The thesis discusses the field of language in the new Kindergarten Curriculum (2025) (sl. Kurikulum za vrtce (2025)) and it comparatively analyses it in relation to the 1999 Kindergarten Curriculum (sl. Kurikulum za vrtce (1999)). The aim of the thesis is to find out how the understanding of language education has changed in the Slovene preschool context and also which substantive and conceptual innovations the new Curriculum introduces in the field of Language. The importance of language education in the preschool period, key theories of speech development, stages of speech development, factors influencing speech development, the role of the preschool teacher in the child’s speech and language development, and the importance of literacy and literary education in kindergarten are all part of the theoretical part. The central part of the thesis is based on a qualitative comparative analysis of the two documents, in which the two curriculums are compared in terms of the positioning of the field of Language, objectives, content-related emphasis, the role of the preschool teacher, multilingualism and interculturalism. The results show that Kindergarten Curriculum (2025) does not reject the old document, but rather completes and builds upon it. Its main innovations are more precise and transparent definition of the field of Language, a stronger emphasis on multilingualism, interculturalism and linguistic identity as well as more clearly defined role of the preschool teacher. At the same time, analysis points out that the success of the new curriculum will mostly depend on its implementation in practice.
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