BILINGUAL PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION

Bilingual pre-school education has made considerable progress since the turn of the century. Its theoretical foundations have been consolidated and its practical results are convincing. The main reasons for success are: the solid methodological organisation of the projects, its principles being: holistic approach, immersion, paralellisation and comparison of the two languages; the employment of two teachers from the two cultural backgrounds, one language -one teacher; the use of appropriate authentic material. The author presents examples of typical material which he has elaborated and published with a group of native speakers/teachers in Berlin and Wolfsburg. They have proved successful in German-English, German-French, German-Italian and German-Spanish kindergartens in Germany. Kindergarten goes bilingul, Enfance bilingue, Vivere due lingue, Educacion bilingue. The items fall into 10 categories: poems and rhymes, songs, stories, realia, pictures, exercises, games, riddles, recipes, proverbs.