Bulgarian as a second language

Project Report | Jun 21, 2021
Celebrate progress with Teach For Bulgaria!

By Niya Yanakieva | Development and Fundraising Associate

Dear friends,

We wanted to share with you a story which illustrates the power of language and is a good example of recognizing progress and achievement in the area of multilingualism in Bulgaria.

The school radio at Secondary School “Hristo Smirnenski” in Stara Zagora received a special award with the engraving “I guarantee a happy childhood”. The award was given by the State Agency for Child Protection with the goal to give public recognition to projects and initiatives which foster children’s development.

The school radio program called “Recess” was created at the end of 2019 with the purpose to help children, especially those whose first language is not Bulgarian, develop their communication and language skills. The school radio was initiated by primary teacher Silvia, Teach For Bulgaria alumna. She started the radio program during her second year in Teach For Bulgaria’s program “A New Way to Teaching”. All participants in the program have the obligation to launch a school project in their second year and we provide them with mentorship and professional support.

“Over 120 students have participated in our radio program so far. It continues to spark children’s interest and fulfils their social, educational, and entertainment needs. Due to the pandemic, each radio show is planned, written, and executed by a different class” shared Silvia.

Nearly all students at Secondary School “Hristo Smirnenski” do not speak Bulgarian at home (their first languages are mainly Romani or Turkish) and most of them struggle with the language of instruction. According to a survey conducted by the administration of the school, only 6% of all primary school students speak or hear Bulgarian at home. This revelation motivated the teaching staff to look for innovative solutions.

Radio program “Recess” is a step in the right direction. The radio shows are written by students and include a segment for Bulgarian music, a segment dedicated to curious facts called “Did you know…?”, and a poetry reading segment called “My favourite poem”. All radio hosts are students. The radio program has four main goals: to provide students with meaningful activities during recess, inspire their love for the Bulgarian language, history, and culture, improve school climate, and help students with career orientation.

This is just one of the many examples of how teachers are finding innovative ways to help their multilingual students. We continue to work with teachers and whole school teams to help them with their language support strategy and provide them with useful resources so they can best support their students.

Thanks to your continuous support before the start of the new school year we would have completed the first edition of a school book, designed to improve the literacy levels of students for whom Bulgarian is not a mother tongue. The book will contain lessons on each letter of the alphabet, exercises for the students and additional resources and guidance for the teachers.They are all desgined and developed with the needs of multilingual students in mind. We will be working towards having a dissemination plan in order for this resource to reach all children in the system who might benefit from it.

With sincere gratitude for your support,

Teach For Bulgaria team

Links:

https://zaednovchas.bg/en/the-state-agency-for-child-protection-awarded-a-school-project-initiated-by-a-teach-for-bulgaria-alumn

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Mar 1, 2021
Unleashing the power of language together!

By Niya Yanakieva | Development and Fundraising Associate

Aleksandrina's classroom :)

When in 2015 Alex started teaching 3rd and 4th grade students in the “Rayno Popovich” school in Karlovo, Bulgaria she noticed that a big part of her students are illiterate and do not speak Bulgarian. According to statistics cited by the Ministry of Education and Science of Bulgaria around 20% of all first graders every year find themselves in this situation of having a different mother tongue and not speaking Bulgarian. any of them do not receive the additional language support they need and they end up graduating grade after grade without understanding the language of their school. This means that not only are they lagging behind in language classes but also in all other subjects which are taught in Bulgarian.

When faced with this situation back in 2015 Alex tried to find and use resources and materials from methodologies developed for other languages being taught as “second”, or in other words to non-native speakers. This proved to be a very difficult task as she did not have the needed support nor training on how to teach Bulgarian as a second language weather in addition to the mandatory classes or as part of them. She gathered resources and did all she could trying different teaching methods to advance her students’ literacy levels. This had some results, however, they were far from satisfactory for all of her students.

This is part of the bigger problem which is that the current education system does not recognize students in such a situation as bilingual or multilingual. They are expected to come into this system already speaking Bulgarian language as natives. However, this is far from the reality for so many students entering classrooms each year.

Thanks to your support, every day we are getting one step closer to achieving our goal of finalising the methodology and accompanying resources for teachers for students between 1st and 4th grade of primary school. We are currently developing the language support materials for students in 2nd and 3rd grade. Hopefully, as our project comes close to reaching its aim, hundreds of teachers in the country will be able to benefit from the methodology and additional resources and ultimately, they will be better prepared to address the needs of their multilingual students. This will in turn allow these children to feel better at school and in their wider communities and it will improve their communication skills and relationships with their peers. It will also have a positive effect on their academic performance and access to knowledge, ultimately presenting them with better development opportunities for their future.

We hope you will continue to support us.

Language is what will allow these children to feel at home and access to education is what will give them the wings to fly in life!

Sincerely yours,

Teach For Bulgaria Team

Links:

More about the project

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Nov 2, 2020
Closing 2020 with optimism and high hopes!

By Niya Yanakieva | Development and Fundraising Associate

Dear Teach For Bulgaria supporters,

Thank you for contributing to our Bulgarian as a second language project!

Your donations are going a long way to help the creation of materials for language support for students in primary school who are not native Bulgarian language speakers, thus allowing them to receive a more equitable start at school.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting emergency state in Bulgaria exacerbated inequalities which already existed in the education system and resulted in many children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, including students from the Roma minority, having no way to participate in the online distance learning process.They either had no access to the internet, no device to work on or both. Many of them could not receive support for their studies at home, as for 55% of Roma families the main language of communication is different from Bulgarian and 19% of Roma adults are illiterate. This has left a huge gap in these students’ learning experience and knowledge acquisition and this is another need that this project will address.

Even before the pandemic, children in this type of situation were having difficulties at school and within their wider community. Rosa, who lives in Sheker Mahala in Plovdiv, Bulgaria is in such a position. She is often scared to leave her neighbourhood as she has been the victim of insults. She rarely participates in class. She tries to copy letters from the board, but the teacher usually erases everything before she has had a chance to catch up. She knows a few words in Bulgarian, but she struggles in all subjects. However, everyone around her simply acts as if she just has to be fluent in Bulgarian.

According to the Ministry of Education and Science, the percentage of children who entered the classrooms for their very first time at the beginning of school year 2019-2020 and whose mother tongue was not Bulgarian was between 25 and 30% of all first graders.

Once we finalise the development of the language support materials for all primary levels we can begin the dissemination process and reach all teachers in the system who would benefit from using the methodology to better address the needs of their multilingual students.

Thanks to your continued support we are able to keep doing this!

During the next calendar year we will be developing the language support materials for 2nd grade students and if the generous support of our donors continues, we will be working until we complete those for 3rd and 4th grade and begin the dissemination.

We hope you will continue to support this project and help us reach as many teachers and students as possible.

Thank you for believing in our cause!

TFB Team

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