Due to immigration, more and more children, who’s mother tongue isn’t Slovenian, are attending the Slovenian primary schools. The integration and teaching of these children necessitates an individual and holistic approach with the necessary adjustments. Despite the legal status of immigrant pupils enrolled in the Slovenian education system being equated with all other attending pupils, Slovenia still hasn’t formed a unified integration and teaching system for children who’s mother tongue isn’t Slovenian. The success of the integration depends in large measure on the school and on the enthusiasm and self-initiative of teachers.
The curriculum for Slovenian (2011) in the first triad encompasses initial literacy. The individual develops different skills, competences and knowledge regarding reading and writing. We shouldn’t neglect the fact that pupils begin schooling with different foreknowledge, therefore the teacher is required to form an individual literacy plan for each pupil.
The main purpose of the master thesis was to promote the Slovenian communicative competence of the immigrant pupil, who attended first grade. Firstly, I evaluated the pupil’s knowledge of the Slovenian language. Based on the results I formed an individual work plan and tested it. The results of the study and the guidelines for teachers are thus based on the final analysis of the given lessons and the results of the final examination.
In the theoretical part of the master thesis I will describe the factors and the characteristics of initial literacy, the development of literacy methods and their current use, the modern approach to reading and writing comprehension with the emphasis on the individualization and the integration of immigrant pupil into Slovenian school system.
In the empirical part of the master thesis I have performed an action study. Here I used the qualitative approach and the descriptive method. The subject of the action study was the immigrant pupil. The progress in communicative competence was apparent in spite of some mistakes. Most apparent was the progress in the naming ability and the phonemic awareness.
The 20-hour long individual work had a positive effect on pupil’s progress in learning Slovenian. As a result he was able to read most syllables, some simple words and write simple short dictated words. He was able to recognize all letters, write them down correctly and assign them the correct sound.
The pupil’s progress was influenced by different factors, among them the systematical learning of the language, the usage of the appropriate method and different teaching strategies, a warm and positive relationship between the pupil and me and the usage of different didactic materials and didactic games.
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