Bilingual Concept
Our parents come from many parts of the world and lend Glückskinderwelt an international charm. Our children are already growing up with foreign cultures and ways of life, skin colours and languages. We would like to exploit this internationality and utilise it at Glückskinderwelt. At present four of our groups are run on a bilingual basis, according to the immersion principle. One English-speaking teacher per group organises the children’s everyday routine together with two German colleagues.
In early childhood the conditions for introducing children to an additional language in a playful and fun-packed way are ideal. At this age children automatically engage with new sounds, words, phrases, expressions and structures, i.e. the “window of language” is wide open. Children are able to absorb a second language without any difficulty in the same way as their first language. The Glückskinderwelt concept exposes the children to the English language all day long and intensifies their language use amongst each other.
According to Genesee, “immersion” is where children are immersed in a language bath and discover the new language for themselves in a natural way based on context. The immersion approach is considered the most successful way of learning a foreign language. Language-learning is particularly successful when the following conditions are met.
- Daily use of the English language over a prolonged period
- Sufficient language intensity – several hours a day
- Structural diversity, not restricted to individual subject areas