Abstract:

Since the outbreak of the military conflict in Ukraine, Slovakia has experienced an influx of refugees seeking safety and asylum in the country. According to the official statistics of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in January 2024, local authorities registered nearly 116 thousand refugees from Ukraine. Most of them are mothers with children who are gradually entering formal education institutions such as kindergartens, primary or secondary schools. This situation raises concerns about the readiness of teachers to take on the challenge and provide support for the integration of children with different mother tongues. An analysis by the Think Tank Learning Makes Sense, published by the nongovernmental organization MESA 10 in 2019, showed that more than a quarter of kindergarten teachers believed that children with limited or no knowledge of the language of instruction (Slovak) should be placed in the special education stream. Similarly, almost 38% of primary school teachers thought the same. The data suggests that teachers felt unprepared to work with children of different linguistic backgrounds before the conflict and preferred to segregate them as a solution. These results highlight the importance of offering language courses to foreign and migrant children as soon as they arrive in the country. It is also vital to consider the voice of parents during the conceptual development of the language programme. In a recent qualitative investigation involving 11 Ukrainian parents of children aged 5 to 11 years, we identified several attributes that parents believed were essential for a quality language programme for Slovak language acquisition.

These attributes included:
1) implementing the programme through play activities,
2) providing opportunities for contact with peers in a mixed group of Ukrainian and Slovak children,
3) adapting the programme to current knowledge of the Slovak language, and
4) using visual aids for language acquisition.

The qualitative probe, which is part of a broader research, showed that parents, even if they are not education experts, can articulate clear requirements for the content and form of the language programme. It is crucial to consider their views and needs, as they form one of the fundamental pillars of a quality language programme.

Keywords:

Ukraine, different mother tongue, language programme, Slovak language, refugee children.