Bilingualism as an independent variable in the education of national minorities in the example of Slovakian national minority in Vojvodina

Abstract

The Slovakian people in Vojvodina are an autochthonous minority with command of both Slovakian and Serbian language. The Constitution of the Republic of Serbia enables them to receive education in their mother tongue. The task of this paper is to analyse how the SlovakSerbian bilingualism affects the process of education in children whose mother tongue is Slovakian. The starting point is the fact that education of children who belong to national minorities is specific due to choice of their official medium of instruction, change of the medium of instruction, adapting to the majority language, learning of the majority language and development of intercultural competences. Within these specific aspects, throughout this paper, we have showcased various research conducted in the past 20 years. These research deal with the choice of the medium of instruction, influence of the change of the medium of instruction on academic achievement, adaptation to Serbian language in the secondary school, learning the majority language as core subject and research on bilingualism as a factor of developing interculturality of children. Based on the results we can attempt answer to a question of how Slovakian-Serbian bilingualism affects the educational path of the Slovak national minority in Vojvodina