The immersion method
In a school whose approach is based on the immersion method, students are "immersed" in languages.
Being a bilingual educational institution, we use both German and English as working and social languages. Our teachers, educators and pedagogical assistants operate according to the principle of "one person - one language". So one person communicates with the children only in German, another only in English.
The dialogue in the foreign language is supported by facial expressions, gestures, demonstrations or pictures.
Hence the child learns the language step by step based on the situation. This is how children naturally learn languages, whether as a first or as an additional language. Immersion does not overburden children - on the contrary, the method is recognised worldwide as the most successful way to teach languages. The children understand subject matter just as well as children who grow up in a monolingual environment, and often find it easier to learn further languages later on, as bilingual learning also fosters metalinguistic skills.
Our teachers, social pedagogues and assistants have been using the immersion method successfully for years. They do not only draw on their pedagogical expertise, but also on their own bilingual experiences as well as their social competence acquired in multicultural settings.