engleski

Multilingualism in the Mother Tongue Classroom – Between Theory an Practice: an example from Croatia

Studies on multilingualism in educational system predominantly deal with the questions of multilingualism and intercultural competence in a foreign language classroom (e.g. Petravic, 2016, Goebbel, Helmke 2011, Byram & Feng 2006), while the studies on development of multilingualism and intercultural competence in the majority language classroom are still seldom investigated topics. Thus, current global trends and mobility of people made multilingualism one of the central features of a modern educational system, even in countries that are predominantly monolingual, such as Croatia, with 95% of its inhabitants being the native speakers of the Croatian language. However, the perception of Croatia as a monlingual country is rather deceptive for three reasons: 1) language diversity and the ratio of the speakers of majority and minority language at the local administrative level, i.e. in counties, municipalities and cities (see Cvikic 2014, 2016, Jelaska & Cvikic 2012), 2) the increasing number of Croatian L2 speakers integrated in Croatian educational system (Jelaska & Cvikic 2012, Turza Bogdan & Ciglar 2013, Cvikic 2014, Cesi, Cvikic & Milovic, 2012) and 3) the fact that a foreign language is a mandatory subject from the first grade of a primary school. Therefore, the educational system in Croatia should be considered as a multilingual and multicultural environment (Cvikic 2014, Cvikic, Novak Milic, 2015). This paper deals with the topic of preparedness of mother- tongue teachers for teaching in a multilingual and intercultural classroom. The paper investigates following questions: How well are Croatian language teachers prepared to work in multilingual settings? What are teachers' believes and attitudes toward multiculturalism? How are their attidudes and belives reflected in their teaching practice?

multilinguism in L1 ; teacher's beliefs

Rad je nastao kao rezultata bilateralnoga hrvatsko-slovenskoga znanstvenoga projekta "Jezični i kulturni identitet učenika s obzirom na jezike obrazovanja u Hrvatskoj i Sloveniji" (MZO)