INFLUENCE OF PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS TRAINING ON THE LEVEL OF LANGUAGE SKILLS IN THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE OF A CHILD WITH THE HUNGARIAN MOTHER TONGUE

Abstract

In recent years, the issue of migration in Europe has been resonating in the public and, in addition to the political and economic impact, we have started to realize the need to address this issue also in the field of education. Children from other countries who come without elementary knowledge of the Slovak language are becoming a part of the education system in Slovakia. They are integrated into common teaching and it is extremely challenging for teachers to work with such children. In Slovakia we have a concept of education that regulates the education of foreigners in the Slovak schools. However, there are missing better targeted measures relating this topic in the context of linguistic and cultural diversity and, consequently, more specific methodological recommendations for pre-primary and primary education in the field of phonological skills training. Especially, the development of phonological skills plays an important role in the successful acquisition of the ability to read and write in the Slovak language. Considering the constant increase in the number of children coming from other countries and having problems in the acquisition of reading and writing literacy in the Slovak language, we consider their development to be crucial. The aim of this paper is to present the results of the systematic phonemic awareness training of D. B. Elkonin through a case study carried out on the child of Hungarian nationality. The aim of the training in question was to develop the child´s language skills in the Slovak language to the level required for an enrollment of pupils in the first year of primary school in Slovakia. The paper represents a solution output of the project VEGA 1/0637/16 named as follows: Development of a diagnostic tool for the evaluation of pre-school children phonemic awareness.