Abstract:

This study presents findings from analyses of teachers' opinions on the quality and potential of a methodological support tool in foreign language primary education: the Jazyky hravo web portal. The portal was created as a methodological support tool for foreign language teachers in Slovak primary schools. Currently, the national and ethnic diversity of pupils in school classrooms is increasing. There are growing numbers of groups for whom Slovak is both a foreign language and the language of instruction: children of migrants, refugees from Ukraine, and pupils from Roma communities whose mother tongue is Romani. They often encounter Slovak only in compulsory pre-primary education, that is, just one year before starting school, which is insufficient. Many primary school teachers are not foreign language teachers and have not undergone professional training in the field of foreign language teaching. The web portal provides universal principles for learning a second language and has the potential for wider application. The aim of the research survey was to evaluate the comprehensive functionality of the platform in helping teachers who teach students with different mother tongues. Data were collected through a questionnaire completed by 65 teachers from the region with the largest ethnic community. The results showed that most respondents considered the portal useful and helpful, but also saw a need to expand its content and differentiate it for different age groups and language levels. This study is the partial output of the research task within the Project Programme of Linguistic Development for Children with a Different Mother Tongue in Slovak–creation and verification. This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under Contract no. APVV-22-0450.

Keywords:

Pupil with a different mother tongue, web portal, methodological support, foreign language.