that they can develop their own personality.
Preschool: A Full Immersion Approach
Tessa’s unique language program begins in preschool with an 80% immersion in the target language (here French), ensuring students develop second language proficiency by the end of Kindergarten.
In PK2, the focus is on language immersion, developing oral skills, and learning basic vocabulary for the students to start being able to express their basic needs in the target language and make them explore and adapt to their environment.
In PK3, emphasis is placed on building simple sentences, improving their pronunciation, learning age-appropriate thematic vocabulary, developing their understanding, entering the written language, discovering capital letters and vowel sounds.
In PK4, they start building longer and more complex sentences, they refine their understanding in different contexts, they keep learning the alphabet through writing, start working on syllables and use letters to write easy words.
In KG, students will get ready for first grade by doing preparatory work in reading by studying the phonics and associating them to letters, playing with syllables, reading and writing easy words, copying sentences from a model.
Primary: A dual language program
In primary school, the week is equally divided between English and French. During this time, students will continue to develop their French reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills.
They will learn how to read phonics, syllables, words, sentences, so that by the end of 5th grade, they are able to read books and write in both French and English. The focus is put on comprehension of written texts, as well as grammar and conjugation.
Learn more about Tessa International School’s French program and discuss with our team by scheduling a tour: https://tessais.org/visit-tessa/
