Immigrant languages in education: The case of Slovenia

This article deals with the question of importance of maintaining immigrant languages and focuses on the opportunities for immigrants in Slovenia to learn their mother tongues in school. It presents the legal and formal framework determining the scope for the development of immigrant languages within the educational system in Slovenia. It also touches upon the implementation of legal and formal provisions in practice and the attitudes of immigrants and their descendants as well as teachers toward the learning and use of immigrant languages in education. Research has shown that the desire among immigrants for the preservation of their mother tongues exists, but due to various objective and subjective reasons not much has been done so far to achieve this goal. We argue that the maintenance of immigrant languages is important and that a reconsideration of educational policy in this regard would be in place.