幼儿期是语言学习的关键时期。语言学研究也证实了这一点：母语的习得是无意识的，而其他语言的习得是有意识的。这意味着学习母语只需要早期的互动，而学习外语则需要进行刻意的练习。所以，成年人要有意识地学习新的词汇、理解语法句式，花费大量时间才能学好一门外语。相比之下，婴幼儿具有无意识地获得和学习语言的先天能力，在学习其他语言时也能轻松地运用这与生俱来的天赋。哈佛大学儿童发展中心的研究显示，在婴幼儿阶段，孩子的大脑以惊人的速度发育，每秒能够建立超过100万个神经元连接，这是此后任一阶段都无法再现的速度。因此，早期教育阶段是孩子们学习双语、甚至多语言的最佳时期，他们的大脑就像海绵一样自由吮吸着接触到的信息。 

身为惠灵顿杭州校区的一员，我们拥有全球优选的一流师资，拥有一支平均教龄为十年以上的优质师资团队。在我们的师资团队中，60%以上的中国员工持有硕士研究生学历、50%以上有海外留学经历，90%以上的外籍员工来自英、美、加等英语母语国家。那么，在如此“国际范”的杭州惠立幼儿园，我们的孩子们是如何学习英语的呢？为什么说读写能力是儿童成长发展的重要基础？让我们来听听幼儿园主任Kelly Ashby的深度分析吧。 

读写能力，顾名思义，是指学生读与写能力的呈现。建立起良好的英语语言认知和理解后，孩子们就能独立开展阅读和写作。因此，在培养英语读写能力（特定领域）之前，首先要培养的是交流和语言（基本领域）方面的能力。我们希望让孩子们在他人面前自信、高效地表达自己的想法、需求和情感。 

在杭州惠立幼儿园，有的孩子的母语是英语，有的孩子以英语为第二语言（EAL）。所以，老师们致力于创造丰富、开放的语言学习环境，在两种语言被同样重视的环境中，促进孩子的全面发展。良好的环境创设能有效地支持孩子的学习和发展，促进孩子们进一步掌握英语语言。我们将环境视为“第三位教师”，有目的、有意识地开展环境规划，支持和指导孩子们开展独立游戏、自由探索和语言发展。语言丰富的双语环境能让孩子们更有效地开展沟通。在杭州惠立幼儿园，孩子们不仅能通过说话获取新词汇，还能在浸润式的双语环境中培养起有效的社交沟通技能，如解释并理解他人观点的能力。此外，惠立教师还会采用以说促写、绘画俱乐部，以及有助于培养口语表达能力的戏剧形式教学等多样化的日常教学方法，并通过每日的英语故事、歌曲、节奏和韵律来让孩子们温故知新，促进语言习得。

点击了解杭州惠立幼儿园的环境创设精彩

环境塑造人格，这样的环境值得每个孩子拥有

惠立幼儿园还有木工课？

艺术工作坊 | 向美而生，与美同行

探究式的项目式研习是自然地开展生词学习的绝佳机会。各班级的研习项目以孩子们的兴趣为导向，因此推进项目的进程中，孩子们的幸福感和参与度自然就十分高。当孩子们各执己见、有所分歧时，老师们适当地加以引导，融入孩子的讨论中，用新的英语词汇给予支持和指导。当孩子们高度参与到项目研习中时，语言学习的意义得到强化，孩子们就更能重复学到的词汇，在有意义的语境中深化语言理解。杭州惠立幼儿园专门开设的艺术工作坊和音乐课赋予了孩子们进一步练习、巩固和加深理解的机会。 

点击了解往年项目式研习精彩 

沉浸式项目体验，带来新学年的期待

老师们通过“第一阶段”的自然拼读课程来发展学生的预阅读能力，从孩子周围环境中经常接触的音节开始，通过有意识的计划将自然拼读与孩子的兴趣串联。这样的活动从小小班开始，贯穿孩子的整个幼儿园学习之旅。当有能力辨别所接触的不同音节、实现口头分割和拼读多音节音素时，孩子们就会自然而然地浸润到“读与写（R.W.I.）”自然拼读课程中。这一步一般是从中班开始，或者待孩子准备好后开始。分级自然拼读课上，孩子们要学习解码和阅读生词的技巧，但尚且不能以此为支持来实现完全理解和举一反三。老师们还会为孩子们组织专项提升计划和活动，如阅读分享和互助拼写，进一步巩固孩子们的英语拼读技能。此外，我们持续鼓励和支持孩子们逐渐建立起独立学习的能力，在所选游戏或班级项目中嵌入锻炼读写能力的多种机会。

研究表明，孩子的幸福感与其学业成就有着千丝万缕的联系。一切以孩子为中心，关注孩子的身心健康是我们办学的宗旨；我们也坚信这是发掘孩子潜力的关键所在。提升孩子的幸福感，核心在于让孩子们在安全的环境中安心、踏实地与周围的人相处。高水平的幸福感是让学生实现学习高参与度的关键，也是让学生从容自信、善于表达（即口语表达能力）的关键。在杭州惠立幼儿园，我们时常审查班级环境创设，观察孩子们的幸福感和参与度，进而满足所有孩子的需求。在安全、安心的环境中，儿童的大脑能健康快乐地发育，孩子们也将自然而然地渴望学习、习得新语言。 

点击了解惠灵顿（中国）社群无微不至的幸福关怀体系：

思考：如何真正将“幸福”纳入教学？

在杭州惠立幼儿园，我们持续关注孩子们的幸福感、参与度、沟通和语言能力的发展，通过独特而多样化的教育方式，满足每一个孩子的个性化需求，开展双语课程来让孩子们牢牢掌握英语读写技能，实现蓬勃发展。 

Members of our academic leadership team at Wellington College Hangzhou have rich teaching backgrounds with an average teaching experience of over ten years each, leading a team of outstanding educators recruited from within China and around the world. Over 60% of our Chinese staff have master’s degrees, with over 50% of them having an overseas learning experience. More than 90% of the expatriate staff come from the UK, USA, Canada and other English-speaking countries. In such an international-styled nursery, how do children learn English? Why do we say that literacy is so fundamental to a child’s growth? Today, Kelly Ashby, Assistant Head of Nursery, will tell us why and how our children learn English at Huili Nursery Hangzhou. 

Literacy, by definition, is the ability to be able to read and write. Independent reading and writing can happen when children develop good knowledge and understanding of the English language. Therefore, before we even begin thinking about English literacy (a specific area), we first need to consider our pupils’ development in communication and language (a prime area). Our aim is that children become confident, effective communicators who can articulate themselves clearly, so that they can share their thoughts, needs and feelings to others.  

Here at Huili Nursery Hangzhou we have children who have English as their first language, as well as children who are learning English as an additional language (EAL). Therefore, it is imperative that we create a rich language learning environment for children to flourish in both Chinese and English. The quality of the environment is incredibly important in supporting the learning and development of our pupils and their acquisition of English. We treat our environments as the ‘third teacher’; they are planned for with purpose and intent to support and scaffold children in their independent play, exploration and language development. Exposing children to a language rich, bilingual environment is proven to promote effective communication. Not only are children acquiring new vocabulary through talk, the exposure to more than one language is key for building effective social communication skills, for example, being able to interpret and understand others’ perspectives. We also have daily stories, song, rhythm and rhyme in English that expose children to new, repeated vocabulary, along with teaching methods such as Talk for Writing, Drawing Club and Drama in Education that contribute to their oracy development and skills. 

The environment is the third teacher

Carpentry classes at Huili Nursery

An artist is introduced - Huili Atelier

A perfect opportunity for children to learn new vocabulary in an organic way, is through our inquiry led, project-based approach. Projects that have emerged from the interests of the children automatically engage pupils with high levels of wellbeing and involvement. When interacting with the provision and provocations, adults can join in with the child’s play, supporting and scaffolding with new vocabulary in English. The language they learn during these periods of high involvement are purposeful, and therefore they are more likely to repeat this language time and time again, securing their understanding in meaningful contexts. At Huili Nursery Hangzhou, we are privileged to have a specialist atelier and music sessions give children further opportunities to practice, consolidate and deepen their understanding.  

Forging ahead on our journey with immersive learning projects

Teachers plan opportunities to develop pupils pre-reading abilities with ‘phase 1’ phonics activities that focus on the everyday sounds around them. These activities begin in EY1 and continue throughout their journey in the nursery. Once children can discriminate the different sounds around them as well as orally segment and blend words, children move onto our Read, Write, Inc. phonics programme, this generally begins in EY3 or when the pupils are developmentally ready. These streamed phonics sessions teach our students the skills required to decode and read unknown words, however, may not fully support their comprehension and inference. Purposefully planned interventions and activities, such as shared reading and supported writing will further embed their English literacy skills. Children are then encouraged and supported to consolidate their learning independently with embedded literacy opportunities linked to their chosen play or class projects. 

Studies show that there is a clear link between pupil wellbeing and academic achievement. Wellbeing is at the heart of our curriculum; we believe this is the key to unlocking the potential of all children. For children to reach high levels of wellbeing, it is vital they feel safe and secure within their environment and with the adults who are around them. Under these conditions of safety and security we can nurture children with healthy, happy brain development that will naturally want to learn and acquire new language. Not only are high levels of wellbeing a key ingredient to our pupil’s involvement in learning but also in confident, articulate communication (also referred to as oracy). Our teachers regularly audit the environment to ensure that the needs of all learners are being met, as well as assessing individual wellbeing and involvement.  

Wellbeing: Why it is so important at Wellington College Hangzhou

Through our focus on wellbeing, involvement, communication and language, our bilingual curriculum ensures our pupils thrive on their English literacy journey at Huili Nursery Hangzhou and beyond. Furthermore, our unique and diverse approach to education at Huili Nursery Hangzhou will be individual and personalised to meet the needs of each and every child.