Commissioned research
Project promoter: Target association JEZIKLINGUA, LP of the same Project of the Cross-border Cooperation Programme Italy-Slovenia 2007-2013
Project performer: Slori-Slovenski raziskovalni inštitut, Tanja Colja
Collaborators: dr. Devan Jagodic, Norina Bogatec
Project implementation period: 2012-2013
The aim of the project was to study how the familiar or emergent literacy develops in children who are being raised in a bilingual environment and how this process is managed by the parents whose children attend kindergartens with Slovenian as the teaching language in the Provinces of Trieste and Gorizia or the bilingual school centre in San Pietro al Natisone. As a matter of fact, in the last years these kindergartens are attended not only by children from Slovenian speaking families, but also by children from mixed marriages/relationships or families that do not speak Slovenian at all. The research aimed at verifying how linguistically different types of families prepare their children to literacy, which are the reading, colloquial and writing habits in their families and to what extent all these elements influence the development of linguistic skills and motivation in the child. The survey results analysis allowed for a quantitative verification of the habits of the aforementioned families and of their impact on the development of emergent literacy in children. The objective was, moreover, to offer parents advice on how to efficaciously develop literacy in their children.
The results and findings of the described research phases are published in a bilingual scientific monographic work with the title EMERGENT LITERACY IN A BILINGUAL ENVIRONMENT. The case of children attending the bilingual kindergarten in San Pietro al Natisone and kindergartens with Slovenian as the teaching language in Italy.