The Unidentifiable: Children of Czech Citizens Whose Mother Tongue is not Czech

Abstract

Discussions on integrating students whose mother tongue is not Czech into the Czech education system tend to concentrate on foreign nationals but often fail to take into account those students whose parents are Czech citizens but whose mother tongue is not the language of majority society. Data from the Czech population census confirm that there are a significant number of such people in the Czech Republic. It is therefore possible that at least some children who have Czech citizenship in fact grow up in a foreign-language environment and therefore may have difficulties with the Czech language when they start school. Nevertheless, there are very few measures designed to support the linguistic integration of those children whose mother tongue is not Czech. By analysing the statistical data from population censuses the article aims to show that the potential number of such children currently significant and may even increase in the future.