Use of dialects in Slovenian kindergartens I started researching the use of dialect speech in Slovenian kindergartens due to observations between practical pedagogical training and student work in various kindergartens that the speech of preschool teachers vary greatly. Somewhere the literary language predominates, and somewhere the dialect, and everywhere the use of these two genres is also interchanged. This stimulated the desire to explore what are the general views of preschool teachers to the use of dialect in kindergartens, how much they use it in their pedagogical work in kindergarten, etc. In the theoretical part of my thesis, I presented the differences between speech and language, different theories of speech development and listed and described the functions and roles of the Slovenian language. I also presented the issue of internationalization of Slovenian higher education and introduction of English as a language of instruction. Then I listed different social genres of the Slovene language with an emphasis on dialects, where I presented all 7 Slovene dialect groups, and then defined the use of literary and dialect speech and described the importance of the educator's use of literary or non-literary Slovene language in kindergarten. In the empirical part, I presented and interpreted the results of the research. With the questionnaire I wanted to find out what are the attitudes of preschool teachers to the use of dialect in kindergarten, when it is used in kindergarten, whether its use is more common in the city or in the village and according to individual dialect groups. I was also interested in what they think about the use of literary language in kindergarten, how they encourage it and what their speech is like with children and parents.
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