The Montessori
School of Bowling Green and the Language Services Group at BGSU have teamed up to offer a German language
program to children ages 3 to 12."We are just very interested in preparing students to be well-versed
in today’s world and we definitely know that learning another language can help prepare them," said
Jessica Hover, associate director at Montessori.Montessori offers its students a full Spanish curriculum,
but wanted to offer another language, especially as about 15 percent of its student population does not
speak English as their first language."Teaching a foreign language to students at a young age has been
confirmed, through research, to drastically improve concentration and performance," said Dr. Irina
Stakhanova, executive director of the Language Services Group.Cue the collaboration between BGSU and
Montessori.The after-school program is taught by a BGSU graduate student and is divided up by age group. The
program lasts for three months."The students have been very interested in learning about German culture
and current events in Germany," Hover said."Just in general, they are interested in learning about
other cultures, other people and their customs," she added.There are about 10 students participating in
the course.Part of the program, Hover said, allows parents to go online and see what their children are
learning each session."They can follow along and talk about it as a family," Hover said.
"That’s been well-received by the families."The Language Services Group hopes to expand the
program to several different elementary schools and across a variety of languages including Italian, French,
Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and Korean.For more information, visit www.bgsu.edu/languageservices, or
call (419) 372-2180.