Reading Literacy
3.2 Activities for children with migrant backgrounds – for learners of all ages from primary to lower secondary school level
by Jana Špilar Dodič, teacher of Slovenian at the lower secondary school level, Slovenia
Introduction: The number of pupils with migrant backgrounds is increasing fast in our society. At Osnovna šola Pivka, approximately 30 percent of our students are of migrant backgrounds. These include children who were born in Slovenia, but whose grandparents moved to Slovenia during the war in Yugoslavia. For most of them Slovenian is not their first language, and many of them still have difficulty expressing themselves in Slovenian. Then there are those children who have moved to Slovenia recently with their families, and have serious difficulties in communication. Every year, approximately three children, usually from the former Yugoslav countries of Bosnia, Serbia and Macedonia, come to our school. In the past, our school also hosted children from China and Russia. In Slovenia, some arrangements have already been made at the national level for these children. Every migrant child receives a special status after moving to Slovenia, which means that for the first two years they can be exempt from being graded, because it is important that they first assimilate into our society. They usually get an extra hour of Slovenian per week, which, unfortunately, is not a lot. For this reason, our school organizes special workshops for migrant children who have difficulties communicating in Slovenian. The purpose of these workshops is for the teachers to talk Slovenian as much as possible with these children, and use fun activities through which they can learn the new language more quickly, as well as learn about Slovenia, our habits and customs. All of our workshops usually start with a game, which serves as an ice breaker and helps the migrant children introduce themselves.
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