Sodelovalne ucne oblike pri jezikovnem delu pouka slovenscine v osnovni soli

In the Slovenian language syllabus, teachers are recommended to provide a greater share of group work during class. During types of learning such as cooperative learning in smaller groups or pairs, students actively develop communicative competence. The present article presents a survey that attempted to determine whether teachers from the first to the fifth grade execute cooperative learning in language classes. The purpose of the article is to raise teachers’ awareness and encourage them to design and execute cooperative learning more frequently. (DIPF/Orig.

Communicative competence in the Slovenian language of children whose first language is not Slovenian

One of the features of the primeval people has been mass migration due to various reasons. This consequently led to the constant change of the ethnic composition of the country. Today the situation is still very similar and Slovenia is no exception to the rule. With the immigration of adults to Slovenia come also their immigrant children who are required to undergo the elementary education. The majority do not master the Slovenian language at the same level as their equally competent peers; the latter are namely the native speakers. Social changes and needs dictate appropriate responding at the formal level as well as in practice, also in the school area. Teaching and integration of children whose first language is not (only) Slovenian –¬¬ among all the native speakers who have different abilities and needs – represent a great challenge for the educational system, the teachers and for schools. Each child is an individual; each has his own difficulties and needs. Children have in their home environment different possibilities of learning Slovenian, which is the national language and in most schools in Slovenia a language of instruction. For some, the school represents one of the few places, where Slovenian is the language of communication. Slovenian schools have no unifying system of integration for children whose first language is not Slovenian, nor any model of teaching Slovenian as a second language. The level of language skill necessary for the children to monitor teaching and learning cannot be acquired overnight. The process might take an individual up to several years. Despite the awareness of children’s rights and their equality there is still the lack of practical action. It seems as if putting the theoretical knowledge into practise is considerably harder and slower as we would like. This process is continuously slowed down by the lack of available financial funds for projects, researching and education; which takes affects the situation in schools. Teachers have various ways of teaching and leading their students to the goal, however, the ideal way offers each student the optimal progress, regardless of their different abilities and their previously acquired knowledge. The current practise shows that teachers have difficulties and do not know how nor what to teach. It should be noted that the school has to take full responsibility for pupils' learning when they lack the needed support at home, because their parents do not know the language of instruction. Teachers who do not believe that time is the saviour for such pupils and know that they do not have time to wait for assistance tackle this challenge, namely teaching Slovenian language in ethnically mixed classes – in their own way. The support they might receive for doing their work varies from school to school. In the classroom, where the students are not equally skilled in the Slovene language, a thoroughly thought concept of integration and language teaching is required. The latter should follow the primary goal, defined in the curriculum for Slovene language – development of communicative competence, in order to allow students to become good users of the Slovenian language. The theoretical part of dissertation consists of six chapters. The beginning shows the developmental characteristics of eight or nine years old children. This enables the insight into the age group of participating children. The second chapter presents theories on the evolution of language. A more detailed discussion about the types of languages and learning them follows in the fourth chapter. This chapter explains the factors that affect the learning of languages as well as the process of developing the first and second language and bilingualism. The following section refers to the integration and education of children at the elementary level, whose first language is not Slovenian. The last chapter of the theoretical part is devoted to the study of Slovene language. Presented are contemporary approaches of Slovenian language teaching and the teacher's role in teaching. The discussion is dedicated to communication skills and to the development of all four communicative activities in language teaching, i.e. the basic goal of language teaching in Slovene as well as the planning of language teaching and the individual needs of the children that the teacher has to take into an account while teaching. The empirical part of the doctoral dissertation presents the action research, planned with the help of theoretical findings and performed in the third grade of primary school. We focused on a case study of four third-graders, immigrants of the first and the second generation. The majority is bi- or multilingual. Because of their unequal options for the acquisition of the language, they command of the Slovenian language differently. According to the results of the initial analysis of the situation, own model of the teaching the Slovenian language was designed. The outcome showed that the use of different methods and more frequent involvement of cooperative learning forms contribute to the development of communicative competence in the Slovenian language, promote social inclusion, to a more relaxed learning and to tolerant attitude among peers. This doctoral thesis is a contribution to the findings of linguistic and language didactics. The survey has shown that students whose first language is not (only) Slovene and who come from linguistically different family environments are with the help of the appropriate teaching model and integration able to improve their communicative skills in Slovenian literary language without infringing upon the rights of other students. The results of this survey, the presented teaching model, the other guidelines and tests are the sources of information and the tools, which can serve as a help to every teacher who works in a situation similar to the class involved in the survey. This first survey of its kind in Slovenia is opening new starting points for researchers to make further research and is offering the improvement of the school practice for practitioners

Forms of cooperative learning in language teaching in Slovenian language classes at the primary school level

In the Slovenian language syllabus, teachers are recommended to provide a greater share of group work during class. During types of learning such as cooperative learning in smaller groups or pairs, students actively develop communicative competence. The present article presents a survey that attempted to determine whether teachers from the first to the fifth grade execute cooperative learning in language classes. The purpose of the article is to raise teachers’ awareness and encourage them to design and execute cooperative learning more frequently

Students’ vocabulary and reading comprehension

The development of communicative competence is a fundamental goal of Slovene language teaching in Slovene primary schools. As part of this goal, reading literacy is also being developed. In the project Reading Literacy and the Development of Slovene–ARLEM (Awareness, Reading, Language, Evaluation, Models), a reading comprehension test for fifth and eighth grade has been developed, consisting of four tests. This article focuses on two of them, the Vocabulary Test and the Reading Comprehension Test for fifth and eighth grade. A study conducted among more than one thousand students showed a correlation between students’ vocabulary comprehension and reading comprehension, and a relationship between these two variables and teachers’ assessment of students’ reading and students’ grades in the school subjects Slovene, math, and social studies / history. The results also show that, on average, boys score lower than girls, that on average, students whose first language is not Slovene score lower than students whose first language is Slovene, and that students who receive additional professional help with reading score lower than students who do not need additional help with reading. The results confirm the importance of developing vocabulary and reading skills randomly and in a planned way in all school subjects. Furthermore, the results show the importance of acquiring reading techniques over time and developing reading motivation. Furthermore, the results show the need for cross-curricular integration, individualization, and differentiation