LWFC teachers are native-fluent, selected for the skill with which they speak their language and for their enthusiasm with children. Each teacher is trained to use the acclaimed Thibaut Technique.
Every teacher is personally supervised by Francois Thibaut, the LWFC’s Director and Anne-Marie Raboud, Head Teacher of the Language Workshop and Curriculum specialist. This way, we maintain the quality of the LWFC’s classes and help gain valuable feedback from parents and our students.
After teaching French to high school students in France and at a college in New York City, in the early 1970’s François Thibaut began working with children. He was so impressed with the ease with which youngsters learn language that he soon began focusing on developing the right technique to blend a child’s unique emotions, perceptions and development with methods to teach language. Since then François Thibaut and his Language Workshop for Children continues to be recognized as the pioneer of early language education. Thibaut is the author of numerous articles on the subject of children’s language acquisition. François Thibaut is also the producer of the Professor Toto Language Education Series, winner of the I-Parenting, Parents Choice, Family Choice, NAPPA, Homeschool.com and Creative Child awards.
Mr. Thibaut is a member of the National Association of Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the National Network for Early Language Learning (NELL), American Association of Teachers of French (ATTF), American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portugese (AATSP), American Association of Teachers of Italian (AATI), and the Foreign Language Educators of New Jersey (FLENJ).
MYTH • Going to a library and reading books to your child in French or your target language will help your child learn a new language.
FACT • When I started teaching French in 1973, I had hundreds of books for children (which I still have in storage!) I realized that whereas they are great for French children whose parents spoke the language without any accent, it was actually detrimental to the American child who was being read a story with an improper accent. Reading to a child in another language is limiting. The reader needs to be able to capture a child’s emotions, too, and engage and interact on an individual basis. This is why I spent years with musicians and artists developing very specific materials, including the Professor Toto Language Education Series, which I am proud to say has, so far, won five awards!he/she will start to learn grammatical concepts in an engaging way.