Enrollment in the first grade of elementary school is a significant milestone for children, parents, and teachers alike. Children entering first grade have diverse interests, habits, and different levels of prior knowledge acquired on their journey to school enrollment. In the bilingual part of Prekmurje region, school enrollment proceeds somewhat differently than in Slovenia's monolingual schools. Here parents decide which language will be the child’s dominant language of learning, that is the first language, which will be the second language, or the language of the environment, and whether the child will take a foreign language course.
Consequently, classrooms comprise children with vastly different language proficiencies, requiring teachers to implement differentiated and individualized instruction to facilitate progress for all students. Subject classes are taught in both languages simultaneously without translation, following the 'one person—one language' approach. In contrast, language-specific classes (Slovenian, Hungarian, and foreign languages) are taught exclusively in the language of the subject. My background in this bilingual region and my experience teaching at a bilingual elementary school motivated this research. In this master’s thesis, I present the results I obtained through observation of Slovenian language classes (Slovenian as a first language (L1), Slovenian as a second language (L2)) and during simultaneous literacy instruction in Slovenian and Hungarian (L1 and L2 simultaneously). I was interested in the extent to which, and whether at all, students use Hungarian during Slovenian classes, how this usage changes across higher grades, what the causal relationship is regarding the use of the other communication code, how teachers respond to this, and what the advantages and possible disadvantages of a differentiated approach to learning Slovenian are.
This master’s thesis thus examines the status of the Slovenian language in the bilingual part of the Prekmurje region and presents a model of bilingual education and the teaching of Slovenian in a bilingual elementary school. The empirical part shows that in Slovenian language classes, Hungarian is also used to some extent, while at the same time the language proficiency of students for whom Slovenian is a second language gradually improves as they advance through the grades. The findings contribute to a better understanding of Slovenian language instruction in a bilingual environment and offer starting points for improving pedagogical practice.
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