engleski

Plurilingual Speakers in Primary School and Their Challenges

The concept of plurilingualism has emerged on the wings of increasing mobility in Europe, primarily due to study and job mobility. The key participants in that mobility, the plurilingual speakers, use various strategies to establish communication with their environment. Beside adult plurilingual speakers, there are also young children who become plurilingual because of their parents’ mobility. This case study examines the concept of plurilingualism from the perspective of plurilingual and pluricultural primary school students who attended Matija Gubec International School in Zagreb during the school year 2014/2015. Two questionnaires and a semi-structured interview were used to collect data about the students’ language background, their use of communication strategies, and their motives for engaging those strategies. The research findings reveal that nine-year old primary school students employed the three major communication strategies regularly: code- switching, positive language transfer, and translation, and they produced justified reasons for such language behavior. Most of the participants were aware of the benefits that come with the use of multiple languages. To sum up, this case study brings a valuable insight into the plurilingual world of primary school children, especially their metalinguistic awareness despite their young age.

plurilingualism ; plurilingual competence ; code switching ; translation ; language transfer

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