Pupils' communicative ability in Slovene in the bilingual school in Carinthia

The number of students who are enrolled in bilingual classes in Austrian Carinthia grows year by year. The program is being joined by a variety of students; these are young Slovenians of Carinthia whose mother tongue is Slovene, students from German speaking families who live in a bilingual area, students whose ancestors were Slovenes of Carinthia but due to different reasons have forgotten the Slovene language and only speak German or only speak Slovene in an older dialect of Carinthia, students who moved from Slovenia and their first language is Slovene and students who have moved from other countries. Classes in bilingual schools takes place in both German and Slovene language, half the time in one and half the time in the other language. When and how this is executed depends on the teachers. Students who are enrolled in bilingual classes enter the school with different levels of knowledge of the Slovene language and therefore the classes must be adapted, something the bilingual teachers are well aware of. The differentiation and individualization of bilingual classes in Slovene language are crucial as this is the only way to enable progress for all the participating students. The Masters thesis presents the system of working with the students who are enrolled in the bilingual school in Austrian Carinthia and are also enrolled in bilingual classes. The main point of the planned activities was to achieve progress in communicating abilities within the frames of spoken and written Slovene language. The theoretical section of the Masters thesis consists of nine chapters. The communicational ability is presented along with its development in class, understanding and learning the language, the factors that affect the learning of a different language, bilingualism, language transfer, methods and forms of work with bilingual classes, differentiation and bilingual schooling in Austrian Carinthia. The empirical part presents an active research that was formed and executed in the 1st class of a bilingual public school. As the students do not have the same abilities to conquer Slovene as a second language their knowledge levels differ at the start of the schooling. As a so-called language assistant, I have prepared a differential plan of teaching and then executed it with the students, whose first language is not Slovene. Based on the results of the research (the achievements of students on several written and oral exams) we can determine that the language assistant (when taking into consideration the foreknowledge of the students) can contribute to the development of communication ability in Slovene language with these types of students provided that their background knowledge, work knowledge, sensibly formed groups and work methods are taken into consideration.