The immersion method, involving instruction by native-speakers, exposes students to the rational, emotional, and cultural dimensions of the second language. This is the foundation for developing complete fluency.

Scientific studies and our experience show that:

• Years of instruction using the immersion method results in near-native competence in the second language
• The best results are usually achieved through extensive early immersion prior to the start of formal schooling
• Development of the mother tongue is not adversely affected
• The immersion method not only promotes children’s language acquisition, but also their cognitive development – for example, linguistic awareness, creativity and their ability to “think out of the box”.

Within the scope of the immersion method, children use the second language to engage with the world in a playful and completely natural way. They are immersed in an environment where only the foreign language is used. As result, they learn unconsciously, lose their initial inhibitions – and the foreign language becomes second nature.

Children begin by developing a passive understanding of the new language. This is achieved through the use of pictures, gestures, and symbols, for example. Then students gradually begin to actively use the second language. In other words, the foreign language is acquired in a similar way to the mother tongue – with the child’s linguistic development and knowledge of the world progressing hand in hand.

At SIS Swiss International School, children can learn both English and German through immersion – even if they are native speakers of neither language.

A truly bilingual school

Native speakers

Other languages