Language Policy Implementation in Latvian Pre-School: Latvian Language Skills of Minority Children
Sustainable Multilingualism 2023
Dace Markus, Tija Zīriņa, Karlis Markus

Latvian is the only official language in Latvia and one of the symbols of an independent state. The article provides a brief insight into the history of its reinforcement, which hasn't been easy. Education is one of the areas in which it is very important to develop multilingualism, while not forgetting to strengthen national language skills and their application. As the education system continues to reveal shortcomings in the process of Latvian language acquisition, Cabinet Regulations adopted in 2018 update the need for a successful transition from pre-school education to primary education at school in Latvian language or bilingual. According to the requirements of the legislation, the article analyses the Latvian language skills of children of pre-school age, using 375 child speech recordings made by researchers in 2019 and 2020 in three regions – Kurzeme (Western Latvia), Latgale (Eastern Latvia), and Riga (capital). The materials are divided into three groups in each of the territories: recordings of Latvian children, recordings of minority children in groups with the Latvian language on a daily basis, and recordings of minority children in groups with the Russian language on a daily basis. The main problem is that regardless of region, the Latvian language skills of minority children who attend pre-school education groups with a dominant Russian language on a daily basis are still insufficient and do not comply with the requirements set in Cabinet Regulation No. 716 of 2018 that the children should be prepared to start school with the Latvian as the learning language or bilingually. This means that the legislative provisions are not fully implemented and improvements are necessary for the Latvian language training system of minority children.


Keywords
Latvian language policy, minority children, language acquisition, pre-school age
DOI
10.2478/sm-2023-0004
Hyperlink
https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/sm-2023-0004

Markus, D., Zīriņa, T., Markus, K. Language Policy Implementation in Latvian Pre-School: Latvian Language Skills of Minority Children. Sustainable Multilingualism, 2023, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp.74-93. ISSN 2335-2019. e-ISSN 2335-2027. Available from: doi:10.2478/sm-2023-0004

Publication language
English (en)
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