EDUCATIONAL INCLUSION OF CHILDREN FROM BILINGUAL FAMILIES - PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

The inclusion of children from bilingual families in educational system ought to be considered from pedagogical perspective since the emphasis is placed both on upbringing and education. The subject of bilingualism is relevant to social and pedagogical context in terms of the application of new methods and forms of work to the process of bilingual development of children in families as well as in educational institutions. Whether monolingual, bilingual or multilingual a family is one of the most important factors for child development having almost crucial influence on a child’s personality. The aim of this paper is to present the role of bilingualism in the family context which is the primary factor of education as well as its role in the context of the later inclusion of bilingual children in the institutional system of education. In the context of this study bilingualism is defined as simultaneous acquisition of two languages up to pre-school years with special emphasis being placed on ’’one parent-one language’’ method. The upbringing of a child represents a way to raise the awareness about the sense of belonging to a particular environment; it is a way to increase the awareness of personal and cultural identity for every family, above all, for bilingual families with both parents aspiring to convey their language, culture and history to a child. In order to highlight some of the common parental misconceptions about the negative impact of simultaneous bilingualism on speech and language development in children this paper provides an overview of speech and language development in bilingual children compared to monolingual children, while emphasizing at the same time the belief that the success parents would reach in bilingual education is above all directly related to their personal definition of a family and their attitudes towards bilingualism. Bilingual education and bilingualism are challenges placed in front of the entire family and educational institutions. Such perception highlights the relevance of the theme in wider social and narrow pedagogical context.