Bilingual Education

The Fröbel Group has set itself the aim of introducing bilingual education progressively into all of its kindergartens.

In our crèches and kindergartens it is important for us that children have a good first contact with the foreign language. Their foreign-language education assistant and professional follows the principle of "one person one language". So children experience the language in a playful way in everyday situations. The children's language learning is incidental and follows the same principles as native language acquisition. Foreign-language education professionals are the prerequisite for this approach, which follows immersion principles. The foreign-language speakers use their native language consistently in kindergarten daily life.   

Such a concept, which follows immersion principles, strengthens the children's feeling of self-efficacy and enjoyment in language learning. The level of immersion in the new language is controlled by the children themselves. They have the opportunity of having contact with the new language throughout the day.   

In order to be able to put the advantages of this type of language learning into effect in our bilingual kindergartens, we pay attention to the following aspects:

• The contact to the new language is not limited to a particular area, but rather is incorporated into all activities and topics across the whole day.
• The organisation of daily situations in the foreign language as well as the spoken accompaniment of these activities enables the children to understand the new language from the context. 
• It is important that children are actively involved in the language learning and, especially when they are still small, that they do not experience the language practice as an exercise. Language and talking are not the aim for children, rather they are the means to an aim.