What is Dual Language Immersion?

At Le Petit Prince, our approach is based on firm evidence of what makes an effective dual language programme (also known as two-way immersion programme – TWI).

With dual immersion education, each language is given equal priority.  Children from the different mother tongue backgrounds are mixed together in each class, and all are exposed to both languages and cultures for an equal amount of time. 

This approach has been used successfully in a number of other countries including the US, Canada, and Switzerland. It’s been shown that children educated in this way do well academically and become well-rounded adults, comfortable in a multicultural world.

Why Two-Way Immersion?

Research shows that children educated under a dual language immersion programme benefit in a wide variety of ways.

Better Language Skills

With dual language immersion, children achieve high levels of proficiency in a second language. Most importantly, this happens without detrimental effects on their primary language development.  In fact, there is evidence to show that they often develop better mastery of their native language than monolingual children. And when they come to learn further languages, children educated bilingually from the early years tend to become proficient more easily than others.

Better Thinking Skills

It’s been shown that dual-immersion children perform better on tasks that call for divergent thinking, pattern recognition, problem-solving, and abstraction.  The benefits of this are especially noticeable in maths. 

Students also have enhanced levels of linguistic awareness, and are particularly skilled at working out relationships between what is happening and what is being said.

Better Social and Cultural Awareness

By interacting with other children who are fluent in the target language, students become comfortable in a range of cultural settings giving them increased adaptability as they grow and travel. Children in a dual immersion environment focus naturally on what they have in common with each other, rather than seeing those from different cultural backgrounds as different or ‘foreign’.

How does Dual Language Immersion Work?

Children at Le Petit Prince are in small classes, with a mixture of English and French native speakers.  Half of each day is spent in one language, and half in the other. The skills and knowledge taught in one language are then reinforced in the other. 

Teachers and assistants are native speakers of the relevant language. They use a wide range of strategies that include one-to-one attention, visuals, and firm routines to give a context in which children can understand the gist of what is happening without being dependent on language.  From this, understanding develops naturally, just as it does in the home.

When is it Best to Start a Dual Immersion Education?

By starting a dual language immersion programme at three or four, your child will have the best opportunity to both develop true proficiency and to sound like a native speaker.  Young children need a huge amount of exposure to a language in order to become proficient, and our dual immersion methods provide just that.