The prognosis of the communication in the state language of bilingual children in the first class

After Lithuania had gained its independence, there arose the necessity for non-native speakers living in Lithuania to learn the state language. More and more other nationality families become interested in their children learning the state language. In connection with this, in the pre-school institutions as well as schools, the number of schoolchildren grows. Naturally, their education becomes problematic. Aim of the research: to reveal the difficulties bilingual children meet while learning the state language in the pre-school groups and try to forecast learning problems they may encounter in the first class. Moreover, to analyze their prognostic validity and to evidence the possible help. In the research took part 80 children who have bilingual or multilingual problems in the pre-school group and after three months in the first class. There were presented the analyses of the pre-school and the first class teachers. The tasks of the research: • to realize the abilities of bilingual, multilingual children in the state language; • to understand how has changed communication abilities of the same researched children in the primary school in comparison with the pre-school group; • to state the most often learning problems that bilingual and multilingual first class pupils face while learning the state language; • to understand the kind of methodological-practical help that is needed by the learners facing the difficulties of learning the state language. Methods of the research: the analysis of the literature on the questions of bilingualism; test research of the pupils, pre-school teachers as well as teachers; the evaluation of children linguistic abilities. Research results showed that 66% per cent of the researched have difficulty of learning the state language; out of them 8% have special verbal problems, 16% – have small linguistic and communication difficulties and 42% – have language interference problems, which could not be looked upon as special verbal disabilities.Švietimo akademijaVytauto Didžiojo universiteta