Pelikino is a multi-lingual program, developed by Marjanne and Joes Wanders. The purpose is to familiarize children with three or more languages: Dutch,English and Spanish or French. This is done by means of the Total PhysResponse method. Important for this approach to language learning is the so called “silent period”. In this period children are not expected to speak. They just listen and try to understand the foreign language.

 

Marjanne has many years of experience with the Total Physical Response method. Based on this experience she developed a simple teaching technique which is easy to use by teachers as well as by parents.

 

Joes and Marjanne Wanders began in 2008 with the development of Pelikino. They wanted to make a program for children in the Dutch Antillees whose mother tongue is Papiamentu . Because of the many humorous and colorful drawings which represent the concepts and actually form the basis language that is understood all over the world, Pelikino can be used for many languages, nevertheless what the native language is. There are even plans to translate the program into Swahili and Russian. Because of the success of the program Pelikino by now is known in various countries, among others Suriname.

 

Teachers who implemented Pelikino in their classrooms since 2009 are enthusiastic and wish to continue. Children make good progress and really like the pictures, the games and songs.

 

In the classrooms in Curacao like many places in the world there are many children of different cultures, (St Domingo , Haiti, US etc.) Children hear different languages and it is important that they learn to appreciate different cultures. Especially young children do have an open mind as long as they are not influenced by negative environments. Before children are able to speak, read and write foreign languages they can easily learn to understand each other and even send messages across the world by means of positive colorful visual motivation cards. For this reason the postman of Pelican air also plays an important role. He delivers the peli –mail from children all over the world.