In my thesis, I examine the attitudes of preschool teachers towards the inclusion of the mother tongue of immigrant children in educational work. At the beginning of the theoretical part, I defined the mother tongue, its role in early childhood and its importance for learning other languages. Then I introduced the concept of immigrant children and the cultural and linguistic differences they encounter during their resettlement. I focused on the process of early second language learning and the challenges and benefits of bilingualism in early childhood. I also focused on intercultural education and the integration of intercultural content in kindergartens. At the end of the theoretical part, I identified the importance of preserving the mother tongue of immigrant children, the documents dealing with this topic and the role of parents and educators in this process.
The empirical part is divided into two parts, in the first part I investigate the position of the mother tongue of immigrant children in kindergarten programmes and I find out the preschool teachers' inclination towards the inclusion of the mother tongue in the educational work. The second part includes parents' attitudes towards the inclusion of the mother tongue of immigrant children in educational work. The study involved 57 teachers and assistant teachers from all over Slovenia and 56 parents of immigrants from different countries. I have presented the results descriptively with tables and graphs.
The results of the survey showed that the preschool teachers surveyed are aware of the importance of mother tongue in early childhood, but are reluctant to integrate mother tongue into their educational work. The lack of knowledge of the different mother tongues of immigrant children is a barrier. Their opinion is that the language of the environment is a higher priority in kindergartens. In fact, the preschool teachers interviewed believe that they would need additional training in working with children who speak different mother tongues. I also note from the survey with parents of immigrant children that the parents surveyed feel that preschool teachers are not sufficiently trained to work with children of this type. The parents surveyed are satisfied with the kindergarten's support for learning Slovenian, but they feel that the kindergarten does not have enough material resources available in different languages and does not work with immigrant families to maintain and promote the use of their mother tongue.
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