Curriculum

Spanish, French and Mandarin for Kids

Lango classes offer a uniquely developed curriculum which tailors activities to suit the age group of their students. Read our class descriptions to find the right class for your child! Scroll to the bottom of the page or click here for the Lango Teaching Method.

Tot-and-Parent

Children in this class don't sit still for long! Accompanied by parents or caregivers, these young "students", ages 0 to 3 years, start learning a new language through a variety of activities designed to engage their minds and bodies. Music and movement form the foundation for the classes, as the children sing simple, rhythmic songs and dance, run, spin and jump around the room! Meanwhile, our teachers work with the accompanying adults, teaching them age-appropriate games and activities so that they can reinforce learning at home. These "playclasses" are great for parents and caregivers who want to learn a language alongside their children!

Preschoolers

Fun and play form the foundation for our Preschool language classes. Within two or three classes, kids ages 3-6 learn key phrases in their new language through simple, repeated songs and chants. Meanwhile, they become familiar with more complex aspects of the language by engaging in "adventures," art projects and movement-based games that require them to solve simple problems - in their new language, of course! These adventures, starring the Lango Kids, our multicultural cast of characters, take students to other lands and cultures to ensure that their language instruction is combined with cultural exposure.

Elementary

A strong cultural emphasis grounds our elementary language lessons in the customs and traditions of Spanish, French and Mandarin-speaking peoples, while a simple literacy component ensures that these students not only listen, speak, sing and play in the target language, but read and write as well. Our curriculum takes students on imaginary journeys where they work on fun problem solving adventures built around cultural themes.

Lango is working to partner with the several Unified School Disctricts to provide after-school Early Elementary Spanish, French and Mandarin to students.

Lango Teaching Method

Lango uses a uniquely dynamic approach to ensure that kids learn a new language while having a great time in classes that are highly convenient for parents. We do this by combining the best of what we have learned from language-instruction and educational experts, as well as our own experience teaching new languages to kids – not to mention that of our parent company Intrax Cultural Exchange, which has been delivering high-quality cultural exchange experiences to thousands of individuals for thirty years.

Lango’s instructional method combines the practices of three key approaches to teaching new languages to kids: Total Physical Response (TPR), The Rassias Method and the theory of Multiple Intelligences. Employing TPR, we expose children to the target language and offer them a variety of ways to respond before actually speaking it. This mimics the way that children learn language naturally. The Rassias Method also exposes learners to the language in a variety of ways, and in an active, even dramatic environment. Finally, the Multiple Intelligences theory suggests, essentially, that different learners acquire new information in a variety of ways, whether through quantitative, verbal, auditory, visual or other means. With this approach at the root of how we teach kids, we make sure that in every class, our students are given many different ways to acquire and understand new sounds and concepts. Drawing on these three approaches, Lango has developed its own unique approach to teaching kids languages, Adventure-Based Learning©. At the core of our classes are “challenges” that students complete in order to experience new vocabulary and grammar through art, movement, playacting and basic conversation. Initially, these challenges are quite simple, but as students become able to grasp more complex instructions given in Spanish, they become problem-solving exercises that our students feel very proud to overcome.

To ensure that kids love their Lango classes and keep coming back session after session, we introduce them to the Lango Kids©, our multi-cultural, multi-lingual cast of characters. With a puppet version of Lango’s mascot Cosmo serving as the central character, serving as an effective teaching tool when working with children who often need to overcome inhibitions to acquire and articulate their new language, the Lango Kids allow us to present unfamiliar material in a child-friendly, comfortable manner. Lango classes are immersion-based, in that they are taught almost entirely in the target language. Our teachers do find that it is important to use English in rare situations, such as when describing a complex activity or when addressing a classroom management challenge, but typically work very hard, using intonation, gestures and a variety of props to communicate in the target language.

All of this happens in locations and at times that are convenient for families. By renting out space and establishing programs through schools, Lango keeps its costs down, thus allowing us to deliver more value to families. Lango offers fun, highly effective language instruction in a format and in locations that are perfect for busy parents who want what’s best for their children.