Speech development of preschool children in a bilingual environment

V diplomskem delu z naslovom Govorni razvoj predšolskega otroka v dvojezičnem okolju je bil naš namen proučiti govorni razvoj predšolskega otroka v enojezičnem in dvojezičnem okolju. V teoretičnem delu smo proučili govorni razvoj od samega začetka do uporabe prvih povedi in opredelili poslušanje kot pomemben segment razvoja govora. Proučili smo tudi razvoj jezika pri enojezičnem in dvojezičnem govorcu, kjer smo se dotaknili maternega jezika, jezika okolja oziroma drugega jezika ter usvajanja in učenja prvega in drugega jezika. Dotaknili smo se teme dvojezičnosti v predšolskem obdobju otroka, kjer smo navedli tudi pozitivne in negativne lastnosti dvojezičnosti. Namen empiričnega dela diplomske naloge je bil ugotoviti, kako jezik (slovenščina kot prvi oziroma materni jezik, slovenščina kot drugi jezik) vpliva na otrokovo prepoznavanje, poimenovanje in pripovedovanje ob podanih sličicah ter ugotoviti napredek razvoja govora in razvoja besednjaka pri sedemnajstih otrocih starih med 1–6 let v dvakratnem preverjanju v razmiku petih mesecev. Na podlagi dobljenih rezultatov smo prišli do spoznanja, da je na področju govornega razvoja in besednega zaklada pri vseh otrocih viden napredek. Pri nekaterih je ta napredek večji, pri drugih manjši. Prav tako smo raziskali, da jezik ne vpliva na otrokovo prepoznavanje, poimenovanje in pripovedovanje ob sličici, saj so nekateri otroci, ki jim materni jezik ni slovenščina, pridobili boljše rezultate kot nekateri otroci, ki jim je slovenščina materinščina.The purpose of this thesis was to study the speech development of preschool children in a monolingual and a bilingual environment. In the theoretical part, we studied the speech development from the very beginning until the usage of first sentences and defined listening as an important segment of speech development. Furthermore, we studied language development of monolingual and bilingual speakers, discussing mother tongue, second language and first and second language acquisition and learning. We touched upon bilingualism in the preschool period and presented its positive and negative features. The purpose of the empirical part was to see how language (Slovene as first language or mother tongue, Slovene as second language) influences the child’s recognition, naming and description of the pictures provided and to determine the progress of speech development and vocabulary development of 17 children, aged between 1 and 6, testing them twice with an interval of five months. The results showed that all children made a significant progress in speech development and vocabulary, some a greater one than the others. We also established that language does not influence the child’s recognition, naming and description of pictures, as some children whose mother tongue was not Slovene had better results than those whose mother tongue was Slovene