Abstract:

Language proficiency development programmes are an important societal need not only in relation to national minorities in Slovakia but also in relation to children of migrants, whose numbers are increasing due to the current geopolitical situation in the world. This paper provides a brief overview of existing language programmes, textbooks, and applications supporting Slovak and the learning of the Slovak language by children with a different mother tongue in Slovakia. The authors present a review study of the programmes, textbooks, and applications. Based on the results of a content analysis of the documents, they briefly describe the aim, age group of children, and strategies of the individual programmes and textbooks, their content attributes, and references to resources. In conclusion, they formulate recommendations for the creation of a language programme and textbook for the development of language proficiency in children with a different mother tongue in the Slovak language. The primary recommendation is to create a programme based on a solid, research-backed lexical foundation, i.e., the frequent vocabulary of the target group of children and the vocabulary required in the school environment at the given age.

Acknowledgement:
The paper is the result of research carried out within the project 'Programme for the Development of Language Proficiency of Children with a Different Mother Tongue in Slovak Language - Creation and Verification' (APVV-22-0450) and within the project 'Creation of Textbook and Methodological Material for Teaching Slovak Language for Children of Slovaks Living Abroad' (KEGA 008UMB-4/2024).

Keywords:

Primary education, Slovak as a second language, language programmes, language learning support.