Montessori Methods for Foreign Language?

I'm working in a 3-6 classroom in Taiwan and preparing a classroom to teach English here, so I might be able to help .

One advantage you have is many of the materials are usable already. The sandpaper letters are there and there aren't many more letters than what's in those, so you can use those. Same with the movable alphabet.

3 Part cards can be made to teach vocabulary. These are the cards that have a picture with the name of what's in it on one card, just the picture on the 2nd card, then just the name on the third card.

You can't do better than the Montessori math and sensorial materials. Ask the teacher you work with to show you how to do formal presentations with them. Just substitute the words for the Spanish words. In the beginning, you can use some English. "This is grande. This is pequeno." (Sorry…don't know how to put the ~ over the n).

The practical life area is the area I found ideal to focus on. This is because these are things the child sees in everyday life, so there is more reinforcement.

I am working with a system that has worked so far. We develop language first through nouns. So teach a lot of nouns in your formal teaching at the beginning. Once the child knows the name of it, the child can learn what to do with it. So the progression might go something like this for a given material on what the child will learn:
–Spoon
–A spoon
–A big spoon
–Pick up the spoon/give me the spoon/etc.

Once the child knows the name for it, you can work on those action words. Then you can move from there. Prepositions : Put the spoon under the chair. Adverbs: Slowly put the spoon under the chair.

I'm not sure what to do with sign language. If you have any ideas or want to bounce ideas off me, feel free to e-mail me.