Abstract: Educational institutions carry an immense responsibility as the key institutions where migrant children start their integration process. Educational workers at schools are the ones that actualize government policies in their classrooms and directly influence migrant students’ integration process and monitor their progress. Teachers need proper education, training, and support to be able to work with migrant students successfully. Our master thesis focused and researched issues and problems teachers encounter when teaching migrant students English in the first triennium of primary school. In the first part of our thesis we defined migrant students and presented legislation and national guidelines surrounding migrant student integration. We introduced the immigration situation in Slovenska Bistrica, where a proportionally large Kosovo minority lives, and the two primary schools where we conducted our research. In the empirical part of our thesis, we interviewed four teachers that teach English in the first triennium of primary school about their experience with teaching in multicultural classrooms. Teachers rely on visual aids and mime to teach English through group activities where students actively participate through song, dance and games. The analysis of interviews showed that even though all English lessons are conducted in English, migrant students’ lack of Slovenian knowledge and their lack of socialization present the biggest problems interviewed teachers face.Keywords: migrant students, migrant student integration, challenges of migrant student integration in the English classroom, English in the first triennium of primary school, English teachersPublished in DKUM: 27.07.2021; Views: 1293; Downloads: 67 Full text (1,52 MB)
